Chapter 70 The current tasks and deployment of troops entering Tibet

(September 13, 1951) Comrade Xiaoping[1]: Our advance detachment has arrived in Lhasa, and the troops led by Zhang Guohua[2] will soon be on the front line of Taizhao[3] and Lhasa.Regarding the issue of whether the task of these troops in 1951 was mainly to build roads or to produce food to meet their needs, Zhang Guohua once told me when he was in Beijing that road construction should be the main task instead of production.Zhang also believes that the Ganzi-Lhasa highway will be completed in the next year.But according to the information obtained later, it will be impossible to complete it next year, and it may take two to three years to complete it.In this way, if our army does not engage in production, supplies will become a serious problem, and relying on the Tibetan government for supplies, or relying on purchases, will not have a good impact on the Tibetans.Therefore, please consider whether it is possible to set equal emphasis on production and road construction, that is, let the troops stationed along the road from Ganzi to Lhasa take part in production and part in road construction, with more people engaged in production in the production season and full in other seasons. build roads.This should be determined now to prepare for winter.In addition, regarding the distribution of troops, it seems that within a few months, a part of the troops should be stationed in Shigatse and the intermediate points between Shigatse and Lhasa, and production arrangements should be made in these places, so that the Panchen Lama[4] can return to Tibet and facilitate the deployment of the Panchen Lama. Work.The original plan of not stationing in the above-mentioned points next year seems to be changed, but the time for stationing can be after Zhang Guohua's visit to Lhasa and the relationship between the Tibetan government is completely settled, that is, three or four months later.Looking forward to the above.

Mao Zedong September 13 Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Xiaoping, also known as Deng Xiaoping, was then the first secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and political commissar of the Southwest Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. [2] Zhang Guohua (1914-1972), born in Yongxin, Jiangxi.At that time, he was the commander of the Eighteenth Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. [3] Taizhao, present-day Gongbujiangda County, Tibet Autonomous Region.

[4] The Panchen Lama, that is, Panchen Erdeni Chokyi Gyaltsen, was one of the local religious and political leaders in Tibet at that time.