Welcome to Epic Epic No. 900. In 1947, the Kuomintang army launched a key offensive, and northern Shaanxi was one of the two major targets. In order to "purge" our army's forces in the northwest region, the Nationalist army sent 240,000 central troops, commanded by Hu Zongnan, the elder Chiang Kai-shek, and took the lead in occupying Yan'an with great momentum. But what is puzzling is that the Northwest Nationalist Army is actually far more than the Central Department, and there are also Qinghai and Ningxia Majia Army around (the 100,000 people in The Taozhiyue Department in Xinjiang are too far away, not to mention for the time being). Why is it that in the process of the key offensive, it is basically the southern huzong who is contributing, but the Ma Hui army rarely moves? Where did they go?
First, take a look at the military strength of Qingma and Ningma to find out if they are not capable of fighting the Northwest Field Army. The leader of Qingma was Ma Bufang, starting with the 100th Division and the 5th Cavalry Division, which had less than 20,000 men in the early 1930s, but grew rapidly, and by 1947 it had grown to 80,000 regular troops; and although Ningma was not as strong as the Qinghai Majia Army, Ma Hongkui's troops also had a total strength of more than 40,000 during the Liberation War. At the end of 1947, Nishino numbered less than 45,000 people and was poorly equipped. Even before the total attack on Lanzhou in 1949, there were no more than 155,000 people. Therefore, the two local armies of Qingma and Ningma were not inferior in strength to Nishino most of the time. It is obviously inaccurate to say that the Ma family army is unable to fight our army.
Compared with the Central Army, the officers and men of the minority nationalities in the northwest have a characteristic, that is, similar to the "private army" of the Ma family, the people who are rationed with weapons and grain are Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and others; if the enemy does not directly threaten the rule of the Ma family, the officers and men in the northwest simply ignore the "party-state," Nanjing, and the like. The total area of the five northwestern provinces is more than 3 million square kilometers, and due to the limitation of strength, the scope of activity of Xiye in 1947 was basically in Shaanxi, and rarely involved Gansu and further inland. Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu were Ma Jiajun's sphere of influence. Tens of thousands of PLA troops were active in Shaanxi, and in the eyes of Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and others, it was entirely within the responsibility of Hu Zongnan and the Central Army, and Ma Jiajun would not easily intervene.
Another important reason is the relationship between Ma Jiajun itself and the Central Army. It seems that they are all national troops, but the warlords in the northwest are more for the sake of demanding the grain supply of the National Government, not sincerely obeying, from the "four horses rejecting the sun" in the 30s, we can see the wrestling relationship between the state government and the northwest Horse army; and after the launch of the Yiye General Offensive in 1949, Hu Zongnan's central army was still playing a game with the Ma army, and even gave up the Xi'an defense area to expose the Qinghai Ma family army troops to Yiye, which shows the complex relationship between mutual use and restraint within it. Ma Jiajun, on the other hand, also did not want the Central Army to completely eliminate our army in the northwest and make itself the next target that might be subject to separate sanctions. This has caused the situation that after 47 years, Ma Jiajun spent most of his time sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight.
However, it should be pointed out that once the PLA forces actually threatened Qingning Erma, these two local armies would properly cooperate with the actions of the Central Army, such as the Battle of Yulin in 47 (with the participation of Ningma) and the Battle of Xifu in 48 (with the participation of Qingma), and both caused certain losses to Xiye; and in the Decisive Battle of Lanzhou in 1949, Qingma had no way to retreat, sent all the main forces to die, and was finally annihilated by Yiye ( after supplementing the 18th and 19th Corps, the strength exceeded 320,000, and the southern part of Huzong had been destroyed). Ning Ma was then completely defeated, with only more than 10,000 of Ma Hongbin's troops revolting.