During the Qianlong period, a tragic massacre was staged in Balikun, Xinjiang. Overnight, a Mongolian tribe with 700 tents was slaughtered, and more than 4,000 lives were killed. What's even more heart-wrenching is that the Khan King Shakdurmanji and his wife hugged each other naked and died in order to protect each other. What kind of hatred made Emperor Qianlong issue the will to commit genocide against the Dzungar tribes? What kind of beliefs made the Khan and his wife unyielding and defend each other with their flesh and blood? What is the truth about Qianlong's extermination of the Dzungar tribes?
1. The grievances and hatred between Qianlong and the Dzungar Ministry
From the beginning of his accession to the throne, Emperor Qianlong set his sights on the Dzungar Department in the northwestern border of the Qing Dynasty. Although this nomadic Mongol tribe in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains submitted to the Qing Dynasty, it was never favored by the emperor. The leader of the Dzungar tribe, Geerdan, had rebelled many times during the Kangxi period, and although he was finally pacified, his nephew Galdan Tseling inherited the mantle and frequently provoked the majesty of the Qing court.
At the beginning of Qianlong's succession, in order to completely solve the hidden dangers of the Dzungar Ministry, he sent the scholar Zhang Tingyu to negotiate, but Galdantse had an arrogant attitude and refused to accept the conditions of the Qing court. Qianlong was furious and immediately ordered the army to press the border and prepare for an armed crusade. However, due to lack of preparation, the Qing generals returned with two failed troops, not only failed to defeat the Dzungar department, but instead lost their troops and lost face.
The result of repeated defeats not only did not make Qianlong retreat, but aroused the fighting spirit of the young emperor. He secretly vowed that he must completely eliminate the great trouble of the Dzungar Ministry in order to show the power of heaven and stabilize the country. To this end, Qianlong began a years-long meticulous plan.
First, Qianlong strengthened his control over the northwest region and set up General Ili in Xinjiang to monitor every move of the Dzungar Ministry. At the same time, he also secretly dispatched a fine work to penetrate into the interior of the Dzungar Ministry and wait for an opportunity to move. Second, Qianlong continued to weaken the strength of the Dzungar tribe, on the one hand, sending troops to harass them and forcing them to exhaust themselves, and on the other hand, he used inducements to coax some of the leaders into submission and disintegrate their internal unity.
In this way, Qianlong made a secret arrangement while making a false and unsuccessful situation, and when the time was ripe, he would launch a fatal blow to the Dzungar Department. In 1755, Galdantse died of illness and was succeeded by his son Amur Sana. Seeing that the Dzungar tribe was leaderless, Qianlong decided that the time had come, so he secretly ordered Sai Fuliang, a general stationed in Ili, to lead his troops to raid.
Saifuliang was ordered to attack, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Dzungar Ministry. Amr Sana was shocked when he heard the news, and he responded in a hurry, but he was outnumbered and quickly defeated. Seeing that the general situation was gone, Amur Sana had no choice but to flee to Ili with the remnants of his army and sue for peace with the Qing court. Qianlong allowed him to surrender and ordered him to lead his people to move to the interior for resettlement. In this way, after several months of conquest, the once powerful Dzungar Ministry collapsed and was no longer able to fight against the Qing court.
However, for Qianlong, who was bent on eradicating hidden dangers, it was not enough to defeat the Dzungar Ministry. He feared that Amur Sana, with his resentment, would eventually make a comeback. In order to completely cut off the future troubles, Qianlong decided to carry out genocide against the Dzungar tribe. He first sent men to coax Amur Sana to go to Beijing and put him under house arrest, and then ordered a massacre of the Junggar tribes that had returned to him, killing all adult men and enslaving women and children.
In this way, the Dzungar warriors who pasted the Tianshan Mountains in the past, some died on the battlefield, some died under the butcher's knife of the Qing soldiers, and the entire tribe was slaughtered. According to historical records, in 1756 alone, more than 4,000 Dzungars were slaughtered, with rivers of blood and mountains. Qianlong's genocidal policy made this once powerful nomadic tribe disappear in the long river of history and never appear in the eyes of the world again.
The grievances and hatred between Qianlong and the Dzungar tribe stemmed from the conquest and rebellion under the imperial rule. As the guardian of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong regarded the Dzungar Department as a great danger and vowed to cut it down and eradicate it. Although the Dzungar tribe submitted to the Qing court, they never really accepted its rule and always tried to resist to the end. The contradictions and antagonisms between the two sides eventually led to a tragic tragedy of killing. Qianlong's genocide against the Dzungar tribe by thunderous means was not only a manifestation of his concept of the supremacy of imperial power, but also a reflection of the ruthlessness of a generation of monarchs who did whatever it took to consolidate their rule.
2. Qianlong's extinction plan
After years of careful planning, Qianlong finally waited for the opportunity to launch a fatal blow against the Dzungar Ministry. In 1755, the head of the Dzungar tribe, Galdantsei, died of illness and was succeeded by his son Amur Sana. Seeing that the Dzungar tribe was leaderless, Qianlong decided that the time had come, so he secretly ordered Sai Fuliang, a general stationed in Ili, to lead his troops to raid.
Saifuliang was ordered to attack, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Dzungar Ministry. Amr Sana was shocked when he heard the news, and he responded in a hurry, but he was outnumbered and quickly defeated. Seeing that the general situation was gone, Amur Sana had no choice but to flee to Ili with the remnants of his army and sue for peace with the Qing court. Qianlong allowed him to surrender and ordered him to lead his people to move to the interior for resettlement. In this way, after several months of conquest, the once powerful Dzungar Ministry collapsed and was no longer able to fight against the Qing court.
However, for Qianlong, who was bent on eradicating hidden dangers, it was not enough to defeat the Dzungar Ministry. He feared that Amur Sana, with his resentment, would eventually make a comeback. In order to completely cut off the future troubles, Qianlong decided to carry out genocide against the Dzungar tribe. He first sent men to coax Amur Sana to go to Beijing and put him under house arrest, and then ordered a massacre of the Junggar tribes that had returned to him, killing all adult men and enslaving women and children.
Qianlong's extermination plan for the Dzungar Department can be said to have been planned for a long time, and he will be launched in one fell swoop when the time is ripe. As early as 1755, Qianlong once said to the scholar A Gui: "The Erut people are treacherous and have repeatedly rebelled, and this attack must be cut down and eradicated, and not tolerated." It can be seen from this that Qianlong's hatred for the Dzungar tribe was so deep that he had already decided to completely eliminate it.
In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the extermination plan, Qianlong carefully deployed and closely monitored. He first sent his confidant minister He Shen to Xinjiang to supervise military affairs, and conferred the title of minister of the Imperial Mission, so that the military and political power should be under his control. At the same time, Qianlong also secretly ordered the generals in various localities to take strict precautions against the Dzungars who came to surrender, and to drive them to the designated places and deal with them again, without the slightest negligence.
Under Qianlong's deployment, the Qing army began a massacre of the Dzungar tribe. In 1756, Yarhashan, a general stationed in Balikun, led an army to raid the local Dzungar tribes, slaughtering more than 4,000 people overnight, and staining the steppe at the foot of the Tien Shan Mountains with blood. The following year, the Qing army launched a larger-scale massacre in Ili, Wushi and other places, and tens of thousands of Dzungars were brutally slaughtered, and their corpses were all over the field.
According to historical records, in the three years from 1756 to 1758 alone, the Qing army slaughtered nearly 500,000 Dzungars, accounting for more than 80% of their total population. The remaining women and children were taken captive and enslaved and reduced to the playthings of the Qing soldiers. In the past, the Dzungar Department, which dominated the Tianshan Mountains, was almost wiped out under Qianlong's butcher's knife.
Qianlong's genocide of the Dzungar tribe caused a lot of controversy at the time. Some ministers believed that exterminating the people who had already surrendered would be contrary to benevolence and would be unpopular. However, Qianlong believed that the Dzungar people had repeatedly betrayed, and if they did not cut the grass and eradicate the roots, they would eventually lay the root of the curse for the Qing Dynasty. In his edict to the scholar Ah Gui, he said: "If you don't kill the killer, I am afraid that you will not be able to prevent it, but you will suffer from it, and you will not regret it!"
At Qianlong's insistence, the massacre of the Dzungar tribe continued until the end of the war in 1759. According to statistics, before the Pingzhun War, the total population of the Dzungar Department was about 600,000, and after the war, only more than 100,000 remained, and the losses were heavy. As a nomadic tribe that once dominated the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the Dzungar tribe has since disappeared and has never left a trace in history.
Qianlong's genocide against the Dzungar tribe was a deliberately planned humanitarian disaster. Under the guidance of the idea of the supremacy of imperial power, in order to eliminate the hidden dangers that threatened the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong did not hesitate to use the most cruel means to exterminate the Dzungar people. Hundreds of thousands of lives have thus fallen victim to the struggle for imperial power. Qianlong's extermination plan is undoubtedly the biggest stain on his life, and it has also left indelible historical scars for future generations.
3. The tragic Khan and his wife
On an ordinary night in 1756, a Dzungar tribe in the Balikun steppe welcomed several uninvited guests. They were Qing generals, and under the pretext of spending the night on the expedition, they brought more than 500 soldiers to the tent of the Khan king Shakdurmanji.
Shakdurmanji was the leader of one of the four major tribes of the Erut Mongols and the Shuote tribe, and had long since submitted to the Qing Dynasty. When he saw the arrival of the Celestial Empire's army, not only did he not take the slightest guard, but he was hospitable, not only vacating dozens of tents for the soldiers to rest, but also killing the only remaining sheep and cows, taking out the treasured wine, and hosting a banquet to entertain the guests who came from afar.
After three rounds of drinking, singing and dancing inside and outside the tent leveled out. Shakdurmanji and several Qing army generals drank and chatted, not noticing the cold light flashing in the eyes of these generals. The Mongols are hospitable and fond of drinking, and in a short time Shakdurmanji was already drunk.
In the dead of night, the singing and laughter in the yurt came to an abrupt end. The Qing soldiers pulled out their weapons and launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Mongols. They attacked tent after tent, slaughtering the sleeping Mongols without exception, men, women, and children.
According to historical records, in just one night, the tribe of 700 yurts was slaughtered, and more than 4,000 lives were killed. In the early morning, the Balikun grassland was full of blood, and the corpses were all over the field, which was unbearable to see.
And in the tent of the Khan King Shakdurmanji, a tragic parting of life and death was staged. According to the "Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records", the drunken Shakdurmanji returned to the tent and took off his clothes and fell asleep, completely unaware of the changes that had happened outside.
When his wife woke up, she saw several Qing soldiers breaking into the tent, holding sharp knives and going straight to the sleeping Shakdurmanji. At the last moment, the wife desperately pounced on her husband and blocked the oncoming sword and sword shadow for him with her naked body.
In this way, the Mongolian Khan and his wife hugged each other tightly and both fell in a pool of blood. According to historical records, they still maintained a posture of embracing each other after death, like two intertwined white snakes, poignant and heroic.
This elaborate massacre was planned by the Qing Dynasty general Yarhashan on Qianlong's secret orders. He first sent people into the Shakdurmanji tribe, waited for an opportunity, and then pretended to be friendly, paralyzing the vigilance of the Mongols. When the time came, he launched a surprise attack and annihilated the unsuspecting Dzungar tribes in one fell swoop.
Afterwards, Yarhasan reported the results of the battle to Qianlong, and Qianlong was delighted, not only rewarded Yarhasshan, but also ordered his military exploits to be recorded and promoted to his official position. In Qianlong's view, the extermination of the Mongol tribes that had already surrendered was a necessary move for the Qing Dynasty to perpetuate.
The tragic fate of the Shakdurmanji couple is only a microcosm of the tragic fate of the Dzungars during the Pingzhun War. In three years, under the instruction of Qianlong, the Qing army carried out a large-scale genocide of the Dzungar tribes, almost erasing this nomadic tribe that once dominated the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains from the face of the earth.
According to statistics, the total population of the Dzungar Department was about 600,000 before the war, and only about 100,000 remained after the war. In the past, the Dzungar warriors who dominated the steppes are now only senile, disabled, women and children. Many of them were reduced to slavery and spent the rest of their lives under the whipping of aliens.
And those surviving Dzungars have since left their homeland and died in a foreign land. The former nobles of the Khan were reduced to beggars, surviving in unfamiliar streets and alleys. The former overlord of the steppe can now only be saddened by the shame and contempt of the alien race.
The heroic sacrifice of Mr. and Mrs. Shakdurmanji is a symbol of the tragic fate of the Dzungar people. Under Qianlong's butcher's knife, countless Dzungars like them were brutally killed, and the entire nation was almost wiped out. Their blood stained the vast grasslands red, and their souls rested in the barren Gobi.
This horrific genocide is destined to become a stain on history. It reminds the world of the dangers of using power and violence against aliens, and warns rulers that they must not deprive others of their right to exist with their own selfish desires. Only by treating every nation with equality, friendliness, and benevolence can human society be saved from war and chaos and achieve permanent peace.
IV. The Cruel Truth of Genocide
Qianlong's genocide against the Dzungar tribe was by no means a whim, but the result of careful planning. As early as the beginning of the Pingzhun War, Qianlong was determined to completely eradicate the Dzungar Department. In his opinion, this Mongolian tribe, which has repeatedly betrayed and frequently caused chaos, has become a major problem for the Qing Dynasty, and there will be endless troubles if it is not eliminated.
In order to achieve his goal, Qianlong made meticulous military arrangements and fanned the flames politically. He first sent his confidant minister He Shen to Xinjiang to supervise military affairs, and conferred the title of minister of the Imperial Mission, so that the military and political power should be under his control. At the same time, Qianlong also secretly dispatched meticulous work to penetrate into the interior of the Dzungar Ministry and wait for an opportunity.
During the Pingzhun War, Qianlong personally issued many massacre orders, demanding that all surrendered Dzungars be exterminated. In his edict, he said: "The soldiers will attack this time, and the Erut Mongols will inevitably surrender in large numbers." Anyone who surrenders to Balikun, all of whom are strong and taller than a wheel, should be punished on the spot and must not be tolerated. All his wives were made official slaves and distributed among the soldiers. ＂
At the behest of Qianlong, the Qing army began a large-scale genocide. According to historical records, in the three years from 1756 to 1758 alone, the Qing army slaughtered nearly 500,000 Dzungars, accounting for more than 80% of their total population. The remaining women and children were taken captive and enslaved and reduced to the playthings of the Qing soldiers. In the past, the Dzungar Department, which dominated the Tianshan Mountains, was almost wiped out under Qianlong's butcher's knife.
Regarding Qianlong's genocidal policy, there was a lot of discussion between the government and the opposition at that time. Some ministers believed that exterminating the people who had already surrendered would be contrary to benevolence and would be unpopular. However, Qianlong believed that the Dzungar people had repeatedly betrayed, and if they did not cut the grass and eradicate the roots, they would eventually lay the root of the curse for the Qing Dynasty. In his edict to the scholar Ah Gui, he said: "If you don't kill the killer, I am afraid that you will not be able to prevent it, but you will suffer from it, and you will not regret it!"
Qianlong's genocide of the Dzungar tribe reflects the ruthlessness of a generation of monarchs who will do whatever it takes to consolidate their rule. Under the guidance of the idea of the supremacy of imperial power, in order to eliminate the hidden dangers that threatened the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong did not hesitate to use the most cruel means to exterminate the Dzungar people. Hundreds of thousands of lives have thus fallen victim to the struggle for imperial power.
However, the wheels of history rolled forward, and Qianlong's genocidal policy, although temporarily eliminated the threat of the Northwest Frontier, planted the seeds of ethnic hatred. Although the bodies of the nomadic Dzungar warriors of the Tianshan Mountains in the past have been annihilated in the dust of history, their indomitable souls are forever engraved in the memory of future generations.
The historical lesson of Qianlong's extermination of the Dzungar Department is worthy of our deep thought. Resolving the national issue by violent means will only exacerbate ethnic contradictions and bring about unpredictable consequences. As a responsible major country, we should treat different ethnic groups with a more open-minded and inclusive attitude, promote national unity, and jointly build a better homeland. Only in this way can we realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The truth of Qianlong's extermination of the Dzungar tribe is a history that cannot be avoided. It tells us that any act of treating aliens with power and violence is destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame in history. The short-sightedness and conceit of rulers often lead to unpredictable consequences. Only by treating every nation with equality, friendliness, and benevolence can human society be saved from war and chaos and achieve permanent peace.