On July 16, 1902, Ma Yaonan was born in Changshan, Shandong Province, to an ordinary peasant family, his father was a shrewd farmer who also did a small business in his spare time. Because his family was still well off, Ma Yaonan received a more systematic education. When he was in middle school, the May Fourth Movement broke out, and under the influence of this, Ma Yaonan began to lean towards revolution. After graduating from university, he returned to his hometown and served as the principal of Changshan Middle School. At that time, there were already Communist Party members in this school, and because of their similar interests, Ma Yaonan also actively participated in the activities they organized, and became confidants with Communist Party members Yao Zhongming, Liao Rongbiao, and Zhao Mingxin.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese invaded and occupied Changshan City, and Ma Yaonan was furious when he saw the devils rampage on Chinese soil and make a fortune. After consulting with Liao Rongbiao and others, he decided to pull up a team and work with the devils. On December 24, 1937, Ma Yaonan, Liao Rongbiao and others contacted a group of like-minded comrades and some teachers and students to form the Fifth Army of the Anti-Japanese Salvation Army in Black Iron Mountain. At that time, the most lacking thing in the army was guns, in order to buy guns, Ma Yaonan's two younger brothers Ma Xiaoyun and Ma Tianmin successively liquidated their own business and made up 500 oceans to hand over to their brothers.
Relying on this money, Ma Yaonan bought dozens of guns from the nationalist army's defeated soldiers, and after having guns, Ma Yaonan and Liao Rongbiao and others discussed finding opportunities to train the team. Since it was the first battle, they targeted the puppet army. On the night of New Year's Day in 1938, after careful preparations, Liao Rongbiao led 30 team members to attack the puppet army stronghold outside Changshan City at night, killing and wounding dozens of puppet troops and capturing more than 40 guns. After the initial victory, the confidence of the soldiers was greatly improved.
Soon after, Ma Yaonan led his troops to ambush small groups of devils several times in Zouping, Huantai, Zichuan, and Zhangqiu, and each battle was rewarded. In this way, the reputation of the 5th Army soon sounded in the local area, many enthusiastic young people came to sign up for the army, and some local armed forces also took the initiative to ask for integration. By April 1938, the 5th Army had grown to more than 5,000 men, with 7 detachments and 30 squadrons under its command, with Ma Yaonan as commander-in-chief, Yang Guofu as deputy commander (55 lieutenant general), and his two younger brothers Ma Xiaoyun and Ma Tianmin as commanders of the 7th and 1st detachments, respectively.
The development and growth of the 5th Army caused great panic among the Japanese, who repeatedly gathered heavy troops to "sweep", but they either pounced or were beaten to the point of loss. In early July 1939, due to the betrayal of traitors, the Japanese Kou dispatched more than 5,000 people to surround Ma Yaonan and Yang Guofu and others in the area of Liujiajing in Zouping County. At this time, Ma Yaonan only had more than a thousand people around him, and in the face of danger, the soldiers had to fight extremely tenaciously, killing and wounding more than 800 Japanese puppet troops. However, in the end, because the enemy was outnumbered and the breakthrough failed, Ma Yaonan died heroically. Shortly thereafter, his two younger brothers also died in the battle against the Japanese Kou, and the three brothers sacrificed their lives for the country one after another, which is really admirable.