Chinese Dzungaria
When the Chinese appeared on the scene, they annihilated the Dzungars and annexed their country. Of a population of 600,000 souls not a Dzungar was left alive, and this country became once more an unhappy and depopulated land. This date, 1750, marks the beginning of the period of Chinese ascendancy in the far western portion of her Empire, under the great Emperor Chien-lung, whose great ambition was to restore Chinese prestige in Central Asia. Dzungaria being depopulated, Chien-lung imported, as colonists into the country, Solons and Sibos, loyal fighting peoples on whom the Chinese could depend; these people were given land in the Hi Valley; while Dungans (Chinese Mohammedans) settled in considerable numbers along the northern foot-hills of the Tian Shan.
Chinese colonists began to recognize in Southern Dzungaria and the Hi Valley a new colony where life was easier than in the crowded home provinces; while criminals and outlaws found that in this direction they could best escape the long arm of the law. Gradually Dzungaria began to assume a respectable and almost settled appearance. Towns of importance grew up, and even the Torguts, after their none too pleasant experiences in Russian territory, were invited to return and were offered lands in which to dwell.
All went well until disturbances and unrest amongst the Chinese Mohammedans, in the provinces of Kansu and Shensi, sent a wave of dissatisfied insurgents across to Dzungaria. In 1864 the Mohammedans rose against their rulers, the Dungan colonists captured the capital— Urumchi, and killed 130,000 Chinese; the Hi Valley was also devastated, five out of its six towns were destroyed, and Dzungaria became once more the scene of bloodshed and war. For seventeen years disorder continued, and it was not until 1878 that the Chinese succeeded in crushing the revolt.
In 1881 these outlying under their leader Ubashi Khan, attempted to escape from the arms of Russia and to return to their old home, the desire being increased by an invitation from the Emperor Chien-lung, who, after depopulating Dzungaria, wished to find desirable colonists and promised the Torguts a home in their native land. The migration of a people, including men, women, children, flocks and herds; the transport of all household belongings; the actual journey, undertaken—as it was—in mid-winter, over bleak and barren steppes, for a distance of three thousand miles from the Volga to Dzungaria, form adequate material for a romance.
Harassed by enemies, decimated by disease, starving, fighting for their lives and their belongings, unable to retreat, forced to advance or to die, the Torguts marched by slow and painful stages back to their own land. After running the gauntlet of Russian Cossacks and Kirghiz plunderers for eight months, the remnant arrived on the confines of China, and were given lands in the Kobuk district1 of Northern Dzungaria, the Yulduz plateau, and the Kunguz and Tekes Valleys in Tian Shan. There exists also a small section of Torguts resident in the southern slopes of the Altai at the sources of the Urungu River, and on the Baitik Mountains, which latter region they share with the Kirei.
Those living in times of sedentary life, narrow conventionalities, and, in most cases, carefully delineated frontiers, can scarcely realize the magnitude of those men-movements which took place in the old days. In former times a conqueror thought nothing of shifting a whole nation across a continent, or of colonizing the lands he had laid waste by importing bands of captives. The world is now so cramped and crowded, that carefully surveyed and jealously guarded frontiers forbid such excursions as those made by the Torguts, the Eleuths, and the Charkhars. A nation, or even a tribe, would find considerable obstacles in its way if it started to overrun Asia.
The Chinese element was chiefly official and commercial, and, in consequence, made up the resident population of the towns. In Dzungaria there were altogether five towns of greater and two of lesser importance. Of the first mentioned there were: Urumchi, the capital, where resided a Futai — the governor of Dzungaria and Chinese Turkestan, a Grand Treasurer, a Tartar General, and a considerable garrison; Chuguchak — on the northern frontier — of economic and strategical importance, but not utilized to any great extent; Manas, the agricultural center — the granary of Dzungaria; Guchen, the terminus of the trans-Gobi trade-route, and Barkul, of no particular note. Of lesser size are Shi-kho, at the junction of the Chuguchak and Hi roadways, and Sharasume, the military post in the Altai. These towns formed the temporary homes of the Chinese rulers, the military element, and the traders.
Here the Celestials lived, completely oblivious of the fact that they were, in reality, exiled, among entirely foreign surroundings. They showed here that extraordinary adaptability to their surroundings which marked them all the world over, whether in the Port of London, in San Francisco, Australia, or South Africa. Besides the Chinese, Chanto merchants did a very considerable trade in local produce, and were the agents for Russian goods, which found a ready market. In Urumchi alone the Turki population numbered a quarter of the whole. Over this nondescript population ruled the Emperor of China through the agency of the Viceroy of Kansu and Shensi, who deputed a Governor to look after the affairs of Dzungaria. Dzungaria gave the impression of a vast land awaiting development, but cursed by the blight of unrest, continual insurrection and rebellion. Without a strong government these potentially wealthy lands must long remain vacant. Dzungaria represented the neutral zone between vast China and vaster Russia.
The Russian Semirechensk region, from Semipalatinsk, as well as the Balkhash, and Issyk-Kul formed part of Dzungaria, or rather composed the I'li region, of which only a small portion, namely the Kuldja district, was retained by the Chinese. Since 1844, however, Jiiat country had been gradually, and without opposition, absorbed by the Russians. Thus the Russian Kazaks came gradually to monopolize the fisheries in the waters until, on the one side, a line of pickets was advanced up the Irtysh to the Narym mountains, while another line was thrown out from UstKamenogorsk to Kokpektinsk, with a third line projecting from Semipalatinsk to Kopal, and thence to Vernoe. More recently a chain of posts was established from Sergiopol to Urdjar, along the Tarbagatai mountains, on the road to Chuguchak, and another from the main line near Kopal to Lepsinsk. Preoccupied in the preservation of tranquillity in the more populous localities, and loth to issue from their citadels, the Chinese authorities and garrisons were, it seems, supremely indifferent to Russian encroachments over an extent of surplus country which they were unable to protect.
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