In 1958, due to the implementation of democratic reforms in minority areas, the interests of slave owners, toastmasters, and leaders who had been on the top for thousands of years were greatly impacted; in order to protect their own interests, at the instigation of imperialism, they used religion and ethnicity as an excuse to launch armed rebellions in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet, and other regions, in a vain attempt to oppose the democratic reform of the people's government and forever maintain their status as "superior to others."
In the face of rebellion in many areas, our army quickly mobilized its forces and went to various areas to carry out banditry. Among them, the 134th Division of our 54th Army was ordered by the Central Military Commission to go to Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai to suppress bandits. In the early days, the fierce rebel bandits appeared vulnerable to our army of bandits, but after several fiascoes in the early days, they all gave up their flags and drums, or hid in the mountains, or hid in temples, in an attempt to avoid the sharp edge of our bandit troops and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback.
Many of these rebels believe that the temple structure is strong, and the terrain is often easy to defend and difficult to attack. In addition, our army has strict discipline, and generally does not use heavy weapons to attack these historic temples, so the rebels feel that there is an opportunity to take advantage of it, so they hide in the temple and continue to make enemies with us.
In August 1958, our army intercepted information that about 600 rebels in the Yushu area retreated into Rangniang Temple in an attempt to hold on for a long time and wait for change. Our local troops who participated in the suppression of the bandits did not fight for 2 days, and as a result, the morale of the rebels soared, and they arrogantly clamored for a "decisive battle" with our army. In order to eliminate these rebels, on the evening of August 22, the Yushu District Counterinsurgency Command ordered reinforcements from the 3rd Battalion of the 420th Regiment to annihilate the rebels at Rangniang Temple.
The monks of the monastery handed over their weapons to our army
After receiving the order from its superiors, the 3rd Battalion immediately forced its way to the Rangniang Temple overnight, a distance of 120 miles, and they arrived in only one night. Upon arrival at Rangniang Temple, the 3rd Battalion took a short break and began to attack at 6:30 a.m. Rangniang Temple is a monastery with a history of more than 700 years and is one of the most influential Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the Yushu area. Because the local mountainous, these temples are also built on the mountain, when the temple was built, it has taken into account factors such as military disasters, so the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the temple walls are tall, and the gate wrapped in iron is extremely heavy, once closed, it is impossible to open without the use of explosives.
▲ Tibetan Buddhist temples are often built on the mountain, and the terrain is dangerous
The 3rd Battalion first organized a tight fire to knock out the rebels defending the wall of the courtyard one by one, and then used the seatless cannon to shoot directly at the gate, and after the gate was blown open, our army carried out a tentative attack on the temple to find out the enemy's strength and firepower deployment, and the result was that the rebels' firepower was really fierce, they occupied the 5 monasteries in the courtyard, forming a strict crossfire, and the pretend troops just rushed into the compound and were driven out by fire.
Subsequently, the 3rd Battalion held an emergency combat meeting, with the 8th Company as the main attacker, and laid down these monasteries, but in order to protect these ancient buildings of historical and religious significance, heavy weapons and large explosive packs were not allowed. Our army then divided the explosives into small packets, detonated them as far as possible on the unimportant walls of the building, blew up the openings, and then the troops burst into the scholastics to annihilate the rebels.
The 8th Company then, under the cover of fierce fire, directly attacked one of the most ferocious wardens, and the 2nd platoon served as a commando team, and after several twists and turns, finally placed the explosives on the side of the courtyard wall, and then detonated, the explosion blew a large hole in the wall, and then our army rushed in, and quickly annihilated the rebels defending the monastery in close combat.
The success of our army's attack greatly shook the mentality of the rebels' stubbornness, and the rebels felt that they could not block the attack of our army by holding on to it alone, so they organized a group of outlaws to counterattack our army and make a tentative breakthrough, but as soon as they left the building, they were immediately wiped out on the open ground by the powerful firepower of our army. The rebels, who had no hope of breaking through, had to retreat and continue to hold on.
After quickly summing up the experience of attacking the strongholds, the 8th Company used it in the attack on several other scholastics. In the early morning of the 24th, the 8th Company used the monasteries occupied earlier to launch an attack on other monasteries, and it took only more than an hour to eliminate all the rebels in the temple. While our army was only searching for the remnants of the rebels after the battle, several people were hit by the cold guns of the hidden rebels. The battle completely annihilated the rebels under the premise of preserving the historical and ancient buildings, and won the commendation of the general order of the bandit command.
Resources
"Records of Ganqing Bandits--- 134th Division Ganqingnan Counterinsurgency Battle"
Editor/Zhou Hongxin
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