In 1865, Agubai, the leader of the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia, at the instigation of Britain and Russia, resolutely invaded Xinjiang in China, and established a puppet regime called "Zhedeshaer", which openly provoked the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing court was in the autumn of troubles, and the southeast, southwest and southern frontiers of China were also facing the threat of aggression by great powers, so the Qing court had two different attitudes towards the Xinjiang issue.
First, the main war faction headed by Zuo Zongtang resolutely wanted to drive out the invaders by force, and put forward the view that defending Xinjiang was defending the Beijing Division.
Second, the hidden ninja faction headed by Li Hongzhang suggested abandoning Xinjiang and laying out its main defensive forces along the southeast coast. This debate has been called "the Hayser Controversy" by history, but in fact, because they stand from different angles, their views are not wrong.
Zuo Zongtang believed that Xinjiang was in hand, Mongolia could be guaranteed, Hebei was safe, and the capital was safe, and incidentally it could also deter the surrounding small countries that wanted to take advantage of the danger of people, and Agubai's strength was very weak, and it was also very good to be defeated by the Qing army.
Li Hongzhang thinks so.
First of all, because the southern frontier has been occupied by the rebels of Agubai, the enemy army is not easy to capture, and there is also the support of the British and Russian powers behind it, and it is not good to offend anyone.
Secondly, in the late Qing Dynasty, the financial resources were insufficient, the troops were limited, and it was a long-standing difficulty to raise huge military expenses to recover Xinjiang, and it was better to use this scarce money to develop the navy.
Finally, even if the war is won and Xinjiang is recovered, the cost of garrisoning the army and resuming production is a considerable expense, coupled with the small number of people in Xinjiang, the state input and output are not positively correlated, on the contrary, it will be a burden to the state and will weaken the strength of coastal defense.
It can be seen from this that Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang have different perspectives on the Xinjiang issue, one is to consider the problem from a commercial point of view, want to invest limited resources in the places where they are most needed, and concentrate on resolving the main contradictions. One is to examine the current situation from the level of military strategy, taking into account the post-war situation in China and the long-term international trend, due to limited resources, so the two have different opinions.
In the end, after many rounds of deliberation, the Qing court still adopted Zuo Zongtang's idea of sending troops to recover Xinjiang, specially appointed Zuo Zongtang as the minister of Qincha, supervised xinjiang's military affairs, led 60,000 troops to quickly reinforce the emergency Xinjiang battlefield, and successfully expelled the invaders, and the battle of Xinjiang also became one of the few major victories in the late Qing Dynasty.