Chapter Twenty-Five

  On October 19, I had just finished breakfast and was about to go to the command post when Deputy Commander Cheng and Chief of Staff Lan came to find me together. As soon as Chief of Staff Lan saw me, he said excitedly: "Commander, I have some good news to tell you."

  I immediately became interested and asked: "What's the good news? Tell me."

  Lan Canmou Chang exclaimed excitedly: "Dawei'er has grasped it, it's that 7th Brigade Commander Daweier who has grasped it!"

  I clapped my hands with a loud noise and exclaimed happily: "Great, finally caught a big fish, haha!"

  The deputy commander also happily said: "He hid in the deep mountains and forests for a day and night, and was both cold and hungry. Later, when he was really hungry, he came out to find something to fill his stomach. He didn't expect that as soon as he came out, he would be encountered by our company's search team and captured on the spot, haha!"

  "He said: 'Where is he now?'"

  The deputy commander replied: "He was locked up in a temporary cell at the command post, and I sent someone to give him some food and a blanket."

  "I said at once: 'Let's go and have a look! We can talk as we walk.'"

  "Alright, let's go."

  The three of us walked and talked as we went along, heading towards the temporary prison where Daviel was being held.

  After arriving at the command center, I brought a staff officer who understood Western languages to the temporary cell where Daviel was being held. Seeing that Daviel's spirit was still good, he was wrapped in a blanket, staring at the top of the cell, thinking about something. I signaled the guard to open the cell and walked in. When Daviel saw someone coming in, he calmly looked at us without speaking. I said in a calm tone: "Hello! Colonel Daviel!" The staff officer next to me translated what I said to Daviel. After listening, Daviel turned his head and asked: "Who are you? What do you want?" I smiled after hearing the translation from the staff officer and said: "I am the commander of this operation, my name is Tang Ning, and I came to see you." Daviel was slightly stunned after hearing the translation, and said in surprise: "You're the commander of the Dragon Army? No way! You're too young!" I laughed loudly and said: "Is this what you think is flattering me?" After listening to the staff officer's translation, Daviel said with a somewhat agitated tone: "Although I was defeated, I'm not at the point where I need to flatter you!"

  After listening to the interpreter's translation, I calmly said: "As a prisoner of war, you should have the consciousness of a prisoner of war. Don't you have any views on this war?"

  Davril stared at me with both eyes, listened to the interpreter's translation, shook his head and said: "There is nothing to say, if it weren't for this idiot general we have here, we wouldn't have lost!"

  After listening to the advisor's translation, I sneered and said: "Losing is losing, evil can never defeat justice!"

  Davir listened and became enraged: "We are defending our territory, while you are the invaders, the evil ones!"

  "I said sternly, 'Prevarication! Whether from the perspective of our country's history or from your so-called McMahon Line, this place including Dawang is our country's territory!'"

  After the interpreter translated, Daville's lips moved, but he didn't say anything else, and his spirit was greatly dampened. I said to him: "It seems you should learn more about history." After finishing speaking, I turned around and walked out, and when I reached the door, I turned around again and said to him: "Fortunately, we have always treated prisoners of war well, so congratulations! Your life is spared!" After that, I walked out of the cell and never looked back.

  After arriving at the headquarters, I immediately ordered the formation of a political work team. They went to the prisoner-of-war camp and did ideological work on those prisoners. In fact, my original words were: "No matter what method you use, whether it's a speak bitterness meeting or something else, my requirement is to develop the first batch of new Xizang warriors with communist ideology among these prisoners." When Deputy Commander-in-Chief and others came over to ask me about this order, my explanation was: "I am an apostle spreading communist ideology, shining the glory of communism on every Tibetan person."

  They listened and rolled their eyes, I saw it and said seriously: "Can't we have 'Western thieves' and 'fake Western troops'?"

  Deputy Commander Cheng hesitated and said, "Shouldn't we report to the Eastern Headquarters?" I shook my head and said, "Let's wait until there are results before saying anything." Deputy Commander Cheng still looked worried and said, "The atmosphere at home is very different now, be careful not to be used by others!"

  "I said: 'What are you afraid of? I'm the former commander, whatever happens, I'll take responsibility!' They fell silent after hearing me, and I added: 'Before things become clear, keep it strictly confidential!'"

  Lan Canmou said immediately: "We still have this party spirit." I was stunned for a moment, thinking to myself: It seems we still need to deceive the Central Committee, is it too much to talk about party spirit? Much later, I asked Lan Canmou, and he said: "At that time, we also thought it was necessary to form a Western Chu army that listened to us. Who knew how the situation would develop at that time? Maybe we would have turned around and occupied Western Chu territory! Didn't it prove this point later on?"

  The 515th and 516th Regiments attacked smoothly and recovered Dawang at 2:00 pm on the 19th. The specific battle situation is: The garrison of the 4th Division, 11th Brigade in Dawang was subjected to intense artillery fire from our army in the morning, and the morale of the troops was disheartened several times, almost losing their defense, but finally withstood our army's 11 attacks. At 10:00 am, our 53rd Regiment joined the battle, launched a surprise attack on the enemy's 33rd Brigade position on the left wing of the 11th Brigade, and broke through the entire line at 11:30, causing the enemy's 33rd Brigade to retreat completely. By then, the 11th Brigade in Dawang had become isolated, and the enemy's 11th Brigade retreated helplessly at 1:00 pm. Our army smoothly liberated Dawang. The battle of Dawang killed over 600 enemies, captured nearly 600 enemy soldiers, including about 240 wounded; our army suffered 213 casualties, including 98 wounded and 11 seriously injured. I ordered the 515th, 516th, and 53rd Regiments to organize defenses on the spot and build defensive positions. At the same time, the command center ordered the logistics department to fully meet the supply needs of the three regiments on the front line.

  When the Eastern Front Command received the battle report, they immediately sent a congratulatory telegram, asking us to continue our efforts and expand our victories. That evening, when I was convening a military meeting at the command center, a telegram from the Central Committee arrived. At first, I thought it was a commendation telegram, but when I asked my staff to read it out loud, I realized it wasn't. The telegram stated: "After receiving the victory message from the Eastern Front Command, the people of the whole country are excited and we are proud of you. We hope that your unit will consolidate its existing achievements, not be arrogant or impetuous, and continue to display the spirit of fearlessness in sacrifice and difficulty, and achieve even greater victories. In order to meet the needs of future battles, we have decided to establish the 201st Division, which will comprise the 53rd, 515th, 516th, 518th, and 519th Regiments, as well as a divisional guard regiment, an artillery regiment, a logistics department (including a transportation battalion), a communications battalion, and a cultural work team. The division commander will be Comrade Tang Ning, the original commander of the 53rd Regiment; the deputy division commander will be Comrade Cheng Jingshan, the original commander of the 518th Regiment; the political commissar will be Comrade Wu Jianguo, the original political commissar of the 53rd Regiment; and the deputy political commissar will be Comrade He Jianbo, the original battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Regiment. The chief of staff will be Comrade Lan Jingjiang, the original commander of the 519th Regiment; the deputy chief of staff will be Comrade Han Peng, the original chief of staff of the 53rd Regiment; and the director of the political department will be Comrade Yang Zhong, the original political commissar of the 515th Regiment. Other positions will be decided by the 201st Division and reported to the Central Committee for approval." Everyone was very excited after hearing this, and they all whispered to each other in hushed tones. I suppressed my own excitement and calmly said: "What's going on? If everyone moves up one position, what will happen?" Everyone fell silent for a moment before bursting into laughter. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was present, I immediately convened a meeting to discuss and decide on the specific positions within the 201st Division. After some discussion, the candidates were decided upon, and Comrade Lan Jingjiang read out the list: "The commander of the 53rd Regiment will be Comrade Pan Cheng, the original deputy regimental commander; the deputy commander will be Comrade Hong Jinwei, the original battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion... The commander of the guard regiment will be Comrade Xing Kaiyuan, the original battalion commander of the 1st Battalion of the 53rd Regiment; the deputy commander will be Comrade Li Qi, the original company commander of the 53rd Regiment... The commander of the artillery regiment will be Comrade Gu Zhen, the original battery commander of the 53rd Regiment; and the director of the logistics department will be Comrade Sun Hao, the original supply officer of the 53rd Regiment." I nodded my head and said: "Immediately send out the telegram." Very soon, the Central Committee replied that they had approved the appointments. As for my original comrades from the 53rd Regiment who were appointed to key positions in the newly established 201st Division, I wasn't worried at all because their qualifications and abilities were evident. They originally held divisional or regimental positions, and if it weren't for the rectification movement that had brought them down, they might still be holding those positions today.