Sino-Russian border conflicts

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 1969 border conflict between the Soviet Union and China, see Sino-Soviet border conflict.
Sino-Russian border conflicts
Priamurye
Result

Qing victory

Belligerents

Tsardom of Russia

Qing dynasty Qing dynasty
JoseonCommanders and leaders
Strength 2,000 men[1]
  • Qing dynasty 3,000 men[1] including both Manchu Bannermen and Han Chinese soldiers
  • 200 gunners; 60 officers and interpreters
Casualties and losses c. 800 men[2]
  • Qing dynasty several hundreds (debated)
  • 32 (7 killed, 24 injured, 1 died from wounds)
Komar" of Russian records. Nerczinsk
is the site of the treaty negotiations.

The Sino-Russian border conflicts[3] (1652–1689) were a series of intermittent skirmishes between the Qing dynasty of China, with assistance from the Joseon dynasty of Korea, and the Tsardom of Russia by the Cossacks in which the latter tried and failed to gain the land north of the Amur River with disputes over the Amur region. The hostilities culminated in the Qing siege of the Cossack fort of Albazin in 1686 and resulted in the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 which gave the land to China.

Background

The southeast corner of

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.[6]

Russian

Amur River which was nominally subject to the Qing dynasty.[7][8][9]

In 1643, Russian adventurers spilled over the Stanovoy Range, but by 1689 they were driven back by the Qing. The land was populated by some 9,000

Maxim Perfilev about 1640.[7][8][9]

In 1859/60 the area was annexed by Russia and quickly filled up with a Russian population.[citation needed]

Timeline

1639-1643 : Qing Campaign against the indigenous rulers

1643-1644 :
Vasili Poyarkov

1649-1653 : Yerofey Khabarov

  • 1650-1651 : In 1649
    Albazin after subduing the Daurs led by Arbaši (Chinese: 阿尔巴西 Ā'ěrbāxī). The Russian conquest of Siberia was accompanied by massacres due to indigenous resistance to colonization by the Russian Cossacks, who violently suppressed the natives.[citation needed] The Russian Cossacks were named luocha (羅剎), after Demons found in Buddhist mythology, by the Amur natives because of their cruelty towards the Amur tribes people, who were subjects of the Qing.[11]
  • March 24, 1652 : Battle of Achansk

Next summer he sailed down the Amur and built a fort at Achansk (Wuzhala (乌扎拉))

Ninguta and about 1500 Daurs and Duchers led by the Manchu general known as Haise (海色),[12] or Izenei (Изеней or Исиней).[13] Haise was later executed for his poor performance.[14] As soon as the ice broke up Khabarov withdrew upriver[15] and built winter quarters at Kumarsk. In the spring of 1653 reinforcements arrived under Dmitry Zinoviev. The two quarreled, Khabarov was arrested and escorted to Moscow for investigation.[7][8][9]

Cattle and horses in the hundreds were looted and 243 ethnic Daur Mongolic girls and women were raped by Russian Cossacks under Yerofey Khabarov when he invaded the Amur river basin in the 1650s.[16]

1654-1658 : Onufriy Stepanov

Main article: Battle of Hutong (1654)
  • March–April 1655 : Siege of Komar
  • 1655 : Russian Tsardom has established a "military governor of the Amur region".
  • 1657 : 2nd Battle of Sharhody.

Ninguta. In 1657 he built more than 40 ships at the village of Ula (modern Jilin).[citation needed]. In 1658 a large Qing fleet under Sarhuda caught up with Stepanov and killed him and about 220 Cossacks. A few escaped and became freebooters.[7][8][9]

1654-1658 : The Sino-Korean allied expeditions against Russians

Main article: Battle of Hutong (1658)

In the following operations significant Korean forces under King Hyojong were included into Manchu-led troops. The campaigns became known in Korean historiography as Naseon Jeongbeol (나선정벌, literally Russian campaign).

By 1658 the Chinese had wiped out the Russians below

Maya River.[7][8][9]

The Amur Basin with modern national borders. Nerchinsk is on the lower Shilka, Albazin on the northern loop of the Amur, Kumarsk somewhat downstream, Aigun at the mouth of the Zeya and Achansk at Khabarovsk.

1665-1689: Albazin

In 1665

Jaxa. In 1670 it was unsuccessfully attacked. In 1672 Albazin received the Czar's pardon and was officially recognized. From 1673 to 1683 the Qing dynasty were tied up suppressing a rebellion in the south, the Revolt of the Three Feudatories. In 1682 or 1684 a voyvoda was appointed by Moscow.[7][8][9]

After extensive reconnaissance, the Qing made their first attempt to conquer Albazin in 1685. At the time Albazin was a wooden fort with only 300 muskets, 3 cannons, and low stocks of gunpowder; regardless, the Chinese concluded that it could not be taken from its tiny garrison unless "red barbarian cannons" (Hongyipao) were used. Three thousand Qing soldiers initially assailed the fort. A detachment made a feint on the south of the fort, while other soldiers secretly moved Hongyipao to the north of the fort and to its sides, to carry out a pincer attack. In total, the Qing force included 100-150 light artillery, 40-50 large siege guns, and 100 musketeers, with the rest of the men using traditional weapons. On the first day, 100 Russians were killed or wounded by the massive artillery barrage. After the wooden walls were set ablaze, the Russians surrendered and acknowledged Qing suzerainty.[20]

After this, the Russian garrison was ordered to build more powerful walls. With the help of Prussian soldier Afanasii Ivanovich Beiton (who was second in command of the fort), the walls were eventually built up to a height of five and a half meters and a thickness of seven and a half meters. In July 1686, the Qing sent another force of 3,000 troops (chiefly cavalry and including 30-40 "newly cast" cannons), supported by 150 supply boats manned by 3,000 to 6,000 more men, to retake the fort from the garrison of 736 Russian soldiers and militia (who had 11 cannons). The Russians rejected a Qing demand for surrender, and another battle ensued on July 18. Over the next few weeks, the Qing made various attempts to take the fort, but were always driven back with heavy losses, while Russian combat losses were negligible. The Russians even began sallying out for counterattacks to destroy Qing siege engines, one sally killing 150 Chinese troops for the loss of only 21 Russians. The Qing were befuddled by the design of the fort which, like contemporary European artillery forts, often left the Chinese soldiers caught in crossfires when they attempted to place their siege lines and artillery according to traditional tactics. The Qing general, Langtan, abandoned assaults in August and instead decided to starve the fort out by blocking Russian access to the nearby river. Eventually, the Qing investment in Albazin became so large that the fortifications of the siege camps dwarfed those of Albazin itself. Moscow sent elite musketeers to relieve the fort but the Qing controlled all approaches and no sled or sleigh could slip in. Both armies suffered from disease and starvation: Russian combatants and civilians alike died en masse from scurvy, typhus, and cholera, while the Chinese starved and froze outside the walls and were sometimes driven to cannibalism. By November, 600 Russian men and more than 1,500 Qing soldiers had died. In October 1686, Russian envoys arrived in Beijing from Moscow requesting peace. In December, a messenger from the Qing emperor arrived at the siege lines announcing a pause to the siege, and that his men, as a show of good faith, were to offer food and medicine to the remaining Russians, of which there were only 24.[21]

Albazin was eventually ceded to the Qing in the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, in exchange for trading privileges in Beijing and the right to keep the city of Nerchinsk.

1685-1687 : The
Albazin/Yakesa
Campaign

Main article: Siege of Albazin

Former

Zheng Chenggong and who specialized at fighting with rattan shields and swords (Tengpaiying) 藤牌营 were recommended to the Kangxi Emperor to reinforce Albazin against the Russians. Kangxi was impressed by a demonstration of their techniques and ordered 500 of them to defend Albazin, under Lin Xingzhu (Chinese: 林兴珠) and He You (Chinese: 何佑), former Koxinga followers, and these rattan shield troops did not suffer a single casualty when they defeated and cut down Russian forces traveling by rafts on the river, only using the rattan shields and swords while fighting naked.[22][23][24]

see also Outer Manchuria

"[the Russian reinforcements were coming down to the fort on the river] Thereupon he [Marquis Lin] ordered all our marines to take off their clothes and jump into the water. Each wore a rattan shield on his head and held a huge sword in his hand. Thus they swam forward. The Russians were so frightened that they all shouted: 'Behold, the big-capped Tartars!' Since our marines were in the water, they could not use their firearms. Our sailors wore rattan shields to protect their heads so that enemy bullets and arrows could not pierce them. Our marines used long swords to cut the enemy's ankles. The Russians fell into the river, most of them either killed or wounded. The rest fled and escaped. Lin Hsing-chu had not lost a single marine when he returned to take part in besieging the city." written by Yang Hai-Chai who was related to Marquis Lin, a participant in the war[28]

Most of the Russians withdrew to Nerchinsk, but a few joined the Qing, becoming the

Albazin Cossacks at Peking. The Chinese withdrew from the area, but the Russians, hearing of this, returned with 800 men under Aleksei Tolbuzin and reoccupied the fort. Their original purpose was merely to harvest the local grain, a rare commodity in this part of Siberia. From June 1686, the fort was again besieged. Either the siege was raised in December when the armies learned that the two empires were engaged in peace negotiations,[29] or the fort was captured after an 18-month siege and Tolbuzin was killed.[30] At that time less than 100 defenders were left alive.[7][8][9]

Treaties

The Amur Basin in 1860
Changes in the Russo-Chinese border in the 17-19th centuries

In 1689, by the

Treaty of Kyakhta
confirmed and clarified this border and regulated Russo-Chinese trade.

In 1858, almost two centuries after the fall of Albazin, by the

Convention of Beijing, Russia annexed the Primorye (i.e. the "Maritime Region") down to Vladivostok, an area that had not been in contention in the 17th century. Those treaties allowed the Amur Annexation
.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b CJ. Peers, Late Imperial Chinese Armies 1520-1840, 33
  2. ^ China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia By Peter C. Perdue Published by Harvard University Press, 2005
  3. ^ Wurm, Mühlhäusler & Tryon 1996, p. 828.
  4. ISBN 0-231-03801-1
  5. ^ Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1735). Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise. Vol. IV. Paris: P.G. Lemercier. pp. 15–16. Numerous later editions are available as well, including one on Google Books. Du Halde refers to the Yongle-era fort, the predecessor of Aigun, as Aykom. There seem to be few, if any, mentions of this project in other available literature.
  6. ISBN 978-0-521-24334-6
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-47771-0.[page needed
    ]
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8014-8922-8.[page needed
    ]
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i G. Patrick March, Eastern Destiny: the Russians in Asia and the North Pacific, 1996.[page needed]
  10. ^ А.М.Пастухов (A.M. Pastukhov) К вопросу о характере укреплений поселков приамурских племен середины XVII века и значении нанайского термина «гасян» Archived 2011-10-01 at the Wayback Machine (Regarding the fortification techniques used in the settlements of the Amur Valley tribes in the mid-17th century, and the meaning of the Nanai word "гасян" (gasyan)) (in Russian)
  11. ^ Kang 2012, p. 26.
  12. ISBN 978-986-7151-64-3
    . (Although this particular book seems to misspell 海色 as 海包 (Haibao))
  13. ^ Август 1652 г. Из отписки приказного человека Е.П. Хабарова якутскому воеводе Д.А. Францбекову о походе по р. Амуру. Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine An excerpt from Khabarov's report to the Yakutsk Voivode D.A.Frantsbekov, August 1652.) (in Russian)
  14. ^ Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Šarhûda" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office. p. 632. Haise was executed for this disgrace
  15. ^ Оксана ГАЙНУТДИНОВА (Oksana Gainutdinova) Загадка Ачанского городка Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine (The mystery of Fort Achansk)
  16. ISBN 978-0143109891
    .
  17. ^ Kang 2012, p. 31.
  18. ^ A.M. Pastukhov, "Корейская пехотная тактика самсу в XVII веке и проблема участия корейских войск в Амурских походах маньчжурской армии Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today " (Korean infantry tactic samsu (三手) in the 17th century, and the issues related to the Korean troops' participation in the Manchus' Amur campaigns) (in Russian)
  19. ^ Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur, 1860(sic), Google Books
  20. ^ Andrade 2017, pp. 221–222.
  21. ^ Andrade 2017, pp. 225–230.
  22. ^ Robert H. Felsing (1979). The Heritage of Han: The Gelaohui and the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan. University of Iowa. p. 18.
  23. ^ Louise Lux (1998). The Unsullied Dynasty & the Kʻang-hsi Emperor. Mark One Printing. p. 270.
  24. ISBN 9780674781153
    .
  25. ISBN 978-0-7566-1360-0
    .
  26. ISBN 978-0-393-30780-1
    .
  27. ^ Jenne, Jeremiah (September 6, 2016). "Settling Siberia: Nerchinsk, 1689". The World of Chinese. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  28. ISBN 9780816501519
    .
  29. ^ March, chapter 5
  30. ^ John J. Stephen, The Russian Far East, 1994,page 31

Works cited

1. Page 133 -152 China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia By Peter C. Perdue Published by Harvard University Press, 2005


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