As the last steppe empire established by the Mongols, Kaldan's strength was naturally not weak.
However, it is too much to say that its strength is comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty, after all, "the skinny camel is bigger than the horse." At its peak, Kaldan's territory reached Central Asia, mongolian steppe, Xinjiang, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The land area is as large as 7 million square kilometers. Compared with the territory of the Qing Dynasty, it is not much less. The only drawback is that being inland and too poor in resources. However, he relied on the bloodiness of the steppe man to fight with the Qing Dynasty for about a hundred years before disappearing into the long river of history.
Kaldan, the leader of the Kaldan Khanate, was also a prodigy, and as a teenager Gardan studied under the Fourth Panchen Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery and later with the Dalai Lama. His long-term study of Buddhism cultivated a political vision and a sensitive mind that was different from ordinary people. He hoped that he would become the second Genghis Khan, and it was certainly good to have ambitions, but exposing ambitions too early was tantamount to playing with fire and self-immolation.
As the emperor of the Qing Empire, Kangxi could not tolerate the provocations of another kingdom.
In 1688, Gardan led 30,000 troops to attack the Khalkha Mongols, and finally the Khalkha Mongols were defeated, and the remnants of them led 100,000 horses to the Qing Dynasty for help. Kangxi faced a dilemma: if these refugees were not taken in, they would be annexed sooner or later. Even according to this trend, it may be transformed into a living force that will attack the Qing Dynasty in the future. If they were taken in, they would inevitably come into conflict with the Kaldan Khanate. Therefore, this became the fuse of the conflict between the Qing Dynasty and Kaldan.
Although Kaldan initially achieved some success in the campaign against the Qing Dynasty, with the personal expedition of the Kangxi Emperor later, Kaldan was no longer able to achieve victory as easily as at the beginning, and even began to decline.
So how did the invincible Gardan get defeated by Kangxi?
1 Poor comprehensive national strength
As a nomadic people, although the Gardan controlled a large area, it had a population of only about one million people, and the combat strength was only more than 100,000 (only about 30,000 or 40,000 troops could be dispatched in the later period), while the Qing Dynasty had a population of about 100 million and could easily dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops. Moreover, the Qing Dynasty was rich in land, abundant grain and grass, and advanced equipment. Even though Kaldan possessed advanced weapons from the West such as Tsarist Russia, the musket was not enough to look at in the face of the cannons made by the Qing Dynasty.com. Although their "camel city tactics" brought a certain degree of trouble to the Qing army, they did not have any substantive effect.
2 Gardan is troubled internally and externally
After the Qing Dynasty defeated Tsarist Russia twice, it accepted it when it saw good. Successfully exchanged for the promise of Tsarist Russia's unsupportive support for Kaldan, although Tsarist Russia still had some sneaky moves, kangxi adopted an attitude of turning a blind eye, after all, the Qing Dynasty concentrated its main forces against Kaldan. The internal trouble was that his nephew Alabutan raided his hometown when he raised an army to the east, leaving Kaldan without a base. This put him in a dilemma, and if he went home and rehabilitated at this time, he might be able to hold out a little longer. However, he chose to continue the attack. Although the early offensive was a little successful, it did not mean that it had the strength to compete with the Qing Dynasty.
3 Gardan's foundation is unstable and he is in a hurry
Kaldan fought for many years to unify Weyrat, and then immediately attacked Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The Eastern Crusade attacked Qinghai, Shuote, and Mobei Khalkha without rest, you said to fight it, after winning the battle, it is good to rest for a while, digest the interior, and by the way, replenish the living strength. But Kaldan did not do it at all, he felt that the great cause of reunification could not be delayed, and the second Genghis Khan could only be him.
But the reality is always cruel, and years of conquest have long made a fierce nomad become wretched, and even the most powerful tiger and wolf division will collapse if it does not rest for a long time. He could have hidden this group of tiger and wolf divisions in the desert to recuperate and generally compete with the Qing army, and take advantage of the opportunity that the Qing army did not dare to go deep, and then slowly grow. However, Gardan could not wait to duel with the Qing army, and the result, of course, ended in failure.
In the sixth year of the Kangxi Expedition, that is, the third pro-expedition, Gardan committed suicide by taking poison. Once Kaldan died, although the turmoil in the Dzungar Department did not completely subside, but its general trend had gone, and then went through the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, until the Qianlong Emperor incorporated Xinjiang into the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and successfully solved the problem of the Dzungar Department.