At 3 p.m. on February 19, 1963, in the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, the central leaders and the secretaries of the regional and provincial (municipal) party committees and the principal responsible comrades of the central departments sat in the conference hall, in an orderly manner, and Mao Zedong personally presided over the meeting.
The topic of the day was neither a speech by the central leaders nor a discussion of the political and economic situation, but a report by Zhang Guohua, second secretary of the Tibet Working Committee of the CPC and commander of the Tibet Military Region, on the sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack operation that had just ended in victory.
In the self-defense counterattack against India a few months ago, Zhang Guohua commanded the troops to defeat the Indian army, this war made him famous, and the Indian officers who fought with him even honored Zhang Guohua as "China's snowy god of war"!
Zhang Guohua
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the mainland's domestic and foreign affairs were complicated and faced many challenges. It was at this time that India followed in the footsteps of imperialism and began to invade and encroach on the mainland's Tibet region in August 1959.
The mainland government has repeatedly refrained from making concessions to the Indian side's provocative behavior, and has lodged representations with the Indian government in an effort to resolve the "outstanding" matters between the two countries through peaceful negotiations. Zhang Guohua also resolutely implemented the principle of good-neighborliness and friendship between the party and the government, ordering the border troops not to fire the first shot and try to avoid the occurrence of armed conflict.
On September 20, 1962, taking advantage of Zhang Guohua's return to Beijing to treat "plateau disease," the Indian army suddenly crossed the Kejielang River and suddenly launched a siege on the Chinese outpost, killing and wounding 47 of our border guards by mid-October. The Party Central Committee finally decided to fight back in self-defense and strike hard at the Indian aggressors.
The Sino-Indian border at that time
Mao Zedong personally presided over an emergency meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss the operational arrangements for self-defense and counterattack against India, and Zhang Guohua also attended the meeting as an observer. After the meeting began, Mao Zedong said: "Since Nehru must fight, then we can only accompany him, and we will not come and go in a rude manner." As the saying goes, if we don't fight, we can't make a deal, maybe we can fight back, the border can be settled, and there is hope for the peaceful settlement of the border problem. ”
At this time, Zhou Enlai also said: "The political significance of this struggle is greater than the military significance, and if you do not fight, you will already be victorious!" ”
At the meeting, Mao Zedong asked Zhang Guohua: "I heard that the Indian army still has some combat effectiveness, can we win the battle?" ”
Zhang Guohua confidently replied: "If we can win the battle, please rest assured that we will definitely be able to win the fight." Although the enemy is the ace army of India, it is not as good as chiang kai-shek's main force, they have not fought a war for a long time, but we have just put down the rebellion. ”
Finally, Mao Zedong came to the huge battle map, pondered for a while, then pointed to the Indian army's stronghold on the map, made a sweeping gesture with his hand, and said firmly: "Sweep it!" ”
Mao Zedong
Who's going to be in charge? Both Liu Bocheng and Xu Xiangqian believed that Zhang Guohua was not only militarily superior, but also politically minded, and was a suitable candidate for commander-in-chief. In the end, the meeting decided that Zhang Guohua, who was "fully qualified", would be appointed as the commander-in-chief of the front line, and the counterattack time was set for October 20, 1962.
On October 13, Zhang Guohua returned to Tibet by plane with illness. Before leaving Beijing, Liu Bocheng once again told Zhang Guohua that this was fighting against the regular army of India and the unit known as the "ace army", not an ordinary border police, and could not be taken lightly. Zhang Guohua still made it clear that he was confident that he could win the war.
After Zhang Guohua returned to the Tibet command headquarters, he held a meeting on how to fight the first battle, and most people believed that we must be cautious in the initial battle, and our army had never fought with the Indian army before, and no one had the bottom of the Indian army's strength, so they suggested that the initial battle should only fight sand at one point and annihilate a battalion of the Indian enemy.
However, Zhang Guohua believes that it is naturally not difficult for a military region's troops to eat a battalion, but this is not painful for the Indian army, and if it wants to fight, it will eat the Indian army's ace 7th Brigade in one breath. But on the plateau to eat a brigade of troops, the difficulty is obvious.
Zhang Guohua commanded the operation
Zhang Guohua is so confident, naturally he has several reasons:
1. No matter how strong the ace army of the Indian army is, it is not as strong as the elite of the Kuomintang troops, and it should be known that Zhang Guohua's troops defeated the Kuomintang 181st Division, and the combat effectiveness is absolutely guaranteed;
2. India has not fought a war for a long time, the soldiers are in a state of slackness, and our army has just quelled the armed rebellion in Tibet, and still maintains a high state of combat, once the war starts, it can quickly enter the state;
3. At that time, the combat site was in the southern Tibet region, the altitude was very high, and it was very likely that indian soldiers would not be able to adapt to that environment, but our army units had been here for a while and could adapt to the environment.
After Zhang Guohua's plan was submitted to the Central Military Commission, most people in the Central Military Commission considered him to be "adventurous" and expressed opposition to his plan. Mao Zedong greatly admired Zhang Guohua's courage, and finally he clapped his hands and said: "He is the commander of the front line, let him fight, it is not good to fight again!" ”
After zhang guohua received Mao Zedong's "sword of Shangfang," he immediately expressed his position: We must fight well, fight fiercely, fight quickly, fight quickly, and strive for total annihilation, do not be afraid of casualties, and fight without being restricted by the McMahon Line!
Zhang Guohua
On October 19, Zhang Guohua led the forward command post into the Mama area and unified command of the Kejielang area. Zhang Guohua asked Hou Jie, who was in charge of transportation at the Tibet Work Committee, to send 50 truckloads of artillery shells to the front line within 24 hours, but Hou Jie said that the road conditions were not good and it was difficult to do so.
It was true that Tibet did not have the current traffic conditions, but Zhang Guohua did not care about these, he stared at Hou Jie and said: "Now is the time of war, everything must be for the front line!" ”
Hou Jie had to try his best, called in enough manpower, found a lot of mules and horses, stepped on the slippery snow, and spent more than 10 hours to send the shells up.
At 7 o'clock on October 20, Zhang Guohua officially issued an order that the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack war began. The plaster's various units launched a general offensive against the Indian army on an east-west 21-kilometer front, advancing rapidly in depth in multiple ways.
The Tibetan masses enthusiastically supported the front
Zhang Guohua's headquarters also advanced with the troops, but because he had been working the plateau for days and his illness was not yet better, he actually had a high fever and a headache. When passing through the Bingfeng Pass, because of the dangerous road, the guards wanted to carry Zhang Guohua over on a stretcher, but he directly refused: "This is fighting, let the soldiers see what the impact will be!" ”
The guards had to support Zhang Guohua as they walked and commanded, and when the troops learned of this, their morale was immediately boosted. Two hours later, the first Indian stronghold was captured. By 8 p.m., the Battle of Kjørang was over. Zhang Guohua couldn't help but smile and said, "Such an easy victory, I have been a soldier for 33 years, this is the first time!" ”
By 22 October, the Indian ace 7th Brigade was completely annihilated, brigadier general Davell was captured, and brigadier general Singh was killed.
Under the correct command of Zhang Guohua, the officers and men of our army have given full play to the fighting spirit of "not being afraid of suffering and not being afraid of death," and many comrades-in-arms and heroes have emerged, and Pang Guoxing is one of them.
Pang Guoxing
Pang Guoxing was a deputy squad leader of our army, and when he was pursuing the Indian army, because he ran too fast and too fiercely, he quickly left the company and lost contact with the main force, so he formed a combat group with 3 other pursuing fighters, and he was the leader.
The combat team soon discovered an Indian artillery position, and several of its artillery pieces were firing at our army, which had a great impact on our pursuit. Pang Guoxing immediately decided to divide the troops into two routes and encircle this artillery position. At this time, the Indian army was preparing to transfer, and as soon as they saw Pang Guoxing and others, they were frightened and scattered, and hurriedly dropped their weapons and fled into the jungle. Pang Guoxing and others successfully captured this position and captured 3 artillery pieces.
Pang Guoxing and others returned the captured materials to the side of the road and continued to pursue the Indian army. After they climbed a mountain beam, they found that there was another Indian artillery position directly below 500 meters, they were condescending, firing at the same time, making the enemy dizzy, the Indian army thought that the main force of our army had chased over, and quickly blew up 4 cannons and fled by car, so that Pang Guoxing and others captured an artillery position of the Indian army.
In this way, pang Guoxing's combat group only took 2 days to penetrate the Depth of the Indian Army for 15 miles, seized 3 artillery positions, captured 7 artillery pieces, and a large number of materials and ammunition, making a great contribution.
Pang Guoxing's combat group
After the battle, the Lanzhou Military Region gave Pang Guoxing a first-class merit. On August 26, 1963, the Ministry of National Defense awarded Pang Guoxing the honorary title of "Combat Hero", and he was also directly promoted to platoon leader.
On October 23, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram commending Zhang Guohua and the troops participating in the battle, but there was a small episode in the middle. Before the former commander of the military region had time to forward the commendation telegram to the units, the Central Military Commission also informed the recall of the telegram, and just when Zhang Guohua was embarrassed and worried, the telegram from the Central Military Commission arrived again. The telegram contained the same content as the previous one, with only one additional sentence: "Chairman Mao Zedong is extremely pleased."
It turned out that the reason why the first telegram was retracted was because it did not point out Mao Zedong's satisfaction and approval.
On November 21, when our army reached the national border, the Chinese Government issued a statement reiterating that the Sino-Indian boundary issue must be resolved through negotiations; it also announced that from 00:00 on the 22nd, the Chinese border troops would cease fire on all sides of the Sino-Indian border line.
During the one-month Sino-Indian border self-defense and counterattack operation, the second campaign launched by the Chinese side in the eastern and western sections of the border achieved an overwhelming victory of annihilating three Indian brigades, killing and capturing more than 7,000 enemy troops, and inflicting 1,460 Casualties on the Chinese side and not a single one captured.
The Indian army surrendered to our army
After the war, the Western media spoke highly of Zhang Guohua's art of campaign command: the Chinese army fought with ease, as easily as a knife cutting butter.
On February 19, 1963, Zhang Guohua was ordered to report to the Central Work Conference on the situation of the Self-Defense counterattack operation on the Sino-Indian border. After his report was finished, Mao Zedong said happily: "Comrade Jinggangshan (Zhang Guohua was a veteran of Jinggangshan), once you fight a war, your illness will be cured!" You have fought this battle well and played the prestige of the People's Liberation Army. Jin Wushu said, it is easy to shake the mountain, but it is difficult to shake the Yue family army! I said, it is easy to shake the mountains, but it is difficult to shake the People's Liberation Army! ”
Zhang Guohua said: "The troops fought bravely, if the ceasefire order is two hours late, we will hit Tispur!" ”
Mao Zedong laughed: "It doesn't matter if you hit Tispur." Didn't he come to our side very often? We can go to him, this is called coming and going! ”
In the end, Mao Zedong spoke highly of the victory in this battle: a military-political battle, or a political-military battle!
Now that 60 years have passed, the Sino-Indian border has maintained a relatively stable situation, and the achievement of this situation has a close relationship with the battle of that year, and General Zhang Guohua can be said to have made great contributions!