Strictly complying with Chairman Mao's instructions that troops in Tibet should not take things from local people, the company Gong Bao was in had severe supply difficulties and a shortage of materials. When they marched into Burang, they had to kill horses and eat the meat in order to survive. Gong Bao and several soldiers snuck into the water mill and over and over licked the ash and flour left on the beams and stone. Still, three soldiers starved to death. The company commander had no choice but to negotiate with the Zongben[7] in Burang, saying that the army was willing to offer ten times the local price to buy some barley to help the company survive the famine.
Gong Bao was the translator. Every time he and the commander climbed up to the high Zongfu castle in the attempt to buy food, they became dizzy because of hunger.
The Zongben said, "I will not sell to your army, according to the instructions given by your Chairman Mao. Since you have money, why don't you just cook that and eat it?"
The twelfth time they came back with empty hands, Gong Bao took off his military uniform, changed into a Tibetan robe, took his gun and before sunrise climbed to the top of the Zongfu castle. The door was still locked when he arrived, so he dozed against it and was thrown directly into the courtyard when it opened. The servant recognized him but Gong Bao put the gun against his head before he was able to cry out. When Gong Bao entered the Zongben's bedroom, he was sipping butter tea leisurely.
The trembling Zongben was taken to the company at the foot of the mountain. The commander slapped Gong Bao in the face because he had gotten them into big trouble by violating the ethnic policy. The Zongben asked Gong Bao why he was slapped after he had helped the army. Gong Bao answered in Tibetan, "He asked why I didn't kill you once and for all." Gong Bao used the word "kill" instead of "shoot" because the Tibetans had no idea what "shoot" meant.
The commander asked Gong Bao to apologize to the Zongben, who in turn was told that the commander said they would kill him if he did not sell them food. The Zongben nodded and sent his servants to bring food. In the end, the company bought barley and peas at the price of thirteen dayang, which at the time could buy twenty jin of barely.
Since then, Gong Bao's fame grew to the extent that headmen fled as soon as they spotted him in the distance. In reality, Gong Bao was put in confinement for three days as a punishment for this incident.
After the liberation of Ngari, most officers and soldiers of the advance force left Ngari Plateau. Gong Bao decided to stay on.
In 1959, the year when the Dalai Clique instigated domestic sedition, Gong Bao survived three attempts of assassination and rejected ten inductions to capitulate. All other assassinations with rewards also ended in failure.
Later, someone brought up Gong Bao's old scores from "food-borrowing" incident in an attempt to give him disciplinary punishment. Gong Bao broke into a torrent of abuse out of indignation. The army transferred him to another company where nobody knew his past so the punishment could be naturally removed. He was appointed as head of a county, a post he would not take as he insisted on continuing to work at Ngari Military District until retirement in 1996, after forty-seven years of military service. Thus, he became the Tibetan officer with the longest length of military service in the whole autonomous region and had had a post as Colonel Deputy Commander. He could have settled in Sichuan Province after retirement, but still he would not leave. Later he was invited to settle in Lhasa by the autonomous region and was elected CPPCC[8] member of the autonomous region.
The Crescent Moon Rises
See how softly the moon is rising,
In the night, in the night
Climbing over mountains touching the sky above,
In the night, in the night
See how the moon beam's trying through your window,
Full of light, in the night
Full of light, in the night
And the moon is watching you and you're dreaming,
Through the night, through the night
Our love's like a rose that grows in the moonlight,
In the night, in the night
This is a famous song written to a northwestern folk tune by Wang Luobin, who is acclaimed as northwestern China's folk song king.
In the 1980s, Wang said in a letter, "Thirty years ago when I wrote this song for you, you were as serious as a Bolshevik."
The addressee was Wang Junzhi.
Personally, I do not know this woman, nor do I have any idea whether she is still alive today. Nonetheless, I miss her, and want to share a few thoughts with her.
I do miss her, especially in Ngari. Wang Junzhi was part of the first batch of female soldiers and cadres of Han nationality to come to Ngari. Her son, An Jinjun, was one of the first Han guests to Ngari and her daughter An Ngari was one of the first Hans born to the first Han soldiers in Ngari.
So what's the relationship between Wang Junzhi and Ngari? What kind of a woman is she?
In 1930, Wang was born in Linfen in Shanxi Province and studied foreign language at Shanxi University. During college, she fell in love with a boy.
In June 1949, Wang joined the army in Huaxian County in Shanxi Province. She marched from Dunhuang in Gansu Province across the vast desert, all the way northwest to the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Once, they lost their way in the desert and the female soldiers almost joined the lost ancient Loulan Kingdom.
In July 1950, Wang married An Zhiming, seventeen years older than her, in Qiemo County at the southern edge of Taklamakan. After her marriage, she worked as an officer at the political department of the Independent Cavalry Division in Xinjiang Military District, located in Yutian County. In May 1950, their son was born just as An Zhiming was about to march into north Tibet, leading follow-up units to back Li Disan's advance force. Therefore, they named the boy Jinjun ( "marching army" ) to commemorate An Zhiming's expedition to Tibet.
