In April 1876, Zuo Zongtang, a famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty and the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, sat in Suzhou, sacrificed the flag and sent troops to launch the battle to recover Xinjiang. After nearly two years of fierce fighting, Zuo Zongtang recovered all the territory of Xinjiang except Ili, and circled more than 1 million square kilometers of land for China, and his battle achievements went straight after Wei Qing, Huo Zhiyi, Li Jing and other famous generals. Even Western observers acknowledged it as "the most glorious achievement ever made by a Chinese army led by Chinese."
Why not recover Ili? The reason was simple, at that time Ili was controlled by the Russians.
As early as 1871, due to Agubai's occupation of Xinjiang, Russia had an indiscriminate idea of China's northwest frontier, so it sent troops to invade and occupy Ili, which is located in the northern Part of the Tianshan Mountains in western Xinjiang, declaring that "Ili will always be under the jurisdiction of Russia." This act of taking advantage of the fire and looting caused protests from the Qing court. The Russians had no choice but to say, "Only because the rebellion has not been calmed, it is necessary to recover on behalf of the people, and it is expedient to send troops to garrison, to clear the inside and outside of the pass, and to return the cities of Urumqi and Manas immediately after they are overcome." This means that once the Qing court regained its rule over Xinjiang, they would return Ili to the Qing court.
Having said that, the Russians did not take it seriously. They gambled that the Qing court would not be able to take back Xinjiang. If the Qing court could not take back Xinjiang, Ili was bound to be occupied by the Russians forever. The Qing court also did not have the luxury of being able to take back Ili. After all, in 1871, Zuo Zongtang was still fighting the rebels in Shaanxi and Gansu. The matter of recovering Xinjiang was not on the agenda, let alone taking back Ili.
Who would have thought that after Zuo Zongtang put down the shaanxi-Gansu rebellion, he would immediately launch the Battle to recover Xinjiang and quickly recover the entire territory of Xinjiang. Therefore, it became a natural thing to propose to the Russians to reclaim Ili.
How to take it back is a problem.
There are two ways to recover. The first is to talk about it at the negotiating table and take it back. The second is the use of force to recover directly from the Russians.
Since the First Opium War, the Qing court has been best at bargaining with Western powers at the negotiating table. As for force, it can be avoided as much as possible. However, affected by the victory in the Battle of Xinjiang, some ministers of the Qing court increased their confidence in force and began to use force as a backup option for recovering Ili. The Ili general Jin Shun was one of them.
Jin Shun was a Manchurian blue flag, and because of his repeated military achievements, he was raised into the yellow flag. Jin Shun participated in the war to quell the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion, and was promoted to general of Uria Sutai. When Zuo Zongtang regained Xinjiang, Jin Shun became Zuo Zongtang's right-hand man and was appointed general of Ili in 1876. During the Qing Dynasty, General Ili was the highest military and political commander in Xinjiang, a military attaché of Zhengyipin, stationed in Ili.
For Jin Shun, the recovery of Yili is of great significance. If even its own garrison is not recovered, Xinjiang will not really be recovered.
Jin Shun wanted to take back Ili as soon as possible and was reluctant to spend time on the negotiating table. In early 1877, Jin Shun made a proposal to the Qing court, voluntarily leading an army to sneak into Ili, drive out the Russian army, and reclaim the land.
Is Jin Shun's idea feasible? feasible. At that time, Russia was engaged in the Tenth Russo-Turkish War with Turkey, and the two sides engaged in a fierce tug-of-war. Russia threw its main forces into the Russo-Turkish War, and Ili did not have many defenders. Jin Shun took Ili with his army, and there was no problem at all.
However, Zuo Zongtang firmly opposed Jin Shun's proposal. Zuo Zongtang believes that state-to-state exchanges fundamentally rely on strength as a support. However, on the surface, it is still necessary to be reasonable and not to leave a handle for others, otherwise it will be greedy and cheap, and suffer big losses. Since the Russians have left room for a negotiated settlement of the Ili issue, they may wish to take the road of negotiation first.
First, although Russia sent troops to occupy Ili, it made it clear that it would return it to China. Before the two sides have negotiated, it is morally unjustifiable to adopt the method of sneak attack to recover Ili, and it will change from "reasonable" to "unreasonable".
Second, it is not difficult to recover Ili by sneak attack; the difficulty is what to do next. Russia is one of the Western powers, and its strength is far from being comparable to that of Agubai and the like. If it really angers Russia and causes the war to rekindle, it will be more fierce. Even if you barely win the battle, you will certainly be seriously injured, suffer heavy losses, and gain more than you lose.
Then again, if Ili was really so easy to recover by force, after Zuo Zongtang conquered northern Xinjiang, he could have taken back Ili with a single blow, and there was no need to wait until the entire territory of Xinjiang was recovered to consider this issue.
Zuo Zongtang reported his ideas to Empress Dowager Cixi, who felt that it made a lot of sense. Although Empress Dowager Cixi also wanted to support Jin Shun in performing well in recovering Ili and fighting for the face of the Eight Banners nobles, she also knew that Jin Shun's proposal was a bad idea and could not be done in this way, so she rejected Jin Shun's proposal and sent Chonghou to Russia at the end of 1878 to negotiate the return of Ili.