Eighty-one years ago today, on September 2, 1944 (July 15, 1944), the Ili Uprising began. On September 2, 1944, the people of Xinjiang Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic groups spontaneously held an armed uprising in the Ili area to oppose the tyranny of the Kuomintang government. In March 1943, the Kuomintang Xinjiang Provincial Government issued an order to the residents of the herding areas to donate 10,000 horses to the Kuomintang army, and stipulated that if the herdsmen did not pay the horses, they could pay 700 Xinjiang dollars for each horse. This price was one-half higher than the market price. The heavy burden fell mainly on the three areas of Yili, Tacheng and Ashan, which aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people of the three districts. Inspired by the armed uprising in Ashan, they launched a struggle against horse donation, which gradually developed into an armed uprising. On September 2, 1944, the Kazakh and Uyghur people of Nilek County (Gongcha) in the Ili region held an armed uprising in Ulastai in the southwest of the county. On October 8, the uprising forces invaded Nilek County, occupied the police station, and annihilated all Kuomintang troops stationed in the county seat. Then, they attacked south of the Kashgar River, and on the 21st, they approached Jinghe River. After the uprising broke out, they quickly received support and response from the Uighur and Kazakh people of various ethnic groups in the Ili area, and joined the uprising army one after another. On November 7, an armed uprising also broke out in Yining City. The uprising forces quickly surrounded and occupied the Kuomintang government's commissioner's office and the district police station. On the 9th, the uprising troops occupied the power plant and the important strongholds of the Kuomintang army, and cut off the main road leading to Yili, and controlled the entire city of Yining. The remnants of the Kuomintang troops retreated to 9 strongholds such as Ailinbach, the Air Force Teaching Team, and the airport, and continued to resist. On the 11th, the uprising troops occupied Suiding, Huocheng and other counties west of Yining City. On the 12th, the representatives of the uprising troops held a meeting in Yining and announced the establishment of a provisional revolutionary government. On the one hand, they started to restore social order; on the other hand, they continued to fight for the liberation of the Quan Yili area. By January 31, 1945, the uprising troops had successively captured Bole, Hot Spring, Zhaosu, Huiyuan and other counties, and eliminated all the remnants of the Kuomintang armed forces in the airport and other strongh After the establishment of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, it promulgated a policy program. On March 8, a regular revolutionary armed force, the National Army, was established, and a military plan for the liberation of the three districts of Ili, Tacheng and Ashan was formulated. According to the order of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, the National Army began to carry out military activities in three steps from May. In September, the National Army successively occupied the three special districts of Emin, Tacheng and Ashan. At the same time, representatives from various regions held a meeting in Yining City to reorganize the Provisional Revolutionary Government into the revolutionary government of the three districts of Ita and Ashan, and promulgated a new program. Comments on the areas controlled by the National Army before the liberation of Xinjiang: The uprising is part of the Chinese people's democratic revolutionary movement