Jinchuan is divided into Greater Jinchuan and Lesser Jinchuan, located in the northwest part of Sichuan province along the upper reaches of the Dadu River. The population in this region is predominantly Tibetan, alongside several other ethnic minorities. At that time, Jinchuan served as a crucial transit route from Sichuan to Tibet, making its strategic importance highly significant.
This situation was utterly intolerable for the ambitious Qianlong Emperor, who was eager to assert his authority. He immediately resolved to dispatch troops to attack. However, history played a cruel trick on Qianlong: only a handful of officials in the imperial court supported sending troops. Their surprisingly uniform reasoning was that Jinchuan lay deep in northwest Sichuan’s rugged interior, with difficult terrain—steep mountains and dense forests—making it a burdensome and almost useless military objective. Nonetheless, the far-sighted Qianlong Emperor insisted on launching a campaign against Greater Jinchuan.
展开剩余82%In 1747, the Qing army, numbering 30,000 troops, advanced in two columns toward Greater Jinchuan. By 1749, Greater Jinchuan surrendered, and this phase of the Jinchuan campaign came to a temporary close.
However, a few years later, around 1765, the situation in Jinchuan deteriorated drastically. This time, Greater and Lesser Jinchuan no longer fought against each other; instead, they united to jointly attack more than ten neighboring Tusi (native chieftain) territories.
When the ambitious Qianlong Emperor received this report, he wasted no words—his order was simply to \"fight!\" In 1766, he appointed Governor-General Altai to lead the frontline operations and coordinated an alliance with nine local Tusi chieftains to attack both Greater and Lesser Jinchuan. The region’s harsh climate and perilous terrain posed immense challenges. Narrow mountain trails were often the only routes, and at critical passes and cliffs, numerous forts, watchtowers, and stone walls bristled with firearms and cannons. Every step forward cost the Qing troops dearly in casualties. After a prolonged and extremely grueling series of battles, by 1776, both Greater and Lesser Jinchuan were completely subdued. The Qing government then established direct county administration in the region, abolishing the centuries-old hereditary Tusi system.
From the first campaign against Greater Jinchuan in 1747 until the final pacification in 1776, the conflict spanned 28 years. Though victorious, the toll was devastating. Nearly all of Qianlong’s renowned generals took part, with a total of about 100,000 troops deployed within a roughly 500-mile area. Logistics involved nearly 600,000 personnel, silver expenditures reached 70 million taels, and over 200,000 soldiers died. More than 150 senior and mid-level military officers were killed in action. Due to battlefield failures, four high-ranking officials were executed. This protracted war severely depleted Qing resources, leading many modern scholars to criticize Qianlong, labeling the Jinchuan Wars as foolish and wasteful, arguing that the emperor’s pride cost the empire dearly.
However, from my perspective, the Jinchuan campaign was far from foolish; it was a strategic masterstroke. This war decisively crushed the seeds of unrest in the southwestern Sichuan-Tibet borderlands, laying the groundwork for stable governance in the region for the next century. It is no exaggeration to say that during the Sino-Japanese War decades later, the secure southwestern region, including Sichuan-Tibet, preserved critical industrial infrastructure and continuously supplied troops and weapons, thus easing the national government’s struggle against Japan.
Why was victory in such a small place like Jinchuan so significant? Many readers may wonder—let me explain:
As mentioned, Jinchuan occupied a vital choke point on the route from Sichuan into Tibet, inhabited mainly by ethnic minorities, with virtually no Han Chinese. The hereditary Tusi system had endured here for centuries, far from the imperial center—essentially a “far-flung domain” where local chieftains ruled autonomously. Such deeply entrenched local authority meant if Greater and Lesser Jinchuan were allowed to unite and swallow up neighboring Tusi lands, they could form an independent ethnic minority polity.
If they then allied with separatist forces in Tibet, combining their strength amid the extremely difficult transport conditions of the time, they could establish a dominant independent state in the southwest. By connecting with other ethnic groups in Yunnan and Guizhou, the consequences could have been disastrous. More critically, Qing successors were relatively weak, and with foreign powers already interfering in China’s internal affairs, the Qing government lacked the capacity to resolve such remote border issues.
The likely outcome would have been this emerging minority polity gaining foreign backing, achieving full independence and becoming a sovereign entity.
Fortunately, the resolute and ambitious Qianlong Emperor persevered with his 28-year military campaign, extinguishing this potential threat before it could metastasize. He prevented the Jinchuan Tusi from turning their domain into an independent state.
So, dear readers, do you agree that Qianlong Emperor’s achievements were remarkable, earning him the status of a major contributor to China’s unity? Could he be considered a wise ruler of history? Feel free to share your thoughts and engage in discussion.
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