The general had not yet returned the border, and Hu Xiang's disciples were full of heavenly mountains.
The newly planted willows are three thousand miles, attracting the spring breeze to cross the jade pass.
This poem was written by Yang Changjun, a subordinate of Zuo Zongtang, and the "three thousand miles of willows" mentioned in the poem are also known as "Zuo Gongliu". It was named after a posterity to commemorate Zuo Zongtang's efforts to recover Xinjiang.
As one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang is best known for his feats of recovering Xinjiang.
However, few people may be able to say clearly how difficult zuo Zongtang's process of recovering Xinjiang was in the first place.
Since the Opium War in 1840, the decline of the Qing Empire has been like a car without brakes, racing all the way.
And places like Xinjiang, where the emperor is far away and the strategic location is very important, are quickly targeted.
In 1865, Agubai of the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia took the opportunity of escorting the descendants of separatists back to Xinjiang to invade Kashgar and then control the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, causing a dangerous situation in Xinjiang.
Later, due to the intervention of the two major colonial powers of Britain and Russia, this crisis was no longer a traditional frontier crisis for China, but a geopolitical crisis.
Both Britain and Russia, driven by geopolitical games in Central Asia, tried to include Xinjiang, which had been stolen by Agubai, into their spheres of influence.
Britain signed a treaty of commerce with Agubai, and Russia directly sent troops to occupy Ili in 1871.
Therefore, China can no longer simply quell the rebellion or adopt a policy of restraint by following the traditional concept of frontiers, but must think newly from a geopolitical perspective.
But in the Qing court at that time, there were two very different views on how to deal with Xinjiang.
Some bureaucrats headed by Li Hongzhang believed that the strategic focus of the Qing Dynasty should be placed on the southeast coast, and the northwest border defense represented by Xinjiang should be regarded as "insignificant" and believed that it was not impossible to abandon Xinjiang.
The views of Li Hongzhang and other important ministers undoubtedly brought the first difficulty to the recovery of Xinjiang.
In response to this view, Zuo Zongtang firmly believes that Cypriot defense is as important as coastal defense (note that it is equally important, not that the former is heavier than the latter). Xinjiang is the barrier of China's northwest, and only with Xinjiang can mongolia be protected, and only by protecting Mongolia can it defend the Beijing division.
Judging from the international situation, the momentum of Tsarist Russia's foreign expansion has only increased, and there is only one barrier between the Qing Dynasty and Russia.
Moreover, at present, most of Xinjiang has fallen into the hands of the enemy, and if it is not recovered now, there will be endless troubles in the future.
Moreover, Xinjiang is by no means what Li Hongzhang calls a "useless place." Throughout Xinjiang, there has always been a saying that water and grass are abundant and livestock are abundant, and the tianshan mountains have two roads in the north and south, and in the past there were also the sayings of rich eight cities and poor eight cities.
Therefore, no matter what, judging from the domestic and foreign situation at that time, it was very necessary to recover Xinjiang.
Fortunately, Zuo Zongtang's views were eventually supported by the Qing Emperor, so the recovery of Xinjiang was officially put on the agenda.
However, the theoretical victory was only the first step zuo Zongtang took to regain Xinjiang. The second difficulty he had to face next was military pay.
When Li Hongzhang first emphasized coastal defense, he dared to abandon Xinjiang and abandon the confidence of "cypriot defense," that is, he decided that "military salaries were not enough, and the state finances were no longer able to continue to support the defense of The Country while supporting coastal defense while fighting against the Taiping Army, the Twister Army, and other rebel contingents for many years.
However, since Zuo Zongtang insisted on fighting, he naturally had his own way. In Zuo Zongtang's view, the recovery of Xinjiang does not actually require the withdrawal of military expenditure on "coastal defense."
The source of grain for Zuo Zongtang's army mainly relied on the distant procurement and transportation of the interior. From the Hexi Corridor area to the Barikun line, the grain transportation process is more than 2,400 miles long, and the Gobi is longitudinal, the road is difficult and dangerous, and the grain loss is serious, which seriously affects the efficiency of grain transportation.
In order to solve the problem of military grain, Zuo Zongtang, on the one hand, set up a "General Bureau of Procurement and Transportation for the Western Expedition" in Hohhot to open up a second relatively economical grain transportation channel, and at the same time turned his attention abroad to prepare for grain imports.
In May 1875, while the army was preparing for war, Lieutenant Colonel Soslovsky, an officer of the Russian General Staff, went to Lanzhou to spy on the military situation.
In order to control China's military operations in Xinjiang, Soslovsky expressed That Russia's willingness to send troops to assist in the war and to provide sufficient military food to Zuo Zongtang's army.
Of course, Zuo Zongtang knew that the Russians did not have any good intentions, but he also considered that collecting grain from Russia would save a lot of transportation costs compared with transshipment from the Hexi region, and Russia did not take any obstruction to the Qing court's western expedition.
In the end, Zuo Zongtang signed a contract with Soslovsky to buy 5 million kilograms of grain.
Although Russia had only shipped 1.4 million catties on the eve of the war, this was still an important "supplement" to the food of the Western Expeditionary Army.
Zuo Zongtang's second strategy for preparing for military salaries was to use foreign funds to solve domestic financial problems. Simply put, it is borrowing foreign debt.
After officially planning to recover Xinjiang in 1875, Zuo Zongtang borrowed foreign debt twice, totaling 8 million taels, which allowed Zuo Zongtang to obtain a large amount of funds in a short period of time.
The policy of "main battle" has been set, the salaries of the troops have been narrowly packed, and in the end there is the question of "how to win the war."
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when people of insight saw that the Qing army was repeatedly pressed to the ground and rubbed by the great powers, the first thing they realized was the "gap in weapons", and Zuo Zongtang was no exception.
In order to have enough military strength to compete with Agubai. After Zuo Zongtang was appointed to supervise xinjiang military affairs, he immediately began to expand the proportion of modern equipment in the army, vigorously purchased advanced guns and artillery, and made up for the equipment gap between his own side and the Agubai group.
In terms of the source of modern ordnance, in addition to establishing a manufacturing bureau in Lanzhou to transform old Chinese firearms and imitate Western guns, Zuo Zongtang also ordered Hu Xueyan to purchase ordnance on behalf of Hu Xueyan in Shanghai, and explained that he would focus on purchasing German Krupp cannons and advanced rifles.
According to Zuo Zongtang's instructions, Hu Xueyan purchased tens of thousands of rifles and dozens of cannons through foreign foreign firms in Shanghai, greatly improving the modern equipment level of the Western Expeditionary Army.
Take Liu Jintang, the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army, as an example, and his subordinates are equipped with more than a thousand advanced rifles of various types and more than a dozen new cannons.
In addition, Zuo Zongtang also established an independent artillery unit, the HouMinggui Artillery Brigade, equipped with many advanced artillery pieces.
The extensive equipment of these modern ordnances has allowed Zuo Zongtang's troops to successfully keep up with the trend of the world, and the British critic Bao Roger pointed out to the point:
Zuo Zongtang's western expeditionary army was basically a "European army" that is now in China.
Now, let's look at Zuo Zongtang's army of the Western Expedition, which is modern enough in equipment to completely ignore the Agubai Group;
In terms of the will to fight, Zuo Zongtang, as the minister of Chincha, spared no effort in the year of huajia, personally led thousands of troops and horses to carry the coffin. The leader is still like this, and the whole army is naturally united in its heart and high morale;
Coupled with the fact that food and equipment are in place, it is only a matter of time before Agubai is destroyed.
In April 1876, the Qing army took the oath at Suzhou (present-day Jiuquan) and then officially set out on the expedition.
A few months later, the Qing army recaptured northern Xinjiang and pointed directly at Kashgar, the old nest of Agupa.
In order to save the Agubai clique, as a buffer zone to block Russia's southward march to India, the British impatiently jumped out to mediate.
The British envoy to China, Wittoma, through Li Hongzhang, sent a test to the Qing government, asking whether the Qing court could accept Agubai's surrender and become a qing vassal state, but did not receive a positive response.
In April 1877, the Anglo-Indian government announced that it would send envoys to Kashgar to express its support for the Agubai clique.
In this situation, there began to be voices of compromise within the Qing court, and the Qing court center hesitated on whether to continue to eliminate the Agubai clique.
However, Zuo Zongtang immediately wrote a letter, severely refuting the British mediation act, and clearly stating to the Qing court: "The soldiers cannot be stopped, and the land cannot be abandoned!" ”
Under the influence of Zuo Zongtang, the Qing court finally swept away the hesitant posture and decided to completely eliminate the Agubai clique.
In September 1877, Zuo Zongtang began a military campaign to recover southern Xinjiang, and Agubai saw that the trend was gone and committed suicide by taking poison.
In order to preserve the remnants of Agubai's power, the British once again intervened and asked the Qing court to allow the Agubai group to "pay tribute" every year as a vassal state.
Zuo Zongtang once again fought back against the British conspiracy, and at the same time, Zuo Zongtang also promptly instructed the front-line generals to advance as soon as possible, ignore the interference of the British, and if the British negotiated, let them go to the Suzhou camp to talk, and Zuo Zongtang would directly deal with it.
During the same period, Zuo Zongtang's attitude toward Russia was much more relaxed than that of the firm struggle against Britain.
Because although Russia occupied Ili, it did not give explicit support to the Agubai group, nor did it deliberately obstruct the Qing army in the course of the battle.
Therefore, Zuo Zongtang proposed to "postpone the Ili" and not to make enemies with Russia for the time being. Afterwards, it turned out that Zuo Zongtang's strategy toward Russia was completely correct.
The "silence" of Tsarist Russia not only made the process of the Qing army's recovery of Xinjiang smoother, but also enabled the Qing court to completely free up its hands to retake Ili after crushing the Agubai clique.
Finally, The 1.66 million square kilometers of land in Xinjiang returned to the embrace of the motherland!
bibliography:
"On the Diplomatic Struggle in Zuo Zongtang's Western Expedition" Wang Xiang
"Zuo Zongtang's International Vision in the Battle to Recover Xinjiang" Dong Daliang Ding Zhengfang
"British Interference in Zuo Zongtang's Western Expedition" Yun Wenjie
"On the Dispute Between "Coastal Defense" and "Cypriot Defense" in the Qing Dynasty" Guan Xiangjiu
"Exploration of the Path of Strategic Synergy Formation of Zuo Zongtang's Campaign to Recover Xinjiang" Dong Daliang Hong Rong