Text/All over King Kong
In the Battle of Zhaomodo, Kangxi defeated Kaldan of the Dzungars, but Kaldan escaped from the day, did Kaldan have a chance to rise again?
After Kaldan escaped, he rode only about twenty horses and reached the area of the Tami River Valley. By June, he recalled Generals such as Alabutan and Dangira and collected about 5,000 remnants. Because of the extreme lack of food, after discussion, they decided to go to Ongjin first and then to Hami, hoping to grab rations as soon as possible.
On the 28th of the same month, the men of Tenzin Ombu (the youngest son of the Sangha), who had been inseparable from Kaldan, robbed some of his uncle Kaldan's camel horses, and Kaldan demanded it, but he refused to return it, and wanted to lead his troops and horses to defect to his brother Tseyu Alabutan. Kaldan pursued and recovered more than 500 people, and Tenzin Ombu traveled north with some of his men to the main communication routes between Russia and Mongolia to make a living by extracting taxes. The general Alabutan also parted ways, taking more than 1,000 people to Kobudo to be nomadic.
The rest of Kaldan's men and horses were short of food and clothing, most of them had no tents, and they encountered heavy snow and were embarrassed. He sent 1,000 elites to Weng Jin to rob the Qing army's stored grain, did not want the Qing army to prepare earlier, burned the grain, muskets fired, the grain was not grabbed, but lost more than 100 people. He wanted to go to Hami, but learned that the lord of Hami had defected to the Qing court, and the Qing army began to garrison Hami and block the intersection.
The 14 emissaries he sent to contact the Potala Palace and the Various Departments of Qinghai were intercepted by the Qing army, and 14 letters were sent to Kangxi. Kaldan hoped that the Potala Palace and the Qinghai Mongol ministries would provide support, and the lamas would pray for him, and listed the scriptures and the number of times they would be read. For his beloved young son Sebubuten Barjur, he hoped that the chief of the Heshuo clan would take care of him.
From July to September 1696, the Gardan army searched for a wintering place and could not find it. In October, it was only when the beasts were more numerous that Sakosa Tukri camped, where the meat of the beasts could be eaten and the skins of the animals could be used to make clothes to protect them from the cold. It was cold and very difficult, and from time to time people left the team to join the Qing court.
Gardan sent Ge Leiguying as an emissary to contact the Manchu Qing to surrender, but he only wanted to appease the people, and did not really want to surrender, which can be seen from his attitude towards the Qing emissaries afterwards. But the generals of Kaldan were different, and they were all full of hope for Ge Leiguying's trip. For example, Danzira secretly found the messenger and instructed: "Your visit is related to the survival of the Weyrat Mongols, and you must be cautious." And other important people said: "Hurry up and come back quickly, we are waiting for your news." ”
On November 21, Ge Leiguying met Kangxi at the emperor's palace in Ordos. The letter was still written, and the content was still that tushetu Khan and Jebtsundamba, two great sinners, caused Kaldan to go to war with the emperor, and he was now remorseful and hoped that Kangxi would forgive him.
Kangxi saw that Ge Leiguying, who had visited many times, was dressed in rags, like an elderly beggar begging for food, sighed, personally gave tea and wine to comfort, and inquired about the recent situation of Kaldan. "In the past, we used to hunt wild animals for food, but later we used traps without ammunition, and when we didn't catch wild beasts, we had to kill horses for food. The place where I live is too bitter and cold, many people freeze and starve to death, I set off on October 12, and many more people may die. Ge Leiguying finished speaking, and tears fell like rain.
Kangxi secretly rejoiced: the great cause can be accomplished. He immediately agreed to Kaldan's request to surrender, sent emissaries to travel with Ge Leiguying, and threatened: "Within 70 days, we must come back to report the letter, or send troops to requisition." ”
The day after Ge Leiguying's trip, Gardan led his army westward in search of a place to spend the winter. And his generals wanted to get the good news of Ge Leiguying and end their current life of living without a place to live, lack of food and clothing, and without horses. As a result, a large number of people fled.
Kaldan sent emissaries to find Alabutan and Tenzin Ombu to return, but the two refused, even leaving horses for the emissaries to return on foot. He sent another man to Hami to get weapons and food, but was captured by the Hami lord and sent to the Qing court. His youngest son, Sebubuten Baljur, went hunting in Hami and was also captured by locals and sent to Beijing.
At the end of the first month of 1697, Ge Leiguying and the Manchu emissary Boshshi arrived at the Kaldan camp. On 1 February, Kaldan asked Ge Leiguying about the mission and listened to Kangxi's message. Ge Leiguying advised Kaldan to kneel down to receive the edict. But Kaldan only said, "Just respect the messenger," and let Ge Leiguying persuade him to disagree.
He pushed the day of seeing the Manchu emissaries until the evening of February 15, when Kaldan asked two guards to hold Boshhi hostage, and he asked the emissaries to eat meat with him on a stone. After eating the meat, Boshshi read the kangxi edict, and the others translated it to Gardan. After gardan listened, he said lightly: "I just wanted to capture Tuxetu Khan and Jebtsundamba, and the emperor blamed me... Please translate to him. After saying that, he walked on horseback expressionlessly, and his heart was really unwilling to surrender.
In his opinion, the Kangxi Emperor was no more noble than him, and it was worse to admit defeat than to die. Ge Leiguying saw that Gardan was stubborn, so he secretly took his family and defected to the Qing court. On February 25, Boshshi was returning to Kyoshi. Gardan wanted to talk back to Ge Leiguying as an emissary, but he could no longer find it, so he had to choose another candidate.
In March 1697, Gardan and his remnants survived the harsh winter by hunting and killing horses, but his life was coming to an end. When his nephew Tse-tser-alabutan learned that the Fifth Dalai Lama had died, he contacted Ayuqi Khan of the Turks to send troops to the Altai Mountains and sent emissaries to Alabutan and Tenzin Ombu to demand that they encircle and suppress Kaldan together.
On the night of 3 March, an army approached the Gardan camp, and he fled in a panic with his men. Many people took the opportunity to leave him, either to the Qing court or to Alabutan. In the end, Gardan had less than a thousand people around him.
On 13 March, Kaldan fell ill and died. According to the deserters: "After several days of resentment, food and drink were wasted, and on the 13th he had a headache, and he invited Danzira to go forward, and died of illness before noon." His body was cremated that day, and his nephew Danzila originally wanted to give the ashes to the Sixth Dalai Lama, but the junctions in Qinghai were blocked by the Qing army, so they had to give Kaldan's ashes, sons, daughters and cronies to Ceyu Alabutan.
When Kangxi learned of this, he repeatedly demanded that Alabutan hand over his ashes and sons, and threatened to cut off trade. Alabutan first handed over Kaldan's son Chelin Sanlupu, and after dragging it for more than a year, he also handed over Kaldan's ashes and daughter to the Qing court, after all, customs and national dignity were sometimes inferior to the benefits of trade.
The Kangxi Emperor ordered the ashes of Gardan to be hung high on the city tower for public display, and then smashed the ashes and scattered them on the execution ground, thus declaring the end of the fateful battle between the two men.