History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
On October 14, 1949, Ma Hongkui fled to Taiwan with his wife and children, but was accidentally accused by Guo Jiyao and Ma Bufang's father and son, demanding that he be responsible for the defeat in the entire northwest.
Subsequently, the Taiwan authorities began to dismiss him, and Ma Hongkui was disheartened and decided to go to the United States.
In October 1950, he traveled to Los Angeles with his family and 7.5 tons of gold until his death in 1970.
There are reports that in his later years, Ma Hongkui often looked at China in the United States and muttered to himself, why is this?
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In 1892, Ma Fuxiang of Hezhou, Gansu Province, gave birth to a son, who was Ma Hongkui.
Ma Fuxiang's family was well-off, as early as the early years of Guangxu, his elder brother Ma Fulu zhongwu and wujinshi, and later died in the fight against the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, Ma Fuxiang inherited his brother's position and the soldiers under his command.
It can be said that Ma Hongkui's starting line is higher than ordinary people, influenced by his family's emphasis on learning martial arts, he entered the Gansu Army Academy at the age of 18, during which time, he participated in many anti-Qing activities and even joined the League.
As the saying goes, he often walked by the river where there were not wet shoes, and was finally captured by the Qing army, but fortunately, the family was strong, and his father Ma Fuxiang ran around and spent a lot of gold and silver to bail his son out.
Later, after listening to his father's arrangement, he became an instructor of the "Zhaowu Army", and because of his meritorious efforts in encircling and suppressing Bai Lang, he was awarded the rank of major general of the army by Yuan Shikai, and Ma Hongkui ushered in a new life from then on.
In 1924, when the Second Zhifeng War broke out, Ma Hongkui, with the consent of Feng Yuxiang, succeeded him as the commander of the newly organized Seventh Division and was ordered to garrison the Jinji and Lingwu areas.
Here, he greatly expanded his troops, and successively accepted Dong Gong, Li Fengzao, Li Chengyin and other troops, and his strength increased greatly.
In May 1929, Han Fuyu and others sent a telegram to Ma Hongkui to support Chiang Kai-shek together, and then Chiang Kai-shek rewarded him by making him the commander of the Eleventh Army and allocating 300,000 silver dollars, and Ma Hongkui's strength was once again enhanced.
A year later, the Central Plains War broke out, han Fuyu and others conspired against Chiang Kai-shek, hoping that Ma Hongkui would agree, but Ma Hongkui thought that Chiang's power was too great, not only did not agree, but turned around and reported it.
The anti-Chiang kai-shek campaign ultimately failed, and Ma Hongkui gained Chiang Kai-shek's trust and was ordered to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army.
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From 1929 onwards, Ma Hongkui gradually became the "Earth Emperor" of Ningxia.
Ningxia was known as "plugging jiangnan", and at that time, wool, goji berries, hay and other products had long been famous, especially in the wool market, and sales were increasing year by year.
In order to expand Ma Jiajun's strength, Ma Hongkui controlled the province's financial industry and industry and commerce through the Bank of Ningxia, and had a lot of income by collecting taxes.
However, although this "tu emperor" said that he had amassed wealth, he still had some contributions in Ningxia, was educated himself, knew that education was the foundation of the country, and set a requirement for soldiers to "read three thousand".
So he founded many schools at that time, such as the Ningxia Zhong'a School built in 1934 with his father's legacy, and the Yunting Middle School named after his father, and even sponsored capable students to study abroad.
In 1932, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Ma Hongkui as the chairman of Ningxia Province, and he always believed that if he wanted to have power, he must have soldiers, and if he had the right to have soldiers, he would not worry about money.
Under the rule of the Ma Hongkui family for decades, Ningxia did far more harm than contribution, and he was so desperate for money that he went around making money, expanding his armaments, and seizing real estate, causing the people to complain.
In 1937, after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Ma Hongkui led his troops to participate in the War of Resistance, but during the entire War of Resistance Against Japan, he did not concentrate on dealing with the Japanese army, but in order to consolidate the territory of Ningxia, he constantly dealt with the Eighth Route Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
Other Nationalist generals contributed to the War of Resistance, but Ma Hongkui always hung the empty name of the deputy commander of the theater and lived in Ningxia for 8 years as emperor of Tu.
So much so that in August 1945, when Japan announced its surrender, Ma Hongkui was distraught, saying that the victory of the War of Resistance came too quickly, not only did not eliminate the Communist Party, but made them stronger.
On September 3, 1949, Chairman Mao, who had a deep understanding of Ma Hongkui, resolutely sent Yang Dezhi and others to fight against Ma Hongkui.
Ma Hongkui saw that the general trend had gone, but he was not willing to fail, and announced to the outside world, "Even if you leave a soldier and a pawn, you must persist to the end!" ”
However, he handed over the command of the battlefield to his son Ma Dunjing, and he flew to Chongqing, where Ma Dunjing adhered to his father's orders and stubbornly defended Ningxia without success, and eventually fled to Chongqing to meet his father.
On September 23, the Ningxia Corps had no will to fight, and finally reached an agreement to liberate Ningxia peacefully, and Chairman Mao also entrusted Fu Zuoyi to persuade Ma Hongkui to surrender, but all of them were rejected.
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Ningxia was liberated, Ma Hongkui said that he was "sick" and did not see guests, and Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan came to comfort him, which restored calm.
Chiang Kai-shek also signaled him to go to Taiwan, and Ma Hongkui said to his family, "Don't believe me now!" I was afraid that I would collude with the American Chennault. ”
In October, Ma Hongkui swept the Ningxia government with 1,700 taels of gold and flew to Taiwan with his family.
Ma Hongkui's means of accumulating wealth are indeed clever, he knew that Ningxia would be liberated sooner or later, so he began to transfer his property and replace it with gold, and also bought a large number of real estate in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States, making multiple preparations, just in case.
It is said that Ma Hongkui transferred 7.5 tons of gold and deposited a large amount of jewelry in the Bank of america.
Facts have proved that Ma Hongkui did have foresight, because after he arrived in Taiwan, he was ostracized by Chiang Kai-shek's concubine Guo Jiyao and others.
On October 15, Ma Hongkui and his wife visited Guo Jiyao with generous gifts, but they were blocked at the door and bombed out, which can be described as disgraceful.
After returning to the hotel, he was driven away by the soldiers, fortunately, he bought five properties in Taiwan in advance, and in the early morning of the 16th, Ma Hongkui's family went to the private house they had purchased.
Only a few days later, when he was embarrassed by the gendarmes, Ma realized that Guo Jiyao was revenge for the arrow of that year, and the two of them had a grudge stemming from the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi.
Fleeing to Taiwan, he sent people under the fence and swallowed his anger.
Ma Hongkui decided to expel the party because of the unauthorized withdrawal of troops in the Northwest Campaign, which led to heavy losses. And because Ma Bufang came to Taiwan a few days earlier than him and had already spent money to pave the way, he wicked him first filed a complaint, causing Ma Hongkui to be scolded by Chiang Kai-shek.
Under the internal and external attacks, Ma Hongkui could only try to escape from Taiwan, and then he asked the fourth aunt to fly to Hong Kong to "treat his illness" and live in a private house that had been bought, and then he asked Chen Cheng for a month to visit the fourth aunt's illness.
Later, he told them to go to the United States to treat the fourth aunt and apply for a passport, and Chiang Kai-shek put forward a condition that he would no longer engage in political activities in the future, and Ma could only agree.
After nearly a year and a half of procrastination, Ma Hongkui's family finally fled Taiwan, boarded a private jet, and brought the money they had looted for many years into the United States, according to statistics, his 7.5 tons of gold were stored in Hong Kong and the United States.
After arriving in the United States, the family lived in a villa that they bought two years ago.
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After playing with political means for a lifetime, how can it be possible to no longer touch politics.
In 1952, when he learned that Chiang Kai-shek was going to counterattack the mainland, Ma Hongkui held a press conference in the United States to get the United States to help Chiang Kai-shek.
It was just that Chiang Kai-shek did not appreciate it, because Chiang Kai-shek believed that this fallen old man had long since lost his value.
Since then, Ma Hongkui has begun to enjoy his old age, but this 7.5 tons of gold is not enough for their family to squander.
In 1960, with less and less money, Ma had to sell a private home in San Francisco, live in Los Angeles, and buy a small farm to raise horses and chickens.
At the end of the same year, his son Ma Dunjing had a dispute with Ma Dunhou's eldest son because of the property ownership issue, Ma Hongkui broke his mouth and scolded, and in a fit of anger, Ma Dunjing sued his father in court, which has always made relatives and friends laugh.
Since then, he has been depressed and bedridden, but in his later years, he has always been angry about Chiang Kai-shek's favoritism toward Ma Bufang, and even published an open letter to Ma Bufang in a daily newspaper in Los Angeles.
The contents of the letter accused Ma Bufang, and also hoped that Chiang Kai-shek would uphold justice for himself and rehabilitate himself. It's just that these wishful thinking has not been answered.
Ma Hongkui's life is also a legend, described in the "Biography of Ma Hongkui", saying that in the United States, he often muttered to himself in the direction of China, and before he died, he also told his descendants that "I was born as a Chinese, and died as a Chinese ghost, as to whether you want to change your nationality or not is your business." ”
On January 14, 1970, Ma Hongkui realized that he would soon die, and he began to advise his wife that he must return his remains to the motherland, and repeatedly said a sentence that night: "I will go back when I die."
Later, in order to comply with Ma Hongkui's last wishes, the sixth aunt Zhao Lanxiang sent his body to Taiwan alone and buried it in the Sanzhang Plough Muslim Cemetery in Taipei County.