1, strongly supported by the supreme ruler of the Qing court.

On the question of whether to send troops to recover Xinjiang, the Qing court was divided into two factions, that is, the dispute between "coastal defense" and "blockade defense". The "coastal defense" faction headed by Li Hongzhang attacked Qianlong for unifying Xinjiang in the memorial. It's not cost-effective. It doesn't matter if you lose it.

Left thought the main "fortress defense" and thought that Xinjiang must be recovered. When the debate entered a white-hot stage, most court officials, including Zuo's fellow countryman and Governor of Liangjiang, Shen Baozhen, sided with Li Hongzhang.

However, the military affairs minister pushed aside the crowd and supported the left opinion. Under her advice, Cixi affirmed Zuo's proposal, and appointed Zuo as an imperial envoy, the military governor of Xinjiang, and the general of Yili as an assistant envoy.

2. Commander Zuo's outstanding military ability.

In the late Qing Dynasty, when there were internal troubles and foreign invasion, Zuo's military talents were outstanding. After Zeng Guofan's death, he was stationed in the northwest, and Li Hongzhang was stationed in the southeast. One Hunan and one Huai became the two military pillars of the Qing Empire.

Before the outbreak of the Xinjiang campaign, Zuo formulated the strategic policy of "going north first, then going south, and slowly advancing into an urgent battle" according to the geographical characteristics of Xinjiang and the distribution of enemy troops. Liu Jintang, Jin Shun, Zhang Yao and other generals carried out this policy accurately and took the lead in conquering the ancient pastoral areas and Urumqi in northern Xinjiang.

After crossing the Tianshan Mountains again, he successively won the three cities of Sakan, Turpan and Toksun, and finally pursued them, breaking through eight cities in southern Xinjiang, annihilating more than 60,000 enemy troops and recovering all the lost land in Xinjiang except Yili.

3. The huge salary increase is very successful.

Zuo attached great importance to raising funds for the battle to recover Xinjiang, believing that this was the key to the success of the battle. According to the draft of Qing history, the original budget of the imperial court was 6.5438+million yuan, of which appropriation and foreign debt accounted for half.

After the war, the cost was huge, and the actual military expenditure greatly exceeded the budget. The battle to recover Xinjiang began at the end of 1873 and ended at the beginning of 1878. It lasted for four years and consumed 50 million taels of silver, with an average annual consumption of12.5 million taels.

At that time, the annual revenue of the Qing court was about 80 million Liang, and the annual military expenditure in Xinjiang accounted for 16%. There are four main sources of military expenditure in Xinjiang: direct appropriation by the Qing court, provincial co-payment, foreign high-interest loans and other commercial financing.

First of all, the Qing court gave strong support and allocated 4.5 million taels of Zuokuyin under the condition of very tight national finance, which was extremely rare in Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods.

Secondly, Zuo used his personal relationship to successfully obtain a large amount of reimbursement. For example, Yang Changjun, the governor of Zhejiang Province, said that the actual reimbursement for the Western Expedition was 1000 million, more than other provinces. In order to make up for the shortage of military expenditure, Zuo also borrowed about 8 million taels of foreign debt with the permission of the Qing court.

4. The supply of rations has been fully guaranteed.

The 60,000 troops of the Western Expedition fought on the border far away from the ruling center, and the issue of rations naturally became a key factor restricting the war process and even affecting the outcome of the war. Zuo attaches great importance to the raising and transportation of rations.

1before the war in April, 876, Zuo spent a year and a half trying to raise and transport more than 20 million Jin of grain to Hami, Balikun, Gucheng and other places in eastern Xinjiang, and solved the combat rations of the Qing army for half a year. At the same time, Zuo led the pioneers of the Western Expedition Army to station troops in Hami.

5. Timely purchase, manufacture and transfer a large number of advanced weapons.

The results of the two Opium Wars show that the weapons and equipment of the Qing army have fallen far behind the West. Zuo made careful arrangements for the procurement, manufacture and transshipment of arms before the Western Expedition.

Zuo gave the important task of purchasing overseas arms to Hu (Hu Xueyan, a famous red top businessman). Smart and capable, Hu bought a large number of advanced German guns for the Western Expedition Army in Shanghai, such as Blos breech screw flower guns, silk guns and breech seven guns.

At 1875 alone, Lanzhou has stored thousands of rifles shipped from Shanghai. The task of transporting arms is even more arduous. After buying German weapons from Shanghai, Hu transported them to Wuhan along the Yangtze River and then to Gansu by cavalry and camels.

6. Summary

In the late Qing Dynasty, when domestic troubles and foreign invasion were at home, Zuo was able to be far-sighted, argue with reason, win the support of the supreme ruler, and closely combine matters such as using troops, raising wages, transporting grain and changing advanced weapons, and achieved great victory.

The battle of recovering Xinjiang from the left is undoubtedly the most brilliant achievement in China's modern history, which is enough to go down in history and remain immortal.

Baidu Encyclopedia-The Battle of Qing Army Recovering Xinjiang