During the Republic of China period, there was a special large warlord in the northwest region, and this force was the Qingma Armed Forces headed by Ma Bufang and the Ningma Armed Forces headed by Ma Hongkui. The Qingma armed forces led by Ma Bufang mainly controlled Qinghai, and the Ningma armed forces led by Ma Hongkui mainly controlled the Ningxia area; among these two armed forces, the Qingma led by Ma Bufang was much stronger than the Ningma armies led by Ma Hongkui, and Ma Bufang also had the largest and most powerful cavalry armed forces in the country at that time.
Ma Jiajun has a long history, during the Tongzhi period, Ma Zhan'ao, who was in Hezhou, Gansu, led his troops to rebel and defeated the Xiang army, but in the end Ma Zhan'ao defied the public opinion and led his troops to surrender to the Qing army. During the Republic of China period, Ma Zhan'ao's descendants gradually withdrew from the stage of history, but Ma Zhan'ao's two generals, Ma Qianling and Ma Haiyan's descendants, gradually developed and grew, becoming the Qingma armed forces headed by Ma Bufang and the Ningma armed forces led by Ma Hongkui.
In October 1936, in order to open up the road from northern Shaanxi to the Soviet Union, the Red Army dispatched more than 20,000 officers and men of the Red Fourth Front army to form the Western Route Army, commanded by Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao, and marched towards the Hexi Corridor. However, the Western Route Army did not go well on its way to the west, and due to the vast drought in the northwest region and the lack of a mass base, the officers and men of the Western Route Army were surrounded and blocked by the cavalry of the Majia Army, and suffered heavy losses. During the western expedition, except for Li Xiannian who retreated all the way to Xinjiang with a few hundred people, the rest of the troops were almost all lost, and as many as 143 officers at and above the regimental level were killed, and there were more than 20 officers and men at the division level, which was an unprecedented blow to the Red Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Ma Bufang successively sent two cavalry divisions to fight, and the cavalry combat effectiveness of the Ma family army was so strong that even the Japanese army was very afraid. In the Huangpan area around Zhoukou to Jieshou, the Ma family army inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. In the fierce battle, there were also the feats of the officers and men of the Majia Army who were unwilling to surrender to the Japanese army and hundreds of cavalry who jumped into the river to commit suicide.
At the beginning of the Liberation War, the Northwest Field Army led by Peng Zong fought against the Qingma armed forces led by Ma Bufang, but suffered great losses, and the combat effectiveness of Qingma was much stronger than that of Hu Zongnan's troops. After the end of the Battle of Taiyuan, the strength of the Northwest Field Army was replenished, and Peng Zong led the Northwest Field Army to the northwest. Ning Ma led by Ma Bufang had a great hatred with the plausi generals at all levels of the People's Liberation Army, so before the liberation of the northwest, Peng Zong received instructions from the Central Military Commission not to accept any form of uprising by the Ma family army and not to integrate the surrender troops of the Ma family army.
In August 1948, the First Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army launched the Lanzhou Campaign under the leadership of Peng Dehuai. The First Field Army annihilated 27,000 enemy troops at the cost of 8,700 casualties, completely crushing the Qingma army led by Ma Bufang, and Ma Bufang's father and son fled to Taiwan, and finally went to other countries and died elsewhere.