t of the
Chinese, and the Tungan successes in the east of Jungaria had raised a
fanatical feeling to swell the hatred against a declining and Buddhist
rule, the Tarantchis were not backward for their part in reviving their
almost forgotten grievances, and in joining in a defensive and offensive
alliance with the Tungani. Each party collected such forces as they
could, out in the encounter that ensued the disciplined soldiers of the
Viceroy overcame the far more numerous mob by which they were opposed.
The fortress of Bazandai, however, within the next few days, fell into
the power of the insurgents, and that achievement more than compensated
for the disaster in the open field. Ili itself surrendered in January,
1866, and a Tungani-Tarantchi government was formed. The Chinese viceroy
had in the meanwhile destroyed himself and many of his followers and
assailants by setting fire to a mine of gunpowder under his palace. The
Tungan element gradually superseded the Tarantchi in the administration
of the state, and the five years of independence, which continued until
the Russians came in 1871, were chiefly marked by petty disagreements
which had no influence on the progress of events in this part of Asia.
The trade with Ili fell off, and many other valid reasons for Russian
intervention were accumulated during those few years of national
existence.

With the beginning of 1867, Yakoob Beg, secure on the south and on the
west from aggression, found himself in a position to cope with the
disjointed but allied Tungan states on his north and east. The hostility
of the Tungani and Khojas of Aksu and Kucha had been already
demonstrated, and it was to be surmised that they were only waiting to
recover from the disastrous campaign of 1865 to renew their efforts to
drive the Khokandian adventurers out of Kashgar. The facts that they
acknowledged the same religious tenets, and that they had overcome, to
some extent, a common enemy in the Chinese, and that they certainly had
each to fear most from their return, seem to have weighed little with
either the Tungani or the Athalik Ghazi. To do the latter simple
justice, it must be remembered that the Tungani had been the aggressors,
and that their attitude never ceased to be unfriendly towards himself.
It is certain that he made some efforts to effect an amicable
arrangement with the ruling party in Aksu, but his advances were
received with coldness, and both the Khojas and the Tungani of t