The Battle of the Salween River (Chinese: 喀喇烏蘇之戰) was fought in September 1718 close to the Nagqu (i.e., Salween River) in Tibet, between an expedition of the Qing dynasty to Lhasa and a Dzungar Khanate force that blocked its path.
After Tsering Dhondup conquered Tibet in 1717 on the orders of his cousin, the Dzungar Khong Tayiji Tsewang Rabtan,[1] the Qing Kangxi Emperor ordered his generals to muster an army and expel the Dzungars and their supporters from Tibet but the enormous distances and logistical difficulties prevented an immediate reaction.
[2] The long journey through a deserted country exhausted the expedition's supplies and sickened the soldiers so as to make Erentei halt the march in Dam near the Salween River some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from Xining,[3] a place not far from Lhasa.
Both forces fought in the open field but the Dzungars killed Erentei during the battle and the Chinese were pushed back into their camp where the Oirats and Tibetans kept them under a tight siege.
[3][4] As the siege wore on the Chinese were forced to eat the bodies of their own dead comrades after having exhausted their supplies and eaten their own horses.