The History of China - #275 - Qing 17: Office of Barbarian Control

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

With its southern border finally pacified, the Qing Dynasty under its Kangxi Emperor must now contend with a rising challenge to the northeast: the ascent and enthronement of a real steppe wildcard, the chieftain Galdan, as reigning Khan of the Dzungar Mongols. Kangxi will strive to use him as he has used all other neighboring petty-potentates - as semi-disposable ablative armor for the soft innards of China proper under the longstanding guidelines of "Use The Barbarians to Deal With the Barbarians" foreign policy... but Galdan is mercurial enough to have ideas of his own, and friends in surprisingly high places (the Tibetan Highlands). Time Period Covered: ~1679-1684 CE Major Historical Figures: Great Qing: The Kangxi Emperor (Aisin Gioro Xuanye) [r. 1661-1722] The Lifan Yuan (Office of Barbarian Control) Dzungar Khannate: Galdan, the Boshugtu Khan [r. 1679-1697] Other Mongols: Erdeni Qosuuci Morgen Alana Dorji Lobzang Gunbu Labdan Batur Erke Jinong [d. 1709] Prince Gandu Lamist Tibet: The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso [1617–1682] Russian Empire: Count Fedor Alekseevich Golovin [1650-1706] Major Works Cited: Munkh-Erdene, Lamsuren. The Taiji Government and the Rise of the Warrior State. Perdue, Peter C. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Thokmay, Darig. “Game Changers of the Tibetan Buddhist Political Order in Central Asia in the Early Eighteenth Century” in The Tibet Journal, Vol. 46, No. 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American history. When a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves. And when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over turned into a struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. I'm Tracy. And I'm Rich. And we want to invite you to join us as we take an in-depth look at this pivotal era in American history.

Look for The Civil War and Reconstruction wherever you find your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 275, Office of Barbarian Control By 1684, or 1689, Kangxi could regard his consolidation of Manchu power as complete. He'd won over the Chinese scholar elite to his rule and successfully incorporated nearly all the Ming elite with the Bo Shui special doctoral exam of 1679. He had secured the boundaries of the state on all frontiers and defeated major opposition from Ming loyalists,

the maritime fortress base of Zhengchenggang on Taiwan, the fortress commanders in Siberia, and the powerful regional generals controlling the southwest. He had ensured the supremacy of the emperor over rival Manchu magnates and established stable institutions of bureaucratic rule. Why then, ten years later, did this secure ruler launch another series of extremely risky campaigns of expansion, again defying his cautious advisors and even participating in the campaigns personally. There was no strategic imperative for the Qing Empire to expand further. It already had exceeded the size of the Ming Empire by 1678, and the Dzungar Mongols arguably did not constitute a serious threat to the core of Chinese rule.

From Peter C. Perdue in China Marches West, Chapter 4 We have, over the course of the last five or so episodes, already rather extensively overviewed the long and storied reign of the Kangxi Emperor over the nascent but vastly powerful Qing Empire. But, to briefly recap, Aisin Gyoro Xuanyi came to the throne at the tender age of eight as of the year 1661 as a child of three worlds. Though he was, needless to say, enthroned as the pure-blooded autocrat of the Manchus, an even cursory overview of his genealogy reveals a far more complex and fascinating story. One reflective of the

borderlands' admixture of cultures and bloodlines of virtually all peoples who trace themselves to the banks of the Amur River. Kangxi was actually less than half quote-unquote pure Manchu, intermixed with a near-equal quanta of Mongol blood via his paternal grandmother and maternal great-grandmother, and then a quarter Han Chinese from his mother. Looking ahead, it's an interesting historical counterfactual to wonder what might have been had the ruling Manchu class of Great Qing opted to embrace their multicultural makeup and truly rule their populace as equal subjects, rather than lesser thans with themselves forming an enshrined ruling caste at the top. But as with all such alt-history, that must remain a what-if. Taking up the reins of personal rule upon his censor's urging, at the age of fourteen,

Kangxi wasted little time in deciding to terminate the tetrarchy of regent uncles, in every sense of the word, along with a general purge of the imperial government, other loyalist ministers, in 1669, leaving him with absolute and uncontested personal power over his realm and government, a change that injected a new dynamism into Qing expansionism that brought back the spirit of the early days of the growth of the state. This general feeling and trend was forcefully punctuated by Kangxi's twin victories over first the rebellious lords of the three feudatory realms of the far southwest, as well as the island bastion of

Dunchenggang, aka Koxinga, on Taiwan, thereby bringing, at least conceptually, all under heaven firmly to heel under the Qing imperial yoke. From Peter C. Perdue, quote, Kangxi's successful suppression of the southwest secessionists have consequences for Qing attitudes From Peter C. to power, lands, and taxation, ensured that breaking away would be difficult. End quote. Likewise, over this period, Kangxi came to develop and then stoke what would become a lifelong suspicion and hostility toward the Dalai Lama, who, as was widely known,

had been wooed by no less than the self-styled emperor of the so-called Wuzhou Dynasty, the two-time turncloak and feudatory lord himself, Wu Sangui. Though now in sole command over easily the most powerful state in the known world, holding both more physical territory than the former Ming regime and a greater populace, as well as subjugation over the last of its ruling house's potential claimants, and the hard-won loyalty of nearly all the Chinese scholar elites. Even so, the Kangxi Emperor was far from ready to rest on his laurels and bask in the glow of victory. Instead, over the course of the 1670s and 80s,

he became increasingly convinced that the far-flung leader of the Western Mongols, who called themselves the Oirat or Jungar, an enigmatic chieftain named Galdan posed a threat to Great Qing's future stability. Such fears could only have been exacerbated as of 1679, when the 5th Dalai Lama, sometimes known as the Great Fifth, bestowed upon Galdan the coveted title of Boshugtu Khan, or the Divine Khan, potentially paving the way for a latter-day revival of the Yeke Mongol Ulus, or Great Mongol Empire, a true nightmare scenario for all settled peoples across Eurasia.

Yet, Kangxi would not immediately move against this steppe chieftain in the wastes of the far western expanses. As Perdue puts it, quote, in the 1680s, his main goal in the northwest was to ward off the increasing Russian penetration of northern Manchuria. Kangxi's forward moves culminated in the attack on the Albazin Fortress of 1684 and 1686, and the negotiations leading to the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689. Preventing the Russians from supporting the rising power in western Mongolia was one of the main motivations for the treaty. End quote. Even with a possibly worrisome build in Uyghur-Mongol power and centralization in the Western Marches, however, at least on the surface, there seemed to be very little reason that the two civilizations would need to resort once again to armed conflict.

Indeed, both Kangxi and Galdan's direct ancestors had treated and traded with one another since at least 1653, when Gush Khan, Galdan's paternal grandfather, had been granted an imperial seal and title, as well as permission to send tribute missions to Beijing from the Xunzhe Emperor. Just two decades later, though, the expansion of Galdan's power disrupted Qing goals of maintaining peace among the tributaries and of keeping them confined beyond the passes. By the end of 1677, Western Mongol, again also known as Ulud, leaders that had been defeated by Galdan Khan, had begun to illegally cross the border into Qing territories in order to steal horses from both border guards and commoners. The most powerful among them was Ardeni Khosushi, with over 10,000 tents, and Morgan Alana Dorji, with several thousand of his own.

Threatened by winter famine, these invaders crossed the border, killing and plundering for food and livestock. The emperor, realizing that they were driven by desperation, ordered border troops not to kill them, but to attempt to drive them out. Above all, he preferred a defensive policy, strengthening the alertness of border guards to prevent the Mongols from crossing the border in the first place. Throughout this time period, Galdan was moving against his father-in-law, Ochertu Khan of the Khoshuts and his allies. In the aftermath of Ochertu's death, Galdan attempted to recruit his warriors, but many instead opted to flee to the Qing. It was these panicking Mongol warriors and their families who relayed rumors of Galdan supposedly making ready to invade Qing territory proper to the ears of the imperial court and eventually to Kangxi himself. Yet with his own resources still largely tied up in the southeast, continuing to attempt to bring the rebellious feudatories to heel, the emperor was forced to admit that, at least for the time being,

he needed Galdan and his ability to resolve or at least contain the troubles roiling Qing's northern borderlands. To that end, he sent trusted Mongol messengers to seek out Galdan and basically cut him in on the whole imperial border protection racket. They were tasked with giving Galdan and basically cut him in on the whole imperial border protection racket. They were tasked with giving Galdan an imperial mission to find and capture the rebellious Mongol lord, Ardini Khosuqi. To this, of course, Galdan laughed, and in an almost word-for-word rendition of a line out of The Godfather, replied that Ardini now roamed with the wild animals and could not be found.

Yet, rather than taking this rather cheeky response in stride, Kangxi sent a reply demanding that, no, you seem to misunderstand, that wasn't a request. You will find and capture Ardini and return all the stuff that he stole to its rightful owners. Or else, Qing would be forced to move into the region and oversee the completion of the operation directly. This left Galdan in something of a tough spot. Obviously, the Qing armies being deployed to Jungaria would spell disaster for the free Mongols of the region, one and all, and must be avoided at all costs. Yet equally obvious was that Galdan could not find and capture Ardini nor return his stolen goods because the rebel Khan was long dead and any such ill-gotten loot long gone.

Finding himself stuck between an imperial rock and hard place, Galdan decided to pull the ultimate Mongol wildcard and prepared to go on the offensive to invade and conquer the oasis cities of Turfan and Hami, both officially under Qing protection. Such assurances, it turned out, were largely hypothetical in nature, and Galdan easily seized control of both trade towns, thereby effectively completing his control over the entirety of eastern Turkestan beyond the Gansu Corridor. Objective achieved, Galdodong in October of 1679 sent missives to his opposing commander, the Qing general Zhang Yong,

including traditional gifts of horses and furs for the emperor, along with a message stating, quote, The northwest area I have now entirely taken. Only the western sea, Kokonor, Lake Qinghai, which was divided between my ancestors

and your ancestors, now you control alone. I want to take it back. End quote. Qing spies had, by this point, been scrambled across the western reaches, tasked with infiltrating wherever they best could, and digging up more information on just who exactly this enigmatic Mongol upstart, Galdan, actually was. They reported back that he was now about 36 years old, had the year before mobilized against the Qinghai region, but then decided to disperse his men before reaching it, and that he dispatched his troops to Turkestan, or as the Qing spies so delicately put it, to the turban-headed Muslim territory.

They added that he was not yet powerful enough to dare risk engaging imperial forces directly, and apparently decided to add their own little dramatic flair to spice up the report, that Galdan was, quote, violent and evil and addicted to wine and sex, end quote. Now, it must be remembered, and hopefully it's been made obvious enough already, that we're not being given the entire picture here. We don't have a perfect historical panopticon, but are instead helplessly reliant on the records that we have. Records that are, in this case, entirely biased and one-sided. That's right, we're pretty much forced to read this situation only from the Qing Chinese side of things, which makes absolutely no bones about being as hostile as you pleased about the alleged intentions and motivations of difficult neighbors like Gaodan.

Yet, even with that huge caveat right where it should be, at the fore of our minds when reading about what the Chinese thought of the violent and evil drunken sex pest, Galdan, even the Qing records are forced to acknowledge that Galdan wasn't demanding anything more than what had long been the agreed-upon partition line asserted by the free Mongols of the Northwest and largely respected by the former Ming regime. Again from Perdue, quote, The Ming rulers had never controlled Mongolia or Qinghai, and they extended only a thin strip into Gansu, along the Great Wall, end quote. Galdan himself did not appear to threaten the

Qing borders. Any such border disturbances the Qing were experiencing were in fact being conducted by Mongol skirmishers under the command of the very rival warlords Gaodong had been busily defeating, such as our Dany Hosushi, who were now streaming through the western passes in flight and then taking time to raid and pillage the Chinese settled populace once they'd arrived. Even the Qing general Zhang Yong, upon learning more of his foe's forced dispersion and overall size and capabilities, concluded that Gaolun posed no threat to the Qing borders, that he knew that all too well, and that he had no intention of even

attempting an invasion. Nevertheless, it's probably not far off the mark to say that, from the perspective of the Qing Imperial Army command staff, at least those who were not actually on the ground getting intel on the Khan and his step-riders. Any such internal bickering among these shifting bands of barbarians was pretty much immaterial. A barbarian was a barbarian was a barbarian, and if they weren't on their knees submitting to the Dragon Throne's infinitely merciful suzerainty, then they were hostiles to be dealt with as such. Simple as that. Or, to put it in the words of the late great philosopher and wordsmith, Anakin Skywalker,

If you're not with me, then you're my enemy. To put it in the words of the late great philosopher and wordsmith, Anakin Skywalker, It was at this point that we come full circle, to 1679 and Galdan taking further advantage of the Kangxi Emperor's focus on the southeastern feudatories to enlist the Dalai Lama's assistance in widening the aperture of his ambition. He was bestowed with the personal blessing of his holiness as Boshugtu Khan, as I mentioned earlier, derived from the Mongolian Boshug, meaning decree of heaven, fate, destiny, or command, and with a very similar connotation to the Chinese concept of the mandate of heaven. That October, the newly enthroned Khan sent an envoy of tribute to Beijing to deliver his gifts

and announce his new title. Yet to this, the Li Fan Yuan took exception. That makes this a marvelous time to get a little more into the wonderful world of the Li Fan Yuan, and especially its name. It was, in fact, a brand new organization, and not one that I'd just forgotten to tell you about until right now. Original to the Qing imperial government, and created in the year 1636. Its initial name reflected its initial task, the Menggu Yaman, literally the Mongol Department, or Mongol Jurgan in Manchu. Yet just three years after its creation, the mission creep became evident

when it was renamed to Li Fan Yuan in Mandarin, most directly meaning the Department of Vassal Territorial Affairs, or Tulurgi Golo Bedasara Jurgan in Manchu, meaning the Department for the Administration of Outlying Regions. But the best part is some of the more creative ways that it's been translated into English over time. Here are a few of the good ones. The Board of National Minority Affairs, the Court of Colonial Affairs, the Office for Relations with Principalities, and, of course, my personal favorite, the Office of Barbarian Control.

Hi, everyone. This is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's oldest civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered, follow the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over 10 generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era, then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms, or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast. In any case, the members of the Li Fan Yuan wasted little time in clutching their collective pearls

and penned an urgent missive to the throne, complaining that this state of affairs was in complete breach of the way things ought to be. Never before, they wrote, had a Mongol Khan simply announced a new title to the Chinese emperor without first obtaining official imperial approval along with an official seal. And as an aside here, that quite simply is not true. It used to happen all the time in, say, the 13th and 14th centuries, and this is why it is very dangerous to start throwing around terms like always or never, because you can very quickly be made to look the fool by someone simply pointing to a picture of Genghis and asking if

they think he got permission from the Chinese emperor before becoming Khan. But I digress. In spite of this breach in proper protocol, though, the department collectively recommended that this case be given a special exception and that Galdan's embassy be accepted. Quote, Because he seemed to be submitting to the Qing. End quote. For the time being, the Kangxi Emperor, again still largely tied up in the southeast, adopted a policy toward the various Mongol factions of,

as much as was possible, having them just police themselves. This was a policy that harkened back to at least the Han dynasty more than a millennia prior, known as Ie-Zhe-I, or use the barbarians to control the other barbarians, something that we have talked about time and again, but admittedly, it has been a while. So, if you don't immediately remember that, no biggie. He rejected requests by the Kalkas to increase Qing border guards at border posts, instead urging the Kalkas to maintain control of their followers to prevent them from pillaging the frontier. This policy of self-policing would remain in force up through the final end of the War of the Three Feudatories in 1681.

At that point, having long last secured what could be called nothing less than a grand and hard-won victory, Kangxi summoned his imperial emissaries to the Mongols for an imperial banquet, at which he instructed them on the details of his Mongolian policy going forward, and their general responsibilities in implementing and overseeing it. Quote, taking with them imperial orders and gifts, they would urge the Mongols to make peace among themselves. All officials who did not speak Mongolian should have their discussions translated by interpreters, and all discussions should be recorded. They should respect Mongolian customs and not be excessively concerned with following Chinese ritual. They must keep tight control of their embassies to prevent causing disputes with the Mongols." In all, this represented a comprehensive effort by the Qing government to make what amounted to a good first impression with a number of Mongol chieftains

that had, until now, not directly interfaced with the empire or its agents, and done on the basis of pretty much mutual understanding rather than blunt force. What this all meant for Galdan Khan of the Jungars, then, was that in the fall of 1683, his embassy to Beijing was reciprocated by the Kangxi Emperor, signaling that he had accepted the Khan's offer of tribute. Gaodan, having never before received imperial emissaries, was delighted to receive them now. He insisted on selecting an auspicious day to receive the imperial orders, and was concerned to follow the correct rituals exactly.

For instance, when deciding how best to receive the Qing ambassadors, he found himself torn about the proper protocol. In his own words, quote, Chinese customs are complicated. Our country's customs are simple and easy. When Chinese board officials receive an imperial order, the banquet is only held a month later. Although our country does not have boards, we have Zaisong ministers. If a Zizong receives the order, this follows Chinese custom. If we follow our custom, the Khan himself receives the order and gifts directly. End quote.

Ultimately, Galdan opted to receive the envoys himself in the Mongol style. In the course of their audience, the Jungar Khan inquired of his auspicious guests, I've heard you recently had a rebellion, which is now suppressed. The envoys replied in a truly epically laconic line for the ages, There were rebels recently, but our emperor did not want to disturb the people with arms, so he gradually induced them to surrender. Some surrendered, some were exterminated, and now all is settled. In an evidently remarkable display of Kangxi's earnest effort to reach a political accord with

the Jungar Khan on the basis of mutual respect and understanding, his mission to Galdan included Tibetan-speaking emissaries, a highly appropriate and appreciated gesture given that Galdan's base of operations was indeed in Tibet. Galdan, in kind, demonstrated his own Tibetan bona fides by making the emissaries watch llamas doing ritual dances and chanting scriptures. Doesn't that just sound fun? All told, by the end of the mission, the two nations had reached an understanding. The Qing envoys agreed that Galdan and his Jungar warriors would search for, and if possible, capture both of the rogue Mongol chieftains, Batur and Ardini, and that even if his men proved unable to effect such a capture, they would prevent them from harassing the Qing

frontier going into the future. Perdue writes, This first embassy to Galdan indicates the flexibility of both sides and their mutual interest in good relations. Each side was aware of the cultural differences between them, and neither one wanted to let ritual details interfere with communication, end quote. From the perspective of Beijing, Galdan appeared to be both less of a potential threat than the encroaching Russians, as well as a useful tool in the ever-ongoing Chinese quest to secure its borders against lesser bands of Mongols and their steppe ilk who would otherwise ceaselessly raid and harass.

As so many previous dynasties had done, the Chinese emperor helped one steppe leader to secure preeminence in the hope of winning him over to establish a stable tributary relation. In spite of both parties getting off on this first positive foot, the good times, alas, were not to last. For one, all that vaunted intercultural accommodation that had reigned at the ambassadorial exchanges so far began to break down in the months and years to follow. It's worth us remembering that, as far as the Mongols were concerned, relations and alliances wider than their direct tribe were, with relatively few outstanding exceptions like, say, the election of a great Khan, almost purely voluntary affairs with very little formal hierarchy, at least as compared to the layers upon layers of extremely tight hierarchy

in the Chinese system. Galdan could inform his allied chieftains, for instance, of his directive from the Qing emissaries and ask them to go along with it. But especially when it came to the more outlying bands of step-riders such as the Derbets, Torguts, or Koshut, for instance, not only was enforcement of the Qing-Galdan border directive a difficult proposition, but there weren't even enough official imperial credentials to hand out among them. As such, they continued to frequently cross the border, and when confronted by the Qing border guards, would assert that they were, in fact, envoys of Galdan Khan who should

be allowed through, but had nothing to prove it. Worse, even Galdan's own men proved liable to cross the Qing frontier without taking with them the necessary paperwork. And when confronted and challenged by Qing envoys for this clear violation of the terms of their tributary agreement, Galdan Khan himself tended to shrug and simply reply, quote, whether or not they cross the border is your emperor's decision, end quote. The imperial response was inevitable and proved swift in its coming. Just two months later, Kangxi lodged his complaint that Galdan's embassies had

become too large, now routinely numbering in the thousands, and worse yet, that members of these missions were flagrantly committing crimes up and down the trade routes as they went. Quote, they loot and plunder the horses of Mongols beyond the pass, decried the emperor, and pasture them at will after they enter, trampling fields and plundering people's goods. End quote. As such, going forward, a hard limit was imposed on the number of people allowed per embassy, no more than 200 men. Anyone extra would be stopped and directed to trade whatever they had at a designated border town instead. Moreover, the previously extended imperial diplomatic pardon for embassy members was henceforth rescinded, and any member found breaking the law in the interior would be subject to punishment under the stipulations of Chinese law.

The Kangxi Emperor thereby had drawn a line in the sand. You've abused our hospitality, now come in here under my terms, or not at all. Enter at your own risk. The ball was now in Galdan's court. He seems to have had an almost impish enough nature that this seems pretty much inevitable, but Galdan wasted little time at all in pushing the envelope. When the next year's trading season arrived, Galdan loaded up his next official tributary embassy with more than 3,000 traitors, I mean, goodwill ambassadors. Yet, as they approached the Qing border checkpoint in order to test this new little prohibition, they were indeed informed in no uncertain terms that the imperial stipulations held firm and would be enforced, forcing all but 200 of the Dzungars to turn back.

When he learned that his bluff had been called, Galdan decided to cry foul, that, quote, Since ancient times, trade with the Olod had followed fixed regulations, which did not limit the size of missions, end quote. And thus it would be a breach of tradition and protocol to impose such a limit now. To this, the Li Fan Yuan replied with a, well, tough. The rules had changed, and his little argumentum ad antiquitatum didn't hold any truck anymore. This restriction, of

course, irked Galdan's Mongol kinsmen, who were themselves the ones being turned away at the border without being allowed to trade. They, in turn, blamed the Jungar Khan instead of the Qing Emperor for the loss of their trading opportunities, which limited Galdan's ability to command them. Nonetheless, it does seem that most of the Western Mongols understood that Galdan had a near-unique relationship with the Kangxi Emperor, as affirmed in 1686 when his and those of the other four great Khalkha princes were stipulated as the only Mongol lords whose embassies would even be allowed to trade in the Qing capital at all with anyone else stopped at the border. Even this level of tension, though, was in fact part

of the grand Chinese toolbox for dealing with its neighbors. Quote, Making Galdan the sole authority entitled to send missions to the capital and requiring all Western Mongol traders to obtain seals from him created tensions within the Mongolian tribes, tensions that could be used by the Qing to pit them against one another. End quote. So long as Galdan held onto his authority by dint of Qing protection, he wouldn't dare betray the Empire's core interests, or else risk being overthrown by one of his own looking for a better angle and whom the Qing found might be a better partner to work with. It was basic frontier politicking slash barbarian management 101.

Keep them busy enough bickering with one another that they never realize that you're the one actually pulling the strings and keeping them scattered and divided. That did not mean, however, that the Jungar-Ching relationship was 100% hiccup-free. Far from it. Two civilizational types as constitutionally different as step-rider versus rice-farmer were pretty much always going to have some rough edges for one another. As Galdan and his kin consolidated Djungar power and expanded their zones of control, for instance,

that inevitably forced those bands of Mongols not under Djungar auspices to the very fringes of their society, compelling many of them to raid and pillage the Chinese frontiers simply to survive. The situation was unstable, and as already said, purposely so, as per the Qing court's design. That manufactured crisis point would reach its first controlled boil as of 1683-84, when Kangxi sent word to Galdan, telling him in effect, hey, come get your boy. The figure in question was the son of Galdan's defeated and executed rival, O-Churtu Khan, and even more so, his nephew, a man named Batur-Urka-Jinong, both of whom have been reported as making camp on the Yellow River's shores within the Ordos Loop,

which is to say, well within the Qing imperial borders. Kangxi hollered at Galdan to have Batur and company removed from Qing territory, to which Galdan replied that, well, okay, he'd get around to it later, maybe after next year. Kangxi replied back, incredulous at having to repeat himself, and that, further, if Galdan didn't comply and have his Mongols removed from Ordos post-haste, he would feel compelled to resolve the situation himself via his own methods. In this big game of diplomatic chicken going on between the leader of the Jungars and Great Qing, it was Galdan who blinked first.

He understood all too well, after all, that he was in virtually every way massively underpowered, and it would be insanity to actually try to disobey or act against the will of the Kangxi Emperor. As such, in 1684, Galdan, along with both Ba-ter Er-ka-ji-nong and a Prince Gan-du, another of Galdan's ardent frenemies or nemesis relationships, after the prince had sworn vengeance on the Khan after Galdan had killed his grandfather. I mean, you know, typical Mongol stuff. All three decided to collectively beg for the emperor's official pardon for their prior acts of non-compliance and or minor rebellion in exchange for their vows of loyalty to the Qing.

That was, no surprise, music to the Kangxi Emperor's ears. In his assent to this mea culpa and update of relationship status, Kangxi took care to make it super duper clear that he held all the cards. Quote, He could have sent troops to exterminate, jiao mian, them as criminals, but he pardoned them because of the long-standing presentation of tribute to the Qing by Ocher Du Khan. Basically, you kids are lucky your grandpa was always nice to me or I'd kill you where you stand. But Kangxi took it one step

even further, noting, prominently, that Galdan had previously stated that he would absolutely not take in Ba Zha or his people, and instead proclaiming that he, and he alone, had decided, in his infinite and inexhaustible mercy, to resettle them safely out of harm's way. Which, of course, meant within the Qing borders, under Qing law and command. And then, he said as much to no less than the Dalai Lama and his assembled Buddhist representatives, in a tone that can really only be read as absolute peak sanctimoniousness.

Quote, You Lamas constantly plan for the common people with merciful hearts. All the Olud nobles present gifts to the Lamas and follow respectfully their laws. I know that Lobzon Gunbu Lobdan and Bata Arka Jinong are descended of Ocho Tu Khan, and Ocho Tu Khan long protected the laws of the Lamas. How can you watch silently as his descendants are driven into poverty? End quote. It was a masterful propaganda campaign to both guilt-trip the Tibetan higher-ups

into allowing Kangxi to resettle groups of Western Mongols under his jurisdiction and protection, what would be the first such instance, as it were, and all while making himself look like the sainted hero of the little guy who'd been so long forgotten and sidelined by their political and spiritual elites. The emperor held the power to eliminate the tribes, as he made clear, but gained a reputation for mercy which would suit him well in the future. And his appeal to shared values between the Buddhist lamas and the Qing regime but gained a reputation for mercy which would suit him well in the future. And his appeal to shared values between the Buddhist lamas and the Qing regime was a step toward drawing the Tibetan Buddhist church away from the support of the Mongols and toward the Manchus.

It was, all in all, something of a political masterstroke. And yet, for all the careful maneuvering, plotting, and wheeling-dealing ongoing by all parties in this era of sensitive negotiations, it would be Galdon Khan himself who would, in a bout of peak chaotic energy, blow it all up in his own face. And that is where we will leave things today. We'll pick back up there next time. All that, and so much more, yet to come. But until then, thanks for listening. 400 years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe. Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire

which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set. I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower. Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica everywhere you find your podcasts, or go to pod.link slash pax.