As the ruling class, Gui, under the rule of the die-hards headed by Empress Dowager Cixi, stands still. In order to safeguard their own interests, it is cruel to even suppress Emperor Guangxu himself and the Reform Movement of 1898.
In order to put out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, Empress Dowager Cixi even lured wolves into the room to borrow soldiers from foreign countries. There is even a famous saying passed down from generation to generation: It is better to give friends than slaves. When Li Hongzhang presented the draft of the "Xin Chou Treaty" to Cixi, he was overjoyed to see that his privileges had not been deprived, and shouted, "Measure China's financial resources and win the favor of the country."
Xinjiang is an inseparable part of China. At that time, after the completion of the industrial revolution, Russia tried to occupy Xinjiang in order to open the market and compete with Britain and other powerful countries, and Britain was also eyeing it after occupying India.
For the crisis-ridden Qing dynasty at that time, although Xinjiang was a large area, the environment was bad and the pressure from the Japanese was increasing. Li Hongzhang and others even said that it is imperative to develop the Beiyang Navy first.
Reality is cruel, I am a fish, I am a knife. Empress Dowager Cixi herself intends to give up Xinjiang, connive at Russian aggression and give priority to the Japanese. However, Zuo, as the governor of Shaanxi but Gansu, put forward different opinions. What's more, in 1877- 1882, he wrote five times in a row to request the establishment of a province in Xinjiang.
Just when Cixi hesitated, Zuo finally made a decision. Zuo said in his lecture that "the ambition of western powers is definitely not as simple as Xinjiang, but only as a springboard for annexing Mongolia." If so, how to solve the danger of the capital? " Not far from death. "
For Empress Dowager Cixi, these words are thought-provoking. She may not care how much land she lost and how much money she paid, but what she cares more about is that her "good life" rights cannot be lost and her Qing Dynasty cannot perish.
Therefore, Zuo was ordered to enter Xinjiang to suppress the rebellion. Facing the Agubai Group supported by Russia, the left carried the coffin forward, and Qiang Bing, determined to die, successively recovered Turpan and other places with the policy of "going north first, then slowly going south, and fighting urgently". It took two years to recover most of the territory of southern and northern Xinjiang, and to advance to the Ili region occupied by Russia.
Finally, after negotiations, Russia had to withdraw from Ili, and the Qing Dynasty shattered the conspiracy of Russia and Britain to annex Xinjiang. Zuo also wrote a heroic monument in the history of Xinjiang and China.