Qianlong and the Towers of Jinchuan

Chinese art of the siege

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Kublai Khan converted to Tibetan Buddhism for political reasons, but direct control over the plateau was not established until 1621. Political unity was untenable in a rugged land where aristocratic families contested power so closely. Food insecurity also led to incessant raiding warfare in the border region between Szechuan and Kham, a downslope…