Old soldier lauds PLA's pivotal role

Veteran Peng Xiaomao became emotional as he recalled his years of service in the Tibet autonomous region more than six decades ago.

Born in Hubei province in 1937, Peng enlisted in the People's Liberation Army as a machine-gunner in a field unit in Sichuan province and marched to Tibet in 1958.

In the decade that followed, he fought in several battles that helped bring peace to the region and laid the foundation for its development.

For Peng, today's prosperous Tibet was earned through the hardships endured by PLA soldiers.

His unit set out from Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, to its destination of Tibet's Chamdo city. The journey was about 1,200 kilometers, and about 75 percent of it was undertaken on foot.

After they entered Sichuan's Garze county, the going became extremely tough.

The soldiers had to constantly climb over snow-capped mountains more than 6,000 meters high. The low level of oxygen caused many of the troops to faint.

In addition to having difficulty adjusting to local conditions, they fought several battles against bandits along the way.

However, no sooner had the unit settled down in Chamdo, the authorities in Bomi, a county in Nyingchi city, sent an urgent request for backup.

It was January 1959, and a revolt that had erupted in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, had quickly escalated into a full-scale rebellion. As a result, about 80 troops were stationed in the offices of the Bomi County Party Committee, resisting a rebel attack, and about a dozen had been killed.

Peng's unit was ordered to get to Bomi in seven days. The distance was 600 kilometers, and Peng said the troops ran almost nonstop day and night.

"There was no road at all. All you saw ahead were trees and rivers. We were particularly afraid of rain because landslides happened all the time," he said.

During the journey, everyone was hungry and had blisters on their feet, but they still had to move on, carrying machine guns that each weighed 40 kilograms, he said.

"In three days, we only had two meals," he recalled.

They arrived on the seventh day. Without taking a break, they set up their machine guns on a nearby hill and joined the battle immediately.

"People always think gunfights in war movies are cool, but real war is not like that. You don't even know when a bullet has been fired. You feel a bit scared before the gun goes off, but once it has been fired, the only option is to charge forward," he said.

"If you dodge the bullets, you live. If not, you lose your life. We were all in our 20s－if we died, we died. I didn't have any other thoughts."

When recalling that experience Peng said the words he heard most were "unfavorable conditions".

"You think about drinking and eating? No way. Unfavorable conditions for you. We had to set out as soon as the order came, and we started fighting as soon as we arrived. You want to rest, but your enemy won't wait. They were ready to attack at any minute, yet you were there, afraid of death and the cold? If you can't do it, then go home. You have no room to negotiate when you are a soldier," he said.

Despite their difficulties, the PLA troops stuck to the strict rule of not taking anything from the local people. Peng said one ravenous soldier who caught a fish in the river was executed for violating discipline.

For Tibetans, fish are incarnations of a water god and have important religious significance.

"We were there to give them a better life, to help build the region, not to harass them or place a burden on them," Peng said.

In 1967, he retired from the military and worked on a farm in Nyingchi in line with the central government's call to "develop Tibet".

He remained there until he took full retirement in 1992.