Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of Xinjiang was described by foreigners as "the most glorious achievement ever made by a Chinese army led by Chinese since the Qianlong era more than a century ago."
At that time, Zuo Zongtang only had 60,000 troops in his hands, and many military salaries had to be prepared by himself, facing Agubai, who had the support of Tsarist Russia and Britain, how did this 60-year-old man return these 1.66 million square kilometers of land to China?
Background to the war
In the early years of the Tongzhi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court was busy with various wars in the country, and the anti-Qing uprising in Xinjiang was also full of winds, kokand officer Agubai took the opportunity to enter Xinjiang, with the help of Britain and Tsarist Russia, expelled and pacified all kinds of forces in Xinjiang, and in the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), controlled northern and southern Xinjiang, and the Agubai colonial regime occupied the territory
The region practiced brutal colonial rule, and the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang struggled under the iron heel of the colonists.
At this time, the Qing court was in the midst of a debate over whether to defend the coast or the defense of The Seychelles, and the representative figures Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang were also at odds with each other. At this time, Empress Dowager Cixi agreed to Zuo Zongtang's proposal and appointed Zuo Zongtang as the minister of Qincha to supervise the military and administrative affairs of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
How did Zuo Zongtang retake Xinjiang with a small number of troops?
60,000 are elite
At that time, Zuo Zongtang determined the policy of "quick war", because the national treasury was already empty at that time in the Qing Dynasty, and he knew that once the large army was pulled out, it must be quickly decided, and the more it dragged on, the more it could not move.
So Zuo Zongtang reduced the army to 60,000, including logistics less than 80,000, and the budget was 10 million taels of silver. At that time, the Qing court solved half of it, and the other relied on financial means to fill it.
According to Russian reconnaissance: the Qing army had a large number of the most advanced firearms in Europe and domestic imitations (such as the German Mauser rifle M1871 11 mm breech gun, and the American-made "Remington I" rifle). General Liu Jintang alone, an elite force of more than 13,000 men, had 20,000 rifles of various kinds.
The Russians at that time had already determined that Agupa would undoubtedly be defeated!
Agubai strength is average
Agubai's strength in Xinjiang is actually not weak, the army also has a lot of firearms, cavalry and infantry together, a total of about 40,000 people. But it doesn't seem enough for these people to control such a vast expanse of land.
Most importantly, Agubai's army is complex, many of them are local displaced people, and there are many bandits, robbers, etc., basically have not received professional military training, so Agubai's troops are about to collapse and lose consecutive battles.
What about Britain and Tsarist Russia? They did not really send troops to Xinjiang, after all, it was an international dispute, they were to provide some military equipment help, the British had given Agubai a large number of weapons and ammunition through the governor in India, they just wanted to get some trade benefits in Xinjiang, and the help to Agubai was very limited.
Agubai is unpopular
Originally from a foreign country, Agubai did not have deep roots in Xinjiang, and in order to consolidate his own power, he used his cronies in large quantities, causing dissatisfaction among many local nobles. They imposed heavy taxes in The Xinjiang region, the local people suffered terribly, and civilian uprisings continued. During the entire war, there were many cases in which the whole city opened its gates to surrender to the Qing dynasty army.
In this way, from May 1876 to March 1877, the Qing army took only 10 months to destroy the "Tianshan Defense Line" painstakingly operated by Agubai, restore northern Xinjiang, and guide Xinjiang with swords. It took another two months, the southern frontier was restored, and Agubai committed suicide. After that, Zeng Jize took back most of the Ili region from Tsarist Russia through diplomacy, and Xinjiang was completely restored.
In 1884, under the repeated urging of Zuo Zongtang, the Qing Dynasty officially established "Xinjiang Province". The following year, Zuo Zongtang, a famous minister, died. Zuo Gong eternity!