Six Frontier Towns


The Six Frontier Towns, also known as Northern Frontier Towns, refers to six military towns in the Hetao region that 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.
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. 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 population of the six towns region consisted mostly of Xianbei nobles and soldiers who guarded the northern border against the Rouran. Emperor Xiaowen's sinicization campaign had ostracized these traditional Xianbei warrior families, making them felt disrespected and unprivileged compared to Xianbei nobles in Luoyang. In 523, nomadic Rouran tribes suffered a major famine due to successive years of drought. In April, the Rouran Khan sent troops to plunder Huaihuang to solve the famine. 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 became a rebel leader. His army quickly took Woye and laid siege to Wuchuan and Huaishuo.
Elsewhere in Qinzhou, Qiang ethnic leaders such as Mozhe Dati also rose up against the government. In Gaoping, Hu Chen and the Xiongnu rebelled and titled himself the King of Gaoping.
The Poliuhan Baling rebellion was defeated in 525. However, other anti-Sinicization rebellions has spread to other regions such as Hebei and Guanzhong and only be pacified as late as 530.