In 1936, zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, two military generals, launched the world-famous Xi'an Incident, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to promise to "stop the civil war and unite with the communists to resist Japan" and sign an armistice agreement. At this point, the two parties finally shifted from a long-term split to a temporary peace, and the domestic situation was slightly stable.
In 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, the Japanese army began to invade China in an all-round way, and the war spread from the northeast to all of China, and the Majia Army, which was entrenched in the northwest, also always observed the domestic situation, and finally joined the ranks of the War of Resistance.
Ma Jiajun was a local warlord in the northwest, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, Ma Jiajun was instructed by Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang to monitor the Eighth Route Army, but the division commander Ma Lu secretly sent a letter to the chairman, hoping to reconcile and jointly resist Japan.
The origin of Ma Jiajun
Ma Jiajun is not a one-man army, but a general term for the local warlords who are entrenched in Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu, because the warlord leaders are all Hui and all have the surname Ma, so their names are "Ma Jia Jun". Its leaders were three people, namely Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin, collectively known as the "Three Horses of the Northwest".
The Majia Army was roughly divided into two branches, one was the Qinghai Majia Army, led by Ma Bufang, and the other was the Ningxia Ma Family Army, led by Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin. The northwest is isolated, the traffic conditions are extremely backward, and the people are relatively poor, and over time bandits have been bred here, and later they have evolved into warlords.
For a long time, the Ma family army has been entrenched in the three northwestern provinces and has controlled most of the troops in the northwest, which can be described as very arrogant; they can be said to be extremely powerful in the local area, and no one dares to take care of them in the northwest, and they have done no evil to the local people, and the oppressed civilians can only swallow their anger.
After the outbreak of the Xi'an Incident, the Ma family army also hesitated to participate in the War of Resistance, and their initial policy towards the Japanese was that as long as the Japanese army did not invade the northwest, the Ma family army would not take the initiative to attack.
However, as the war intensified, the people's resistance to the war was very high and enthusiastic, and the leader of the Ma Family Army was also afraid of being spurned by the people and targeted by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, so after some thought, he decided to join the camp of the War of Resistance and resist Japan with the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Participate in the War of Resistance
In 1938, Ma Bufang sent more than 8,000 people to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japan, most of whom were local villagers, and most of them were Hui, Ma Bufang divided these 8,000 people into two divisions, namely the First Cavalry Division and the Second Cavalry Division, led by Ma Biao, and the Second Division led by Ma Lu.
Because it is located in the northwest, the majia army's corps is known for its cavalry, of which Ma Lu is even more courageous and good at war. In 1939, Ma Lu was ordered to guard Huaiyang, eliminated more than 1,000 Japanese troops in the Huaiyang area, and captured more than 20 people, successfully completing the defense of the Huaiyang area.
In addition, Ma Lu also led people to build river embankments to strengthen river defense and prevent the Japanese from invading. Ma Lu himself was also very good at guerrilla warfare and position warfare, which caused headaches for the Japanese army, and they fought with Ma Lu many times but did not win.
Ma Bufang, the leader of the Ma family army, saw Ma Lu's gradually rising anti-Japanese enthusiasm and could not help but remind Ma Lu that their participation in the War of Resistance was only a formality, and they would not send a large number of troops to really put into the battlefield.
But Ma Lu did not think so, he felt that as a Chinese, he should hate these Japanese and drive them out of China, so he did not heed Ma Bufang's advice, but led the soldiers to fight more and more courageously.
After the great victory in the Battle of Huaiyang, Ma Lu was affirmed by his superiors and was expected to be promoted to a higher rank. To his surprise, Chiang Kai-shek asked Ma Lu to lead troops into northern Shaanxi to monitor the Eighth Route Army's every move. This made Ma Lu very entangled in his heart, and he naturally knew what kind of calculation Chiang Kai-shek was playing, and he wanted to use him to contain the Communist Party.
He also saw that Chiang Kai-shek did not really want to resist Japan, but intended to take the opportunity to eliminate the Communist Party, a fierce enemy. Ma Lu did not want to see a scene of fighting between the Kuomintang and the Communists, and he believed that the most important thing at this moment was to join forces against the Japanese, rather than targeting their own people, which would not be good for not only the two parties, but also the whole country.
However, Ma Lu did not want to confront Chiang Kai-shek in person, after all, Ma Jiajun was also nominally attached to the Kuomintang banner, and Chiang Kai-shek was his leader, so Ma Yu secretly sent his subordinate Bai Muzhen to Yan'an, sent a letter to Chairman Mao, exposing Chiang Kai-shek's true intentions, and expressing his hope to reconcile with the Communist army and unite to resist Japan.
Personally present the pennant
There was a great hatred between Ma Jiajun and the Communists. After the first kuomintang-communist cooperation broke down, Ma Jiajun once encircled and suppressed the Chinese Red Army, countless Red Army soldiers died under the guns of Ma Jiajun, and Ma Jiajun's evil deeds in the northwest were also heard of by the Communist Party.
It is reasonable to say that ma jiajun is not a good object of unity, as a feudal warlord, Ma jiajun will be wiped out by the communist party sooner or later. However, at that time, it was a special period of the national War of Resistance, and the Communist Party was even more necessary to unite all the forces that could be united, and if it did not accept Ma Lu's overtures, it would be tantamount to setting up an enemy for itself, and in the end it would still allow the Kuomintang to succeed.
Therefore, Chairman Mao personally read Marlowe's letter and accepted the other side's proposal. Not only that, in order to show the sincerity of cooperation, Chairman Mao personally wrote a pennant and gave it to Ma Lu, and said to Bai Muzhen: "Your division commander has made meritorious contributions in the War of Resistance, and the people will not forget him." ”
At this point, Ma Lu's Second Cavalry Division and the Eighth Route Army reached a consensus, maintaining relative peace with each other and not attacking each other. However, the good times did not last long, and Ma Lu's actions were finally seen by Chiang Kai-shek, who angrily dismissed Ma Lu from his official position and let him return to his hometown in the northwest.
After Ma Lu was dismissed from his post, he also continued to continue the style of his native warlords in the local area, oppressing and exploiting the local people, and after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the People's Liberation Army invaded the northwest and defeated the Ma family army, and the people of the northwest were completely liberated.
brief summary:
On the one hand, as a warlord, he frantically exploited the local poor people, bullied men and women without evil and hated them, but on the other hand, as a Chinese, he also had the simplest patriotic feelings in his heart, and he did not only care about his immediate interests when the country was in danger, and was a more structured leader.
It's just that the road that Ma Lu took is not the right way after all, so it will not get a good ending, but after the founding of New China, Ma Lu accepted the transformation, and finally got a good ending, even if there is no mistake in the end.