INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 
17 
Eventually, about 1688, Galdan’s operations against the Khalka Mon¬ 
gols cansed the Emperor Kang-Hi to fear that the Qalmaq chief was 
becoming too strong, and was advancing too near to the limits of Chinese 
territory. It was known, moreover, that he had intrigned with the 
Russians on the Siberian frontier, and had promised that, if provided by 
them with a force of Cossacks and some guns, he would ravage all the 
borders of China outside the Great Wall. 1 The Emperor was unwilling 
to go to war with an enemy who was practically master of the desert, and 
whose mobility his Manchu and Chinese soldiers could not hope to equal. 
He was, however, forced to take arms in defence of the frontiers of his 
country as well as of the Mongol Bannermen who inhabited the border 
region, and who remained true to the throne. He collected a numerous 
army and despatched it to the north of the Gobi, where it was beaten by 
the Qalmaqs and their allies, who then advanced to within 80 leagues 
of Peking. Here a second huge force had been got together, but the 
battle that ensued can only be described as a drawn one. Matters were 
patched up by a truce, and Galdan was free to turn his attention to further 
hostilities and intrigues with various sections of the Mongols and Qalmaqs, 
at a distance from the empire. Kang-Hi, however, saw that his enemy 
was by no means disposed of, and employed himself in organising, on a 
great scale, three new armies. Each of these was reported to number some 
36,000 men and they were attended by an incredible host of retainers and 
camp-followers. One army he headed himself, while the two others were 
under the command of his most experienced Manchu generals. Early in 
1696 this force began to move northward and westward across the Gobi 
and, after many slow manoeuvres and tiresome delays, at length brought 
Galdan to battle at a spot called Chao-modo, * 3 and defeated him. 
This was the end of Galdan’s power. Though, not entirely crushed, 
he had, afterwards, to confine himself to the more westerly regions, but 
even there he was pursued by a force under the Manchu commander, 
Feyanku; while his family and tribal enemies took advantage of his fall 
to embarrass him in various ways. His nephew, Tse-Wang-Rabtan, the 
eldest son of Senghe or Tsenka (the elder brother who had been murdered 
soon after the Erdini Baatur’s death) had long previously quarrelled with 
Galdan, and, though he had never joined the Manchus against his kins¬ 
men, had lost no opportunity of trying to oust him from the chiefship. 
Galdan’s own son, moreover, had fallen into the hands of the Emperor a few 
months after the battle of Chao-modo, and was never likely to be released 
1 Howortli, I, p. 628. 
3 Probably at a short distance to the south-east of the modern Urga. 
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