The Protectorate of the Western Regions was a regional government established by the Han Dynasty to manage and to control the Western Regions, roughly today's Xinjiang (excluding Dzungaria). During the Han–Xiongnu War, the Chinese established a military seat at Wulei, north east of present-day Bugur with an aim to protect the Indo-European Tocharian statelets of the region and kept them away from the Xiongnu's aggression in the northeastern steppe. It is believed to be the first Chinese sign of direct rule of Central Asia. The seat was later shifted to Tagan, at around modern Kucha during the Eastern Han.