Zuo Zongtang's prestige has always been higher than that of Li Hongzhang, largely because Zuo Dashuai carried a coffin to the west at the age of seventy, preserving a territory of millions of square kilometers.
However, you may not know that when Agubai invaded Xinjiang with only 68 people, he was able to annex most of Xinjiang in just a few years.
Mohammed Agupa was born into a family of eunuchs in the State of Kokand in Central Asia. When his parents died, he became a palace guard by relying on the relationship of his brother-in-law, the governor of Tashkent, and then promoted to fifty men, five hundred men, and finally the commander of the fortress.
Although he started out on nepotism, Agubai was not ambiguous on the battlefield. Because of his many achievements in the battle against Tsarist Russia, Agubai also went to the top of the Kokand State.
However, kokand's evaluation of Agubai is not high:
In the more than twenty years he was, state conspiracies were endless, and he also had a considerable part.
Conspiracies were inevitably conspired against, and Agubai was soon jealous of the leaders. However, when he was at his most dangerous, civil unrest broke out in Kashgar in the southern frontier, and they asked the State of Kokand to send a descendant of Hezhuo to claim the throne.
Agupa took the initiative to ask for an escort to Kashgar to take the throne. The State of Kokand was busy defending against Tsarist Russia, and when Agupa left the capital Tashkent, there were only 6 people around him, and when he reached the border, he only had 68 outlaws.
Since the Western Han Dynasty, the central government has been operating the Western Regions for more than 2,000 years, and during the Qing Dynasty, it used troops here many times. Before entering Xinjiang, Agubai probably did not think that he could annex most of Xinjiang.
The middle and late 19th century was the most anxious time for the late Qing government. The Taiping Army and the Twist Army revolted successively. The Shaanxi-Gansu Hui rebellion soon spread to Xinjiang.
With the continuous expansion of the uprising in the northern and southern frontiers, the rule of the Qing government gradually fell into chaos. Some religious leaders began to establish themselves as kings and attacked each other. Some local powerful factions in Kashgar, in order to end the chaos, wanted to invite a king back in the kingdom of Kokand.
After Agubai entered Xinjiang, he immediately recruited troops in the name of Hezhuo, and by the time he arrived in Kashgar, the team was already quite large. The intrigue of the various forces gave Agubai an opportunity to take advantage of it, and Busuluk was soon proclaimed king.
Not long after Agupa gained a foothold in Kashgar, a coup d'état took place in the state of Kokand, and more than 7,000 defeated troops came to his aid, and Agupa was ecstatic. The greatly increased strength of Agupa fought several major battles, occupied seven important cities in southern Xinjiang, kicked Busuluk away, and established the "Zhedshar" state, which means "the country of seven cities".
Agubai's ambitions were very large, and he soon launched an attack on the northern frontier. In November 1870, Urumqi Kaesong surrendered. At this point, the Qing government's rule in Xinjiang was completely subverted.
Taking advantage of the civil unrest in the Qing Dynasty, Agubai quickly established a puppet regime in Xinjiang with some outlaws from the State of Kokand. It may be that happiness comes too suddenly, and they don't know anything about cherishing.
After Agubai entered Xinjiang, he expropriated and violently, and most of the people who maintained Agubai's rule were outlaws who went into exile in Xinjiang after the fall of Kokand, and each one of them only wanted to get rich, and every time he laid down a city, he inevitably had a plunder, and slaughtered the city if he resisted slightly, and only fifty thousand times in Hetian and Han compatriots were killed.
Agubai caused public resentment in Xinjiang to boil over, so that after the Qing army left the customs, even Zuo Zongtang could not believe that he could "fight for more than three thousand miles in a few months."
A ragtag group of people led by Agubai will only bully the people in the name of religion, and once the soldiers suppress the territory, they will immediately scatter. Before the Qing army could enter southern Xinjiang, internal chaos broke out first.
At the end of May 1877, Agubai committed suicide by poisoning Korla (also said to have been poisoned by his subordinates) in the face of defeat and rebellion. More than two months later, the Qing army advanced to southern Xinjiang, and most of the remnants of Agubai were annihilated, a small part surrendered, and some exiled to Tsarist Russia.
Source: Historical materials are not compiled, hereby solemnly thank you!