In 1950, the 18th Army of the Second Field Army marched to Xikang, opening the prelude to the liberation of Tibet. The 18th Army was the main force of the troops entering Tibet; at the same time, troops were also sent to Tibet in the direction of Yunnan, Qinghai, and Xinjiang; from the direction of Yunnan into Tibet was the 126th Regiment of the 14th Army, which belonged to Erye, which was a very famous regiment, and later participated in the counterattack against India, the Shadian Counter-Riot, and the war against Vietnam; the advance from Xinjiang was the famous advance company into Tibet, which was formed by the backbone reorganization of the uprising troops sent by the 2nd Army (old 359th Brigade); the Qinghai Cavalry Detachment, which entered Tibet from Qinghai, The troops sent by the 1st Army stationed in Qinghai are the "four-way centripetal" march into Tibet in military history.
From Kang, Yunnan, Qingdao, and Xin into Tibet, there were no roads in those years, and the troops either split the mountain and opened the road, or marched hard along the path of the Tea Horse Ancient Road, and now the route into Tibet, all the national roads, are not the ones that the troops who entered Tibet stepped out of that year. It can be noted that the troops entering Tibet from the northwest are all cavalry. In the direction of Xinjiang, the independent cavalry division of the 2nd Army was specially formed for the cavalry unit of the Xinjiang Nationalist uprising to march into Tibet, because it was extremely difficult to find a way through the Kunlun Mountains and it was difficult to guarantee supplies, so it was only possible to send an advance company into Ali, Tibet. The 1st Army, which entered Tibet from Qinghai, could only form a cavalry detachment of more than 600 people, bring its own supplies, cross the snowy mountains and ice fields, and cooperate with the 18th Army to launch the Qamdo Campaign. Entering Tibet from these two directions, in addition to the lofty mountains, there is also a large area of vast wasteland, to move quickly, but also to carry all the supplies, only the use of cavalry. For the northwest region, especially Qinghai and Xinjiang, there is naturally no shortage of good horses, but from Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia to Yiye in the great northwest, only the headquarters has a small number of formed cavalry, and it takes time to form cavalry, so only a limited number of troops can be sent to implement strategic cooperation, which is also the reason why Yiye is unable to undertake the task of entering Tibet and Erye enters Tibet from western Sichuan.
The main force of the 18th Army, which entered Tibet, crossed the river and went all the way south to liberate Sichuan, and when marching, it had to pass through the Kham area located in the Hengduan Mountains, and then cross the Jinsha River into Tibet, along the way, the snowy mountains and valleys were continuous, and the plateau trekked, which was extremely difficult and not suitable for large-scale cavalry movements. There were no cavalry in the troops except for mules and horses for cadres to ride and carry equipment, but they were very passive in the face of the rapid machine power of the opposing cavalry when they were tasked with reconnaissance, vanguard, search and pursuit, and preemptive points. Before the Battle of Qamdo was launched, two regiments of scouts had crossed the Jinsha River, both of which had suffered the losses of the Tibetan army, and had been unable to retreat due to the encounter with the opposing cavalry, sacrificing more than a dozen fighters. Commander Wu Zhong of the Vanguard Division, who had extremely rich combat experience and deeply felt the importance of improving the mobility of the reconnaissance detachment, issued an order as soon as he caught fire: Go buy horses, and the division's reconnaissance company should be changed to cavalry.
Compared with qinghai horses, Tibetan horses are smaller, but the plateau is adaptable, and it is difficult to buy good horses suitable for military use without local relations, but the People's Liberation Army is an exception, thanks to the correct united front policy and ethnic policy.
Because in Yulong, the most powerful local leader is called Shag Daoden, one of the famous "Kham Three Jies" in Kham District, the power is very large, he supports the People's Liberation Army, he asked the housekeeper to send a word, the nearby Tibetans brought the horses to them, and let the reconnaissance even pick them at will. How old are the horses, how wide the front gear is, how thin the legs are not fine, the People's Liberation Army will not look, the housekeeper is a big connoisseur, he helped to pick a good, but also personally rode on a try, and then directly priced, did not let the counter-offer at all, no one dared to bargain with him, to the company commander to pick a good horse only 120 pieces of ocean, get the reconnaissance even embarrassed. Later, when I arrived in Lhasa, some people sold three pieces of cow dung to the People's Liberation Army for a piece of ocean, hehe, these people are deliberately reorganizing the People's Liberation Army. The contrast is stark.
The reconnaissance company of the 52nd Division is a company that Commander Wu Zhong has focused on cultivating, and its personnel are the backbone of the fighting of each regiment, and there are a large number of veterans who joined the army in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the equipment is also the best in the whole division. But to do cavalry, not to mention equestrianism, many people have to learn from scratch when they get on horses, and Tibetans' horses are particularly good at riding, so they learn from others. This kind of skill, if you want tibetans to teach seriously, you can't learn it with an open-minded attitude, you have to let the other party value you. Fortunately, the opportunity is in front of him, this butler not only rides a horse well, but also loves to play with guns, and Kham Hanzi Shangwu is a local folk custom and likes to compete. He saw the American-made equipment in the hands of the People's Liberation Army, non-pulling soldiers than marksmanship, they attach great importance to marksmanship, first put a silver dollar in the distance, he put a cane gun, snapped a shot and flew, and then watched the scout fight, the veteran soldier came up to stand up without support, and the carbine gun flew with a silver dollar. The housekeeper was so excited that he called a subordinate, standing in the distance with a tea bowl on his head, and compared with the serf society of that year, this was the state. The People's Liberation Army hurriedly persuaded: You can't help it, your marksmanship is good, teach us to ride a horse. He also knew that the People's Liberation Army was complimenting him on his marksmanship, so he seriously taught riding horses.
Shag Daodeng supported the People's Liberation Army has its own origins, when the Red Fourth Front passed through here, Shag Daodeng led people to attack the Red Army, wounded and captured. The Four Fronts not only released his men, but also healed his wounds, and Shagdaden was very touched, not only did not oppose the Red Army, but also sent a lot of grain and livestock to the Red Army. At that time, the Four Fronts Army was already in difficulty, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De gave him a pennant and promised that the Red Army would return. After liberation, he served as the vice chairman of the Xikang Military Control Commission, was the leader of the Southwest Bureau and the Southwest Military Region, and the 18th Army entered Tibet from the direction of Kangbei because of The Shag Daodeng, in the future march, The Xia Ge Daodeng only took out more than 10,000 yaks, and always fully supported the troops to enter Tibet, making a very great contribution.
The Battle of Qamdo was instigated by the Kashag local government at the instigation of British forces, when eight Tibetan troops from daiben (regiments) were concentrated in an attempt to prevent the People's Liberation Army from crossing the Jinsha River. In order to encircle the main force of the Tibetan army, before the attack was launched, Wu Zhong sent a cavalry reconnaissance company to Yushu, Qinghai, to meet the Qinghai cavalry detachment, rush to attack Wuqi and Enda, and use the mobility of the cavalry to cut off the back road of the Tibetan army.
The Qinghai Cavalry Detachment was formed by the elite of the Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Army, and like the 18th Army, it was equipped with the best equipment and horses and the best supplies of the 1st Army, with more than 600 people and more than 1200 horses. The chairman sent a telegram to the military region, specifically instructing that some Tibetans should be selected and dispatched to accompany the troops. After the reconnaissance company and the Qinghai cavalry detachment met in Yushu, because they came from two field armies, they held a party, and there was nothing to entertain on the plateau, only to engage in equestrian performances. The ones in the field were all old cavalrymen, the horses were big, they immediately shot and chopped, the tactical action was very solid, the reconnaissance company of the 52nd Division was ashamed of itself, and in the future march, the cavalry detachment let them follow behind in order to take care of the reconnaissance company. The dry food of the two parts of the cavalry is also different, the Qinghai cavalry carries beef jerky, and the reconnaissance of the 52nd Division has egg yolk powder, which is specially produced by Sichuan for the 18th Army, and the iron cylinder packaging ration is the best field food of the year.
The cavalry detachment advanced all the way, crossing the three provinces, bypassing the Tibetan army's defensive line and driving straight to the rear of Qamdo. When I was most tired, I only rested for two hours a day, or to feed the horses, and it was good to sleep immediately, and if the horses ran down, they would fall behind, and before they reached their destination, there were only more than a hundred cavalry left in the marching column of the Qinghai cavalry detachment, followed by more than a hundred horseless cavalrymen, still running desperately. The reconnaissance company of the 52nd Division did not have many horses that ran down, because the Tibetan horses were more adapted to the Tibetan environment. At this time, the 154th Regiment of the 52nd Division also came over, that is, the regiment that killed Singh and captured Darwi in the later counterattack against India, and the personnel also ran away by a third of the team, and at that time it was a clear code to contact in code, and the division commander Wu Zhong shouted to the 54th Regiment on the radio: "You have two legs, you must catch up with the six legs in front of me!" ”
When charging at the Tibetan army, the reconnaissance company dismounted to cover with firepower, and the cavalry of the Qinghai Cavalry Branch charged on horseback and occupied Enda on time before the battle was launched, the rear road of the Tibetan army was cut off, and the Frontal Forces launched an attack after the Tibetan army surrendered. The Battle of Qamdo was the last battle of the Liberation War on the mainland, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) killed, wounded, and captured more than 5,700 Tibetan troops at the cost of only 114 casualties. By the way, among the Tibetan troops captured alive by the cavalry, there was a British spy, the foreigner in the photo above, whose public identity at that time was the radio station director of the Kashag government in Qamdo.
In 1949, a large number of British agents poured into Tibet from India, and Robert Webster Ford was one of them. Their mission was to incite Tibetan independence and make Tibet a member of the British Commonwealth.
After infiltrating Tibet, Ford, who was openly identified as a "trade representative," soon became a guest of honor to the Kashag government. On April 28, 1950, the 154th Regiment of the 18th Army of the People's Liberation Army reached Kardze and on June 28, it advanced to Derge, only 60 kilometers from the control of the Tibetan army. The British authorities instructed Ford to go to Chamdo to observe the situation nearby. So he came to Qamdo as the radio director of the Kashag government.
On July 13, Ford arrived in Qamdo with an AC motor and a telephone to begin his last intelligence work in Tibet. In the name of geological exploration, he collected ore samples, plant specimens, and all political, military, geographical, and human intelligence.
At that time, the great living Buddha Geda of GanziBaili Monastery, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng, and others had known each other during the Long March of the Red Army, and he took the initiative to propose to the 154th Regiment: to persuade the Kashag government and talks. However, less than 10 days after the arrival of the Rinpoche de Gerda in Qamdo, he was poisoned and died, and it was Ford who did it. Ford poisoned the Buddha in order to fulfill the task given to him by the British government: to prevent Tibet from negotiating peace with Beijing.
After being captured alive by the People's Liberation Army, Ford was taken to Chongqing, where he was imprisoned in the Southwest Military District Detention Center, where he was later sentenced to ten years in prison, released early in 1955 and deported. After returning to England, In 1956 Ford was appointed British diplomatic envoy, traveling to Vietnam, Indonesia, the United States, Morocco, Angola, Sweden, France, and finally consul general in Geneva. It is worth mentioning that in the 1984 negotiations on the return of Hong Kong, this Ford was the representative of the British military adviser on the withdrawal of troops in Hong Kong, and it is said that Deng Xiaoping saw this Ford and smiled and said: "The old acquaintance." (Note: When Ford was captured, Deng Gong was the political commissar of the Southwest Military Region) At the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony, he also ran back to participate.
The author of this article: Xu Dulu, "This is the war" to join the author, without the author himself and "this is the war" permission, any media, self-media shall not be reprinted, violators will be investigated for legal responsibility, readers welcome to forward. Friendly reminder: This number has been added to the copyright protection, anyone who dares to plagiarize and wash the manuscript, will be hit by the "Visual China" style of rights protection, the cost is high, do not lose big because of small, do not say that it is unpredictable.
About the author of the public account: Wang Zhengxing, a former officer of a field unit of the People's Liberation Army, has served in infantry detachments, headquarters, logistics departments and other units, is committed to the study of war history and tactics, and has a unique understanding of military tactics and non-war operations. His book "This is War" was recommended in two issues in May and June 2014 by Phoenix TV's "Eight Minutes of Open Volume" column. His public account name is also "This is war", welcome to pay attention