Tibet

The Prime Minister's aides received a set of private communiques from "Our Benefactors." It was here that they were listed a step by step to-do list, each of them required to report it to a set location at a set time and date. What it included was the following,

• Location of all Tibetan Armed Forces (if possible)

• Location of Resistance Hotspots (significantly those who would oppose their plans)

• Contact the Prime Minister directly and get a written agreement before PLA Forces enter the country.

• Dissuade Tibetan units away from the interior of Lhasa and to the border as best as possible.

The aides, ranging from housekeepers to cabinet members and participants, followed through as best they could. They gave out detailed maps of Tibet's fortifications, military outposts, armories and numerous other bands of information that gave insight on possible locations where their forces might be. It all sounds great except nobody but the Minister of War could actually obtain these accurate documents. What the Tibetan agents gave to the Chinese was nothing more than what the PLA already knew.

They would have to go in blind.

4 April 1952, PLA forces began to stage military exercises along the Tibetan border with the sole intent of drawing the forces to prepare a defence. It was followed to the teeth.

7 April 1952, 0648

PLA forces crossed the de facto border between Tibet and the People's Republic of China along two major fronts--in the north, from Qinghai and the east from Sichuan. It was in this offensive that the PLA deliberately focused its attentions on the most committed units of the Tibetan Army. Aimed and prioritizing encirclement and surrounding the Tibetan Army (hopeful on destroying them should they refuse to surrender), the PLA sought out just exactly that.

The combat was swift and intensive, the Tibetans fighting for their land as the PLA fought for their larger goal, their larger mission. In the days of fighting and maneuvering that followed, news traveled all over the nation, including Lhasa where Prime Minister Ngapoi Ngawe Jigme hosted a State of Emergency and hosted all Members of Cabinet including the Regent to weigh their options.

On 8 April, the cabinet finally convened as PLA forces were taking resistance in the North. The Prime Minister started the conversation by welcoming everyone, ordering his staff to shut all blinds and to ask that guards remain in the room for everyone's safety. He stated the fear of assassination was not off the table. The units in Lhasa under his command, just prior to the meeting, began to detain hundreds upon dozens of British and American attachees and marched into the General Headquarters, Potala Palace as well as Norbulingka.

The Prime Minister stated that Tibet was going to be put under martial law for as long as needed until the Chinese were out-... he paused, a knock at the door came. The Prime Minister turned, insisting that they were very busy and needed privacy before a useful aide whispered in his ear. His eyes widened and he turned to the cabinet, "excuse me. I must be right back, please continue among yourselves."

Swiftly he hurried out as 8 armed soldiers stormed right in his place in the cabinet chambers where they detained every member of cabinet, ordering not a single individual be released from custody. The entire capital's military and police were on lockdown, arresting every member of government not already in conversation with the Prime Minister.

The first gauge that something was awry came as American and British diplomatic missions (embassies, legations, to consulate personnel) had awoken on this day to find numerous soldiers outside of their offices with expressed orders to prohibit entry to any Tibetan attempting to enter. Likewise, the airport in Lhasa was shut down by police until further notice--no flights in or out.

8 April, 1402

With the government secured, the Prime Minister ordered all military personnel to stand down and surrender to the People's Liberation Army. It was here that his aides were dispatched to meet with certain key Chinese personnel, handlers to diplomats who took the Prime Minister's written agreements and put it to work. The Prime Minister was now no longer the Prime Minister but rather to be bestowed Governorship over the newly occupied region.

The military was mostly mixed in their responses. Some stood down immediately, unaware of the larger pieces that they were playing while others were simply too confused to act independently. Roughly about 6,000 soldiers across the entire country refused to cave in outright and promised to continue their fighting across the nation - only to be blown down by the People's Liberation Army that came in the weeks that followed.

From April to May, in under 28 days the organized military of Tibet was disassembled and the region had fallen into the hands to the People's Republic of China in a swift coup that had been built up for the past several years.

21 May

As PLA soldiers marched into the countryside anticipating fierce and heavy resistance even still, members of the Army found that most of the villages and its inhabitants were starving. They were barely living. There was no war to be had with these peoples, they were barely handling the war on hunger. One unit came across a town that was so bare in supplies, the PLA willingly gave up their own foods to the locals. They offered them Communist Manifesto's only to find that nobody could read, so they gave them their own personal money.

This reinforced the thought across China that this was no occupation or revaunchism but simply liberation.