After emperor Xuantong announced his abdication, it marked the end of thousands of years of feudal imperialism in China. Although our country has entered a new era of democracy, it is still in a state of fragmentation, different regions are actually ruled by local warlords, ostensibly a relatively unified country, but the area that the central government can actually control is very limited, and the state of the country is very similar to the situation at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
At that time, the warlords in the northwest region were mainly divided into two factions, and because the main leaders of these two factions were surnamed Ma, the armed control in the northwest region was also called the "Four Horse Regime", namely the Majia Army in Qinghai and the Ma Family Army in Ningxia (Ma Buqing, Ma Bufang, Ma Hongbin, Ma Hongkui). Among the hands of these 4 people, the most powerful ones are mainly Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui.
Although these two people were ostensibly subordinate to the government of the Republic of China at that time, they actually listened to the orders of the Republic of China government and were more concerned about their own interests than the interests of the whole country. Because the central government's control over this area is also particularly weak, and the local military and political power is controlled by themselves, one of these two people is called the King of Qinghai, and the other is called the Emperor of Ningxia, and these two titles reflect the high power of the two in the area under their control.
After the outbreak of the civil war in China, the Kuomintang was defeated and fled to Taiwan. At that time, the situation in the northwest also became particularly tense, and Ma Hongkui was also a timid and fearful person, so When Ma Hongkui felt that the situation was not right, he flew to Taiwan by plane, but as soon as he arrived in Taiwan, he was arrested and dismissed from his post and investigated. So how did Ma Hongkui spend the second half of his life after flying to Taiwan?
Ma Hongkui was born in Gansu in 1892, his ancestors were a small general in the Qing Dynasty, due to the political chaos in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, it has become a norm for local officials to raise private armies, and the Ma family has formed a private armed force after generations of accumulation. By the time the Qing Dynasty fell, the Ma family's military forces were already fully capable of dividing regions.
Therefore, when Ma Hongkui was young, he was deeply influenced by militarized education, such as being sent by his father to study at the army school in Gansu after he grew up a little. After he graduated, because of his excellent performance, he was "valued" by Yuan Shikai of the Republic of China government, and with the help of Yuan Shikai, he became a personal general around Yuan Shikai. However, in name, this was an upgrade of Ma Hongkui, but in fact, Ma Hongkui was also suspected of being a bit of a hostage, so as to avoid Ma Hongkui's northwestern army from disobeying Yuan Shikai's instructions.
During the period when Ma Hongkui followed Yuan Shikai, he used his position to get acquainted with many senior generals of the Republic of China, and his popularity was also unprecedentedly improved, coupled with the fact that the Ma family's army in the northwest region did have a strong strength, so Ma Hongkui became the object of solicitation by warlords everywhere.
Later, when Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition was at its hottest, Feng Yuxiang in the northwest region naturally would not let Chiang Kai-shek go, so Feng Yuxiang launched the Five Original Oath Divisions Conference and united with Yan Xishan to organize military forces against Chiang Kai-shek.
Because the Ma family's army is not to be underestimated, coupled with the relatively high popularity of Ma Hongkui himself, he is deeply valued by Feng Yuxiang, but Ma Hongkui felt that Feng Yuxiang was difficult to achieve great things, so in 1929 Yi Zhi defected to Chiang Kai-shek.
After the outbreak of the Central Plains War between Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan against Chiang Kai-shek, Ma Hongkui's defection led to a significant weakening of the strength of the Northwest Front, and Ma Hongkui was very clear about Feng Yuxiang's military deployment, and the Central Plains War ended in Chiang Kai-shek's victory.
However, although Chiang Kai-shek won the battle at that time, Feng Yuxiang's strength should not be underestimated, so Chiang Kai-shek did not actually control the northwest region, and was still actually ruled by Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan. Ma Hongkui's hometown in Ningxia was again under the threat of Feng Yuxiang's force, so Ma Hongkui also asked Chiang Kai-shek to hand over the area of Henan to his control.
However, Chiang Kai-shek had other arrangements for Henan at that time, so he refused Ma Hongkui's request, and Ma Hongkui had no choice but to return to ningxia as chairman. Later, from 1933 to 1949, Ma Hongkui controlled the military and political power in Ningxia for 17 years, so Ma Hongkui was called the Tu Emperor of Ningxia.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was difficult for Japan's military forces to influence the Ningxia region, so Ma Hongkui's pressure was not very great. During this period, Ma Hongkui scavenged a large amount of people's fat cream in Ningxia. After the outbreak of the civil war, Ma even entrusted Chennault, the captain of the Flying Tigers at the time, to help him transport 7.5 tons of gold to the United States.
In addition to being good at looting money, he is also a particularly sleek and selfish person. During the civil war, Ma Bufang's Lanzhou was trapped, and Ma Lanfang asked Ma Hongkui to provide military support to him. Ma Hongkui was originally a greedy person who was afraid of death, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, he rarely fought with the Japanese with real swords and guns, so after receiving Ma Bufang's request, he pretended that he did not receive it at all because he was afraid of getting involved in the war.
In 1949, Ma Hongkui saw that the general situation had gone, and in order to avoid being implicated, he fled to Taiwan with his family, but he did not expect to be accused by Ma Bufang as soon as he arrived in Taiwan. Ma Bufang claimed that his loss of Lanzhou was entirely due to his lack of support with Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongkui knew that he was in a wrong, so he did not make too many excuses. Mr. Ma was stepped down after arriving in Taiwan and faced various charges.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had also discovered that Ma Hongkui was too adulterous, so he tried his best to prevent him from fleeing Taiwan. Ma Hongkui knew that staying in Taiwan was not a long-term solution, so he also made a detailed escape plan, he first let his four wives pretend to be ill, then went to Hong Kong for treatment, and then let the four wives send a telegram from Hong Kong with a critical illness notice, and finally successfully escaped from Taiwan through the bitter meat plan.
In order to avoid being caught by Chiang Kai-shek, he came to the United States in the name of medical treatment after fleeing Taiwan. Since he had already asked Chennault to help him ship seven tons of gold to the United States, he used the 7.5 tons of gold to buy a large piece of the farm in Los Angeles after arriving in the United States.
Originally, Ma Hongkui only wanted to live a very comfortable old age, but the situation in his later years was not optimistic. Not long after he arrived in the United States, his fifth aunt was influenced by American free thought, fell in love with another man, and then divorced Ma Hongkui and divided up a large part of the property.
His descendants were a loser than ever, and even took him to court over property problems, which made him angry and sick, and later died in 1970. Before Ma Hongkui died, the only request he made was to be able to bury his body in China after he died. But after his death, only the sixth aunt transported his body to Taiwan for burial, and none of his descendants went.