Life
Tong Yabgu Qaghan was khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate from 618 to 628. Tong Yangu was the brother of Shekui, Niri and Bagha-Shad. Son of Tolui Tegin and grandchildren of Tardu. His reign is regarded as the zenith of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Tong Yabgu maintained close relations with the Tang Dynasty of China, and have married into the Imperial family. According to the Old Book of Tang, Tong Yabgu's reign was considered as the golden age of Western Turkic Khaganate. Tong Yabgu Qaghan is a man of bravery and astuteness. He is good at the art of war. Thus he controlled Tiele tribes to the north, confronted Persia to the west. All countries are subjected to him. He controlled ten thousands of men with arrows and bows, establishing his power over the western region. He occupied the land of Wusun and moved his tent to Qianquan north of Tashkent. All of the princes of the western region assumed the Turk office of Jielifa. Tong also sent a Tutun to monitor them for imposition. The power of Western Turks had never reached such a state before". Tong Yabgu appointed governors or tuduns to manage the various tribes and people under his overlordship. In all likelihood Tong Yabgu's nephew Böri-Shad was the commander of the Khazars, the westernmost of the tribes owing allegiance to the Western Göktürks; this branch of the family have provided the Khazars with their first khagans in the mid seventh century.
Third Turco-Persian War
Third Turco-Persian War, the third and last war between Turkic Khaganate and Sassanids. Contrary to the previous two wars, it took place in the South Caucasus, not in Central Asia. This war affected the balance of power in the Middle East for centuries to come.
After the Avars and Sassanid Siege of Constantinople in 626, the criticized Emperor Heraclius found himself politically isolated. In this depressing situation, he found Tong Yabgu as an ally. At the beginning of 568, the Western Göktürks, under the rule of Istemi Yabgu, got closer to Byzantium when they had commercial problems with the Sassanids.
In 625, Emperor Heraclius commissioned his envoy, Andrew, who promised Tong Yabgu wealth in return for military aid. Tong was worried about the safety of the Silk Road, which had been overturned by the Sassanids. Tong Yabgu said to the Byzantine Emperor, "I will come with my valiant soldiers to take revenge on your enemies and my enemies."
At the beginning of 627, the Göktürks declared war on the Sassanids. Tong Yabgu Qaghan and his army camped opposite the Derbent fortress. This newly built fortress by the Sassanids was the only road to fertile Agvania. Tong Yabgu's soldiers immediately raided and sacked Derbent, and invaded Agvanya. The Armenian historian Movses Kagankatvatsi describes in detail the fall and plunder of Derbent. He probably witnessed this event.
"The Turks, like waves in the sea, suddenly entered the castle and destroyed everything that stood in their way. The attackers, who terrorized the city, had slanted eyes and long hair. Skilled and powerful archers were terrifying. They rained arrows on the city like wild wolves, and then they shot down arrows on the city streets and streets. They slaughtered everyone like a wild wolf. They didn't even take pity on the children who clung to their mothers. They took captive young women who were useful to them."
The fall of Derbent Castle created a wave of panic all over the country. Some Persian soldiers who managed to escape from the castle began to flee. The Göktürk army caught up with the fleeing people near the village of Kalankatuyk, where they massacred them.
"The Lord of the North, Tong Yabgu, avenged damage from the whole country. He sent his men to find artisans especially skilled in making gold, silver, iron and copper items. He imposed extra taxes on products entering the Sassanid lands."
The second target of the Turkic attacks was the Georgian Principality of Iberia. The ruler of this place, Stephanus, was paying tribute to Khusraw II. The Göktürks besieged Tbilisi, famous for its luxury goods trade. Here, the Göktürk Army joined Emperor Heraclius. Heraclius and Tong Yabgu met in front of Narikala's walls. Tong Yabgu rode towards him to talk to the emperor and give him a bow as a present. In return, the emperor hugged him and said, 'My dear son. The reason why he said my dear son was that he offered to marry Tong Yabgu to his daughter Eudokia Epifaneia. Tong Yabgu had accepted this. The emperor was also given a lot of clothes as gifts to other Turkic leaders.
On December 12, 627, Heraclius fought the Persian forces near the Tigris River and won. In January, the Sassanid capital Tizpon destroyed its environs.
After the triumph of Heraclius, Tong Yabghu hastened to resume the siege of Tiflis and successfully stormed the city in winter. "With their swords raised, they advanced on the walls, and all this multitude, climbing upon each other's shoulders, rose up the walls. A black shadow fell upon the wobegone citizens; they were vanquished and lost their ground," Movses narrates. Although the Georgians surrendered without further resistance, the city was looted and its citizens were massacred. The Persian governor and the Georgian prince were tortured to death in the presence of Tong Yabgu.
The Göktürks, renowned for their expertise in hand-to-hand combat, never excelled in siegecraft. This time he planned to incorporate Aghvania into his khaganate, rather than to wield a usual campaign of plunder. Before returning to Suyab he instructed Böri Shad and his generals to "spare the lives of the rulers and nobles of that land, in as much as they come out to meet my son, surrender to my rule, concede their towns, castles, and trade to my troops".
Three words of Tong Yabgu Qaghan during this war are very famous.
"To oppose the Turk is to oppose Tengri. Whoever opposes the Turk, delete it, destroy it!"
"If a nation is going to live comfortably in the lands that a great nation has won by paying a price, that tribe has to accept all kinds of ill-treatment and genocide that will be done to it."
“I am Tong Yabgu Qaghan, Lord of the North, khagan and ruler of the Western Turkic Khaganate state of the Ashina clan that blessed by Tengri. It is not anyone's place to oppose the Turks. If you send 3 chests of gold to my state with my envoys and you agree to obey me, I will stop fighting you."
These words indicate that Tong Yabghu was eager to retain control of the westernmost portion of the Silk Route, as he tightened his grip of its other segments all the way east to China. In April 630 Böri Shad determined to expand his control of Transcaucasia and sent his general Chorpan Tarkhan to invade Armenia. Using a characteristic ploy of nomadic warriors, Chorpan Tarkhan ambushed and annihilated a Persian force of 10,000 dispatched by Shahrbaraz to counter the invasion.
Tong Yabgu thus won a decisive victory in this war. And this war, according to historians, was the beginning of the end for the Sassanids. After this war, they were attacked by the Muslims and lost their country completely.
Death
Dulu faction of Külüg Sibir who was a traitor revolted against Tong Yabgu. In 630 he was murdered by Külüg Sibir who, his uncle and a partisan of the Dulu faction. Following the death of Tong Yabgu, the might of the Western Göktürks largely collapsed. Although the khaganate lingered for a few decades, many of the client tribes became independent and a number of successor states, including the Khazar Khaganate and Great Bulgaria, became independent.