The Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty and the four major khanates (Chincha Khanate, Chagatai Khanate, Wokoutai Khanate, Ilkhanate), after the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty fled to the desert steppe, making the Steppe Mongols and their affiliated forces intricate, the Northern Grasslands during the Ming Dynasty mainly included Wa Thorn and Tatar, and by the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the Northern Steppes mainly had three major Parts of Mongolia, namely: Desert South Mongolia, Desert North Mongolia, and Desert West Mongolia.
The main tribes of southern Mongolia are: Horqin, Bahrain, Weng Niut, Zarut, Tumut, Ao Han, Naiman, Qaraqin, Ordos, etc., and their nomadic areas are mainly in today's Inner Mongolia region and southern Mongolia, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, after the Jin army defeated the southern Mongolian Lin Dan Khan, after that, the entire southern Mongolia was conquered by the Qing Dynasty.
Mobei Mongolia is the descendant of Genghis Khan XV Sundayan Khan, also known as Khalkha Mongolia, its main tribes are: Chechen, Tushetu, Sanyin Noyan, Zasaktu, etc., its north is Buryat Mongolia, south is Monan Mongolia, east of the three eastern provinces, west of the Xinjiang Altai Mountains, Khalkha Mongols in the early Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty maintained a vassal relationship, and later directly defected to the Qing Dynasty.
The tribes of Western Mongolia mainly include: the Dzungar Department, the Heshuo Special Department, the Turk Special Department, the Durbert Department, the Huite Department, etc., and their areas include today's Xinjiang, Tibet, the western part of Mongolia and Central Asia, the farthest from the Qing Dynasty.
The Dzungar clan is a descendant of the Ming Dynasty's Wallachian tribe, known as The Qing Dynasty, the Dzungar nobles are the descendants of the Yuan Dynasty minister Bo Han, the Wallachian department did not fall behind, to the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Dzungar department and the Heshuo Special Department, the Turbat Department, the Durbert Department formed a loose tribal alliance, known as the Erut Four Departments or the Four Divisions of Weitra.
The four ministries were headed by the leaders of the Heshuo tribe, because the ancestors of the Pegatron nobles were Genghis Khan's brother Habtu Hasar, so the Heshuo tribe was the most honorable, and the Dzungar tribe at that time was nomadic in the Ili River Valley from Xinjiang to Central Asia (present-day Ili region of Xinjiang to Central Asia), the Heshuo tribe was nomadic in the Urumqi area of Xinjiang, the Turbat tribe was nomadic in Tarbahatai (around present-day Tacheng, Xinjiang), and the Durbert tribe was nomadic on the banks of the Irtysh River from Xinjiang to Central Asia (from the Altay region of Xinjiang to Central Asia).
In the 1720s and 1730s, the Dzungar chief Halakulla began to grow stronger and began to compete with the Heshuo ministry, and after the death of Halakula, his son Batur became the head of the Dzungar tribe, and the Dzungar tribe continued to be strong, becoming the de facto ally of the four parts of Erut.
However, the four ministries were only a loose alliance at this time, each of the four departments had a leader, and regular chieftains meetings were held, and the four alliance lords were also elected by the meeting, the alliance leader at that time was still the leader of the Heshuo tribe, but the strength was already the strongest of the Dzungar tribe, and the Dzungar tribe often bullied other tribes with great strength, which led to the Turk and Durbert tribes gradually moving westward to the Volga River area in Central Asia, while the Heshuo tribe marched south to Qinghai and then into Tibet, and another part of the Heshuo tribe moved east to the Nomadic alxa region west of Hetao.
Dzungar gradually became an ally of Western Mongolia
In this way, the Dzungars monopolized the original four pastures, and their power was further expanded, and the Dzungars also waged war against the Kazakhs in the west, expanding their power to the Chu River (in present-day Kyrgyzstan) and the Taras River Valley (in present-day western Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan) in Central Asia, and the Dzungars under The leadership of Batur also defeated the Russian invasion of Xinjiang twice.
After the death of batur, the chief of the Dzungar clan, and his son Sangha succeeded to the throne as chief, there was infighting within the Dzungars over the position of chief, and the civil war lasted for several years, and sangha was killed by his two distant mother brothers Chechen and Chot Babatur, in 1670 AD, that is, the ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty in the Central Plains.
Sangha had a half-brother named Kaldan, who was studying Buddhism in Tibet, China at the time, Kaldan was sent by his father Batur to Tibet in China at the age of 12 to study the Buddhist scriptures with the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama, after hearing that his brother Sangha was killed, Kaldan asked for a return to the world, quickly returned to Xinjiang from Tibet, collected the old part of the Sangha, defeated and killed his half-brother Chechen, forced Drot Babatur to flee to Qinghai, Andrdan became the leader of the Dzungar clan, he was the sixth son of Batur.
Kaldan, chief of the Dzungar Khanate
Soon, Kaldan went to the Qing Dynasty, and its leadership status was officially recognized by the Qing Dynasty, and subsequently, Kaldan led the Dzungars to begin to expand everywhere, in 1676, Kaldan defeated the Heshuobu and monopolized the nomadic land of the original four parts, and in 1680, Kaldan destroyed the Yarkand Khanate established by the descendants of the Chagatai Khanate, which was located in the area of Shache, Turpan, Hami, and Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, and established the Dzungar Khanate, at which point the strength of the Dzungars reached its peak.
At its peak, the areas controlled by Dzungar were: the southernmost region to the northwestern region of Tibet, the northernmost to the Tangnuula Mountains (present-day Russia-Mongolia border), the border with the then Tsarist Russia, the easternmost border to the border between present-day Xinjiang and Gansu, the westernmost to the Pamir Plateau, and the border with the Kazakh Khanate, including the entire Xinjiang of China, western Mongolia, part of Central Asia, and northern Tibet of China.
After the Dzungar power under the leadership of Kaldan reached its peak, it continued to expand abroad, in 1688 AD, Kaldan led 30,000 cavalry to attack the Tushetu, Chechen and Zasaktu departments of the Khalkha Mongols in the north of the desert, and the three parts were defeated by Kaldan one after another, and the Khalkha Mongols collapsed for thousands of miles, in 1690, Kaldan, with the support of Tsarist Russia, continued to attack the Khalkha Mongol departments, and the Khalkha Mongol departments began to ask for help from the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty placed the Khalkha Mongol departments in Sunit, Uzumuqin, Nomadic in places such as Ulat.
Situation around Dzungar
Kaldan continued to attack, pursuing the Tushetu troops of the Khalkha Mongols to the Uzumuqin grassland of the Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia, and entering the Qing-controlled area, when the Kangxi Emperor of course could not sit idly by, so he sent the Qing army to fight a battle with the Dzungar army, and the two sides fought in the Battle of Ulanbutong in the present-day Kashketen Banner of Inner Mongolia, the Dzungar army was defeated, almost the entire army was destroyed, and Kaldan only fled with more than a thousand cavalry.
After this battle, the Dzungars were seriously injured and weakened, and Kaldan fled to Kobdo (present-day Gilglangtu, Mongolia), and the area of the Ili River, the former stronghold of Dzungar, had been occupied by Kaldan's nephew Tseyu Alabutan (son of the Sangha), and six years later, the Qing Dynasty defeated Kaldan in the Battle of Zhaomodo, annihilating its main force, and soon after, Kaldan died of illness.
Kaldan failed for several reasons:
1. Insufficient troops.
The total strength of Gardan's expedition was only 30,000 people, from the beginning of Kaldan's invasion of Khalkha Mongolia, there have been so many people, the war when Kaldan invaded the Qing Dynasty lasted for several months, the Dzungar soldiers were one less dead, although the Dzungar soldiers were brave and good at war, but the strength was far inferior to that of the Qing Dynasty.
Dzungar cavalry
In this battle, the Qing Dynasty sent about 100,000 troops, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers in the early Qing Dynasty was also quite strong, the strength of the troops was three times that of the Dzungars, the Dzungars did not have any advantages, plus the Qing Dynasty was waiting for work, the defeat of the Dzungars was inevitable, the Kangxi Emperor was originally going to surround and annihilate Kaldan, but because the Li Fanyuan Shangshu Arani attacked without authorization, it gave Kaldan a chance to escape, otherwise it was a war of annihilation, and only with more troops could fight the war of annihilation.
2. Logistics are not replenished.
Kaldan's march to invade the Qing Dynasty almost crossed the entire Outer Mongolia, thousands of kilometers long, although the Mongols were self-sufficient, but the long war also needed supplies, the war at that time had entered the era of hot weapons, there were artillery and shotguns, it is said that Tsarist Russia supported the Kaldan smoothbore gun, guns are in need of ammunition, which needs supplies.
However, it is almost impossible for Kaldan to get supplies, he has gone deep into the Inner Mongolia region of the Qing Dynasty, thousands of miles away from the old lair of the Dzungars, and very far from the Tsarist Russia at that time, it is not an easy task to want logistics supplies at such a long distance, even if there is, the logistics supply line will be cut off by the Qing Dynasty at any time, and there is no supply that cannot be fought for a long time, only suitable for short-term wars.
Qing Dynasty flag soldiers
Relatively speaking, the Qing Dynasty was the main battle, logistics supplies are much more convenient, in contrast, the defeat of the Dzungars is inevitable.
3. The Dzungars are isolated and internally divided.
Although Tsarist Russia at that time supported Kaldan and sent troops to Uddinsk (present-day Ulan-Ude, Russia) to attack the Khalkha Tushetu Khanate, when the Dzungar and the Tsarist army were far apart and could not join forces, the war had to be fought by the Dzungars themselves, because the Dzungars expanded everywhere, and almost all of them were his enemies, such as the Qing Dynasty, the Khalkha Mongols, the Uzbek Khanate, and the Yarkand Khanate were all enemies of the Dzungars, and the Dzungars were fighting alone.
Although Dzungar was powerful for a time, the constant foreign wars were military, and just when Kaldan invaded the Qing Dynasty, his base camp was captured by his nephew Tseyu Alabutan, who not only occupied Kaldan's lair, but also captured Kaldan's wife, children and subordinates, and then replaced Kaldan, establishing himself as the Great Khan of the Dzungar Khanate and submitting to the Qing Dynasty, which shows that Dzungar is not a monolith within Dzungar.
Quasi-war
For various reasons, the Dzungars are at the end of the crossbow, and failure is inevitable.
4. Tactical failure.
The key battle between the Qing Dynasty and Dzungar occurred in Ulanbutong, Keshketeng Banner, Inner Mongolia, when Kaldan adopted the camel city tactic, the so-called camel city tactic was to use camels as a cover, of course, it was also a means of transport, Kaldan let his men tie the camel hooves, so that the camels could only lie on the ground, carrying wooden boxes covered with blankets on the camel's back, and then forming a camp around the camels in a circle, the Dzungar army thought it was a fortress, relying on the camels and the wooden boxes on their backs as cover, shooting arrows and shooting in the gaps.
This tactic was not clever, it was already the beginning of the era of hot weapons, the way the Qing Dynasty defeated the Dzungars was to bombard the Dzungar camp with heavy artillery, the Qing Artillery had in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, and there were famous red-clad cannons, even the city walls could be blown down, not to mention camels and wooden boxes, it was completely sent to death, so the Qing army defeated the Dzungars in a battle.
Camel city tactics
5. Kangxi's ability is not comparable to that of Kaldan.
The Battle of Qingzhun was commanded by Kangxi behind the scenes, kangxi originally planned to first stabilize Gardan, wait until the various Qing armies arrived and then surround and annihilate the other side, but because Alani could not hold his breath, he attacked the other side first, causing Dzungar to be defensive and leave a back road, but the final result of the war was also a big defeat of Dzungar, almost completely annihilating the other side.
Kangxi began to command the war to quell the San Francisco Rebellion at the age of 20, it took 8 years to quell the San Francisco Rebellion, and when the war with Dzungar began, Kangxi was 36 years old, this kind of military talent is not comparable to Kaldan, the difficulty of the San Francisco Rebellion is much higher than the war with Dzungar, Kangxi's ability is far more than Kaldan, in this battle, Kangxi is ready to go on a personal crusade, want to solve the Dzungar at once, because of the cold to give up, otherwise Kaldan simply can not escape.
Kangxi personally enlisted Dzungar
6. The strength of the Qing Dynasty far exceeded that of the Dzungars.
Fighting a war also requires strength, the strength of the Dzungars is less than one-tenth of the Qing Dynasty, whether it is population, control areas, combat effectiveness, political system, military system, economic ability, the Qing Dynasty is far beyond the Dzungars, the two sides are not an opponent of magnitude, the Dzungars did not call the strength of the Qing Dynasty, and failure is inevitable.
For various reasons, it is not surprising that Dzungar was easily defeated by the Qing Dynasty, and after Kaldan's death, the Qing Dynasty spent several decades destroying the Dzungar Khanate.