In modern China, there was a period of warlord division, during which China was occupied by warlords everywhere, when the Government of the Republic of China only had nominal control over the forces of these warlords, and these warlords had military power in the areas they controlled, and were the local emperors.
There are 4 warlords in the northwest region of our country, they have ruled in the northwest region for decades, because their warlord leaders are surnamed ma, so they are collectively called the northwest four horses, they do not have any close ties between them, they each occupy a place, become the local ruler.
Ma Hongkui was one of the four horses in the northwest, and he occupied a place in Ningxia for more than ten years, during which he looted local property and obtained a large amount of property. After liberation, Ma Hongkui fled to the United States, but in the end he was poor and died in a foreign country.
First, early life
Ma Hongkui was born in Ningxia to a local warlord family, and his father Ma Fuxiang was already the local overlord of Ningxia. At the age of 18, Ma Hongkui advanced his thinking, joined the League during his school studies, and campaigned in Gansu to oppose Qing rule, but was eventually arrested by the Qing army.
In order to rescue Ma Hongkui, Ma Hongkui's father, Ma Fuxiang, went around and bribed local officials of the Qing army to release Ma Hongkui on bail. After his release from prison, Ma Hongkui's father arranged Ma Hongkui into the army in order to make Ma Hongkui feel relieved, hoping to polish Ma Hongkui's temperament.
After entering the army, Ma Hongkui quickly ascended to the throne with the prestige of his father, and then went to Beijing on the orders of Yuan Shikai and was awarded the rank of general. After entering Beijing, Ma Hongkui was very successful, and he continued to manage his own power through his connections in Beijing, and his influence continued to expand.
In 1924, during the Second Zhifeng War, Ma Hongkui expanded his troops from brigades to divisions, and during the period of garrisoning, he successively merged a number of units, which greatly enhanced the strength of the troops and became one of the most powerful forces at that time.
In 1929, Ma Hongkui and other warlords jointly issued a proclamation in favor of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek was very happy, quickly ordered a reward for Ma Hongkui, and even deliberately arranged the chairman of Henan Province to Ma Hongkui, and since then Ma Hongkui's power has reached its peak.
However, later, due to Ma Hongkui's unfavorable combat, Chiang Kai-shek sent Liu Zhi to surround Ma Hongkui's department, and Ma Hongkui's father Ma Fuxiang took an illness to intercede with Chiang Kai-shek, and Ma Hongkui heard about this incident and quickly went to Chiang Kai-shek to confess his mistake, but in the process Ma Hongkui's father died due to a recurrence of an old illness.
2. Rule Ningxia
After Ma Fuxiang's death, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to offer condolences and pardon Ma Hongkui, allowing Ma Hongkui to quickly rush back to Ningxia to take over his father's post, at which point Ma Hongkui and Chiang Kai-shek separated from Germany. After receiving the order, Ma Hongkui disobeyed Chiang Kai-shek's order to bring all his troops back to Ningxia.
After arriving in Ningxia, Ma Hongkui put on a diligent appearance and formulated a series of guidelines in order to confuse Chiang Kai-shek, but after Chiang Kai-shek dispatched the director of the Education Department, Ma Hongkui immediately turned his face and drove the Education Minister away and appointed his close associate Yang Zuorong to take office.
At that time, the traffic in Ningxia was very backward, the location was far from the capital, Chiang Kai-shek could not strictly control Ningxia, Ma Hongkui replaced all the officials of the government, so that Chiang Kai-shek's forces in Ningxia completely lost their role, so that Ma Hongkui got local control of Ningxia.
After that he no longer had to hide himself, he carried out a series of activities through which he obtained a large amount of money. All his activities are aimed at arresting soldiers, grasping power, and scraping money, and Ma Hongkui's mantra is: "If there are soldiers, they have power, and if they have power, they have money." ”
During his reign in Ningxia, Ma Hongkui gave orders according to his own likes and dislikes, and commanded his subordinates. At the time of the meeting, Ma Hongkui sat on a high chair, and his men could only stand on either side of the house, just like the upper dynasty of the old society.
When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937, Ma Hongkui was ordered to strike at the Japanese army, and Ma Hongkui was reluctant to let his main force suffer losses after receiving the order, so he ordered a large number of conscripts, and sent these militia regiments to the front line without training, and the elite troops remained in Ningxia.
Under such circumstances, Ma Hongkui still cared about his own selfish interests, and compared with the Sichuan army of the Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang and the Yunnan warlord Long Yun, who were actively resisting the Japanese at that time, Ma Hongkui was simply a traitor to the people, which made Ma Hongkui's reputation decline sharply at that time.
During the Liberation War, Ma Hongkui still had the luck to block the People's Liberation Army, in a vain attempt to keep the People's Liberation Army out of Ningxia and continue to be his own emperor in Ningxia, but under the offensive of the People's Liberation Army, Ma Hongkui fled to Taiwan in defeat only in March.
Third, lonely old age
After arriving in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek immediately relieved Ma Hongkui of his military powers and ordered a thorough investigation of Ma Hongkui, who knew that staying in Taiwan would soon be foreshadowing, so he immediately decided to take the 8 tons of gold he had looted in Ningxia and his wife to the United States, and then settled in Los Angeles with his family.
After arriving in the United States, he still maintained his own extravagant and lavish life, but due to the high level of consumption in the United States, there was no entry at home, which led to less and less money in the family, which made Ma Hongkui's aunts unbearable and began to quarrel day after day.
After spending a few years in the United States, Ma Hongkui's fifth aunt first could not stand this kind of life, she sued Ma Hongkui in court, and finally divorced Ma Hongkui with her own property. Then his other wives also left him, making Ma Hongkui's later life more and more lonely.
Ma Hongkui has a son and a grandson, he is extremely fond of this son, hoping that this son can be sent to his old age, but in Ma Hongkui's old age, his son and grandson are in court because of Ma Hongkui's property problems, which makes Ma Hongkui's old age more lonely and bitter.
So Ma Hongkui moved alone to the outskirts of Los Angeles and opened a ranch to raise horses to pass his lonely days, during which Time Chiang Kai-shek summoned Ma Hongkui several times to rush back to Taiwan, but Ma Hongkui was so dead that he ignored it.
In Ma Hongkui's later years, he suffered from severe diabetes. Due to the torment of illness and the experience of his wife and daughters in his later years, his longing for Ningxia became more and more intense, and he hoped to return to his hometown, but after making a request to The country, he was strictly refused.
In 1970, Ma Hongkui left his last wish in the ranch in Los Angeles: "I hope to bury my ashes in my hometown of Ningxia, and the fallen leaves will return to the roots." After leaving a will, Ma Hongkui passed away by the side of his sixth aunt. After Ma Hongkui's death, Ma Hongkui's family also wanted to bury Ma Hongkui's ashes back to China, but because Ma Hongkui's behavior in Ningxia was too bad, this request was doomed to be unannowledgeed by The country.
4. Summary
Ma Hongkui was born well, his father had died in battle with foreign invaders, but Ma Hongkui did not follow the right path like his father, and what he did in Ningxia completely deviated from the people and the oath he had made when he first joined the League.