Text/Kingdom Building
From the end of 1933 to the beginning of 1934, the northwest warlord Sun Dianying and the Ningxia and Qinghai Hui warlords Ma Hongkui, Ma Hongbin, Ma Bufang, and Ma Buqing fought fiercely. In this war of local warlords, the four horses in the northwest who defeated Sun Dianying did not get the greatest benefits, but instead gained the greatest benefits from Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan, who instigated the wind and ignited the war behind their backs. Yan Xishan collected nearly 20,000 remnants of Sun Dianying, while Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of the war between local warlords to eliminate the unruly northwest warlord Sun Dianying, so that the central forces penetrated into the northwest region, and truly realized the right to rule the northwest region of China.
In early 1933, after Feng Yuxiang returned to China from the Soviet Union, he organized and established the Chahar Anti-Japanese Allied Army in Zhangjiakou. Feng Yuxiang's old headquarters of the Northwest Army gathered more than 100,000 troops in just over a month, which once shocked Zhang Xueliang, Yan Xishan, and other neighboring warlords. Of course, the most worrying thing about Feng Yuxiang's organization of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces was the Nanjing Nationalist Government headed by Chiang Kai-shek, fearing that Feng Yuxiang was not yet dead set on state power and developing his personal forces under the banner of resisting Japan and saving the country, which would make the Central Army, which was encircling and suppressing the Red Army, tired of coping. At this time, Sun Dianying was the commander of the 41st Division of the National Revolutionary Army, with a small number of 30,000 horses, and was the object of feng yuxiang and Chiang Kai-shek, including Yan Xishan.
Sun Dianying was clever and maneuvered between the princes of all sides, that is, he was not dependent or hostile, and he wanted all the benefits. In order to disintegrate the anti-Japanese allied forces, Chiang Kai-shek promoted Sun Dianying to the commander of the 41st Army and the inspector of Tuntian in the western district of Qinghai, and asked him to go to the great northwest to grab territory with Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui and others. Yan Xishan, chairman of Shanxi Province, was also worried that Sun Dianying would not leave near Shanxi and was a great threat to himself, so he gave Sun Dianying a large number of guns and ammunition to support Sun Dianying's development to the northwest. After Sun Dianying received the support of the central government and Yan Xishan, he immediately became bold, expanding his army to 75,000 people, falsely claiming 100,000 to the outside world, and marching to Ningxia and Qinghai "Tuntian".
In April 1933, when he learned that Sun Dianying was coming to the northwest "Tuntian", Ma Hongkui, chairman of Ningxia Province and commander-in-chief of the 15th Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, was anxious to change his mind. It was again the trustees who explained to the central authorities, and it was also the organization of demonstrations by local Muslims to try to prevent Sun Dianying from invading. Seeing that the results were very small, Ma Hongkui crossed his heart and bribed Zhu Shaoliang, director of the Central Government's Office in Gansu Appeasement, with a large amount of gold he had hidden, and asked him to take care of it. Zhu Shaoliang was a representative of Chiang Kai-shek, and he already knew that Chiang Kai-shek's intention to send Sun Dianying to Tuntian in Qinghai was a strategy to drive away the tiger and the wolf, so that Sun Dianying could fight with the horses in the northwest in order to achieve the goal of eliminating the local warlords. However, Zhu Shaoliang was also worried that if Sun Dianying gained a firm foothold in Qingning, the director of his own appeasement office would also be laid off.
Therefore, he raised his worries to Chiang Kai-shek: Sun Dianying and the horses of the northwest had already understood the purpose of the central authorities in letting them kill each other, and they had colluded with each other, and asked the central authorities to properly deal with them. After Chiang Kai-shek heard the report, he consulted with He Yingqin and others, believing that supporting Sun Dianying's annexation of the NorthwestErn Horses would not really solve the Northwest problem, and instead decided to support the NorthwestErn Horses in attacking Sun Dianying. To this end, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Sun Dianying and Ma Hongkui at the same time in the summer of 1933, and the telegram to Sun Dianying was to let him temporarily enter Ningxia and repair and stand by; the telegram to Ma Hongkui was to point out Sun Dianying's marching route, so that Ma Hongkui and others would intercept Sun Bu in the middle of the way.
Sun Dianying's goal was the relatively rich Qinghai Province, because of its geographical location, it was necessary to first pass through Ningxia, so Ma Hongkui bore the brunt of it. The chairman of Qinghai Province is Ma Lin, but the army is in the hands of his nephews Ma Bufang and Ma Buqing. There was a contradiction between the Majia Army in Qinghai and the Majia Army in Ningxia, and the two sides had been secretly fighting and wanted to annex each other. Sun Dianying marched into the northwest, and Qingma initially held a wait-and-see attitude, wanting to wait for Sun Dianying and Ning Ma (Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin brothers) to lose both defeats and gain profits. Later, under the coordination of the central government and Zhu Shaoliang, Qingma realized the truth of the cold of the lips and teeth, so he dispatched more than 10,000 elite troops and let Ma Bufang lead them to Xining to assist Ningma in the battle.
The brothers Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin in Ningxia had more than 30,000 regular troops, plus 10,000 horses assisted by Qingma, for a total of 40,000 combat troops. At that time, Ma Hongkui was the commander of the army and the chairman of the province, Ma Bufang was the commander of the division, and the war was fought on the territory of Ningma, so Ma Hongkui was elected as the commander-in-chief of the Ma Family Army. Compared with Sun Dianying's 75,000 men, Ma Jiajun appeared weak. But fortunately, ma jiajun is a home battle, logistics are guaranteed, although the attack is weak, but enough to defend.
Sun Dianying was originally ordered to enter the "Tuntian" in Qinghai, but when he walked to the middle of the road, he ordered that he should not enter Ningxia, and he was so angry that he almost vomited blood. The original territory cannot be returned, and there are Ma Jiajun in front of it, what should I do? At the military conference, most of the generals believed that there was no turning back from the bow, and that only by opening a way to the west and gaining a firm foothold could there be room for survival and development.
The war began in November 1933, and Sun Dianyingbu, determined to put himself to death and survive, charged and fought hard, causing heavy losses to the Ma family army. Positions around Xining were constantly lost, and even more than 600 people in Ma Bufang's engineering battalion were captured by Sun Bu. Fortunately, in order to divide and win over the Ma family army, Sun Dianying only confiscated the weapons and equipment and released the prisoners of this battalion. Ma Bufang was ashamed and embarrassed, and said to his subordinates: "Liu Yueting (the commander of Sun Dianying's division) did not want to provoke the Qing Navy, so he was released back to the engineering battalion, which actually took care of our face." In the future, our army will avoid a hard battle with Liu's troops, and as long as it holds its position, it will not happen again that the engineering battalion is not as unguarded. "
At the beginning of the war, Sun Dianying's troops had been pressing Ma Jiajun's hammer, and Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang were in a hurry. In December 1933, Zhu Shaoliang sent two planes to assist the Ma family army in the battle, and the Ma family army was invigorated and stabilized the position. By January 1934, the two sides had entered a stalemate, Sun Dianying's troops could not capture Xining City, and the Ma family army was unable to counterattack.
The turning point of the war was at the end of January 1934. Chiang Kai-shek, after repeatedly ordering Sun Dianying to stop attacking Xining to no avail, used his killer skills, first stopping the payment of the 41st Army's salaries, and then transferring his elite Hu Zongnan's First Division from Lanzhou to Ningxia to assist in the battle. Sun Dianying was attacked in the abdomen, and the guerrilla commander Yang Xiao monkey rebelled and defected to the Ma family army. In desperation, he heeded the advice of his colleagues Pang Bingxun and Hu Yukun of the Northwest Army and announced the disarmament and return to the field.
After Sun Dianying abandoned his post, his generals Yang Ganqing, Li Chunhua, Meng Qinghua and others withdrew from the battle with more than 20,000 people and went to fend for themselves. Liu Yueting succeeded Sun Dianying in command of the remnants of the 41st Army, retreating in the west of the mountain while fighting. Ma Jiajun saw the opportunity and ordered the cavalry regiments to pursue and beat the officers and men of Sun Bu until they reached the border of Shanxi before they gave up because of the intervention of the Jin Sui Army. In this battle, Ma Jiajun captured more than 6,000 officers and men of Sun Bu, captured more than 6,000 guns of various kinds, 6 cannons, and 5,000 shells, but all the booty went into Ma Bufang's pocket, and Ma Hongkui only got an anti-aircraft machine gun. Ma Hongkui, who was angry, scolded: "They have used Ningxia as a casino, and they have taken away all the money they have won, and we are responsible for those who lose." For this reason, Ma Hongkui ordered the local government to stop the logistical supply of Qingma. Ma Bufang was even more dissatisfied with Ma Hongkui, saying: "Sun Dianying smashed the door of Ningxia and collapsed the pit of Ningxia. Lao Tzu helped Ningxia beat Sun Dianying away, and in the end he didn't even give us food, which made no sense. "Instigated his soldiers to make trouble and kidnapped Ma Hongkui's county magistrate." When Hou Ma Bufang led his troops back to Qinghai, as soon as the men and horses crossed the border, the Ningma soldiers shot at Qingma and wounded Ma Burong, a senior officer of Qingma. The contradictions between the four horses of Qingning deepened, and for many years they were in a state of open strife and secret struggle.
Logically speaking, Ma Jiajun's victory over Sun Dianying should be the greatest benefit. But in fact, in this local warlord melee, the ones who gained the most benefits were Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan. In order to win the support and assistance of the central authorities, Ma Jiajun rushed to embrace Chiang Kai-shek's thighs and pledge allegiance to the central government. Therefore, the Central Army was able to advance into the Great Northwest and truly control the situation in the northwestern provinces. From then on until the fall of the Ma family army, the title of King of the Northwest was given to Hu Zongnan, not Ma Bufang. After the defeat of the 41st Army, Sun Dianying contacted Yan Xishan and handed over his army to Yan Laoxi to collect, so that the Jin Sui Army would stand up when the 41st Army collapsed and block the pursuit of the Ma family army. Afterwards, Yan Xishan collected more than 20,000 remnants of the 41st Army and expanded his military strength.