Campaigners › Frontier Generals
Yang Ye
Northern Han general called 'the Invincible' who went over to the Song, held the Dai frontier against the Khitan, and starved himself to death after his capture in 986
On a desert ridge, a rammed-earth watchtower and a long wall run across sand and rock toward the distance; a sentry stands on the tower with his back turned, smoke rises from a far beacon tower, and a small camel caravan crosses the sand at the right.
Also known as Yang Zhonggui · Yang Jiye · Yang Wudi
Yang Ye came from Taiyuan and as a young man served the Northern Han, where he bore the name Liu Jiye and was called the Invincible. When the Song conquered the Northern Han in 979 he surrendered, resumed the surname Yang and was given command of Daizhou. The next year, when a large Khitan army came through Yanmen, he led a few hundred horsemen by a back path to strike them from behind while Pan Mei attacked in front. In the campaign of 986 he was Pan Mei's deputy in the west and took four prefectures, then was ordered to escort their people south after the eastern army's defeat. Pressed by the army supervisor Wang Shen to fight, he asked Pan Mei to wait in ambush at the Chenjiagu valley, but the troops had gone when he fell back there; badly wounded and captured, he refused food and died three days later. The court named him Grand Commandant posthumously and stripped Wang Shen of office.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–986 CE