In late 1754, the Dzungar leader Amursana broke with rival Dawachi and turned to the Qing court for military backing. The Qianlong Emperor used this internal split to justify a final, large westward campaign aimed at ending Dzungar power around the Ili River region. This decision set the Qing conquest in motion.
In early 1755, the Qing mobilized a major expedition—often described as roughly 200,000 troops and support personnel—to move on the Dzungar heartland. Marching routes converged toward the Ili Valley (near present-day Yining/Gulja), the strategic center of Dzungar rule. The campaign relied heavily on logistics and allied forces, including many Khalkha Mongols.
By mid-1755, Qing forces under the general Zhao Hui pushed Dawachi out of Ili and broke his remaining resistance. Dawachi was captured and sent to the Qing capital, ending his reign and effectively collapsing the Dzungar central government. The Qing then attempted to reorganize Oirat leadership to prevent any one leader from rebuilding the khanate.
After the initial Qing victory, the Qing commander Ban Di was left with a reduced force in Ili. Amursana, dissatisfied with the Qing plan to divide authority among multiple Oirat leaders, turned against the Qing and launched a revolt; Ban Di died by suicide soon after, reflecting how quickly Qing control became unstable. The conflict shifted from a campaign against Dawachi to a wider war against Oirat resistance.
In 1756, Qing forces under Zhao Hui fought an important engagement at Oroi-Jalatu (near present-day Wusu) while pursuing withdrawing Dzungar forces. The battle became one of the best-known episodes of the campaign because it was later commemorated in Qing court battle art. It illustrates how the war involved fast-moving raids and ambushes, not only set-piece battles.
In spring 1756, the Qing sent forces back into Dzungaria to reassert control and pursue Amursana. The renewed campaign aimed to secure the Ili corridor and prevent the revolt from spreading across Oirat groups and neighboring steppe polities. These operations marked the transition from conquest to pacification and counterinsurgency.
After Qing troops retook Ili, Amursana escaped west and sought support among Kazakh leaders rather than surrender. The Qing tried to pressure neighboring powers to hand him over, widening the conflict’s diplomatic stakes beyond the Qing–Dzungar frontier. His flight also made it harder for the Qing to claim a clean, negotiated end to the revolt.
As Qing attention focused on Dzungaria, revolt broke out to the south in Altishahr (the Tarim Basin’s oasis cities). Leaders known as the Khoja brothers (often identified as Burhān ud-Dīn and Khwāja-i Jahān) became central figures in mobilizing resistance against Qing authority. The fighting turned the conquest into a two-front effort: north (Dzungaria) and south (Altishahr).
Amursana eventually sought refuge under Russian control and was taken to Tobolsk in Siberia. He died there of smallpox on September 21, 1757, removing the revolt’s most prominent leader. Even after his death, the Qing continued campaigns against remaining Oirat forces and pursued disputes with Russia over his fate and remains.
From 1755 to 1758, Qing forces and allied troops carried out large-scale violence, forced removals, and harsh repression in Dzungaria, alongside disease outbreaks. Many historians describe this as the near-destruction of the Dzungar people, with catastrophic population loss that reshaped northern Xinjiang’s demography. The elimination of Dzungar power removed the main rival to Qing control in the region.
In September 1759, Qing forces won a major victory at the Battle of Yesil Kol Nor, an episode later memorialized in Qianlong-era battle paintings. The battle was part of the Qing push into the far southwest of the region, aiming to cut off rebel mobility and outside support. This victory helped break organized resistance in the Tarim Basin campaign’s final stage.
By late 1759, the Qing defeated the Khoja revolt and consolidated control over both Dzungaria and Altishahr, completing the main military phase of the conquest. This outcome is often treated as the start of sustained Qing rule in the region, even though administration remained distinct from China proper for a long time. The conquest’s end state was a new, durable Qing frontier in Inner Asia.
After the fighting, the Qing established a new military-governor system to hold the territory, centered on the Ili Valley. In 1762, the court created the office of the General of Ili, which became the senior Qing authority overseeing Xinjiang under Qing rule. This institutional change shows the conquest’s long-term consequence: permanent military-administrative control rather than a temporary expedition.
Qing conquest of the Dzungar Khanate (1755–1759)
