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Since signing an agreement with the Qing Dynasty to lease the Western and Southern Xinjiang Special Regions, Zhang Wei ordered the General Staff to send military and political personnel to take over the local power as soon as possible, occupy enough territory, and upgrade the system. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the consent of the Qing court and after consulting Zhao Erfeng's personal opinion, Zhang Wei appointed Zhao Erfeng as the Minister of Tibet and Minister of Sichuan-Yunnan Border Defense.

Zhao Erfeng and Zhao Erxun, the minister of the Qing Dynasty at that time, were brothers; And Zhao Erxun was very familiar with the Xia Empire.

Before communicating with the court of the Great Qing Kingdom, Wu Wenbin first negotiated with Zhao Erxun, and Zhao Erxun felt that this was an opportunity for Zhao Erfeng to soar, as long as he hugged the thigh of the Xia Empire, he would definitely surpass himself in personal development in the future, so under Zhao Erxun's maneuvering, both the Great Qing Kingdom and Zhao Erfeng accepted the request of the Xia Empire.

At the beginning of June, Zhao Erfeng accepted the appointment of the Xia Empire and began to reorganize his army in Ya'an in preparation for entering Tibet.

Traditionally, Tibet is divided into four parts: Wei, the region centered on Lhasa; Tibet, that is, the area centered on Shigatse; Kang, also known as Kamu and Duogan, included the Qamdo region of present-day Tibet and the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province; Ali, the far western part of Tibet.

The Sichuan-Yunnan Border Special Administrative Region is a provincial-level system, which was set up by the Qing Dynasty in 1906, with Zhao Erfeng as the Minister of Sichuan-Yunnan Frontier Affairs, and its jurisdiction starts from the arrow furnace in the east, to Danda Mountain in the west, to Weixi and Zhongdian in Yunnan in the south, and to Yushu in Qinghai in the north, and allocates 460,000 taels of silver from Sichuan every year as administrative funds, and the source of troops and supplies are mainly supplied by Sichuan.

After taking office as the Minister of Sichuan-Yunnan Frontier Affairs, Zhao Erfeng keenly grasped the crux of the Sichuanbian problem, that is, the brutal and decadent Tusi rule and the backward serfdom production relations closely linked to the Tusi rule. Following Zuo Zongtang's experience in pacifying the Western Regions, Zhao Erfeng decided to reclaim the land in the Sichuan-Yunnan Special Administrative Region in order to prevent the British from encroaching on Tibet.

In a very short period of time, Zhao Erfeng swept away the fallen leaves in the autumn wind to get rid of the rule of Tusi in various parts of Sichuan, sent liuguan, reformed and enslaved people, and established health, culture, education and various industries.

It should be said that these measures are beneficial to the people of all ethnic groups in the Sichuan border and have also won the support of the oppressed people. However, its reforms were bound to offend the interests of the Tusi and the monastic groups, and thus met with fierce resistance from them.

In order to strengthen the suppression and management of the local Tusi, Zhao Erfeng actively trained the border army, and by May 1907, more than 7,000 border troops had been trained, with sufficient salaries and supplies. The weapons were also purchased from the Xia Empire with the assistance of Yuan Shikai, and the combat effectiveness of these 7,000 people far exceeded that of the new army trained in Sichuan at that time.

At the end of June, Zhao Erfeng's troops were all assembled in the Batang area, preparing to enter Tibet, at this time he asked the Xia Empire for instructions, the establishment of a city and county system in Tibet, hoping to implement the preferential tax policy of the Xia Empire in the local area, and implement tax exemption within the first three years of application; What Zhang Wei needed was land and population, and besides, there would not be much tax revenue in the whole of Tibet, so he happily approved Zhao Erfeng's application.

In early July, Zhao Erfeng led the border army across the Jinsha River and attacked Chamuduo (present-day Qamdo) and Liuqi.

The troops made rapid progress, and by the end of July, they had advanced to the front line of the Ministry of Industry (near Bayi Town, the capital of present-day Nyingchi Prefecture); In this way, the whole of Khamdi fell under the control of the border army.

The General Staff Headquarters was afraid that Zhao Erfeng's lone army would penetrate deeply, so it ordered him not to rush forward, but to advance steadily, first carry out reforms in the occupied areas, stabilize the local rule, and then slowly infiltrate Tibet.

In order to completely occupy the area, and to carry out the transformation of the land and the construction of cities and counties, it is necessary to eliminate the largest local government, the regime of the Bomi King Baima Qingweng.

In the face of the strong border army, Zhao Erfeng eliminated the army of the Bomi King Baima Qingweng regime without much effort, captured the Bomi King Baima Qingweng alive, and publicly shot him after consulting Zhao Liangong, the governor of southern Xinjiang; Zhao Erfeng's action shocked all the Tusi heads, making the work of appeasement very smooth, and all the Tusi heads accepted Zhao Erfeng's suggestion to set up a county government management model, and Tusi served as the county magistrate, temporarily replacing the central government to govern the locality.

In August, Zhao Erfeng set up more than 10 counties in the local area, such as Chamuduo, Jiangda (Ministry of Industry), and Chayu County.

Zhao Erfeng implemented a low tax policy in the local area, and implemented tax exemption for the first three years, coupled with a strong border army and the support of the Xia Empire in the back, so that Zhao Erfeng was quickly welcomed by the local Tusi. Under this kind of gentle policy and military pressure, even the leaders of the remote and difficult transportation areas that Zhao Erfeng had not yet reached also sent people to contact, willing to accept the rule of the central government, implement the county system in the local area, and implement the reform of the land and return to the stream; For example, the leaders of the Baimagang area (present-day Motuo County) and the Luoyu-Xiachayu area (i.e., most of the area south of the eastern section of the present-day Indian-occupied Sino-Indian border) sent people to demand the establishment of counties.

After receiving the request of these people, Zhao Erfeng immediately sent officers and soldiers to the Menyu-Luoyu-Xiachayu area (that is, 90,000 square kilometers of land south of the McMahon Line on the present-day Sino-Indian border) to occupy these areas, and the British soldiers, forced by the strength of the Xia Empire, withdrew from these places ahead of schedule without any conflict with Zhao Erfeng's army.

The British side was very afraid of Zhao Erfeng's westward advance, and the British and Indian authorities repeatedly asked the British government to stop Zhao's westward advance through diplomatic efforts in the documents submitted to the Queen's government.

The Foreign Secretary of the Xia Empire scoffed at the protest of the British Foreign Office and issued a warning to the British, strictly ordering the British to withdraw from the Tibetan area, otherwise the British would bear all the consequences.

Zhang Wei asked the General Staff to draw up a detailed plan not only to occupy Tibet this time, but also to recover the suzerainty of traditional vassal states such as Bhutan and Nepal.

At the end of August 1907, Zhao Liangong, the governor of southern Xinjiang, sent 4,000 cavalry, led by the deputy commander of the cavalry division, to reinforce Zhao Erfeng and quickly occupied the entire Tibetan region.

With a strong reinforcement force, Zhao Erfeng was full of confidence, and applied to Zhang Wei to set up two provinces of Tibet and Xikang respectively, and actively recommended Zhang Yintang to serve as the governor of Tibet Province and himself as the governor of Xikang Province, and authorized Zhang Yintang to severely punish a group of officials in Tibet led by the former minister in Tibet, Shengtai; Zhang Wei quickly approved his suggestion and dealt with the above-mentioned people strictly, showing his full support and trust in Zhang Yintang and his determination to rectify Tibetan politics.

At the end, Zhao Erfeng entered Lhasa and joined Zhang Yintang.

Forced by the tough attitude of the Xia Empire and strong military pressure, the British quietly withdrew from Lhasa before Zhao Erfeng arrived in Lhasa, and when they left, they also brought the 13th Dalai Lama to India.

Zhang Wei was very angry at this, and immediately announced that he would strip the 13th Dalai Lama of his name and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with Britain.

At the same time, at the request of Wu Wenbin, the Qing court issued a similar telegram, announcing that the 13th Dalai Lama would be stripped of his title. (To be continued.) )