Khoshut

Nian Gengyao’s father Nian Xialing had served as Viceroy of Huguang from 1692 to 1704.

Nian Gengyao himself had in 1700 become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the imperial examination) and had been selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.

The Banner company to which the Nian family belonged had in March 1709 been assigned to serve Yinzhen, later the Yongzheng Emperor.

A sister of Nian Gengyao became a concubine of Yinzhen about the same time.

Nian had been appointed Governor of Sichuan in October 1709 and had gradually come to the notice of the Kangxi Emperor.

During the sixteen years of his administration, he had quelled several uprisings of the aborigines west of Sichuan.

He had been made Governor-general of Sichuan in 1718 and had been given power to direct military affairs.

Following the appointment of Yinti, another of Kangxi's sons, as Border Pacification General-in-chief, there had been suggestions about Nian's loyalty to Yinzhen.

As General Who Secures the West, Nian Gengyao had taken an active part in supplying Yinti's campaign in Tibet against Tsewang Rabtan.

He had been granted an audience with the elderly Emperor at Rehe in June 1721 and subsequently raised to the rank of Governor-general of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

The new emperor displays a great amount of trust in Han Chinese officials, and appoints many of his protégés to prestigious positions.

After Yinzhen’s ascension to the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor, he grants an audience to Nian Gengyao early in 1723 and awards him a minor hereditary rank and the title of Grand Guardian, and makes his elder brother Nian Xiyao Governor of Guangdong.

As reward for his help in ejecting the Dzungars from Tibet, Nian is elevated z few months later to a duke of the third class.

The Emperor is uncharacteristically informal with him and promotes friendship between Nian and Longkedo, an eminent Manchu-Chinese official.

Longkedo, the third son of Tong Guowei and the younger brother of Kangxi Emperor's third Empress consort, Empress Xiaoyiren, Longkodo had been the Minister in charge of Lifan Yuan during the late Kangxi years, and, concurrently, the General Commandant of the Gendarmerie in Beijing, thus having the military power to control the capital region in times of crises.

His military power makes him an obvious scapegoat in conspiracies, and the Yongzheng Emperor is deeply suspicious of him.

The biggest mystery surrounding Longkodo is the exclusive attention given him by the late Kangxi Emperor during his dying days.

His military support had ensured a non-violent transfer of power between Kangxi and Yongzheng.

After Yongzheng ascended the throne, Longkodo had been given a position on the four-person imperial council, and is the President of the Board of Governance.

Nian becomes commander-in-chief of the forces sent in 1723, to quell the uprising of the Khoshotes of Qinghai under Lobdzan Dandzin.

With the help of the general Yue Zhongqi, Nian wins several victories over the rebels and in a few months quells the revolt, adding Qinghai to the Qing empire.

Nian is thereupon raised to a duke of the first class.

Under Ubashi Khan’s leadership, approximately two hundred thousand Kalmyks had begun the journey from their pastures on the left bank of the Volga River to Dzungaria.

Approximately five-sixths of the Torghut tribe had followed Ubashi Khan.

Most of the Khoshuts, Choros and Khoits had also accompanied the Torghuts on their journey to Dzungaria.

The Dörbet tribe, by contrast, had elected not to go at all.

The Kalmyks who resettle in Qing territory became known as Torghuts.

While the first phase of their movement becomes the Old Torghuts, the Qing call the later Torghut immigrants "New Torghut".

The size of the departing group has been variously estimated between one hundred and fifty thousand and four hundred thousand people, with perhaps as many as six million animals (cattle, sheep, horses, camels and dogs).

Beset by raids, thirst and starvation, approximately eighty-five thousand survivors make it to Dzungaria, where they settle near the Ejin River with the permission of the Qing Manchu Emperor.

The Torghuts are coerced by the Qing into giving up their nomadic lifestyle and to take up sedentary agriculture instead as part of a deliberate policy by the Qing to enfeeble them.

They prove to be incompetent farmers and they become destitute, selling their children into slavery, engaging in prostitution, and stealing, according to the Manchu Qi-yi-shi.

Child slaves are in demand on the Central Asian slave market, and Torghut children are sold into this slave trade.

The political situation among the Kalmyks had become unstable after the death of Ayuka Khan in 1724, as various factions sought to be recognized as Khan.

The Tsarist government has also gradually chipped away at the autonomy of the Kalmyk Khanate.

These policies, for instance, have encouraged the establishment of Russian and German settlements on pastures the Kalmyks use  to roam and feed their livestock.

In addition, the Tsarist government had imposed a council on the Kalmyk Khan, thereby diluting his authority, while continuing to expect the Kalmyk Khan to provide cavalry units to fight on behalf of Russia.

The Russian Orthodox church, by contrast, has pressured many Kalmyks to adopt Orthodoxy.

By the mid-seventeenth century, Kalmyks are increasingly disillusioned with settler encroachment and interference in their internal affairs.

In the winter of 1770-1771, Ubashi Khan, the great-grandson Ayuka Khan and the last Kalmyk Khan, decides to return his people to their ancestral homeland, Dzungaria, now under control of the Qing dynasty.

The Dalai Lama is contacted to request his blessing and to set the date of departure.

After consulting the astrological chart, the Dalai Lama sets the return date, but at the moment of departure, the weakening of the ice on the Volga River permits only those Kalmyks who roam on the left or eastern bank to leave.

Those on the right bank are forced to stay behind.

Catherine the Great, after failing to stop the flight, abolishes the Kalmyk Khanate, transferring all governmental powers to the Governor of Astrakhan.

The title of Khan is abolished.

The highest native governing office remaining is the Vice-Khan, who also is recognized by the government as the highest ranking Kalmyk prince.

By appointing the Vice-Khan, the Tsarist government is now permanently the decisive force in Kalmyk government and affairs.