During the period from 1865 to 1877, Agubo, then known as the butcher of Central Asia, with the support of Russia and Britain, began to lead troops to invade Xinjiang, which was known as the "Agubo Rebellion". In less than half a month, Zuo Zongtang successfully recovered Dabancheng, Turpan, Jitokson and other places in order to recover the troops sent by the Xinjiang court to Agubai. Successfully opened the south gate of Xinjiang, and Agubo knew that the general trend had gone to flee to Korla, but unexpectedly died of sudden illness halfway.
However, Agubo's descendants were giving stubborn resistance. Therefore, in September 1877, the imperial court arranged a campaign to recover eight cities in southern Xinjiang, intending to recover the whole territory of Xinjiang in one fell swoop, but it was blocked by Britain. However, Zuo Zongtang still insisted on recovering Xinjiang and led troops to recover Hotan area. In less than two years, he recovered most of Xinjiang except Yili. Just after Zuo Zongtang defeated Agubo's remnants in Hotan, Xinjiang,
It turned out that in order to support Agubo's invasion of Xinjiang in China, Britain gave him a large number of arms and allowed him to recruit craftsmen in India and set up an arsenal in Kashgar. In this way, more than 5,000 people captured by Zuo Zongtang were brought to Xinjiang by Agubo. How to deal with these more than 5,000 Indian prisoners? After careful consideration, Zuo Zongtang decided to release them and put them in the mainland if they wanted to stay in China, and let them go back to India if they didn't want to, which not only avoided killing innocent people, but also helped to deal with the aftermath of the war.