In the middle of the 15th century, after being killed first, the Wallachians, who had been dominating the Mongolian steppe, suffered a serious blow (Extended Reading: An Overview: What "careful thoughts" were also moved in order to be the Great Khan of the Mongols? ）。 In order to avoid the "Mongol headquarters", the main force of the Wallachians had to move westward repeatedly, and eventually settled and multiplied north of the Tianshan Mountains. At the same time, they had direct contact with the Kazakhs who had risen in Central Asia.
So the question is, looking at the "history of exchanges" between the two sides for more than a hundred years, what kind of grudges and hatreds have been bred? I checked some information, and then I will talk to you briefly.
The "first meeting" of Wala and Kazakhs
After his death, the Wala, which had always dominated the Mongolian steppe, became increasingly in decline. At the same time, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, located in the southwest, also repeatedly "took advantage of the fire and looted", further compressing their living space.
Faced with the dilemma of internal and external troubles, the main force of Wallachia had to abandon the desert north and migrate west. By the 1670s, they had finally multiplied in the northern Tianshan Mountains along the Irtysh and Ob rivers and the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, and had close communication and integration with the local Turkic tribes.
Tianshan Ranch
In the middle of the 16th century, with the development of the nomadic economy and the rapid growth of the population, the disputes between the various ministries over population and pastures became more and more intense. At the same time, the repeated suppression of the "Mongol headquarters" and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate made their trade with the Central Plains Dynasty almost completely cut off.
In order to improve the disadvantageous situation of passive beating, they decided to further develop westward, that is, to cross the Kazakh steppe and open up the Central Asian market. As a result, the Varabha had direct direct contact with the Kazakh Khanate (1456+-1847).
It is worth noting that during this period, the main enemy of the Kazakh Khanate was the Uzbeks who competed with it for the city of the central Asian trade center (Extended Reading: An Overview of the Article: Who was the Shaybani Khan?). ）。 Thus, for nearly a hundred years when the Walas and Kazakhs first came into contact, relatively friendly relations were basically maintained.
However, with the gradual strengthening of the forces on both sides, the contradictions have also become sharper. The reason is simple: both the Wala and the Kazakhs are nomadic tribes (states) and need not only vast pastures to house their people and develop a nomadic economy, but also to control as many trade routes and cities as possible, develop commerce and handicrafts, and facilitate the exchange of necessary daily necessities and means of production.
It is worth noting that the Wala departments of this period have always been in a state of "living in separate pastures". Therefore, they were simply powerless to compete with the Kazakh Khanate in its heyday. "The Russian ambassador, Daniela Gubin, reported to Moscow that it was known that the Kazakh forces were powerful and that they had placed the Wala under its control."
These defeated or conquered Wallachians were mainly vassals of the Wa-Ra tribes who had infiltrated the Kazakh steppe or bordered The Kazakhs, and were most likely subjects of some of the Turgut or Durbert tribes.
Stills from the TV series "Kazakh Khanate"
The eve of the rise of the Dzungar Khanate
Time flies, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains has basically laid the pattern of "four parts of Weilat (that is, Wa La, Erut in qing Dynasty documents)". thereinto:
- Dzungar Department: mainly distributed in the eastern and southern parts of Lake Balkhash, the Ili River basin, the Chu River, the Talas River basin;
- Durbert Department: mainly distributed on both sides of the middle and upper reaches of the Irtysh River Basin;
- Turks: mainly distributed in the Yar region near Tarbahatai;
- Heshuo Special Department: Mainly distributed on both sides of the Emin River to urumqi area.
In the 17th century, with the continuous reduction of the pastures in the northern Tianshan Mountains, the pressure to survive between the various departments became more and more intense. The various ministries attacked each other, and the tribute trade with the Central Plains Dynasty was also intermittent due to the obstruction of the "Mongol headquarters". Reluctantly, they again turned to Central Asia and the Chincha steppe in search of a "way out". Obviously, the "westward march" of the Veyrats was resolutely opposed by the Kazakhs.
During the Kazakh period, it occupied the Seven Rivers region west of Verat
In order to deal with the Veyrats, the Kazakh Khanate even reached a "cooperative relationship" with the Tohuit ministry of the Khalkha Mongols (known in Russian literature as the "Aletan Khanate").
In 1608, the Kazakh Khanate united with the Towhit clan Ofai Jishuo Ubash (?) – 1623, grandson of Dayan Khan) launched a major attack on the Weyrats, but the battle ended in the defeat of the Allied forces. The defeated Ubashi was once expelled from the original winter pasture.
By 1611-1615, Ubash, who was not willing to accept defeat, took full advantage of the contradictions and conflicts between the Weyrats and the Kazakhs, mobilized a large army and united the Kazakh Khanate, and finally "made the whole of Weyrat submit to him." According to historical records, the Veyrat Dataiji (nobles) had to pay him 200 camels, 1,000 horses and 1,000 sheep each, "as a sign of submission."
In 1621, Shōraubash again united with the Kazakh Khanate and launched an attack on the four divisions of Weyrat. The Verat suffered a serious defeat, the tribes fled in all directions, the original pastoral pattern was completely disrupted, and internal contradictions became more acute. At the same time, Tsarist Forces also began to slowly infiltrate into the northern Xinjiang region.
and the Sphere of Influence of the Towhit Ministry (outlined on the yellow line)
In order to solve the most basic problems of survival and thus avoid deeper armed conflicts, some tribes have chosen to move out on their own initiative. In the 1630s, the Turks moved all the way to the lower Volga region (Extended Reading: The Road Back home is long, the history of the blood and tears of the Turks' return to the east), and the Heshuo Special Department went south to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Extended Reading: An Overview: The Rise and Collapse of the Heshuo Khanate in Tibet).
In addition, the leaders and nobles of the Verat tribes, who had been defeated repeatedly, also thought bitterly and decided to "turn to unity and unity". The change in the mentality of these people provided a more favorable precondition for the rise of the Dzungars later.
The waist knife used by the Turks
The "Road to the West" of the Dzungar Khanate
In 1635, the Dzungar chief Batur Huntaiji became the "ally" of the four divisions of Verat. Under his proposal and advocacy, the nearly century-old dispute between East and West Mongolia not only came to an end, but the two sides also formed an alliance and jointly formulated the famous Mongolian One-Guard Lat Code.
At the same time, in order to improve relations with other tribes, Batur Huntaiji married his daughter to the chief of the Heshuo tribe, Oziltu, and the chief of the Turk tribe, Ponchuk, and successively married the chief of the Turk tribe and the daughter of Orlk and Gushi Khan, and married them.
In short, a peaceful and stable social environment provides extremely favourable external conditions for the development and growth of the Dzungars.
The image of Batur Guntaigi in a comic strip
1) Batur Huntaiji's crusade against the Kazakh Khanate
While seeking unity at home, Batur Huntaiji launched a rather active offensive against the Kazakh and Brut ministries (countries).
In the first half of the 17th century, the Kazakhs occupied the Chu and Taras rivers south of Lake Balkhash and controlled the traditional Central Asian trading centers of Tashkent, Andijan, and Samarkand. In 1635, Batur Huntaiji led a large army to crush the Kazakh army and captured Prince Yangil (i.e. Salham Jangel Khan). After paying a large ransom, he was released and returned home.
In 1643, Batur Huntaiji personally led a large army of 25,000 (15,000 Dzungar troops, the remaining ministries totaling more than 10,000 people), and once again attacked the Kazakh Khanate. Under the opposing Yang Gil, although the strength of the troops was less than a thousand, he relied on the strong terrain to suppress the offensive momentum of the coalition forces for a time. Soon, about 10,000 Kazakh reinforcements arrived on the battlefield, and the Weyrat coalition forces had to retreat.
Suspected cavalry of the Kazakh Khanate
Unwilling to accept defeat, Batur Huntaiji once intended to "march on Kazakhstan" in 1644, but the plan did not come to fruition. Around 1651, Batur Huntaiji killed the escort touk (son of Yang Gil,? –1716) returned Dzungar soldiers", personally led a large army against the Kazakh Khanate. Yangir Khan, despite his best efforts to resist, was eventually defeated and killed.
After the death of Jangil Khan, the Kazakh Khanate entered a period of turmoil. The sons of the royal family fought among themselves for the Khan's throne, and the warlords on one side also went their separate ways, and the whole country was not only in a state of fragmentation, but also once reduced to the "vassal state" of the Dzungars, who set up "Karakhan (i.e., guardian envoys)" in many of the local large cities to supervise the management of the city and collect tribute, "[The Kazakhs] looked up to Batur Guntaiji in all matters and obeyed him."
2) Gardan's journey to the west
Under the painstaking management of Batur Guntaiji, the territory of the Dzungars, north of the Irtysh River basin and the middle reaches of the Ob River, west to the east and south of Lake Balkhash, encompassing a vast area of the middle and upper Reaches of the Irtysh River, the upper reaches of the Yenisei River and the Ili River Basin.
In 1670, the Dzungar chief Sangha was killed, giving the dragons a leaderless state. At the same time, Kaldan (1644-1697), the brother of the sangha who had been ordained in Tibet, returned to the Dzungars with the support of the Tibetan religious elite. In 1671, with the support of the old Sangha and the Öziltu Khan of the Heshuo Clan, he defeated a number of political opponents and became the supreme leader of the Dzungars.
In the winter of 1678, after defeating Durbert and Huit, he accepted the title of "Kaldan Bosoktu" (ordained king) from the Dalai Lama. At this point, the "Dzungar Ministry" was upgraded to the "Dzungar Khanate". In 1680, he took advantage of the civil strife in southern Xinjiang and led a large army to pocket all the southern Xinjiang regions (Extended Reading: An Overview: Xinjiang and the Uyghurs during the Dzungar Khanate).
Gardan
After 1681, in order to seize the central Asian trading cities and control the Kazakh steppe, Kaldan began to seek to develop westward, that is, to launch a large-scale crusade against the Kazakh Khanate and Central Asian tribes such as nogai.
It is worth noting that the originally fragmented Kazakh Khanate, under the conquest of Yang Gil Khan's son Toukhan (reigned 1680-1715), basically restored the situation of "great unification" in 1680.
Between 1682 and 1683, Kaldan personally led a large army to attack the Kazakh Khanate, but suffered a crushing defeat. However, he "did not taste the frustration of the sharp spirit, and the training of the recruited soldiers was as good as before", and sent an emissary to warn the head Ke Khan, "If Ru does not come down, from now on, the years will use soldiers, the summer will ravage Ru cultivation, the autumn will burn Ru crops, and now I am not forty years old, and I will stop when my white teeth fall."
In 1684, Kaldan again sent troops to conquer the Kazakh Khanate. The Dzungar army not only captured Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgenzi and other important central Asian towns, but also sent the captured son of Touk Khan to Tibet to "honor the Dalai Lama." Soon after, they defeated the Nogai (Caucasian Turks) and then the Bruts (Kyrgyz) people, "bringing them all under his (Kaldan's) power".
Territory of the Dzungar Khanate
The "love-hate entanglement" of the Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate
However, for Kaldan, who aspires to restore the "GreatEr Mongolia", his "main enemies" are the Khalkha Mongols in the north of the desert and the Qing Dynasty that unified the Central Plains (Extended reading: Old Beijing", "Strange Place Name" Kao: "The Past and Present Life of the Tomb of the Six Princesses").
1) What is "Sanyuzi"
As a result, Toukhan focused his main energy on the management of internal affairs.
- He further reformed the Hasmu Khan Code and the Yasmu Khan Customary Law, and formulated the Seven Codes, the Touk Code;
- Endeavour to develop production, carry out foreign trade and take the initiative to improve diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries;
- Divide the khanate into three parts, appoint his loyal birch to govern, and sit in the city of Tashkent himself, controlling the region.
Thus, for most of his reign, the Kazakh Khanate flourished. However, scholars generally believe that the situation of Kazakh 'three jades separated' stems from his policy of "dividing and governing".
The approximate distribution of the so-called "Three Jades"
The so-called "Three Jades", namely:
- Layuz (i.e., Great Yuz): mainly distributed in the Chu, Talas and Ili river basins south of Lake Balkhash, and Tashkent, Samarkand and other places are also under its control;
- Ortuyuz (Middle Yuz): distributed in the north of the Great Yuz, the summer pasture is in the middle reaches of the Syr Darya River and the Kara Mountains, and the winter pasture is in the rivers of the Tobol, Ishum, Nura and Saresu rivers;
- Chizikyuz (小玉z): Located in the region of present-day West Kazakhstan.
Kazakh cavalry carrying arquebusiers and bows and arrows at the same time
2) The "revenge" of Alabutan
Tserrestrial Alabutan (?) –1727, son of Singh) who ascended to the throne and launched the first crusade against the Kazakh Khanate in 1698. As for the reasons for launching the conquest war, he also made a more detailed explanation to the Qing government.
Simply put, it was the Kazakh Khanate that reneged on its promise and not only killed the members of the Dzungar mission who "sent the son of the Head Khan back to China", but also frequently plundered its own people and even robbed its fiancée. Therefore, he decided to "go with the army." ”
Suspected cavalry of the Dzungar Khanate
On the face of it, the western expedition of Alabutan was for revenge. However, the reality is much more than "revenge".
As we all know, the war waged by Kaldan against the Khalkha Mongols and the Qing Dynasty caused the Khanate to suffer huge losses in terms of human, material, and financial resources. At the same time, the comprehensive national strength of the Kazakh Khanate was not only restored, but also continuously pushed the pastoral land east and south, harming the actual interests of the Dzungar herders. In addition, the competition around trading cities and wealth and population are important reasons for the two sides to fight each other.
In 1698 and 1699, Tsering Alabutan attacked the Kazakh Khanate twice, capturing large areas of the west bank of the Irtysh River and the Kazakh steppe, and extending its power to the lower Syr Darya River (in present-day Kazakhstan).
In 1716, the main Dzungar forces set out from the Ili River to attack the Kazakhs in the area around the Ayagus Valley, and the Turks echoed it and attacked the Kazakhs from the west. In 1718, they defeated the Kazakh army, causing them to withdraw from the area west of the Ayagus River.
The army of the Dzungar Khanate
3) Kaldanze Zero: Wild West
By the time of the reign of Kaldan Tse Zero (1695-1745, the eldest son of Tseresa Alabutan), relations between the two sides had become even more strained.
In the spring of 1723, Kaldanzer Zero drew a large number of troops from the Irtysh River and launched a surprise attack on the Kazakhs in the Taras Valley. Unprepared Kazakhs had to abandon their livestock, felt houses and clothing and flee, and those who could not escape before they could escape, were killed or captured, and suffered heavy losses.
In response to this surprise attack, Russian historians wrote, "They were troubled and fled for their lives in a hurry, and as a result the herds fell, the people starved to death, and the men abandoned their wives and children to resign themselves to their fate." ”
From 1724 to 1725, the Dzungar army occupied Turkstan (the residence of the Kazakh chieftains) and Tashkent. In 1738, Kaldanze defeated and conquered the Great Jade, and also pocketed a part of the Middle Jade. The Kazakh population, unwilling to "submit" to the Dzungar Khanate, had to migrate west.
According to the literature, parts of The Middle Yuz moved to Samarkand, Little Yuz moved to Khiva and Bukhara, and remnants of the Great Yuz were nomadic to Kushi– they occupied all the steppes between the Weihai, the Caspian Sea, and the Ural Rivers, and caused new tribal uproar in Siberia.
Combat equipment suspected of being of Kazakh infantry
Against this background, The Three Yuz, who were originally "not subordinate to each other", decided to unite and jointly fight back against the Dzungar Khanate. In 1726, the Kazakhs defeated the Dzungar army on the banks of the Breta River, west of the middle reaches of the Saresu River; at the end of the following year, they severely damaged the Dzungar army south of Balkhash and recaptured part of the middle and small Jadez.
As a result, Kaldanze decided to completely crush the Kazakh Khanate. In 1741, he personally led an army of 15,000 into Zhongyuzi, took many people and livestock, and pursued them all the way to Orenburg. In the same year, he sent two more armies, one attacking Zhongyuzi and the other attacking Xiaoyuzi. Among them, Abu Gan Khan of Zhongyuzi was also captured in battle. It was not until September 1743, after repeated negotiations between the two sides, that Abu Ghra khan was "freed again.".
Frankly speaking, these attacks led by Kaldanze zero were very fatal to the Kazakhs. "In the 1840s, the victory of the feudal lords of Veyrat temporarily turned the Kazakh rulers into their vassals and tributes.... Most of the chiefs of Zhongyuzi also sent their own heirs to Dzungar as hostages to facilitate the control of Dzungar."
The situation in China in the early Qing Dynasty
The Decline of the Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate's "Counter-Attack"
After The death of Kaldanze, the upper nobles of the Dzungars fought fiercely for the khan's throne. Frequent wars and chaos not only caused the people of all departments to move inwards and join the Qing, but also greatly weakened the comprehensive strength of the khanate. At the same time, the relations between the Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate also entered a new stage.
1) Revenge of Abu Ghra khan
Taking advantage of the infighting in the Dzungar Khanate, Abu Rao Khan (1711-1781, born in Zhongyuzi), who had completed the Kazakh "unification of the three yuzi", opened a "revenge plan" against the Dzungar Khanate.
Around 1747, he led an army to defeat the Turks in the Rast area behind mount Tarbahatai and took possession of it for himself. The following year, he defeated the Dzungar army that had come to "ask questions" and brought many Kazakh tribes back to tarbagatai and the Baluk Mountains.
At the same time, he was actively involved in the struggles between factions within the Dzungar Khanate, further exacerbating the collapse of the Dzungar Khanate.
(Suspected) portrait of Abu Ghazal
In 1750, the tserrestrial Dorjinamzal (the second son of Kaldanze), who had been neglecting government affairs all day, was killed by lama Darza (?) –1752) took its place, and after being given the title of "Erdene Lama Batur" by the Dalai Lama, became the new Dzungar Khan.
In order to expand his power, he had made a request for marriage to the Kazakh Khanate as early as 1749, but it was unsuccessful. But what is certain is that the original sword-fighting hatred between the two sides has been alleviated to a certain extent.
In 1752, with the support of Tsarist Russia, the Huit tribe Taiji Amir Sana (1723-1757, grandson of Hoshotla Tsang Khan) joined forces with Dawazi (grandson of The Great Tsering Tun Dob) to launch a mutiny with the intention of "supporting Tsering Dashi (Lama Darza's younger brother) as the new Dzungar Khan". However, their plot did not succeed.
Amir Sana and Dawazi
After the mutiny failed, the two fled to Zhongyuzi Abu Khan for refuge. In order to take advantage of the internal contradictions of the Dzungar Khanate to weaken its power, Abu Rao Khan not only gave the two men a high courtesy, but also refused Lama Darza's request to hand them over.
After taking refuge in Zhongyuzi for more than a year, the two returned to the Dzungar Khanate. At the end of 1752, Amir Sana instigated Darvazi to secretly select elite soldiers, using the means of bribery and surprise attacks, "smoothly" killing Lama Darza and usurping the Khan's throne.
In the summer of 1753, because the Durberts were "unwilling to submit to The Dawazi", Dawazi and Arulna invited Abu Ghaz khan to join forces to attack the Durberts at the Irtysh Valley. Soon, Abu Ghra khan drew 5,000 soldiers and launched a fierce attack on Durbert's department.
It is worth noting that during the conquest, the Kazakh army not only destroyed a large area of pasture in the Irtysh River Valley, but also abducted more than 3,000 men, women, children and a large number of livestock, which caused Durbert to suffer extremely heavy losses and greatly weakened the internal strength of the Dzungar Khanate.
In short, Abu Ghraib Khan's "revenge plan" was not complicated, that is, through the "support of the weak and the strong", the cohesion within the Dzungar Khanate was weakened, so that it could no longer organize a strong force to "deal with itself".
Abu Khan in the movie "Nomadic God of War"
2) Eve of the collapse of the Dzungar Khanate
In October 1753, Darwazi and ArulSana "parted ways", and smoke rose again within the Dzungar Khanate. Not surprisingly, Abu Ghraib once again became "deeply involved" in it.
After the two fell out, ArulSana immediately sent his brother to ask Abu Rao Khan for help, asking him to provide horses, camels and sheep, and promised to compensate "with captives and weapons". Soon, Abu Ghazal Khan sent troops to harass the western border areas of the Dzungar Khanate, forcing Dawazi to divide his troops to defend, giving Amir Sana "an opportunity".
Frequent conquests not only allowed Abu Rao Khan to capture many livestock and prisoners, but also achieved the goal of weakening the Dzungar Khanate. "Because of the many possessions they had purchased or otherwise brought and the captives to Xiaoyuzi, they became a book of great profits," "so that the feudal lords of the Kazakh Khanate, one moment 'helping' this Dzungar activist and the next 'helping' another, brought back a large number of trophies such as livestock and prisoners."
In short, the "enthusiastic help" of the Kazakh Khanate not only greatly weakened the strength of the Dzungar Khanate, but also enabled the Kazakhs to obtain a large amount of wealth, further strengthened their own strength, and finally freed dayuzi from the control of the Dzungar Khanate.
The Battle of Elezarato in the Pingding Junbu Huibu Victory Map
3) The fall of the Dzungar Khanate
In the spring of 1755, the Qing Dynasty's 50,000-strong army from the north and south, starting from Barikun and Ulyasutai respectively, launched a general attack on Ili, the ruling center of the Dzungar Khanate. At the same time, Abu Rao Khan "echoed" with the Qing army and attacked Dawazi from the west. Caught between the east and the west, Darvazi's army quickly collapsed. With the defeat and capture of Dawazi, the demise of the Dzungar Khanate has entered the countdown.
The Pingding Yili of the Pingding Quasi-Ministry Huibu Victory Map was surrendered
Soon, Amir Sana, who had originally surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, "rebelled", but was soon defeated by the Qing army. Amir Sana, who had become a loner, once again fled to the account of Abu Ghra khan and tried to use his strength to confront the Qing army. At this time, Abu Rao Khan obviously did not realize the Determination of the Qing Dynasty to "level the law", and even deliberately interceded with the Qing government for him.
In early 1757, the Qing army attacked again and sent people to Abu Ghra Khan to ask him to assist in "capturing Amir Sana". After a series of deliberations, Abu Ghaz khan decided to "abandon" Amir Sana completely. Thus, when Amir Sana again fled to the territory of the Khanate, Abu Gandhi prepared to capture him and send him to the Qing government.
At the end of the road, Amir Sana could only "walk through Russia on foot at night" with 8 retinues. Although he was shielded by the Governor of Siberia in Tsarist Russia, in September of the same year, he fell ill and died with his "anti-Qing dream" (Extended reading: Reading Notes: How did Qianlong get the Dzungar Khanate?). ）。
The territory of the Qing Dynasty in its heyday
After assisting the Qing Dynasty in quelling the Rebellion of Arul, Abu Khan decided to "submit to the Qing Dynasty". In 1757, he was the first to go up to the table to show "inner appendage". In 1771, Qianlong was officially enfeoffed as Khan. In this way, both Dzungar and Kazakh became "vassals" of the Qing Dynasty, and their nomadic land was included in the territory of the Qing Dynasty (Further Reading: What is "China": "China" in the eyes of the Qing Emperor).
End
After the Qing Dynasty ruled the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, it adopted various effective policies and measures to maintain the basic stability of the local situation for a hundred years. Various production methods, mainly agricultural production, have achieved rapid development, and the total population, the total area of cultivated land, and the total grain output have exceeded any period in history, and have laid a relatively solid foundation for Xinjiang's social and economic development.
Qianlong
At the same time, Qianlong also specially issued a decree to the Kazakh Khanate in view of the relationship between the Dzungars and the Kazakhs: "Although the Dzungars and the Kazakhs are enemies, after the pacification, it has been decreed that the Dzungars and others must not act arbitrarily and rob the Kazakh people." The Kazakhs must each guard their borders and must not arbitrarily leave the country, rob the Dzungars, etc. In short, under the mediation and pacification of the Qing government, the two sides gradually suspended centuries-long hostilities, let alone breed large-scale armed conflicts.
What we want to say is that the long-term conflict and war have not only brought endless disasters and wounds that are difficult to heal to the people of the two ethnic groups, but also given Czarist Russia an opportunity to invade the northwest. Historical facts show that only the reunification of the country, the harmonious coexistence and common development of all ethnic groups, and the joint construction of the "sense of community of the Chinese nation" can resist the invasion of foreign enemies and protect the peace and tranquility of the border areas (Extended reading: An overview of the past and present lives of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region).