From the 25th to the 39th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty army attacked Dzungar three times with great vigor. Kangxi made three personal expeditions, the main position was in Inner Mongolia, the first attack on Luocheng, Kaldan failed, and fell under the banner of Kobdo. In the second war, Kaldan lost again, the last and most important time, the Qing army annihilated them in one fell swoop, and finally the Gardan side collapsed, the soldiers were defeated, and Kaldan also died in panic.
Judging from the course of this campaign, Kangxi was very easy to clean up Gardan, but questions also came, from the verifiable data shows that the military strength of Kaldan at that time may be comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty, so did Kangxi really fight such an easy battle? Let's first look at the Kaldan man.
Prairie Eagle - Kaldan
Kaldan, born in the Dzungars, was the sixth child of the previous chief. Later, his father died, and he became the new chief.
He was the new king of the land, but his path to becoming king was full of blood and sweat. When he was a child, he immersed himself in studying buddhism and ignored the internal disputes within the Dzungars, but how could the royal family have no competition? His brother Sangha, who depended on his clan, was killed, and he was terrified and sad, and finally he had no choice but to give up the Dharma and become the new king with his blood.
This person was very tall in his lifetime, because he practiced the Dharma, so he could be regarded as the leader of the laymen's monks, and because he was the boss of the Dzungars, he ascended to the throne and played a role in promoting the local economy and political culture, but he also invaded other places in a big way, causing many tribal wives to be scattered, so this person was not absolutely good or absolutely bad, and it was also controversial in history.
In any case, it is true that he led his people to become bigger and stronger, and after ascending to the throne, he was very domineering, took the initiative to invade the outside, and finally defeated the Heshuo Tribe, the Kazakh tribes, etc., unified the Mongolian steppe and the western region, a large area of land, and became a hegemon in the western region.
This was Kaldan, a man as sharp as an eagle, the leader of a tribe, a mighty king.
The imperial court was intolerable— the eagle fell to the ground
This eagle-like man turned the Dzungars into a steppe hegemon, he was a leader, and he could also lead the tribe to glory. Legend has it that at its peak, the Dzungars controlled a large number of Central Asian territories including part of China's Mongolia and Xinjiang, with a land area of up to 7 million square kilometers, and because the main force was nomadic cavalry, many sources show that in terms of cold weapons, the Dzungars were comparable to the Qing Dynasty.
But prosperity is bound to decline, and this strength has attracted the attention of the Qing Dynasty, and their power is too powerful, which has aroused the envy of the Qing Dynasty. Dzungar became a thorn in Kangxi's eye.
In the 29th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the emperor became angry. He sent troops to attack the Dzungars, but it took a lot of effort, and in the end, the Kaldan failed, the property people were detained, and the Dzungars were annexed to other tribes.
A single damage will not allow a powerful eagle to fall. In the thirty-first year of Kangxi, Dzungar wrote to Kangxi many times, earnestly requesting Kangxi: "Let the tribesmen return to the land!" Where is the reason for letting the tiger return to the mountain in the art of scheming? Kangxi decisively rejected him.
Such an ambitious man will not give up, he privately leads the tribe and regroups. Because of the lack of money and food, he went to secretly rob the belongings of other tribes. At this time, we also have to say that Kangxi was a powerful politician, he had long felt The attempt of Kaldan, the imperial conquest, the fight of Kaldan fell into flowers and water, the tribes scattered, and Kangxi also said hello to other tribes, and the whole grassland no longer had a place for Kaldan.
In the thirty-sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Kaldan died of a serious illness in exile, and the body was buried on the day of the surrender of his Dzungar tribe, and the eagle finally fell to the ground and became a piece of loess.
Revisiting the Battlefield – The Cause of Failure
Kaldan's rise and fall in history are flat and straightforward by what we call it, and there is no intensity. But there seems to be some irrationality here, obviously saying that he is a hegemon in the Western Regions, why was he defeated so easily?
There are two main reasons.
First, as an emperor, how could Kangxi tolerate provocations that disrespected him? In the process of constantly attacking and invading, the Dzungar tribe ignored the Qing Dynasty's views on it, prematurely exposed their ambitions, and attracted the dissatisfaction of the emperor, the emperor wanted you to live to three more, how can you live to five more? What caused the emperor's resentment could only be ruthlessly annihilated.
The second is their own reasons, we all know that the Dzungars are in the northwest, and the environment and climate are harsh. Even though the men of the tribe were accustomed to the environment here, they could not lack food and clothing for a long time. Therefore, they began to invade the property of other tribes on a large scale, and indeed became a hegemon, and the military strength of Kaldan was comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty.
But because of environmental restrictions, this tribe lives in the inland area, food, water and other resources are too small, compared with the Qing army with rich materials, it is difficult to carry out long-term combat. The emperor originally wanted you to die, and your resources were like that, you couldn't fight the Heavenly Family, and in the end you could only say goodbye to history and become a wisp of the dead.
Kaldan was easily defeated by Kangxi, and the middle three points were destined to be seven points by hard work. The fact that this tribe stubbornly fought against the Qing Dynasty for so long is enough to show that they are the bloody and indomitable spirit of the steppe boys. But the final failure is also because of the doom of those three points, their resources are not solid, the ground is shaking, and the foundation is destroyed in a generation.
In contrast, in this case, we should be prepared to do anything, and then proceed to the next step, not to blind our ambitions, not to speed up the pace of our demise. (I look forward to your attention to our public account "Yuan Shi")
Reference: Gardan's strength is comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty, why does it feel so easy to be defeated by Kangxi? - Historical reality
Encyclopedia entry "Chorus Gardan"