For these reasons a great Chinese campaign was undertaken against Turkestan in A.D. 73 under Tou Ku.  Mainly owing to the ability of the Chinese deputy commander Pan Ch’ao, the whole of Turkestan was quickly conquered.  Meanwhile the emperor Ming Ti (A.D. 58-75) had died, and under the new emperor Chang Ti (76-88) the “isolationist” party gained the upper hand against the clique of Tou Ku and Pan Ch’ao:  the danger of the restoration of a Hsiung-nu empire, the isolationists contended, no longer existed; Turkestan should be left to itself; the small states would favour trade with China of their own accord.  Meanwhile, a considerable part of Turkestan had fallen away from China, for Chang Ti sent neither money nor troops to hold the conquered territories.  Pan Ch’ao nevertheless remained in Turkestan (at Kashgar and Khotan) where he held on amid countless difficulties.  Although he reported (A.D. 78) that the troops could feed themselves in Turkestan and needed neither supplies nor money from home, no reinforcements of any importance were sent; only a few hundred or perhaps a thousand men, mostly released criminals, reached him.  Not until A.D. 89 did the Pan Ch’ao clique return to power when the mother of the young emperor Ho Ti (89-105) took over the government during his minority:  she was a member of the family of Tou Ku.  She was interested in bringing to a successful conclusion the enterprise which had been started by members of her family and its followers.  In addition, it can be shown that a number of other members of the “war party” had direct interests in the west, mainly in form of landed estates.  Accordingly, a campaign was started in 89 under her brother against the northern Hsiung-nu, and it decided the fate of Turkestan in China’s favour.  Turkestan remained firmly in Chinese possession until the death of Pan Ch’ao in 102.  Shortly afterwards heavy fighting broke out again:  the Tanguts advanced from the south in an attempt to cut off Chinese access to Turkestan.  The Chinese drove back the Tanguts and maintained their hold on Turkestan, though no longer absolutely.

9 Economic situation.  Rebellion of the “Yellow Turbans”.  Collapse of the Han dynasty

The economic results of the Turkestan trade in this period were not so unfavourable as in the earlier Han period.  The army of occupation was incomparably smaller, and under Pan Ch’ao’s policy the soldiers were fed and paid in Turkestan itself, so that the cost to China remained small.  Moreover, the drain on the national income was no longer serious because, in the intervening period, regular Chinese settlements had been planted in Turkestan including Chinese merchants, so that the trade no longer remained entirely in the hands of foreigners.