How did Zuo Zongtang recover Xinjiang?

In the late Qing Dynasty, it was difficult to find internal and external affairs. During the Xianfeng period, the Taiping Army, the Twist Army, and the Yunnan Huimin Revolt broke out in China. In 1862, the defense of Guanzhong became a vacuum, and the Huimin of Shaanxi launched an armed uprising. In 1864, civil unrest also broke out in Xinjiang, and Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, Turfan, and other places successively established local separatist regimes and attacked each other with Qing soldiers, and the situation was chaotic. One of them, Stil, occupied Kashgar. In the twenty-fourth year of Qianlong (1759 AD), the Qing Dynasty quelled the Great and Great And Zhuo Rebellion, and Yamato Zhuo's descendants fled to the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia. Yamato's great-grandson Busuluk lived in Kokand, the capital of the Kokand Khanate, and was known by some as a "holy descendant". In order to establish his prestige, Stil's subordinate Jin Xiangyin went to welcome back Busuluk. In the spring of 1865, Alimkur Khan of the Kokand Khanate sent his subordinate Muhammad Yahov (Agubai) to escort Busuluk to Kashgar with 50 cavalrymen.

Stil did not expect to lure the wolf into the room. Agupa and Busuruk organized a mutiny, and Sidil was expelled from Kashgar. In March 1865, Stil led more than 7,000 Kyrgyz troops to retake Kashgar. Unexpectedly, Agubai led only 100 cavalry to defeat Stil. On April 11, 1864, Agubai conquered Stil's hometown of Ingisha, and the remnants of Stil were completely expelled from Xinjiang. With Agubai's support, Busuluk (Busshk) established the "Zhedshar Khanate" in April 1865, meaning the "Seven Cities Khanate" (generally believed to be Kashgar, Ingisha, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, Kucha, and Ush). Agubai fought with other warlords in Xinjiang for territory. However, Busuluk did not want to remain a puppet, and in 1867, Bussuluk launched a mutiny in Kashgar, which failed 41 days later. Busuruk was sent on a pilgrimage to Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. Agubai abolished the "Jedishar Khanate" and established the "Hongfu Khanate", proclaiming itself "BadawulaitHazi "King of Hongfu". In the same year, Agubai defeated the warlord Reshidin, captured Aksu, and occupied most of southern Xinjiang. The "Hongfu Khanate" used the Shariah code "Shariat" as its supreme law, set up religious courts everywhere, forced all people to believe in Islam, and levied heavy taxes on the locals.

In 1868, Britain sent envoys to meet with Agupa to recognize his regime. In 1870, Russia also sent people to Kashgar to meet with Agubai and recognize his regime. Agubai began to expand his power to the north. By the end of 1871, Dihua, Manas, and Shanshan had been conquered by Agubai. Russia also sent troops to occupy Ili at this time. In this piece of land where the Western Regions Of the Han Dynasty and the Anxi Capital Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty were named "New And Old Frontiers" by Qianlong in 1759, the power of the Qing Dynasty was almost completely lost, leaving only Tacheng, Wusu and other few data points.

In July of the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), Bai Yanhu, a commander of the Huimin uprising in Shaanxi, led his troops to retreat to the Xinjiang region. He joined forces with the Uighur leader Yusupi to capture the city of Hami. After the Qing army entered Hami, Bai Yanhu defected to Agubai.

At a time when the northwestern region of the Qing Dynasty was becoming increasingly in crisis, the defense of the southeast, southeast, and coasts also became very tense. In 1867, France invaded and occupied all of southern Vietnam. In October 1873, France occupied the ancient capital of Hue. This was followed by the invasion of Hanoi and parts of the Red River Delta in November. Vietnam was a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, and France's invasion of Vietnam was really preparing for the invasion of China. Japan in the east also gradually revealed its ambitions after the Meiji Restoration. In the spring of 1874, Japan brazenly sent troops to Taiwan, known in history as the "Peony Society Incident".

In the face of "unprecedented changes in three thousand years," the Qing government's national defense funds were extremely difficult. From March 1875 onwards, the "court council" in which the prince, the county king, the university scholar, the sixth ministry, and the nine secretaries participated, held a major debate on whether to recover Xinjiang or abandon Xinjiang. Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong, Wang Wenshao, the governor of Hunan, and Wu Yuanbing, the governor of Jiangsu, advocated recovering the lost land in Xinjiang and resisting Tsarist Russia. Li Hongzhang believes that the land in Xinjiang is barren, sparsely populated, and spends a lot of military expenses every year, which is really more than worth the loss, so it is better to abandon Xinjiang and operate the coastal areas instead. Li Hongzhang's view is that "if Xinjiang does not recover, the vitality of the limbs will not be harmed; if coastal defense is not prevented, it will be a major problem for the heart."

Zuo Zongtang advocated both "sai defense" and "coastal defense". Zuo Zongtang vigorously refuted Li Hongzhang's "theory of xinjiang barrenness", believing that Xinjiang is full of melons and fruits, herds of cattle and sheep, and rich mineral deposits. More importantly, recovering Xinjiang could safeguard the security of northwestern China. Once Xinjiang is abandoned, the great powers are bound to advance, and half of China will be put at risk. Zuo Zongtang's opinion was strongly supported by Wen Xiang, the minister of military aircraft.

Zuo Zongtang wrote to the imperial court many times, lamenting the importance of Xinjiang for national defense. "Those who are heavy on Xinjiang, so they protect Mongolia, and those who protect Mongolia are so Weijing Division, and the northwest arm is connected, the situation is complete, and there is no gap to take advantage of." On the contrary, "if Xinjiang is not solid, then Mongolia is uneasy", not only Shaanxi, Gansu, and Shanxi are "invaded by time, and it is impossible to prevent it, that is, there is no day for feasting and sleeping in Guanshan in Zhibei". That is to say, if Xinjiang is not protected, the Russian army will arrive at beijing sooner or later.

In May 1875 (the first year of Guangxu), Zuo Zongtang was appointed minister of Chincha to supervise the military affairs of Xinjiang, and Jin Shun was made the governor of Urumqi and deputy to the military affairs of Xinjiang.

After being appointed, Zuo Zongtang held a military conference in Lanzhou. Zuo Zongtang proposed the strategy of "first the north road and then the south road" and "slowly advancing into the rapid battle" against the enemy. Agubai's power is concentrated in southern Xinjiang, and its influence in northern Xinjiang is relatively weak. From the perspective of topography and landform, marching from northern Xinjiang to southern Xinjiang is conducive to avoiding the Qing army from being hindered in the Taklamakan Desert. Moreover, northern Xinjiang is rich in products and can be used as a garrison and as a military storage base. Historically, the Qing army quelled the Dzungars, quelled the Rebellion of Dingda and Zhuo, and adopted the policy of first going north and then south.

Zuo Zongtang's first step was to reform the army. At that time, the combat effectiveness of the army in the northwest region of the Qing Dynasty was extremely low, the soldiers were afraid of the enemy like tigers, the officials were corrupt, and the army was seriously short-paid. As early as August 1873 (July of the twelfth year of Tongzhi), Zuo Zongtang began to select zhuang ding, cut off redundant and redundant, and converted some soldiers who were "weak and did not serve the war" into agricultural reclamation labor, stipulating that "all those who did not want to go out of the Kansai Expedition would be repatriated and returned to their hometowns." He demanded that the officers of the Western Expeditionary Army should not withhold the food and wages of the soldiers, that the officers and men of all departments should not extort and harass the local people everywhere, and that "those who violate the law shall be severely punished."

Zuo Zongtang asked Hu Guangyong to procure ordnance transfers in Shanghai to the northwest. He also founded the Xi'an Machinery Bureau and the Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau to build guns and cannons for the Western Expeditionary Army. In order to deal with the foreign guns and cannons of the Agubai army, experts and skilled workers were invited from Guangzhou and Zhejiang to build a large number of weapons in Lanzhou.

Zuo Zongtang commanded the construction of a road from Lanzhou through the Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang. In order to consolidate the roadbed and prevent wind and sand fixation, he also mobilized the military and civilians to plant trees and afforestation. In the end, in the desolate and arid northwest region, a green drapery stretching for thousands of miles was formed. Later generations called it "Zuo Gong Liu". Zuo Zongtang's subordinate Yang Changjun wrote a poem praising: "The general has not yet returned the edge, and the sons of Hu Xiang are full of heavenly mountains; the newly planted willows are three thousand miles, which has attracted the spring wind to yuguan." ”

There are a total of 130 battalions of the Western Expeditionary Army, with a total of 70,000 or 80,000 officers and men, and they need at least 6 million taels of silver every year, plus the expenditure of transportation of grain and other funds, and a total of more than 8 million taels of military expenditure is needed a year. However, the ding grain in Gansu Province is only more than 200,000 taels a year old, and the annual income of Ding In Shaanxi is only 400,000 taels. Relying on the salaries of other provinces and customs, li hongzhang's "coastal defense" salary disputes and the situation that they could not be put in place in time. Zuo Zongtang had to apply to the imperial court for loans from abroad. The imperial court finally issued an edict, and the household department allocated 2 million taels, the provincial cooperative salaries of 3 million taels, and the quasi-Zuo Zongtang borrowed 5 million taels of foreign funds. The Western Expeditionary Army needs 4 million catties of military food and about 500,000 catties of horse feed every month. The military food of the Western Expeditionary Army was mainly purchased in Ningxia, Baotou, Naturalization (Hohhot) and other places. Zuo Zongtang believed that camels were the most suitable for transporting grain, "it is advisable to transport camels, the second is to drive mules, and the second is to mule carts." In 1875 (the first year of Guangxu), Zuo Zongtang received sosnofsky and his party from Russia and concluded a grain purchase contract with them. By March 1876, the Western Expeditionary Force was basically ready to go on expeditions.

In addition to Agubai, the enemies faced by the Qing army in this western expedition may also be the two superpowers of Britain and Russia at that time. However, Russia was fighting Turkey. This time The Russian target is Istanbul, which has been peeping into the Mouth of the Black Sea for hundreds of years. In December 1877, after a series of Russian victories, the forward Russian forwards had seen turkey's Bosphorus. This made the British unable to sit still, and by December 1877, the Bosphorus in Turkey was full of British naval ironclad ships, ready to go to war with the Russians. As a result, what happened in China's Xinjiang was not attractive enough for Britain and Russia.

At that time, when Russia saw that britain was blocking itself in the Bosphorus, it sent troops south from Central Asia to threaten the British colony of India. British troops in India also began to assemble to the north. At that time, the transmission of information in the world was already very developed. For such an international situation, Zuo Zongtang could not have been unaware. For Zuo Zongtang, he must recover Xinjiang before the contradictions between Britain and Russia are resolved.

On April 7, 1876 (March of the second year of Guangxu), Zuo Zongtang was transferred from Lanzhou to Suzhou. At the end of April, he asked Liu Jintang, the commander of the Xiang Army, to lead the 25th battalion of Mabu into Xinjiang in batches and travel to Barikun via Hami. The traffic to prepare for the first reconquest of northern and southern Xinjiang is to rush to Urumqi. He also sent the viceroys Xu Zhanbiao and Zhang Yao to garrison the line from Balikun to Hami to prevent the enemy from escaping from the north and east. When Agubai learned of the Westward Advance of the Qing Army, he deployed his main force of 27,000 men at Dabancheng, Turpan, and Toxon. Let Bai Yanhu, Ma Ming, Ma Rende and others defend Urumqi, Changji, Hutubi, Manas, Gumudi and other important places in northern Xinjiang. Another force was sent to defend the Southern Foothills of the Tianshan Mountains at Shengjintai and the Line of Spread (present-day Shanshan) to prevent the Qing army from attacking from there.

In July 1876 (early June of the second year of Guangxu), Liu Jintang led his battalions to Balikun and soon entered Fukang. At the end of July, he met kim soon at Jimusa and planned to attack the ancient pastures. On August 13, the Qing army entered the ancient pasture land, and on the morning of August 17, the strong city wall was destroyed with flowering cannons and occupied the ancient pasture land. In this battle, liu jintang's troops of the Qing army lost 158 people, wounded 455 people, killed "more than five or six thousand people" of the enemy, and captured 215 people.

Liu Jintang learned from the enemy's letter that the Urumqi garrison was empty, and at dawn on August 18, he sent the main force straight to Urumqi. Ma Rende and Bai Yanhu, who were guarding Urumqi, were caught off guard and abandoned the city to escape, the Qing army retook Urumqi, and Liu Jintang and other troops destroyed the remnants of the enemy and pursued the fleeing enemy, killing about 500 or 600 enemies. The enemies of Changji, Hutubi, and manas North City abandoned the city and fled without waiting for the Qing army to attack.

On August 18, the Qing army under the command of Rong Quan and the militia regiments under Kong Cai and Xu Xuegong occupied the northern city of Manas. The enemy of Manas South remained stubborn. From September 2, the Qing army Jin Shunbu, together with the Ili general Rong Quan and other troops, stormed the southern city of Manas for a long time, and then with the assistance of Liu Jintang's troops, it was finally conquered on November 6. The Qing army suffered thousands of casualties. After the city was destroyed, Jin Shun, because of the resentment accumulated by the unsuccessful siege of the city, ordered the massacre of the prisoners. Zuo Zongtang was very angry about this, and considering that Jin Shun's command of the war was insufficient, he persuaded Jin Shun to stay in northern Xinjiang based only on blood courage.

The Qing army captured all of Agubai's strongholds in northern Xinjiang before the arrival of winter, suspended the attack, and rested.

Zuo Zongtang knew that Agubai's main forces were in the three cities of Daban, Turpan, and Toxon. Liu Jintang's troops were deployed from Urumqi to the south to attack Bancheng, Guangdong Overland Governor Zhang Yao marched west from Hami, and the nominal Viceroy Xu Zhanbiao crossed the Mulei River and turned over the Tianshan Mountains to the south. Zhang and Xu joined forces to capture Turpan, and after the victory, they joined forces to attack Toxon.

On April 14, 1877, Liu Jintang led the main force of more than 10,000 people and the Flowering Artillery Team from Urumqi to the south, and on the night of the 16th, he besieged Dabancheng. The Qing army besieged the city for reinforcements, and on the 18th, the enemy reinforcements were killed and retreated. The Qing army used flowering cannons to collapse the defenders' forts, and the defenders suffered heavy casualties and had to surrender. In this battle, more than 2,000 enemies were killed and more than 1,000 prisoners were taken. Liu Jintang gave some of the captives food and clothing and allowed them to return to their original units. In order to prevent these released captives from disturbing the morale of the army, Agubai ordered all of his second son Haigula to be executed, and only a few escaped. This move greatly shook the hearts of the Agubai army.

On 24 April, Liu Jintang divided 6 battalions to assist Turpan, and led 14 battalions of cavalry to attack Toxon. Toxon's defender was none other than Haigula, who had fled after learning of Liu Jintang's prestige. Liu Jintang's forces conquered Toxon. Soon after, Turpan was retaken by Zhang Yao's and Xu Zhanbiao's forces. The Qing army recaptured the three cities in less than half a month, and the gateway to southern Xinjiang, Dongkou, was gone. The people of southern Xinjiang revolted in response to the Qing offensive.

Agupa fled to Korla in late May and died there shortly there, either by persuasion poisoning or by his subordinates. Haigula died in the fire, and Agub's eldest son, Burke Holi, continued to resist in Kashgar's claim to the throne. In September 1877 (August of the third year of Guangxu), Liu Jintang led the 32nd Battalion of Mabu as the forward, and Zhang Yao led the 16th Battalion of Mabu as the rear, a total of more than 20,000 people, and advanced westward. The enemy defenders abandoned Qarashar and Korlas and fled west. Liu Jintang personally led the elite troops in pursuit. On October 18, the enemy army was defeated at Kucha, on the 22nd by the Baiyan Tiger Army and the Burke Huri Army at the Copper Factory, and on the 24th, the Qing army was defeated at the city of Keksu. 26th Keush.

The Qing army was like a broken bamboo, and the enemy was panicked. The Khotanese rebels asked the Qing army to surrender, and the Kashgar garrison he Buyun took the opportunity to take the opportunity anyway, and Burke Huri hurried back to rescue Kashgar. On December 17, the Xiang army of Yu Hu'en, Huang Wanpeng and other troops arrived in Kashgar and recaptured the city in one fell swoop that night. Burke Huri and Bai Yanhu fled into Russia with the remnants. On the 21st of the same month, Liu Jintang recaptured Yeerqiang, and on the 24th, he recaptured Yingjishal. On January 2, 1878 (November 29, the third year of Guangxu), the Qing army recaptured Khotan.

So far, all the Xinjiang regions except Ili have been recovered. A total of 1,166 people, including Jin Xiangyin's father and son who first led Agubai into Xinjiang, and the leaders and leaders who followed Agubai were also "informed of the Fa." Seeing the strength of the Qing army in the war, russia instructed the remnants of Bai Yanhu to harass the mainland border while using diplomatic means to grab more benefits.

In April 1880 (the sixth year of Guangxu), Zuo Zongtang deployed an army to prepare to ride 10,000 people out of Wushi with Liu Jintang's foot, Zhang Yao's 7,000 men took Ili directly from Aksu in two ways, and More than 10,000 people under Jin Shun's troops guarded the Jinghe River to defend the Russian army from invading Urumqi in the east. At the end of May of the same year, braving the sweltering summer heat, the sixty-nine-year-old Zuo Zongtang was already ill, and he ordered his men to prepare a coffin and vowed to fight with Tsarist Russia to the death. Upon hearing the news, Russia quickly increased its troops in Ili and even sent a fleet to harass the sea. On August 29, Zuo Zongtang received an order from the Qing court in Hami to transfer him back to Beijing "for consultation", and Zuo Zongtang regretted this with great regret and deeply felt that his ambition had not been rewarded.

However, although Tsarist Russia knew that Zuo Zongtang had returned to Beijing, it did not know the details, thinking that China had the intention of mobilizing troops. At that time, Tsarist Russia had just ended the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, and its finances were exhausted, so it had to make concessions.

On February 21, 1881 (the seventh year of Guangxu), Zeng Jize signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty with Tsarist Russia in St. Petersburg on behalf of the Qing government, and Tsarist Russia agreed to return the Turks Valley and the Muzar Pass to southern Xinjiang, but still occupied the area west of the Khorgos River. One British diplomat commented: "China has forced Russia to do what it has never done before, to spit out territory that it has swallowed." ”

Zuo Zongtang repeatedly wrote to the imperial court to ask Xinjiang to establish a province. In November 1884, Xinjiang was established as a province, and Liu Jintang was appointed as the governor of Xinjiang. In 1887, Liu Jintang returned to his hometown and relatives. He died in August 1894. The Qing court gave Xiangqin and built a shrine.

On September 5, 1885 (the eleventh year of Guangxu), Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou at the age of 73, and the Qing court posthumously awarded Taifu the nickname "Wenxiang" and merged it into the Ancestral Hall of Zhaozhong and the Ancestral Hall of Xianliang.