The PLA besieged Usman
On March 16, 1950, Wang Zhen, acting commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, issued an operational order to the Sixth Army of the People's Liberation Army on encircling and suppressing the bandits in Wusiman, and Luo Yuanfa, commander of the Sixth Army of the People's Liberation Army and former commander-in-chief of the enemy in the General Headquarters for the Suppression of Bandits in Northern Xinjiang, immediately divided his troops into two routes: the eastern road was dominated by Wu Zongxian, the 16th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army, and a cavalry battalion of the Fifth Army cooperated to clear the Balikun area: the western road was dominated by the 49th and 50th Regiments of the infantry of Chen Yuechang's 17th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army and the Cavalry Regiment of the Sixth Army, With the cooperation of the 40th Cavalry Regiment of the 14th Division of the Fifth Army directly under the First Field Army, the 7th Independent Cavalry Division of the 22nd Corps of the People's Liberation Army and the Chariot Regiment of the Xinjiang Military Region, it was responsible for the clearance and suppression of the west of Qitai.
On March 24, 1950, the Fifth Cavalry Army of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Fukang (reorganized as the Special Service Battalion of the Independent Cavalry Division of the 22nd Corps of the People's Liberation Army after the uprising) launched a rebellion instigated by reactionary officers Ma Zhanlin and Ye Shenglin, and fled to Nanshan Winter Pasture after looting Fukang that night, preparing to cooperate with Usman to attack Dihua City. When the news came, Yuan Xuekai, deputy commander of the 17th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army of the People's Liberation Army, immediately led the 49th Infantry Regiment and the 50th Infantry Regiment of the PLA that night to encircle Fukang County in three ways. In the early morning of the 25th, our encirclement and suppression troops attacked on all sides, and the rebel Ma Zhanlin was captured alive, and Ye Shenglin was killed. This was the first battle against the bandits, and it ended in just 3 hours.
The rebels of the Special Service Battalion of the 7th Independent Cavalry Division were annihilated, which thwarted the plan of the rebels of the 7th Division of the Usman Combined Independent Cavalry Division to attack Dihua.
Usman and Yaolebos hurriedly gathered tribal leaders to hold a meeting at the Red Willow Gorge in the north of Balikun, and decided to establish a "Kazakh autonomous government", with Janim Khan as chairman and Usman as commander-in-chief. At this time, Yao Lebos's troops were besieging the county seat of Iwu, and the Usmansho troops were encamped in the Dahong Willow Gap northwest of the town, with a total of about 3,600 rebel forces.
After Luo Yuanfa, commander of the People's Liberation Army, learned of the information about the assembly of Usman and Yao Lebos at Hongliu Gorge, he immediately ordered the 16th Infantry Division to rush to encircle and suppress it.
On the night of April 14, the weather changed abruptly, suddenly it snowed, the temperature dropped to more than minus 30 degrees, and the bandit troops suffered frostbite attrition of varying degrees. Early the next morning, the troops arrived at Little Red Willow Gorge, just as they met the sentries of Usman, and the battle broke out instantly.
At this time, Usman and Yao Lebos lived in the Great Red Willow Gorge, more than five kilometers away from the Little Red Willow Gap, and the Little Red Willow Gap was stationed with the White Russian Guard of hundreds of people in Usman and many large and small leaders who came to participate in the meeting. After the battle of Little Red Willow Gorge began, Usman hurriedly fled the Great Red Willow Gorge with the White Russian Guard, and met head-on with the main force of the 17th Infantry Division, the chariot regiment and the cavalry regiment of the 6th Army advancing in the snow near the small fort. After a fierce battle, the Usman army collapsed again, the White Russian Guard desperately covered and was killed most of them, and a few major leaders such as Usman and Yaolebos escaped.
In late April 1950, Usman and Yao Lebos were again intercepted by the 14th Cavalry Division of our Fifth Army at the paper mill, and divisions began to occur within the Usman rebels, and Yao Lebos led his cronies to leave Usman and flee east. At this time, the defense of Iwu in northern Hami was fiercely fought, and in order to rescue Yiwu, the northern Xinjiang bandit command had to concentrate its main efforts on the Hami direction, and temporarily adopted the strategy of preventing Usman from going south and encircling without fighting.
On April 29, 1950, the Xinjiang Military Region ordered the Northern Xinjiang Command to concentrate its forces "first to annihilate the Yao bandits in the Yiwu Xiaohongliu area, and after winning the battle, concentrate all efforts to eliminate the Wu bandits." The army immediately surrounded Yao Lebos in the area of Ba Dashi, and Yao Lebos fled hastily from the back mountain path, first crossing the vast Gobi in eastern Hami and entering Timurik at the junction of Xinjiang and Qinghai, and then sneaking across the border through Bangladesh and flying to Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek was entrenched. This route was originally an escape route prepared for Makanan, but unfortunately Makanan was unlucky and absconded to the Tibetan area and was killed by the Tibetan army, but Yao Lebos was able to escape.
After completely annihilating the bandits of Yao Lebos, our bandit troops began to concentrate their efforts on dealing with the Usmanbu. At this time, Usman moved south back to the paper mill, Black Mountain Head and the area around the Great and Small Red Willow Gorge.
On May 14, 1950, the troops of the Northern Xinjiang Bandit Suppression Command were divided into three routes and dispatched: the 16th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army of the People's Liberation Army in the North Road marched towards Paper Mill; The 1st Infantry Division of the Fifth Army in the West and the Cavalry Regiment of the Sixth Army marched towards Dahongliu Gorge and Heishantou; The 17th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army of the People's Liberation Army marched towards Xiaohongliu Gorge.
At 10 p.m. on the 17th, the North Road troops occupied the paper mill, cutting off the only way for Usman to escape north; The PLA West Road troops captured the Dahongliu Gorge and cut Wusman in half.
On the 18th, the Southern Route troops captured Xiaohongliu Gap. After Usman left the White Russian Guard broken, he led the remnants of his troops to flee to North Tower Hill. The notorious White Russian Guard was immediately devastated and ceased to exist after the battle.
Usman led the remnants of more than 200 people to break through the siege and fled to North Tower Hill to join his daughter Yili. The army of bandits chased after them. After a few battles, Usman had to turn around and go south along the edge of the Gobi, trying to go to Nanshan to fly with the Urazibai bandits who rebelled in mid-May, but did not know that at this time Luo Yuanfa had secretly sent a telegram ordering the 17th Infantry Division of the Sixth Army and the 6th Infantry Division of the Second Army to advance north and south, annihilating the Urazibai bandits in one fell swoop at the Tiangeldaban, and Urazibai only escaped with more than 20 people.
Usman was forced to return to the Great Red Willow Gorge of Qitai to join Janim Khan, who was also wandering around, and plotted to flee to India via Gansu into Qinghai.
On the evening of July 1, 1950, heavy rain poured down, and our army of bandits once again surrounded Usman at the Dahongliu Gorge in Qitai. In the melee, Usman and Janimhan escaped through the fog. The bandit troops immediately followed and pursued, and the next day caught up with Usman in Erdao Poplar Gou. After a fierce battle, the cunning Usman fled again. Janim Khan was captured and executed in February 1951 after a public trial in Dihua.
After the battle of Erdaoyanggou, Usman became a loner and had no place to stand in Xinjiang, so he had to cross the vast Gobi and flee to Qinghai through Gansu along the old road traveled by Makanan and Yaolebos before, not wanting to be intercepted by our Third Army in the Hexi corridor.
In desperation, in August, Usman went south through Anxi and Dunhuang into the Qilian Mountains and Haizi region of Qinghai, joined the Husaiyin bandits, and wantonly looted and killed our military and political personnel in Ruoqiang and other places.
At the same time, a large number of Kazakh herders in Xinjiang followed Usman to Haizi area, which seriously affected the social security and stability in the border areas of Gansu, Qinghai and New provinces. (Serialized --- 4)