Qing reconquest of Xinjiang

Qing reconquest of Xinjiang
Date 1876–1877 Location Xinjiang Result Qing victory Territorial changes Xinjiang returned to the Qing Empire
Belligerents
Qing dynasty	Yettishar (Kokandi Uzbek Andijanis under Yaqub Beg)
Commanders and leaders
Zuo Zongtang Liu Jintang Ma Anliang Cui Wei Hua Decai	Yaqub Beg † Bai Yanhu
Units involved
Han Chinese Xiang Army Khufiyya Sufi Hui Muslims (Dungans) from Gansu Gedimu Sunni Hui Muslims from Shaanxi[1]	Kokandi Uzbek Andijanis

The Qing reconquest of Xinjiang (

The

General Zuo implemented a conciliatory policy toward the Muslim rebels, pardoning those who did not rebel and those who surrendered if they had joined in only for religious reasons. If rebels assisted the government against the rebel Muslims they received rewards.[2] In contrast to General Zuo, the Manchu leader Dorongga sought to massacre all the Muslims and saw them all as the enemy.^[2] Zuo also instructed General Zhang Yao that "The Andijanis are tyrannical to their people; government troops should comfort them with benevolence. The Andijanis are greedy in extorting from the people; the government troops should rectify this by being generous", telling him to not mistreat the Turkic Muslim natives of Xinjiang.^[6] Zuo wrote that the main targets were only the "die-hard partisans" and their leaders, Yaqub Beg and Bai Yanhu.^[7] The natives were not blamed or mistreated by the Qing troops, a Russian wrote that soldiers under General Liu "acted very judiciously with regard to the prisoners whom he took . . . His treatment of these men was calculated to have a good influence in favour of the Chinese."^[8]

Zuo Zongtang, previously a general in the Xiang Army, was the commander in chief of all Qing troops participating in this counterinsurgency. His subordinates were the Han Chinese General Liu Jintang and Manchu Jin Shun.^[9] Liu Jintang's army had modern German artillery, which Jin Shun's forces lacked and neither was Jin's advance as rapid as Liu's. After Liu bombarded Ku-mu-ti, Muslim rebel casualties numbered 6,000 dead while Bai Yanhu was forced to flee for his life. Thereafter Qing forces entered Ürümqi unopposed. Zuo Zongtang wrote that Yaqub Beg's soldiers had modern western weapons but were cowardly: "The Andijani chieftain Yaqub Beg has fairly good firearms. He has foreign rifles and foreign guns, including cannon using explosive shells [Kai Hua Pao]; but his are not as good nor as effective as those in the possession of our government forces. His men are not good marksmen, and when repulsed they simply ran away."^[10]

Timeline

Kashgar

Uqturpan

Aksu

Kucha

Lontai

Korla

Karashar

Toksun

Turfan

Hami

Jade Gate

Yangi Hissar

Yarkand

Khotan

Tacheng

Kulja

Manas

Urumchi

Gucheng

Jade Gate

Kokand

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Places for Yakub Beg^{[clarification needed]}

Phase 1: 1876: From about 1874, with the end of the

No further rebellion was encountered afterwards, and the reestablished Qing authorities began the task of recovery and reorganization. The Qing forces beheaded Turkic rebel commanders, and also tortured Ottoman Turkish military officers who served with the rebels.[4] When the city of Kashgaria fell, the greater portion of the army, knowing that they could expect no mercy at the hands of Qing authorities, fled to Russian territory, and then spread reports of fresh Chinese massacres, which probably only existed in their own imagination.^[15]

Qing forces captured the grandchildren and sons of Yaqub Beg after his death.^[16] Aisan Ahung was among his grandson, while the sons who were captured were K'ati Kuli, Yima Kuli, and Maiti Kuli.^[17] Yakuub Beg's 4 wives, 2 granddaughters, 2 grandsons and 4 sons fell into Qing hands.^[18] 5 year old Aisan Ahung, six year old K'ati Kuli, 10 year old Yima Kuli, and 14 year old Maiti Kuli were sent to Lanzhou jail.^[18] A disinterment of the graves and incineration of Ishana Beg's and his father Yaqub's Beg's corpses took place at the orders of the Qing.^[18] China crushed an attempted revolt by Hakim Khan Tufl.^[18] Beijing received Yaqub Beg's cremated remains.^[19]

The use of Muslims in the Qing armies against the revolt was noted by Yang Zengxin.^[20]

The third reason is that at the time that Turkic Muslims were waging rebellion in the early years of the Guangxu reign, the ‘five elite divisions’ that governor general Liu Jintang led out of the Pass were all Dungan troops [Hui dui 回队]. Back then, Dungan military commanders such as Cui Wei and Hua Dacai were surrendered troops who had been redeployed. These are undoubtedly cases of pawns who went on to achieve great merit. When Cen Shuying was in charge of military affairs in Yunnan, the Muslim troops and generals that he used included many rebels, and it was because of them that the Muslim rebellion in Yunnan was pacified. These are examples to show that Muslim troops can be used effectively even while Muslim uprisings are still in progress. What is more, since the establishment of the Republic, Dungan have demonstrated not the slightest hint of errant behaviour to suggest that they may prove to be unreliable.

Xiang Army and other Han Chinese male soldiers and sojourners bought Turki Musulman (Uyghur) girls as wives from their parents after Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of Xinjiang, and the Han and Uyghurs often relied on Hui intermediaries to translate and broker the marriages. A Han Chinese man with the surname Li bought a young Uyghur men from two Uyghur men who kidnapped her in 1880. They were employed by the magistrate of Pichan. A Turpan Uyghur girl named Ruo-zang-le who was 12 was sold for 30 taels in 1889 in Qitai to a young Han Chinese Shanxi man named Liu Yun. She became pregnant with his child in 1892. Han Chinese men viewed the toyluq they paid in silver for their Uyghur brides as a bride price.^[21][22] Uyghur Muslim women married Han Chinese men in Xinjiang in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[23] Han Chinese men, Hindu men, Armenian men, Jewish men and Russian men were married by Uyghur Muslim women who could not find husbands.^[24]

Local reaction

Yaqub Beg's rule was unpopular among the natives with one of the local Kashgaris, a warrior and a chieftain's son, commenting: "During the Chinese rule there was everything; there is nothing now." There was also a falling-off in trade.^[25]

The local Uyghurs of Altishahr came to view Yaqub Beg as a Kokandi foreigner and his Kokandi associates behaved ruthlessly to the local Uyghurs, an anti Yaqub Beg poem was written by the Uyghur:^[26]

From Peking the Chinese came, like stars in the heaven.
The Andijanis rose and fled, like pigs in the forest.
They came in vain and left in vain, the Andijanis!
They went away scared and languidly, the Andijanis!
Every day they took a virgin, and
They went hunting for beauties.
They played with the dancing boys,
Which the Holy Law has forbidden.

British reaction

Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger stated at the time that the strength of the Qing has been thoroughly demonstrated and that her prestige remained unsullied. "Whatever danger there may be to the permanence of Qing's triumph lies rather from Russia than from the peoples of Tian Shan Nan Lu; nor is there much danger that the Chinese laurels will become faded even before a European foe. Zuo Zongtang and his generals such as Jin Shun and Chang Yao, accomplished a task which would reflect credit on any army and any country. They have given a luster to the modern Chinese administration which must stand it in good stead, and they have acquired a personal renown that will not easily depart. The Qing reconquest of Xinjiang is beyond doubt the most remarkable event that has occurred in Asia during the last fifty years, and it is quite the most brilliant achievement of a Chinese army, led by Chinese generals, that has taken place since the Qianlong Emperor subdued the country more than a century ago. It also proves, in a manner that is more than unpalatable to us, that the Chinese possess an adaptive faculty that must be held to be a very important fact in every-day politics in Central Asia. They reconquered Kashgaria with European weapons and by careful study of Western science and technology. Their soldiers marched in obedience to instructors trained on the Prussian principle; and their generals maneuvered their troops in accordance with the teachings of Moltke and Manteuffel. Even in such minor matters as the use of telescopes and field glasses we could find this Chinese army well supplied. Nothing was more absurd than the picture drawn by some over-wise observer of this army, as consisting of soldiers fantastically garbed in the guise of dragons and other hideous appearances. All that belonged to an old-world theory. The rebel troops were as widely different from all previous Chinese armies in Central Asia as it well could be; and in all essentials closely resembled that of a European power. Its remarkable triumphs were chiefly attributable to the thoroughness with which China had in this instance adapted herself to Western notions".^[27] "But, although our hands are tied in Central Asia, they are not fettered at Pekin, and we certainly should congratulate, if we have not done so already, the Chinese on their remarkable successes in the Tian Shan regions. That step might be pregnant with beneficent results, and our desire to be on good terms with our new, yet our old, neighbour might be met in a cordial manner by the Chinese."^[28]

See also

• Ten Great Campaigns
• Dzungar–Qing Wars
• Xinjiang under Qing rule
• Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)

References

Citations