During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty faced a series of challenges, such as the Southern Ming regime, the Wu Sangui Rebellion, the Zheng clique in Taiwan, and so on. Among them, the longest-consuming threat is the Northwest Dzungar Department. The Dzungars controlled the entire northwestern region and even had the ability to attack the qing-controlled areas. Especially during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, the Qing Dynasty was actually on the defensive. So, why is the Dzungar tribe so strong, and where does this powerful tribe come from? Today, we talk about the past and present lives of the Dzungars.
The Dzungars were part of the Mongol tribes, and after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty forces defeated the northern steppes, which is the historical Northern Yuan regime. Due to the continuous attacks of the Ming Dynasty and the internal problems of the Northern Yuan regime, the once invincible Northern Yuan regime collapsed. The Mongol tribes re-entered a situation of scattered separation, of which they were mainly divided into tribes such as the Wala and the Tatars. The Wala tribe once created glory, completely annihilated the Ming Dynasty Northern Expedition army, and captured the Ming Emperor Zhu Qizhen.
However, the glory of Vala was very short-lived. The Wallachia split into four more parts, one of which the Dzungars were one. In terms of geographical division, the Dzungars were part of The Western Mongolia. At the end of the Ming Dynasty's rule, the Qing Dynasty rose rapidly in the northeast region and gradually controlled the ministries of Northern Mongolia and Southern Mongolia. At the same time, the Dzungars were also expanding in full force, annexing the Yarkand Khanate and beginning to dominate the northwest region.
Due to the inability to reach the whip, the Qing Dynasty was temporarily unable to control the various departments of Western Mongolia. Subsequently, a series of events such as the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the entry of the Qing Dynasty into customs broke out. The Qing Dynasty's main focus was on managing the inland regions, and it had no intention of asking questions about the northwest region. Constrained by a series of problems such as the Southern Ming regime and the Wu Sangui rebellion, the Qing Dynasty watched the rise of the Dzungars without any energy.
The Dzungars bordered the Tsarist Empire in the north, and by virtue of their various connections, the Dzungars imported a large number of firearms. The northwest region is rich in resources, and the Dzungar Ministry can even use local resources to imitate various Tsarist Russian firearms. The total population of the Dzungars was several hundred thousand, and the standing army was only 50,000 or 60,000 people. Of these, nearly 30,000 troops used firearms of various types. Relying on sharp firearms, the control area of the Dzungars continued to expand, and the Mongol princes in the north and south of the desert were simply powerless to stop the Dzungars from advancing eastward.
In the middle of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, the Dzungar army was only more than 700 miles away from the capital of the Qing Dynasty. For the cavalry corps, that is, a few days. Under such circumstances, the Kangxi Emperor had to lead an army to counterattack the Dzungars. In the course of the battle between the two sides, the advantage of the Dzungars was the musket, and the advantage of the Qing army was the artillery. In the end, the Dzungar army was defeated, but the Qing Dynasty did not take advantage of the victory to pursue, and the Dzungars at this time still had a strong strength, and with the national strength of the Qing Dynasty at that time, they were simply unable to launch a long-term war.
Therefore, after the Qing Dynasty counterattacked, it only adopted a point-to-point strategy. After the expansion plan of the Dzungars on the North Road was broken, they began to look for opportunities on the South Road. At the end of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, the Dzungar army marched south, occupied Tibet, and even prepared to invade Sichuan and other places, and the situation was very critical. It took a lot of effort for the Qing Dynasty to expel the Dzungar army from Tibet.
By the time of the Reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, as the national strength grew, the Qing Dynasty had a strong national strength. The Yongzheng Emperor planned to eliminate the Dzungars in one fell swoop. However, the Qing Dynasty's Northern Route Army had more than 10,000 elite Manchurian Eight Banners, and almost all of them were destroyed. In this battle, the Qing Dynasty was seriously injured, and the Yongzheng Emperor had to abandon the war on the Dzungars and concentrate on internal affairs. The Dzungar army had many advantages of its own, except for the sharpness of firearms, the cavalry units, which were almost exclusive, were highly mobile.
Even if the Qing army defeated the Dzungar army, it would be difficult to completely annihilate them. However, the Dzungars themselves had problems, and while the Qing Dynasty had been in a long-term confrontation, the Dzungars deteriorated their relations with Tsarist Russia and war broke out. The Dzungars were caught up in a two-front battle, and both were world-class powers. Years of war overwhelmed the poor and weak Dzungars, and it was at this time that the Dzungar Khan died and the nobles began a new round of power struggle.
Since the new Great Khan had never appeared, the nobles of the Dzungars began to fight a civil war. As a result, the Qing Dynasty was given a great opportunity. The Qianlong Emperor sent the general Zhaohui to lead the army westward, and some of the defeated Dzungar nobles took the initiative to lead the way for the Qing army. The Qing army marched straight in, and without much effort, the Qing Dynasty pacified the Dzungars. At this point, the Qing Dynasty controlled the entire northwest region. In order to defend the northwestern region, the Qing Dynasty specially set up the Yili general ZhengYipin. From the middle of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor to the middle of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the Dzungars fought against the Qing Dynasty for nearly 70 years, and were eventually annexed by the Qing Dynasty.