Xinjiang is a land of extraordinary significance to China. In ancient times, an important indicator of whether a dynasty was strong or not was to look at its jurisdiction over the Western Regions.
Since Zhang Qian "hollowed out the Western Regions" and opened up the Silk Road, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty set up the "Western Regions Protectorate" here, and Xinjiang was officially included in the Central Plains family and became an inseparable part of China.
However, in modern times, as the Chinese nation suffered an unprecedented catastrophe, Xinjiang was once again coerced by people with good intentions, including warlords, foreign enemies, and bandits, all of which seriously threatened the peaceful life of the people of all ethnic groups.
Among the local bandits was a thug named Usman, who had brutally murdered a deputy commander of our army. In the face of such atrocities, the ** general was furious and did not hesitate to use armored troops to encircle and suppress.
* On September 25, 1949, the Kuomintang military and political authorities in Xinjiang issued telegrams of uprisings, announcing the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, which meant that the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang who had been tormented by war and warlordism for decades finally saw the dawn.
At the same time, Luo Shaowei, deputy commander of the 16th Division of the Sixth Army of the First Field Army of the People's Liberation Army, received an order that he would lead a team to Hami, Xinjiang.
This is not just a post-victory reception, but also an arrangement to deal with the crisis. Because, although Xinjiang had been liberated at that time, it was not peaceful.
The enemy was not willing to be defeated, and the remnants of Ma Bufang, who had been defeated by Mr. Peng, the local bandit forces in Xinjiang, the Kuomintang spies, and US imperialism, all joined forces to continue to cause trouble for the PLA.
Not long ago, a gang of bandits attacked a pastoral area, not only robbing herders' property, but also killing herders and even PLA fighters who helped herders produce their products.
Such atrocities made the head of the newly established Xinjiang Military Region feel extremely angry, so General ** quickly set up a bandit suppression headquarters and used the Sixth Army as the main force to suppress bandits.
It was under these circumstances that Luo Shaowei attended a meeting of the party committee of the 16 th Division of the Sixth Army to study the deployment of the suppression of bandits, and was allowed to go to the front line to direct the operation.
Luo Shaowei is a capable general in the People's Liberation Army, this northwestern man from Hanyin County, Shaanxi Province, was born in a poor peasant family, and lost his parents since childhood, it can be said that he suffered very sadly.
When he was a teenager, because he was arrested, Luo Shaowei came to Yang Hucheng to serve as a soldier. But not long after, under the guidance of a Communist Party member named Shen Qixian, he left Yang Hucheng's unit and joined the First Anti-Japanese Army in Southern Shaanxi, which later became the Red 15th Army Guard Regiment.
That year, Luo Shaowei was seventeen years old, and after fifteen years of tempering, he became a deputy division commander step by step.
In his military career, Luo Shaowei not only made military exploits in the grassroots army, but also had rich experience in political work, and it can be said that he is a talent with both civil and military skills, and such cadres are scarce in any army. And now, Luo Shaowei has been transferred to Xinjiang, and the chief believes in his ability, which will be of great help to stabilize the situation in Xinjiang. On March 26, 1950, early in the morning, Luo Shaowei hurriedly had breakfast, then put on his coat, took the staff officers and guards, and went out together.
They rode in a jeep captured from the Kuomintang and drove to the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 46th Regiment, a hundred kilometers away from Hami, where bandits were most frequented.
As soon as he arrived at the station, Luo Shaowei issued a mobilization order to the soldiers of the Fifth Company, asking all the officers and men to prepare to go into the mountains to suppress bandits. Then, Luo Shaowei's company's preparations were inspected, and he was instructed to replenish two truckloads of forage for the military horses of the fifth company.
The next morning, Luo Shaowei left the garrison of the Fifth Company, and he then went to Qijiaojing, more than 20 kilometers away, to continue to inspect other units. The morning of early spring in Xinjiang was still very cold, and the wind was blowing, blowing so many people that their necks were bent.
Not only is it cold, but the mountain roads are also difficult to walk, and the jeep bumps back and forth on the rugged mountain road, making the people in the car dizzy. Because of this, the vigilance of the big guys is not so high, and they just snuggle up and talk together. At this moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out from the ravine, and in an instant, dozens of black shadows rushed out. Finding that the situation was wrong, and knowing that it was too late to reverse, Luo Shaowei shouted: "Fight!" Rush over! ”
However, under intensive enemy fire, the jeep was hit in succession and soon had a flat tire. The car couldn't move, and dozens of enemies quickly surrounded it. At the critical moment, Luo Shaowei did not choose to surrender, but continued to fight back with his comrades.
However, after all, there are many enemies, and Luo Shaowei is surrounded by civilians.
In the end, all five people, including deputy division commander Luo Shaowei, confidential secretary Li Yuqing, staff officer Ma Yuzhang, newspaper operator Song Wancheng, and guard Yang Zhuangyuan, were all killed, and only the driver was captured.
What makes people angry is that the bandits of ** are not willing to let go of the corpses of the fighters, and they gouge out the eyes of five people. And it was the Usman gang that ran rampant in Xinjiang that caused this incident with such cruel means.
Usmanben was an ordinary herdsman of the Keketuohai Mole tribe and had been selling livestock in Ahsan and Outer Mongolia in his early years.
In the 40s, when the warlord Sheng Shicai ruled Xinjiang, the Soviet Union sent mining geologists to Ahsan to inspect the mining industry, and also recruited more than 3,000 herdsmen as auxiliary workers. For a while, everyone thought that Sheng Shicai ceded Ahsan to the Soviet Union.
Ashan, also known as Altai, is the home of the herders, and they will not give it to outsiders. As a result, the herdsmen banded together to launch the Keketuohai Rebellion, during which several Soviet experts were killed.
This angered Sheng Shicai, who mobilized the entire Xinjiang army to suppress it, and finally put down the riot, and the organizers were also arrested and imprisoned, and most of them were executed.
Of the captured leaders of the rebellion, only two survived, one of whom was Usman. Although the revolt was a rebellion against the warlords** and the invasion of foreign enemies, it was not just ordinary herders who loved their homeland who mixed in, but also typical speculators like Usman.
As early as during the uprising, Usman took forty of his fellow herdsmen around to raid and rob houses, and he gave his men the power to kill and rob, both against soldiers and herdsmen.
Because this group of people is very cunning and haunted in the grasslands and mountains, Sheng Shicai's army has no way to deal with them, but let Usman sit big.
Another important reason for Usman's rise was the Soviet Union. The alliance between Sheng Shicai and the Soviet Union was divided in the forties, he was unwilling to be controlled by the Soviets, and turned to a close relationship with the Nanjing people, and the angry Stalin, in order to overthrow Sheng Shicai, colluded with the dissatisfied forces in Xinjiang against Sheng Shicai.
In 1942, the Soviets sent a Kazakh courier to Usman and gave him two shell guns and two binoculars. Later, the Soviets also sent a Mongol to Usman's team to act as a regular liaison.
Eventually, Usman reached an agreement with the Soviets that Usman's team would no longer attack Soviet specialists, and the Soviets provided Usman with thirty-six rifles, six shell guns, sixteen boxes of ammunition, and six military advisers.
These things were not given for free, but Usman exchanged them for more than a hundred horses, five taels of gold sand, and eight velvet blankets. But with these ** equipment, Usman's military strength has increased greatly, and he is already able to provoke Sheng Shicai's army head-on.
By 1943, Outer Mongolia had also made contact with Usman and had supported Usman with more than 1,700 pieces of various kinds.
With the support of these ** equipment, Usman attacked the local institutions of Sheng Shicai's regime many times, killed many ** personnel, and forced Sheng Shicai to use the security brigade to suppress it, but how could the security brigade be an opponent, and the team of hundreds of people was killed. Later, with the help of the regular army of the Kuomintang, Sheng Shicai mobilized nearly 5,000 people to encircle and suppress, and with the support of aircraft, tanks, and artillery, he defeated Usman's troops, and Usman was forced to go into exile in Outer Mongolia.
Sheng Shicai didn't want to give up, but the Outer Mongolian side issued an ultimatum strictly prohibiting the provincial army from crossing the border, and Sheng Shicai was afraid of the Soviet Union behind Outer Mongolia, so he had to swallow this bad breath.
Sheng Shicai, with the support of Outer Mongolia, Usman quickly recovered, with an army of up to 3,000 men, who returned to Xinjiang in the spring of the next day.
This time, they received direct support from the Soviet Union and Outer Mongolia, whose bomber units bombed the general headquarters of the provincial army in Ashan, three regiments of the provincial army were crushed, and the situation in Asan deteriorated rapidly.
At this time, Sheng Shicai, who was burning his eyebrows, had to ask for the support of the Kuomintang army, and Zhu Shaoliang, the commander of the Eighth Theater, personally went to Dihua to deploy operations and mobilized four divisions to support various strongholds.
Invisibly, Usman helped Chiang Kai-shek a lot, and let the first enter Xinjiang justifiably. It was too late for both Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek to resign and leave Xinjiang.
In October 1944, the new provincial chairman, Wu Zhongxin, came to power and adopted a strategy of division and disintegration against Usman, which achieved certain results, but Usman was still entrenched in one side.
Wu Zhongxin and after the revolution in the Third District, Usman was also elected as the Commissioner of Ahsan by the Third District**, and his social status was further improved.
The three districts here refer to Ili, Tacheng, and Ashan, and after the herdsmen's uprising, they established the so-called "People's Republic Temporary", which is often referred to as the three districts.
Usman himself was not enthusiastic about the revolution, and he never thought about democracy and equal rights, and even agitated his old ministry and several counties to confront the three districts. Moreover, Usman gradually distanced himself from the Soviet Union in order to win the support of the herders.
After getting rid of the Soviet Union, Usman repeatedly contacted the people**, hoping to send people into Ahsan** to provide them with **ammunition and food supplies, and he even wanted the people** to grant him a hereditary throne.
It was Zhang Zhizhong who was in charge of approaching Usman, who agreed to the previous request, but did not respond to his request for the throne. After receiving material support from the people**, Usman immediately launched another riot and confronted the three districts**.
During this period, Usman's cruel nature was revealed, and he tortured and killed a major and seventeen officers and soldiers of the Third District** after a battle. District 3** was furious about this and continued to send troops to suppress Usman.
But with the support of the people, Usman occupied almost the entire Ahsan in the next year, but his rule did not last long, and he was driven away by the ** army of the third district, and when he left, he took away a large number of herdsmen as the capital for his comeback.
After that, the situation in Xinjiang became more complicated, with the intervention of the Kuomintang, the three regions, the Usman forces, and the Soviet Union, and many forces were entangled together, and even the United States had to intervene.
In order to ease the situation, the Kuomintang pushed the moderate Tao Zhiyue to the position of commander of the Xinjiang garrison. But at this time, it was already the late stage of the Liberation War, and in the face of the general trend of successive victories of the People's Liberation Army, the military and political authorities in Xinjiang were preparing for a peaceful uprising.
Seeing this, the Americans sent a consul named Maknan, who consulted with Usman several times to agitate the herdsmen against peaceful liberation. In their plan, once the situation changed, they encouraged the herdsmen of the Nanshan Guan Ranch to go to Qitai and join Usman.
On September 25, 1949, Tao Zhiyue telegraphed the uprising, and Xinjiang Province also issued a telegram welcoming the People's Liberation Army into Xinjiang.
Three days later, the American consul Makenan handed over the property to the British consul for safekeeping, and he quietly sneaked out of the provincial city of Dihua to find Usman.
There was a secret conversation between them, but the content was unknown. Because Maknan was killed by border guards when he was smuggling from ** to India, and Usman was also shot afterwards.
However, even with the soles of the feet, it can be imagined that the calculation of the Americans is nothing more than to encourage Usman to oppose the Soviet Union.
Immediately after sending Maknan away, Usman began planning another rebellion. In 1950, he incited more than 20,000 people who did not know the truth to launch a riot, which swept through the eastern part of Xinjiang, attacking PLA soldiers and people everywhere, and besieging cities and towns.
Along with Usman, the remnants of the Kuomintang were in turmoil, with a cavalry regiment of more than 1,000 men and a special battalion of Kuomintang diehards launching a rebellion. The rebels are extremely powerful, with more than 6,000 core members and more than 50,000 herdsmen who are being held hostage by them.
The rebellion seriously endangered Xinjiang's stability and the safety of the lives and property of the people of all ethnic groups, and in Dihua alone, it lost more than 10,000 head of cattle and sheep, 14 staff members were killed, more than 50 civilians were killed or wounded, and more than 300 robberies occurred in the area.
In Hami, nearly 70 people were killed, injured or missing, and nearly 10,000 cattle and sheep were missing, so the land was abandoned for tens of thousands of acres. In Iwu, the county's population of more than 3,000 was taken captive, except for one child.
It was two months after the rebellion that Comrade Luo Shaowei died in Qijiaojing.
When Comrade Luo Shaowei's body was returned to Hami, the soldiers were furious when they saw their beloved deputy division commander being treated like this by the enemy, and they shouted: "Avenge Deputy Division Commander Luo!" Avenge the martyrs! ”
Some comrades, even in anger, even bit their fingers and wrote a petition for war, asking to go to the front line to suppress bandits.
For Luo Shaowei's death, ** was also very shocked, he was angry and went back and forth in the room, and his anger was overflowing.
This incident also shocked *** He instructed: "All localities regard the suppression of bandits as the top priority in all work, concentrate their efforts, and thoroughly eliminate all bandits in their territory." ”
*Comrade also instructed**: "Armored vehicles should be used against the nomadic cavalry!" ”
So, at the subsequent meeting of the bandits, ** instructed: "The Usman bandit army is all outlaws, it is difficult to fight for surrender, and the extermination of the Usman bandit gang must use force, reason with tanks, and teach them a hard lesson with bayonets!" ”
At this time, the People's Liberation Army is no longer the "millet plus rifle" of the year, they have advanced equipment, including hundreds of tanks.
* Subsequent combat deployments were made: "Hami, Zhenxi, and Qitai are required to send 300 to 500 cavalry from the four battalions of the Sixth Army and the cavalry regiment directly under the Fifth Army. The campaign was under the command of Luo Yuanfa, commander of the Sixth Army, Hu Jian, commander of the chariot regiment, and the command post was set up in Qitai. ”
Under the instructions of General **, the 16th Division, as the main force, dispatched 41 tanks, more than 100 military vehicles and one aircraft to launch a "steel torrent" offensive from the PLA.
Subsequently, Luo Yuanfa commanded the East Route Army to clear Balikun, and the West Route Army to clear Qitai, and the army marched in two directions, defeating the rebels of the special service battalion in only three hours, killing the bandit leader Ye Shenglin, and capturing Ma Zhanlin alive.
Usman's swift victory shocked Usman, and he immediately went to Hongliuxia to discuss countermeasures with other leaders, but who would have expected that a rebel army would flee to Hongliuxia after being routed by the Fifth Army of the People's Liberation Army, and the People's Liberation Army would also pursue it.
After the People's Liberation Army launched an attack on the bandits in Hongliuxia, Usman was so frightened that he thought that this was a divine soldier descending from heaven, and hurriedly fled on horseback.
But how could the PLA let the enemy run away like this, the cavalry regiment and armored troops pursued all the way in the wind and snow, constantly defeating Usman's own soldiers, and in the end only a few leaders such as Usman escaped.
After this battle, Usman's troops were scattered, many of his troops surrendered to the PLA, and the herdsmen who had been held hostage were rescued.
As for Usman, after collecting the remnants, he planned to return to Ashan's hometown, but he didn't want to encounter the Chenghua Cavalry Regiment of the Fifth Army of the People's Liberation Army.
This is really a dramatic scene, because the Chenghua Cavalry Regiment is adapted from the Ahsan Cavalry Regiment of the Third District, and the Ahsan Cavalry Regiment and Usman can be said to have a deep blood feud, don't forget the major and seventeen soldiers who were tortured and killed by Usman before, they are members of the Ahsan Cavalry Regiment, this is really not a rivalry.
The Chenghua cavalry regiment immediately launched an attack on Usman's few remaining troops, and after a major battle, more than 800 bandits surrendered to the Chenghua cavalry regiment, and Usman escaped with only a hundred people.
The PLA continued the pursuit, and Usman could only wander around, and after the battles of Kushui Spring, Black Sweat Spring, and Big Well, the remnants of Usman could no longer stand it, and more than 80 more people surrendered to the PLA.
At Huangcao Lake, Usman was ambushed by the People's Liberation Army with more than 30 remaining men, and his men either broke up and surrendered or were killed on the spot, only Usman frantically stabbed the horse's buttocks with a dagger, forcing the horse to gallop, and finally escaped from the encirclement again.
At this time, Usman was already alone, and he had no place to stand in Xinjiang, so he planned to go into exile in Gansu and take refuge in the Hu Saiyin Department at the foot of Qilian Mountain.
The 40th Regiment of the Fifth Army of the People's Liberation Army pursued it all the way to Xingxing Gorge, that is, the junction of Gansu and Xinjiang, before collecting troops and returning to the camp. This is not to say that the PLA intends to let him go, but that there is a whole army of the Third Army stationed in Hexi in Gansu waiting for him.
The Third Army dispatched a camel corps and a bandit suppression detachment to encircle and suppress the bandits at the mouth of the Lucao ditch to stop the bandit troops of Usman and Husayin.
After the fierce battle, the bandit army was dispersed, and the bandits in Anxi and Dunhuang were also wiped out, and Usman and other 38 people once again crossed the Qilian Mountains and went into exile in Qinghai. Since the People's Liberation Army was not ready to enter the mountains, the crackdown on bandits was temporarily stopped.
At the beginning of 1951, the People's Liberation Army, which was fully prepared, dispatched a cavalry regiment and more than 1,000 infantry troops, and after mobilizing more than 50 camel teams from seven counties in Gansu Province to deliver supplies to the troops, they marched into the sea again.
The troops raided the rebel camp in Dahaizi, routed the unsuspecting rebels, and captured more than 2,000 people, but still failed to capture Usman.
The commanders and fighters of the People's Liberation Army were extremely annoyed by the repeated misses, and after calmly analyzing Usman's possible escape route, a cavalry brigade was sent to the direction of Annan Dam to continue the pursuit.
Sure enough, the troops captured a straggler during the pursuit and learned that Usman was fleeing to Annan Dam.
The captain An Jun immediately shouted: "Whoever captures Usman alive will be given credit!" So, the cavalry began to chase the enemy, and dozens of knights rushed in the direction of the southwest dam.
Along the way, the PLA kept encountering bandits who had fallen behind, but the high-intensity rapid march also left the PLA behind.
By the time Usman was discovered, only six PLA soldiers could still keep pursuing, and one of them, a Gansu soldier named Kong Qingyun, ventured to take a shortcut from the frozen swamp to Usman, so frightened that Usman kept turning back and shooting.
During the shootout, one of the warriors' mounts was hit and fell off his horse. But no one dared to relax, and the five fighters continued to chase after each other until they reached the Great Salt Lake.
Seeing that the Annan Dam was ahead, in order to prevent Usman from escaping, the warriors began to chase the enemy from the ice. Because of the slippage on the ice, everyone fell behind, only Kong Qingyun's big black horse walked steadily, continued to run wildly for more than ten miles, and finally caught up with Usman.
Wu Si couldn't dodge it, so he used a fork gun to stab Kong Qingyun, and pierced Kong Qingyun's cheek and ear at once.
But Kong Qingyun endured the severe pain, snatched the fork gun in a daze, and stabbed it with his backhand. Usman reacted quickly and avoided the attack, but also fell off his horse, and the two immediately got tangled on the ground.
During the struggle, Kong Qingyun took out a bayonet to stab, but Wu Siman wore several layers of thick leather jackets, and the bayonet did not pierce him.
Kong Qingyun hurriedly took advantage of the fight to load his gun and put it against Usman's head, which made the bandit stop resisting. Soon, other comrades-in-arms also caught up, and everyone tied up Usman and escorted him back to the headquarters.
Usman was finally captured alive, not only the bandit command breathed a sigh of relief, but also the people who were affected by it, everyone happily slaughtered cattle and sheep, and welcomed the heroic soldiers to triumph.
Kong Qingyun, who was a thief hero, was recorded as a special meritorious service once and awarded the title of combat hero. Soon, Usman was handed over to Xinjiang**, where he was sentenced to execution after a public trial on April 29, 1951.
At this point, Usman was executed, the bandits in Xinjiang were pacified, and the people of all ethnic groups finally ushered in a peaceful day. The five martyrs including Luo Shaowei who died before, along with other martyrs who died in the suppression of bandits in Xinjiang, were placed in the martyrs' cemetery in Hami, and a martyr's memorial tower was built for them.
On the day of the completion of the memorial tower, tens of thousands of people came to attend the ceremony, and the ** general and others gave elegy and couplets for the martyrs, so that the souls of the martyrs could rest in peace.
Xinjiang is one of the largest provincial-level administrative regions in China, and throughout the ages, how many people have written historical poems here, such as Zhang Qian, Ban Chao, and Zuo Zongtang. It is the efforts of the sages that have kept the Chinese family together forever, and this is not something that can be divided by a careerist, neither can the prosperous age, neither can the Usman, nor can the foreign powers!
Compared with those famous sages, the names of people such as Luo Shaowei and Kong Qingyun are rarely known, but their contributions to consolidating China's great reunification and to stabilizing the situation in Xinjiang and benefiting the people of all ethnic groups are also worth remembering.
Kong Qingyun's great career may have been pioneered by great figures, but it must have been created by countless ordinary people, which is the reason why our China is still standing confidently after 3,000 years of ups and downs.