The Life of Yakoob Beg; Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar

In the spring of 1867 his army set out in two divisions for Aksu. The Tungani appear to have been paralyzed when the danger that had for many months appeared menacing came upon them. The resistance encountered at Aksu, naturally and artificially a very strong place, was not prolonged, and Yakoob Beg swept on against Kucha. Here the Tungani, having somewhat recovered from their trepidation, made a desperate stand, and with the reinforcements that had arrived from Turfan presented a sufficiently formidable appearance. The ruling authorities in Kucha were Khojas, who in the time of the Chinese had the custody of a shrine sacred to the memory of a Mahomedan saint, but who at the outbreak of disturbances left the temple for the council chamber, and the offering up of prayers to the memory of the saint for the more difficult task of issuing edicts for the management of a people. Unhappily for their reputation in our eyes, they had specially distinguished themselves in the massacres of the Khitay. Their brief tenure of power seems to have been fairly beneficent, and, in the lull that succeeded the deposition of the Chinese and preceded the invasion of Yakoob Beg, they obtained without doing anything very noteworthy the approval and affection of their subjects. At Kucha, therefore, more than 500 miles distant from his own capital, with a long line of hostile country in his rear, Yakoob Beg found himself opposed by the full power of the Tungani. Previous to advancing beyond Aksu he had sent back officers to Kashgar to bring up fresh levies, and he had resorted to that doubtful expedient of drafting into his army many of the Tungani captured at Aksu. Arrived in front of Kucha he was unable to prosecute the siege with any vigour until the arrival of his reinforcements. The moment of delay was attempted to be turned to account by Yakoob Beg and some of the more prudent of his counsellors; but the Tungani, whether unwilling to acknowledge their inferiority or incredulous of the good faith of the Athalik Ghazi, refused to enter into negotiations that they asserted were unnecessary. Yakoob Beg had invaded them in their possessions, and he had annexed Aksu; the only condition in which they could acquiesce was a withdrawal of his army. All the efforts of the more peaceful and the more prudent on either side were unavailing, and each party used every exertion to bring up fresh troops to decide the question of superiority between Tungani and Kashgari. For several weeks the two armies stood facing each other, the one stationed on the hills to the north and west of the city, commanding the main road from Aksu, the other in the environs and the fortifications of the city itself. The Tungani were far the more numerous, but in the quality of his main body, and in general efficiency both of weapons and of experience among the officers, the advantage was completely on the side of Yakoob Beg. The nucleus of his force comprised Afghan, Khokandian, and Badakshi troops, veterans in the wars of the two previous years. The Tungani were either the assassins of helpless Chinese, or the fugitives of Aksu or Yangy Hissar. They were imperfectly armed, without any organization, and without any competent leaders. Above all, the cause they were fighting for was vague, and many of them in their hearts sympathized more with Yakoob Beg than they did with their own chiefs. The Kashgarian army, on the other hand, was encouraged by a long series of brilliant achievements, and looked forward with eagerness to the fray as the means of exalting their own religion, and as affording them an opportunity for advancing their own personal interests by the plunder of so rich a city as Kucha. The reinforcements were consequently eagerly expected, and some of the more ardent spirits demanded that they should be led without delay against the enemy. Yakoob Beg was so far prudent that he refused to be urged into premature action by the impetuosity of his followers, and the arrival of reinforcements sooner than was anticipated enabled him not only to keep the excitement of his soldiery within due bounds, but also to commence active operations at an earlier date than had seemed possible. The Tungan leaders, deluded by the inaction of Yakoob Beg into a belief that he was unable to prosecute the enterprise he had undertaken, assumed the offensive, only to be worsted in several minor engagements. The Tungan troops were driven within the walls, and the siege was prosecuted with the closest rigour. The garrison of Kucha was not sufficiently numerous to guard in proper strength the wide-stretching suburbs and extensive fortifications of the existing Kucha, and the cities that had in olden days stood upon its site. Not many days elapsed before Yakoob Beg perceived that the defence was confined to a limited portion of the fortifications, and that several points were entirely neglected. He resolved, therefore, to put an end to the slow process of a siege by carrying the town by a general assault. With the whole of his available force he attacked the city on three sides; but the Tungani resisted strenuously, and all his direct attacks were repulsed with heavy loss. To his son Khooda Kul Beg he had entrusted an attack in the rear of the city, and on the success of that movement now entirely depended the result of the assault on Kucha. That division by great good fortune and the gallantry of its leader was victorious, and, although this promising son of Yakoob Beg, then only a little more than twenty years of age, was killed in the confusion that ensued on the entrance into the city, Kucha fell. The triumph was, perhaps, not too dearly purchased. The Tungan power had received a blow, which took the sting out of its menace, and effectually protected Kashgar from any possible confederacy among the Tungan cities. Yakoob Beg followed up the success of Kucha with all his usual promptitude, but his power was not yet sufficiently matured to justify him in carrying on extensive operations at such a distance from the base of his resources. But another reason at this time combined to recall his attention to another part of his dominions. The Russians were advancing both in Khokand and in the district of Vernoe to the west of Kuldja.

It was evident that prudence demanded a prompt return, and for the present all further triumph must be abandoned. However, before Yakoob Beg returned to regulate events in the western portion of his dominions, he had the satisfaction of receiving the submission humbly tendered by the ruling bodies of Karashar, Turfan, Hamil, and Urumtsi. After this brilliant campaign, he slowly retraced his steps through Kucha to Aksu. Then he turned into the mountains, and reduced Ush Turfan, which in his onward march he had passed by; and, after this acquisition, the Tungani of Ili expressed a desire to enter into terms of amity with one who had brought his empire into direct contact with their state. All these events occurred during the year 1867; and, although now and then uncertain rumours reached England of these changes in Eastern Turkestan, the world in general, even the Russian world, remained indifferent to the progress of events of which it is now difficult to trace the exact course. But, with the close of this first Tungan campaign, and with the extension of the new state up to the walls of Kucha, the Russian Government, as will be seen in a later chapter, endeavoured to arrive at some clear view on the exact condition of the newly formed confederacy to which they in their career of conquest were approaching so rapidly.

This commencement of foreign interest in, nay, almost supervision of, his actions in Eastern Turkestan, imposed some restriction on the hitherto unrestrained caprice of Yakoob Beg, and the country beyond Kucha up to Turfan was saved for a short time from the depredations from which in 1871–73 it suffered so much. On his return to Kashgar after this triumphant progress, and after having annexed the three important cities, Aksu, Kucha, and Ush Turfan, the danger which had seemed to threaten the state from Russia passed off, and Yakoob Beg proceeded to consolidate his hold on what he had secured. Aksu and Kucha were fortified, and various small forts were constructed in the passes leading to Khokand and Kuldja. Every precaution was taken that he had it in his power to observe, to ensure the safety of his little kingdom from without, and for the moment all murmur within seemed to be hushed by the loud acclamations at the victories of the Athalik Ghazi. He had, indeed, accomplished no slight task, and could afford to regard his handiwork with some complacency. To erect a powerful state on the ruins of the Chinese power, and to unite in some sort of settled government turbulent races and antagonistic sects, was no mean achievement; and to all the credit due to such Yakoob Beg has indisputable claims. But for him, confusion and disunion would have settled down over Eastern Turkestan, until either the Russians or the Chinese had come to establish a respectable government; but for him Kashgar would have lapsed into a state of almost hopeless disorder, and Russian triumphs would have been facilitated. But, when Yakoob Beg returned to find that he was not seriously threatened in Kashgar, he experienced deep regret and mortification that he had abstained from prosecuting his wars with the Tungani with a greater vigour. He eagerly looked forward to an excuse for resuming his discontinued operations against them. In the interval that elapsed, he waged a small war in the mountainous region of his territory extending into Badakshan and the Chitral. Sirikul had, ever since the appearance of the Badakshi army in the service of Kashgar, acknowledged a certain kind of obedience to Yakoob Beg; but in 1868, the governor hitherto supported by the Athalik Ghazi broke out into revolt, and committed several acts of depredation in the contiguous districts of Sanju and Yarkand. Yakoob Beg without delay despatched a small force against him, and, by the help of some mountain guns and the judicious employment of a small but select body of cavalry, was successful in overcoming all resistance with very slight loss. In February, 1869, Yakoob Beg, having tried several milder alternatives, formally annexed this district, and carried the inhabitants into Yarkand. He resettled the territory with Kirghiz nomads and Yarkandis. Once more, he was able to turn his attention to the east, and in 1869 commenced those final campaigns against the Tungani which only ceased with the reappearance of the Chinese. The great blot in the career of Yakoob Beg is the resumption of hostilities against the Tungani. In 1867, when he first engaged with any vigour the Tungani, some excuse may be found for that unforeseeing action, in the fact that the Tungani were unbroken, and might have proved formidable neighbours. But in 1869, they had been hurled back on Korla, and, although it may be true that they were inconvenient neighbours, robbing caravans and molesting travellers, it is difficult to justify the later campaigns of Yakoob Beg against them, especially as they were conducted by himself and his lieutenants with exceptional ferocity. But, however weak may have been the impulse, and however disastrous in the result may have been his crusade against the Tungani, it was not difficult to discover a plausible excuse for proceeding to extreme measures with his troublesome neighbours. In the autumn of 1869, Korla fell before his triumphant arms, and it would appear that he then turned north into the valleys of the Tekes and the Yuldus, two rivers rising in the Tian Shan, and flowing through Jungaria. This movement aroused the susceptibilities of the Russians, and afforded a very simple excuse for the acquisition of Kuldja. In that state, disturbances had arisen between the Tungani and the Tarantchis, and it must have fallen an easy prey to the Athalik Ghazi had he been permitted to advance. The Russians had, however, in 1871, entered Kuldja, and explained their action by asserting that they had only done so to restore order, and to prevent its falling into the hands of Yakoob Beg. They merely held it in trust for the Chinese, so they said, and would restore it to them, its rightful owners, so soon as they should be able to keep permanent possession of it. While Yakoob Beg despatched a large detachment into the country of the Tian Shan, his main body was prosecuting with vigour the war against Karashar and Turfan. Yakoob Beg did not always conduct the war in person, for his two sons, Kuli Beg and Hacc Kuli Beg, were now growing up, and they, assisted by some of the older lieutenants, triumphed in various actions over the Tungan rulers of Turfan and Hamil, while even the princes of Urumtsi and Manas over the Tian Shan were unable to oppose the valour and energy of their adversary. The glory of these military achievements was tarnished by the ruthless manner in which the district was laid waste, and the inhabitants were massacred; and the senselessness of these proceedings only required an hour of trial, such as the Chinese invasion, to prove how fatal it would be to the enacters of these atrocities. Without any great cessation, their operations were carried on down to the end of 1873, and it does not appear that Yakoob Beg derived any benefit whatever from these costly and remote undertakings. Although the Tungan chiefs of Urumtsi and Hamil were on several occasions defeated by the armies of the Athalik Ghazi, their cities were never occupied, and they consequently escaped that desolation which stretched from the walls of Kucha to the regions north of Lake Lob. Chightam, a small town lying half way between Turfan and Hamil, was the extreme point to which the Kashgarian forces penetrated. The noble families of Urumtsi, Turfan, and Hamil were almost totally destroyed in the fall of Turfan; and their place in their own cities was seized by Tungan generals and adventurers, who began to retreat westward from Kansuh, on the rumours of Chinese preparations for invading Jungaria.

The wars against the Tungani certainly served one useful purpose in enabling Yakoob Beg to collect a large and disciplined force round his standard; but the attractions of service in his army lost much of their value in the eyes of the hardier clans of Turkestan and the neighbouring states, when it became known that the prospect of loot and prize money in districts impoverished by several years of hostilities had diminished. The rigour of the discipline maintained, too, was irksome to nomads and irregulars accustomed to the easier service and freedom from restraint of the other Asiatic princes; and during the later years of his rule there were many desertions, and a difficulty was encountered in inducing recruits to enter his army. The old practice, employed with such success in the earlier years of his rule, of inducing the conquered to combine with the conqueror, was no longer possible, for extermination had become the order of the day. The Usbegs, Kirghiz, and other tribes, could not supply in sufficient numbers the requirements of the state, and the Tungani, who should have comprised the largest portion of the subjects of the Athalik Ghazi, were coerced into subjection with an undiscriminating severity. The result was really a paralysis through sheer want of people, and it was not known until the hour of trial came how weakened his forces had become. Every inducement was held forth to Afghan, Badakshi, and, above all, to Indian soldiers to join, but these, although they formed a nucleus of trustworthy and efficient soldiers, were far too few to constitute a formidable army. We are justified in assuming from the facts that these Tungan wars, conducted in an unsparing manner, were the greatest mistake that marked the career of Yakoob Beg. So far as his occupation of Kucha goes, he could at least say that he had secured a valuable prize. He had acquired every part of what could be considered Kashgar, and his kingdom was effectually guarded, and his revenues prospectively increased, by the possession of the great cities of Aksu and Kucha. He might exclaim with justice that he had eclipsed all his predecessors in military prowess, and if he had been wise he would then have turned his attention to the well government of his state, and by so doing have demonstrated that he was of a higher capacity for ruling a people, as well as for commanding an army, than any Khoja prince of the past. Had he abstained from prosecuting with such unflagging persistency his inveterate dislike of the Tungani, he might easily have come to terms with his neighbours, and the harm they could have done him would have been infinitesimally small. But the chief advantage of that more prudent policy would have been visible when the Chinese advanced to chastise the Tungani. Not only would the Tungani have been more capable of resisting the Khitay, not only would Manas and Urumtsi have been capable of offering a more determined defence, but the Tungani could have retired on Turfan, and held the country round that town, as well as Karashar and Korla, for a protracted period against General Kin Shun. The Athalik Ghazi with untouched resources could have awaited with just confidence the advance of the Chinese upon his strong frontier city of Kucha, and, as the Chinese accomplished the difficult task of crushing the Tungani, he would have had the satisfaction of knowing that in all probability the Chinese effort would have been spent before it reached his own borders.

It is impossible to judge men except by the results of their actions, and the result of Yakoob Beg's incessant and unnecessary interference with the Tungani was that the Chinese army was able in a few months to dissipate the remaining Tungan communities, and to encounter in the full flush of their triumph the numerically weaker forces of Yakoob Beg. It is, therefore, impossible to exonerate the ruler from great blame in hastily undertaking operations which a little consideration ought to have shown to be unwise. Having traced Yakoob Beg's wars with the Chinese Mahomedans, it is time to consider his rule of Kashgaria proper, and the events that during these years were transpiring in other quarters of the state.