Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance)

Translation

Tumen of the Göktürks attacked the Rouran and defeated them utterly.

The Rouran khan Toubing killed himself.

His crown prince Anluochen, Anagui's cousin Dengzhu Qili and Dengzhu's son Kuti all led their people to flee to the Qi,

and the rest of the people raised Dengzhu's second son Tiefa to be their lord.

Tumen styled himself Yili Khan,

called his wife khatun,

called his sons and younger brothers tegin, and called all who led troops separately shad.

Translation

The Tiele were about to attack the Rouran, and the Göktürk chieftain Tumen intercepted them and defeated them, and received the submission of all their people, more than fifty thousand camps.

Relying on his strength, Tumen asked the Rouran for a marriage,

and the Rouran khan Toubing was greatly angered and sent a man to abuse him with the words: “You are my forging slave. How dare you say this!”

Tumen too was angry. He killed the envoy and broke with them, and asked the Wei for a marriage.

The Wei chancellor Tai gave him the princess Changle as his wife.

Translation

On the day guiwei Ilig Khan advanced to the north of the Bian Bridge on the Wei river and sent his confidant Zhishi Sili to be admitted to an audience, in order to see how things stood.

Sili loudly declared: “The two khans, Ilig and Tuli, are leading a million troops, and they have now arrived.”

The emperor reproached him: “I concluded an alliance of peace and kinship with your khan face to face, and the gifts of gold and silk I sent him, before and after, were beyond counting.

Your khan himself has turned his back on the covenant and led troops deep into my land. Does he feel no shame before me?

Though you are Rong and Di, you too have a human heart. How can you forget my great kindness altogether and boast of your strength?

I shall cut you down first, here and now!”

Sili was afraid and begged for his life.

Xiao Yu and Feng Deyi asked that he be sent back with courtesy. The emperor said: “If I send him back now, the enemy will say I fear them and will encroach all the more.” So he put Sili in prison in the Chancellery.

The emperor himself went out through the Xuanwu Gate and, with Gao Shilian, Fang Xuanling and others, all mounted, rode straight to the bank of the Wei. He spoke with Ilig across the water and reproached him for breaking the covenant.

The Göktürks were greatly startled and all dismounted and bowed in ranks.

Soon the armies arrived one after another, with banners and armour covering the plain. Ilig saw that Zhishi Sili did not return and that the emperor had come out lightly, in person, with a most splendid array of troops, and he looked afraid.

On that day Ilig came and asked for peace, and the emperor by decree granted it. The emperor returned to the palace the same day.

On the day yiyou the emperor went again to the west of the city, slew a white horse and swore a covenant with Ilig on the Bian Bridge. The Göktürks led their troops away.

Translation

The rulers of the four barbarian quarters came to the palace gate and asked the emperor to be Heavenly Khan.

The emperor said: “I am the Son of Heaven of the great Tang. Should I also lower myself to perform a khan's duties?”

The ministers and the rulers of the four quarters all cried “Ten thousand years!”

After this, in the sealed letters sent to the rulers of the north-west, the emperor was always called Heavenly Khan.

On the day gengchen the deputy commander Zhang Baoxiang led his troops and came suddenly upon the camp of Shaboluo. He took Ilig captive and sent him to the capital, and Suni led all his people in submission, and the land south of the desert was left empty.

Ilig Khan of the Göktürks arrived at Chang'an. In summer, in the fourth month, on the day wuxu, the emperor took his seat in the Shuntian Tower, displayed his regalia in full array, received Ilig in audience and counted his faults, saying:

“You relied on the achievement of your father and brother and gave free rein to excess and cruelty and so brought ruin on yourself: that is the first offence.

Many times you swore a covenant with me and then turned your back on it: that is the second.

You relied on strength and loved war, and bones lay exposed like grass in the wild: that is the third.

You trampled my crops and carried off my sons and daughters: that is the fourth.

I pardoned your offences and kept your state in being, and you delayed and did not come: that is the fifth.

Yet since the Bian Bridge you have not again invaded in force as a raider, and for that reason you will escape death.”

Ilig wept, gave thanks and withdrew.

Translation

In spring, in the first month, Li Jing led three thousand picked horsemen from Mayi, advanced and camped at the Eyang ridge, attacked Dingxiang by night and broke it.

Ilig Khan of the Göktürks had not expected Jing's sudden arrival and was greatly alarmed. He said: “If the Tang had not come with the whole state, how would Jing dare to come this far with a lone army!”

His followers took fright several times a day, and he moved his camp to Qikou, the mouth of the desert.

Li Shiji came out from Yunzhong, fought the Göktürks at Baidao and thoroughly defeated them.

On the day jiachen Li Jing defeated Ilig Khan of the Göktürks at the Yinshan.

Before this, after Ilig had been defeated, he had fled to Iron Mountain, with tens of thousands of his people still left,

so Jing drew up his troops and set out by night, with Shiji following. The army reached the Yinshan, met more than a thousand Göktürk tents and took them captive to go with the army.

Jing sent Su Dingfang of Wuyi with two hundred horsemen as the vanguard. They advanced in the fog, and only when they were seven li from the khan's tent did the enemy notice them.

Ilig rode a thousand-li horse and fled first. When Jing's army arrived, the enemy host broke.

Jing cut off more than ten thousand heads, took more than a hundred thousand men and women captive, seized several hundred thousand head of mixed livestock, killed the Sui princess Yicheng and captured her son Dieluozhi.

He pushed the land back from the north of the Yinshan to the great desert and reported by an open dispatch.