The empire drove the population of the mountain gorges of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya) down to its fortifications. General Sleptsov reported to General Ilyinsky on 4 October 1850: "In two days, from 30 September to 2 October, the auls Galgayevsky, Eyshkaloysky, Nachkhoysky and Terloyev, scattered in hamlets, emptied. More than 150 families settled the space around Zakan-yurt and Kazakh-kichu" - next to the imperial fortifications[1]. The report frames the resettlement as a request of the elders; the mechanism of coercion is named plainly by the same report - constraint by the future imperial settlements in the valley and the example of compatriots already resettled.