Six Frontier Towns

The Six Frontier Towns (Traditional Chinese: 六鎮; Simplified Chinese: 六镇), also known as Northern Frontier Towns (北镇), refers to six military towns in the Hetao region that the Northern Wei government built during Huangshi era and Yanhe era to prevent the southward invasion by Rouran. These towns were Woye, Huaishuo, Wuchuan, Fumin, Rouxuan and Huaihuang (from west to east).

The town of Woye was located in the old city of Woye of Han Dynasty, southwest of today's Linhe Country of Inner Mongolia at first, but later move to Shuofang of Han Dynasty, north of today's Hangjin Banner. The town of Huaishuo was located in southwest of today's Guyang, Inner Mongolia. Later its name was changed to Shuozhou. The town of Wuchuan was located in west of today's Wuchuan Country, Inner Mongolia.

In 528, it became a district (郡). The town of Fumin was located in southeast of today's Siziwang Banner. The town of Rouxuan was located in northwest of today's Xinghe Country. The town of Huaihuang was located in northwest of today's Chicheng Country.

The six towns

Six towns rebellion

The fall of Northern Wei began with rebellions staged by Six Garrison populations. Conventional narratives state that the location of the capital to Luoyang under Emperor Xiaowen and decades of relative peace in the north had sidelined the traditional Xianbei warriors in six garrisons creating resentment against the reform of Emperor Xiaowen. Their ranks had also grown tainted by the introduction of convicts in penal military service. However, recent studies question this argument. This rebellion was rooted in the internal struggle within the Six Garrisons between upper-class military elites and lower-class soldiers and ethnic settlers and was directly triggered by a serious drought causing a massive loss of livestock and leading to the looting of Avars. Six Garrisons were established to protect the Northern Wei regime from the invasion of Rouran and consisted of numerous ethnic groups, such as Xianbei, Gaoche, and Xiongnu as well as Han Chinese. Tribes were the basic social units, although grouped into militarized garrisons. The upper-class military elites who occupied governing offices mainly included the low-level elites of the Xianbei (including political exiles), other tribe chiefs, and Han strongpersons. The internal conflict between upper-class military elites and lower-class soldiers and ethnic settlers was on the basis of the vulnerable economic base (heavily relied on livestock production and the support from the central government) and harsh environmental conditions in Six Garrison areas. The struggle for survival drove military officers of Six Garrisons to implement unfair policies biased to their own ethnic groups at the cost of others. In 523, nomadic Rouran tribes suffered a major famine due to successive years of drought. In April, the Rouran Khan sent troops to raid the Wei territory. People of the town rose up and killed the town's commander.

Rebellion soon broke out against the Luoyang court across the region. In Woye, Poliuhan Baling (破六韓拔陵) became a rebel leader. His army quickly took Woye and laid siege to Wuchuan and Huaishuo.

Elsewhere in Qinzhou (modern Gansu province), Qiang ethnic leaders such as Mozhe Dati (莫折大提) also rose up. In Gaoping (present-day Guyuan), Hu Chen (胡琛) and the Xiongnu rebelled and titled himself the King of Gaoping.

The Poliuhan Baling rebellion was defeated in 525. However, similar rebellions had spread to other regions such as Hebei and Guanzhong and were pacified by the Erzhu clan (尔朱氏) by 530.

See also

* Ordos Loop

References

{{Reflist

Northern Wei
History of Zhangjiakou