"A singing rooster is white in the world, and the music of all sides is played in Khotan." This is a poem written by Chairman Mao on National Day in 1950 to commemorate the victory in the War of Liberation. The red flag was planted in the presidential palace, and the haze that had hung over the land of China for a hundred years was swept away. However, the dawn that allowed the Chinese to enjoy the "end of the world" was not the occupation of Nanjing by the People's Liberation Army, but the Battle of Qamdo that broke out in October 1950.
Some say that this battle is the last battle to liberate Chinese mainland. And the founding marshal Liu Bocheng also sighed: "Without the Battle of Qamdo, there would be no peaceful liberation of Tibet later." "So, how important is this battle? How has it influenced the course of China's history? In this issue, we will take you to understand the beginning and end of the Battle of Chamdo.
("A singing rooster is white in the world, and the music of all sides is in Khotan" is a poem written by Chairman Mao in 1950 when he answered Liu Yazi))
Qamdo is located in eastern Tibet, surrounded by mountains and rapids. Across the river from present-day Sichuan Province to the east, and to the south, it borders China's Yunnan and neighboring Myanmar, which is the gateway to Tibet. Because of the steep mountains and rivers here, and the two rivers of Zaqu and Angqu converge here to form the Lancang River, it is called "Qamdo", which means in Tibetan: where the rivers meet.
(The blue line is Zhaqu, the red line is Angqu, the two rivers meet in Qamdo, from the south to form the Lancang River, and the border is called the Mekong River)
However, it was at the confluence of mountains and rivers, less than 110,000 square kilometers, that would determine the fate of the 1 million Tibetan people at that time for the next seven decades.
On the National Day of 1950, although new China liberated Sichuan, Qian, Yunnan and other southwest regions as early as 10 months ago, it liberated Hainan Island five months ago, so that the remnants of the Kuomintang completely defeated Taiwan, and millions of people welcomed liberation. However, there is such a place on the border of the motherland that is still under the haze of the old society - this place is Tibet.
(Pre-liberation Tibet)
Tibet has been China's inherent territory since ancient times, and the Tibetans are indispensable compatriots in the big family of 56 ethnic groups in China. However, it is precisely such a place, which today is called a "tourist resort" and a "pure land of mankind", but the cruel serfdom of exploiting the people is practiced, and tens of thousands of serfs live a life of clothing and food. This led the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao to make a decision: We should liberate Tibet, we must liberate Tibet.
(Oppressed Tibetan serfs)
But no matter how you say it, the Tibetan compatriots also have the blood of the Chinese nation flowing in their bodies. We want to liberate Tibet peacefully, but we also don't want to confront our own compatriots. Therefore, the party leaders headed by Chairman Mao decided to first hold negotiations with the Tibetan side and strive for the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
However, while verbally agreeing to the "peace talks" in Tibet, the serf nobles of Tibet at that time put forward "whimsical" conditions in the peace talks: for example, they demanded that the People's Liberation Army should not cross Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces into Tibet, assign some counties and cities that originally belonged to Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces to Tibet, and continue to retain Tibet's serfdom system, and so on. At the same time, they also imported a large number of weapons from India and other countries: including 144 Buren light machine guns, 168 Stan machine guns, 1260 rifles and countless bullets. While preparing for war, the purpose of negotiations with our Party is self-evident.
(The Tibetan army that imports British and Indian equipment is a force that is very different from the old Tibetan army.)
But even with such an attitude of the Tibetan serfs and nobles, our Party maintained patience in peace negotiations. Geda Rinpoche, who supported the peaceful liberation of Tibet by our Party and served as vice chairman of Xikang Province (a province consisting of western Sichuan and eastern Tibet, abolished in 1955), volunteered to go to Tibet to negotiate with the nobles. Unexpectedly, however, the living Buddha was detained halfway through and killed in Qamdu, who was then under the jurisdiction of Tibet.
The unexpected death of negotiator Geda Living Buddha has approached the principles and bottom line of the Platon Army at that time. However, from the perspective of national righteousness and unity with Tibetan compatriots, the People's Liberation Army decided to launch a campaign at Qamdo, the eastern gate into Tibet. As long as the Eastern Gate of Chamdo, which entered Tibet, is broken, then Tibet, which has lost the barrier of mountains and rivers, will have no danger to defend, and it will also be able to break the stubborn resistance of the Tibetan serfs and nobles.
(Platon Army units marching to Qamdo)
The mountains and rivers near Qamdo are high and deep, and if we deploy a little troops in the front direction of entering Tibet, we can achieve the effect of "one husband and one husband, and no one can open it", and the blind self-confidence of the Tibetan serfs and nobles stems from this. However, another reason why they felt confused and confident was because at that time they had not really seen the PLA's roundabout interpolation tactics: in order to break the mountain and water barriers in Qamdo, the 52nd Division of the PLA formulated a roundabout interpolation tactic of crossing the Hengdu Mountains, running 1500 miles, and carrying out a lateral and backward direction to the Qamdo defense line: the specific route was to cross the Jinsha River and the Lancang River twice, take Jiazangka and Wuqi, and finally directly attack the retreat route of Qamdo to the west: Enda.
(Yellow is the retreat route and supply line of the Tibetan Army in Qamdo, and red is the detour route of the People's Liberation Army)
In fact, long before the Battle of Qamdo broke out. The People's Liberation Army has already occupied the area of Xikang Province in front of the Gateway to Qamdo, which can be said to be under the city, so why not launch a direct frontal attack on Qamdo, but instead make a big detour? In addition to the fact that the frontal battlefield east of Qamdo, which we mentioned above, is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to take Qamdo directly, another important reason is that the reason why the People's Liberation Army wants to fight the Qamdo War is not only to pry open the door into Tibet, but also to eliminate the effective forces of the Tibetan army, and the Tibetan army is the bottom card for the Tibetan serf nobles who dare to ask our party for a price and stubbornly resist. Taking Enda is equivalent to blocking the retreat of the Tibetan army to the west, which is similar to taking Jinzhou in the Liberation War and fighting the Northeast Army.
In the end, the 154th Regiment, the vanguard of the 52nd Division of the People's Liberation Army, proved the feasibility of the strategy of continuously attacking 1500 miles in only 14 days: they crossed the rough Lancang River once, crossed the Jinsha River that the Red Army crossed twice during the Long March, crossed the Hengduan Mountains with high mountains and valleys, and finally arrived at the initial location set out in the interspersed plan: Jiazangka as scheduled. Because of the long rapid march, many of the cavalry in the regiment became infantry, and the soldiers who were slightly weak and altitude sickness in the infantry had begun to move, but the whole army still maintained a high fighting spirit. With their own feet, the warriors walked a long road that even war horses could not get out of.
(PLA cavalry unit crossing the river in the Battle of Qamdo)
After arriving at Kazangka, the Tibetan army where Kazangka was stationed was stunned: because in their envisioned plan, Kazangka was a large rear away from the Qamdo front, unless the Qamdo troops collapsed, and the Platon Army was likely to kill in the west. Or has the Tianyuanchang been conquered by the People's Liberation Army? For a time, it was unclear why, the Tibetan army troops who enjoyed themselves in Jiazangka had to rush to organize resistance, but they still could not stop some Tibetan troops who were frightened by the sudden attack of the People's Liberation Army or fled in a hurry, or fell in the wind. The Platon Army, which lasted for 14 days before and after the march, after seeing the defenders of Jiazangka, attacked the troops of Jiazangka like a hungry tiger, and the result of this raid was not suspenseful.
After conquering Jiazangka, the People's Liberation Army successively took places such as Wuqi, and then went down the river valley from southeast to take Enda, known as the "Five Junctions". Enda is not only close to Qamdo, the target of the People's Liberation Army, to the west, but also because it is the confluence of many rivers and roads in Tibetan areas, and it is known as the "Five Junctions" and is the heart of the Tibetan army's Qamdo defense line. If taking Qamdo means seeing the dawn of the peaceful liberation of Tibet, then the liberation of Enda is the key to the liberation of Qamdo. Since then, thousands of Tibetan troops who have defended with danger will have no danger to defend, and their westward retreat and eastward supply routes will be completely cut off by the Platon Army.
(Overview of Enda, known as the "Five Junctions")
After the PLA achieved a successful flanking detour, the PLA's frontal forces east of Qamdo also began to move: on the north and south lines, several large armies began to move, launching a fierce offensive against important river crossings such as Batang, Tranquility, and Yanjing. The Tibetan army deployed near Qamdo still wanted to make a final resistance when it knew that it was facing a great disaster, but at this moment, the Tibetan army of the Qamdo Defense Line, which knew that there was also a Platon Army unit in the direction of Enda behind it, had long been demoralized and had no intention of fighting. Except for the Tibetan troops at the two crossings near Derganto and Batang, the Tibetan troops at other crossings basically collapsed after seeing the PLA.
In addition to retreat and resistance, some Tibetan troops made the third option. In the course of engaging the Platon Army, a considerable part of the Tibetan army realized that it could persist in marching on the plateau for tens of days, and when they heard that the charge was like a bamboo and the army that had entered the village without committing any crimes was a unit that was very different from them and an army that sincerely served the people, they had the intention of uprising and defecting to the PLA. Among them, the ninth generation of the Tibetan army's chief officer, Dege Kelsang Wangdui, was inspired by the People's Liberation Army to lead the Tibetan army uprising on October 11, 1950, and the peaceful liberation of Tranquility County behind the Batang Ferry, which is today's Kang mang County, further disrupted the Tibetan army's previous deployment of the Qamdo Defense Line.
(The Dege Kelsang Wangdui family who led the Tibetan uprising)
After seeing the defeat of the Tibetan troops stationed at the crossing, the Qamdo garrison had the idea of abandoning the city and fleeing. The commander of the Tibetan army in Qamdo, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, left only a 200-man garrison in Qamdo, and himself retreated in the direction of the western predetermined direction with a large force of more than 2,700 men. The 200 defenders left in Qamdo were no match for the plaster of the Platon Army, which immediately occupied Qamdo.
But can Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, who retreated west, really escape the palm of the People's Liberation Army? Remember what we mentioned earlier, the PLA troops that raided the flank of 1500 Miles to Enda? After taking the "five-way junction" of Enda, the PLA troops followed the intersection with Enda as the core, "blossoming in the center", and occupied all the key passes in the Tibetan area along the way, and The Lagun west of Enda, deep into the hinterland of the Tibetan area, was also under the control of the People's Liberation Army.
(Blue marked as the route of the Tibetan army's retreat)
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme trotted all the way to Lagun with his troops, only to learn that the People's Liberation Army had surrounded him, which allowed him to withdraw from Qamdo safely, and ran to the middle of Lagun without ambushing his troops, which also gave him a face. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, who knew that he was invincible to the People's Liberation Army, had no choice but to lead a Tibetan army of more than 2,700 people to surrender to the People's Liberation Army, and the commander who accepted his surrender was the later founding lieutenant general Zhang Guohua. What he did not know at the time was that 12 years after the end of the Qamdo Campaign, the name "Zhang Guohua" would shock India on the Sino-Indian border.
After accepting the surrender of Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme and collecting the remnants of the Tibetan army, the Battle of Qamdo was officially concluded on October 24, 1950. In the process of counting the prisoners of the troops, the PLA also found that the battle had an unexpected gain: that is, among the prisoners of the Tibetan troops, including 2 British and 2 Indians. Among them, the British Robert Ford served as the radio station operator of the Tibetan army on the Qamdo Defense Line, and it is self-evident what kind of force there is behind the Tibetan army.
(British radio operator in the Tibetan army: Robert Ford, who served in the RAF)
However, not all of the PLA captives were as abusive as Robert Ford, for example, the Tibetan commander of the Qamdo Campaign, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, who himself had always supported the peaceful liberation of Tibet and opposed the large-scale conscription of serfs and nobles in Tibetan areas to resist the PLA, leaving the Tibetan people with a poor livelihood. After learning of Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme's grievances, the People's Liberation Army released the commander who had fought against it, and the trust in it greatly touched Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, after returning to Tibetan areas, he actively promoted our party's policy of peaceful liberation, and served as a representative of the Tibetan side in the 1951 negotiations on the peaceful liberation of Tibet, contributing his own strength to the peaceful liberation of Tibet. He was also awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955 and died at the age of 100.
(Apa Ngawang Jigme, who dined with Chairman Mao)
The Battle of Qamdo not only opened the door for the People's Liberation Army to enter Tibet from the east, but also eliminated most of the living forces of the Tibetan army and made the Tibetan army truly aware of the strength of the People's Liberation Army. At the same time, the spirit and quality of the PLA's heroic struggle, hard-working, and strict military discipline carried forward in this campaign also deeply touched the compatriots in Tibetan areas who witnessed the STYLE of the PLA along the route. This confirms the truth in the history of war: what is more important than war is the human heart.
In April 1951, a new round of peaceful liberation negotiations after the Battle of Qamdo was officially launched; in May 1951, the agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet was formally concluded; and at the end of October 1951, the People's Liberation Army successfully marched into Lhasa, which was about a year after the end of the Qamdo Campaign. The Battle of Qamdo, which made the subsequent People's Liberation Army subjugated without a fight, became the last battle to sweep away the haze of the Chinese land.
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JI Peng. "Tibet Sent a Whimsical Letter to Mao Zedong in 1949"
XIE Zhong. Mao Zedong and "Marching toward the Heart of Tibet in Many Ways". Journal of Hunan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition)
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The Last Battle of the Mainland: The Battle of Qamdo before the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet . World Wide Web. 2015-08-05
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