In the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign (1771), in order to get rid of the oppression of Tsarist Russia, the leader of the Torgut tribe, Obaxi (the great-grandson of Ayuqi Khan), led his troops to break through the heavy interceptions of Tsarist Russia. After many hardships, After suffering, we finally arrived at the Ili Valley from the Volga River. This is considered by many scholars in the East and West to be the largest geographical population migration in the eighteenth century.
After more than a hundred years, the Torgut tribe once again returned to the east and became subjects of the Qing Dynasty. This was regarded by Emperor Qianlong as one of the "ten major events" during his reign. However, in recent years, there have been endless questions about whether the Torgut tribe returned to the east or whether they marched eastward. To clarify this issue, we need to analyze the causes and consequences of the migration from the Torgut tribe.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Wala went south to kowtow, and Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Qizhen, personally led the expedition. Unexpectedly, he was defeated and captured. This is known in history as the "Tumu Fort Incident". However, under the leadership of the famous minister Yu Qian and the Ming Dynasty Zong Zhu Qiyu, Wala's efforts were in vain. Soon thereafter, they fell into internal fighting. One of the tribes emerged from the Ili Valley, which was the Zhungeer tribe. After the rise of the Jungar people, they continued to crowd out another tribe, which was the Kalmyk tribe. Another name for the Kalmyk tribe is the Torgut tribe. They are the descendants of the Guards of Genghis Khan. In the end, after several battles with the Jungar tribe, the Torgut tribe was defeated and had to move west to the Volga River Basin in the northern Caucasus Mountains.
When the Torgut tribe came to the Kipchak grassland downstream of the Volga River, the Orthodox Tsarist Russia in the north was constantly invading southward, and the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate on the Black Sea coast in the south were also invading. Keep going north. Fortunately, the Torgut tribe gradually established a foothold with their strong riding skills and force, and thrived for more than a hundred years. However, compared with their northern and southern neighbors who believe in Orthodox Christianity and Islam, the shamanistic Torgut tribe gradually showed a trend of differentiation and had to choose to rely on one side. In the end, they defected to Tsarist Russia and fought with the Russian army against the Crimean Tatars and Ottoman Turks.
It needs to be pointed out that although the Torguts are "cannon fodder" in the eyes of the Tsar, they themselves are not opposed to going to the battlefield. Even if they are not attached to Russia, they will still face the Tatars in the south. threaten. However, the Tsar not only provided assistance to the Torgut tribe, but also the Russian Tsarist Russia, which inherited the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire, also sent a large number of missionaries, which were quite effective among the Torgut people and offended the dissatisfaction of the shamanistic lamas. The Tsar naturally knew that the two sides had different dreams, so he built a large number of fortifications and fortresses around the tribe just in case. The herdsmen of the Torgut tribe not only robbed the Tatars, but also showed no mercy to Russian settlements.
By the time of Catherine II, on the one hand, the Seven Years War in Europe came to an end, and Russia could free up its hands to reorganize its territory in Eastern Europe, and soon formally annexed the vassal state of Cossack Hetman. On the other hand, the Zhungeer tribe that drove the Torgut tribe out of the Western Regions has been eradicated by the Qing government. These two events together promoted the leader of the Torgut tribe, Wobaxi, to lead his troops to move eastwards. Originally, Wobasi planned to migrate secretly, but it was impossible to hide such a huge operation, not to mention that these nomadic groups continued to plunder in order to replenish supplies. However, Tsarist Russia was still weak at that time. Although the hastily put together Gossart cavalry caused the loss of more than 9,000 warriors, they successfully broke through the defense line under the calm command of Obasi.
The actions of the Torgut Ministry were notified to the Qing court through trade routes on the one hand, and on the other hand they were also notified by Tsarist Russia. Tsarist Russia believed that the Torgut tribe would definitely return to the Qing Dynasty in the east, so it threatened to go to war and demanded that the Qing Dynasty not allow the Torgut tribe to enter the country. After leaving the territory of Tsarist Russia and entering the Kazakh Khanate, the Torgut tribe continued to plunder the local area and defeated many attempts by the Kazakhs with their strong combat power. However, frequent battles and natural disasters and plagues dealt heavy losses to this migrating force. When they arrived at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the Torgut tribe had less than one-third of its number when it set out.
Faced with the changes in the west, the Qing Dynasty did not know whether the Torhut tribe was returning to the east or whether it was an expedition to the east. When the Torhut tribe moved eastward, it took in a large number of Zhungeer who fled west. People, even if General Yili of the Qing Dynasty sent an envoy, Wobaxi ignored it for a long time. In other words, the Torgut tribe was waiting and watching at this time, considering whether to become the overlord in Central Asia and the Western Regions, or to completely surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, another plague broke out in the Torgut tribe, but the Qing army's defense in the Western Region was impregnable. In the end, Wobaxi showed his intention and led his troops back to his homeland as a Qing subject.
After the Torgut tribe entered the territory of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong clearly informed Tsarist Russia that he would characterize the eastward movement of the Torgut tribe as "Eastward Return", and made it clear that if the Russian army continued to pursue, Qing Russia would The two countries are bound to go to war. Shortly after returning to his homeland, Wobaxi made a special trip to Chengde Mountain Resort to meet Emperor Qianlong and feel the power of the Qing Dynasty at that time. Within a few years, he contracted an illness and passed away. On his deathbed, he still urged his people to be diligent in production, abide by their duties, and avoid causing trouble to prevent catastrophic disasters. From then on, the Torhut tribe who moved eastward settled down in the Ili Valley, while the Turhut people who stayed in Tsarist Russia lived in Kalmykia and flourished to this day.