After the Siege of Khovd began in May of 1912 the Manchu authorities in Xinjiang dispatched a relief column to the besieged city. Some sources say the column was organized by the Torgut prince Palto, who had refused to take part in the Mongolian independence movement and instead had decided to remained faithful to the Manchus. Reportedly the column consisted of 200 Chinese cavalry and eighty camels laden with modern Japanese carbines, ammunition, and foodstuffs.
The besiegers sent the Zakhchin chief Sambuu to the Chinese border to meet the relief column. He greeted the commander of the column with a khadag (prayer scarf) and offered to provide fresh horses for the soldiers. He also offered to lead the column to a suitable campground near Shivriin Khötöl. While on the way to Shivriin Khötöl, however, Sambuu managed to secretly dispatch four or five messengers to Magsarjav, informing him of the column’s progress.
According to the famous Mongolian lama Diluv Khutagt, who was in the area at the time, the Manchu authorities sent a messenger to the Chinese Amban (governor) of Khovd informing him that the relief column was on the way. This messenger was caught by the Mongol forces besieging the city and under interrogation revealed what he knew.
The besiegers sent the Zakhchin chief Sambuu to the Chinese border to meet the relief column. He greeted the commander of the column with a khadag (prayer scarf) and offered to provide fresh horses for the soldiers. He also offered to lead the column to a suitable campground near Shivriin Khötöl. While on the way to Shivriin Khötöl, however, Sambuu managed to secretly dispatch four or five messengers to Magsarjav, informing him of the column’s progress.
Sambuu’s portrait in the Khovd Aimag Museum
Sambuu himself led the relief column down the defile of Shivriin Khötöl, about 200 feet wide, and flanked on either side by sheer cliffs. As they approached the end of the defile, Sambuu and his men suddenly galloped away from the relief column, leaving the Chinese soldiers exposed to the Mongol soldiers who were waiting in ambush at the mouth of the defile and in the cliffs above. According to Diluv Khutagt:
. . . the Mongols suddenly opened fire with their flintlocks, knocking over a file of ten or more men, beginning with the standard bearer. Dismayed and astonished, they had no time to unload their pack animals. When the Mongols knew that the Chinese had shot away all the ammunition that they carried ready on their person, they advanced to close quarters and killed them all. Taking their weapons and the 80 camels with their loads as booty, they found themselves splendidly armed.
Entrance to Shivriin Khötöl
The Mongol troops, who up until then had only ancient flintlocks and outmoded single-shot Russian army rifles, were now equipped with the latest model Japanese army rifles and plentiful ammunition. Had these supplies reached instead the Manchu garrison in Khovd it is doubtful the later Mongol attack on the fortress would have succeeded.
Exactly who led the ambush at Shivriin Khötöl is unclear. Diluv Khutagt says that both Magsarjav and Dambijantsan took part. A. V. Burdukov, a Russian settler who was in the area at time, claimed that Dambijantsan carried out the ambush and that Magsarjav was not present. However, surviving members of Magsarjav’s detachment interviewed by Professor Baasankhüü of Khovd in the 1970s claimed that Dambijantsan was not involved in the ambush and only claimed afterward that he was. In any case, the Shivriin Khötöl ambush was one of the key events in the expulsion of the Manchu garrison in Khovd, at the time the last remaining outpost of Manchu authority in Mongolia.
Shivriin Khötöl is located 9.6 miles (15.5 km) from Khovd City.
Professor Baasankhüu
