On August 14, 1900, under the siege of the Eight-Power Alliance, Beijing fell. The Gan army held the city for 26 days before withdrawing after the fall of Beijing. Ma Fuxiang withdrew with the team and watched the foreigners' army enter the capital, not knowing where to go for a while.
At this time, the imperial family fled into hiding, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled the palace with the Guangxu Emperor canghuang and fled all the way to the west. And his own clan brothers were killed and injured a lot, and Ma Fuxiang felt that he had no face to return to his hometown in Hezhou. Faced with tremendous social and political changes, Ma Fuxiang, a young low-ranking qing officer, was dazed.
Ma Fuxiang at the end of the Qing Dynasty
At this time, Ma Fuxiang met the noble man of his life, a disgraced official who had fled from the capital. Because they were all fallen officials in the end of the world, and seeing that their people were talking about something extraordinary, Ma Fuxiang found him a carriage. This person was touched and asked Ma Fuxiang what his plans were, and seeing that he was also dazed, he advised Ma Fuxiang: "The royal family is not far from the west, you and I should follow Empress Dowager Cixi, escort the royal family to Xi'an to hide, and seek opportunities to make meritorious achievements." ”
A word to wake up the dreamer. Ma Fuxiang suddenly realized, and immediately joined this person to chase after the fleeing royal family.
This person's name is Cen Chunxuan, and he is not a simple character. His father was the governor of Yungui, and he himself served as the governor of Shaanxi, the governor of Shaanxi, the governor of Sichuan, the governor of Liangguang, and so on. He also advocated the abolition of the imperial examination and the establishment of a constitution, and was a prominent figure in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty. Since then, Ma Fuxiang and Cen Chunxuan have established a good relationship, and under his orders, Ma Fuxiang's fate has changed.
Ma Fuxiang caught up with Empress Dowager Cixi in Huailai. Sure enough, although he was still only a lonely and nameless low-ranking officer, he was immediately summoned by Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor. Dong Fuxiang introduced next to him: Hundreds of people in the Ma Fuxiang family died in battle at Zhengyang Gate, and the dead Ma Fulu was his brother. After empress dowager Cixi comforted her, she ordered Ma Fuxiang to accompany the imperial family and accompany her.
Along the way, Ma Fuxiang served with all his might, and the escort was very meticulous. When he crossed the Huozhou Hanxin Pass, the road was dangerous, and he personally supported Luan in his hand and drove on foot, although the sun was shining, he did not feel tired at all.
Walking to Lintong, to cross the Yellow River Fengling Ferry, when the autumn water is rising, the turbid waves are like mountains, Cixi and Guangxu took a look, and their faces changed. Cixi looked at the boat and was terrified, so she did not dare to get on the boat for a long time, so she had to camp at the Fengling Ferry Port. Ma Fuxiang volunteered to come forward, and many of his subordinates had sailors who had driven sheepskin rafts since childhood in his hometown of Hezhou, and were familiar with water and could ensure that Lafayette could cross the river safely. After receiving his approval, he tied more than ten huge sheepskin rafts, selected more than a hundred strong soldiers who were familiar with water, and took the place of the boatman to control the "dragon boat" and escort the "two palaces" to cross the Yellow River safely and steadily. Cixi was very happy, and at that time, she was rewarded with twenty-two silver medals and a hundred silver medals, so Ma Fuxiang won Cixi's trust.
Cixi's favored eunuch Xiao Dezhang (Zhang Xiangzhai) recalled that Ma Fuxiang "really did his best to escort the old ancestors." Ma Fuxiang saw that Xiao Dezhang was quite favored by Cixi, so he took care of him in many ways, and deliberately made friends, and even personally inspected the quilt where Xiao Dezhang slept every day after arriving in Xi'an. Later, the two of them married Together with Zhang Xun and Feng Guozhang, they formed Jinlan, laying the foundation for the Ma family to fly in the future.
After arriving in Xi'an, Cixi used the Inspector Yamen as a palace. Ma Fuxiang was favored because of his military exploits in Beijing, and the escorts along the way were able to serve diligently, and he was appointed as a staff general plus a deputy general. His troops were replenished and reorganized into the "Zhisheng Army". The "Zhisheng Army" is equivalent to the Royal Forest Army, and its main duty is to protect the safety of the royal family. The young Ma Fuxiang was mixed, and after the family's great sacrifice, he finally came to the supreme ruler, and the dream of a prosperous career seemed to be within reach.
Ma Fuxiang led the guards day and night, doing their best. One night, the sushi room caught fire, and the fire was raging, and the Guangxu Emperor rushed to the palace of Empress Dowager Cixi to take refuge. Ma Fuxiang led the guards to fight with all their might, and put out the fire in time, which was appreciated by Empress Dowager Cixi. Since then, Ma Fuxiang has often been rewarded by Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor, with food, robes, silver blessings, and sheep.
Ma Fuxiang was favored and relied upon by the imperial family of the dynasty. Because Ma Fuxiang read a lot, as a military general, he was polite and gentle, especially loved by Empress Dowager Cixi. He himself wrote poems saying: "From time to time, I summon Tianyan Xi, and the sleeves are long and stained with royal incense", and Empress Dowager Cixi would often summon Ma Fuxiang to accompany him in practicing calligraphy, painting peonies, and praising Ma Fuxiang: "You are a Huimin, and it is really rare to write a tiger so beautifully." It is said that this was the main way for Empress Dowager Cixi to express her depression in the palace. The grand eunuch Xiao Dezhang was also very envious of Empress Dowager Cixi's love for Ma Fuxiang, and sighed and said, "Brother Fuxiang Xian, if your friendship with Lafayette is placed in the Peaceful Sun and Moon, your future is really unlimited." ”
At this time, Dong Fuxiang, the leader of the Gan Army, was deposed and dismissed from his post.
The situation changed. In October 1901, the Xin Ugly Peace Agreement was concluded, and Yi Li and Li Hongzhang signed the humiliating "Xin Ugly Treaty" with the Eight-Power Alliance, the first of which was to punish officials who offended imperialism, and Dong Fuxiang was one of the key criminals designated by foreigners to be executed. In the telegram sent to Cixi by Yi Xi and Li Hongzhang, he said: "Yi Et al. said that King Zhuang and Dong Fuxiang were extremely vicious and vicious, and they had to be killed. Cixi did not dare to disobey and obeyed the orders of Lord Yang, and as a result, a number of high-ranking officials such as Prince Zhuang Zaixun, Shandong Inspector Yuxian, and Shangshu Zhao Shuqiao of the Punishment Department were all killed, and some people were imprisoned and exiled.
Dong Fuxiang was only punished with "extra leniency and dismissal", but was only removed from office, and Dong Fuxiang was still lucky.
At the same time, the imperial court also secretly admonished Dong Fuxiang: "Er Zhong's courage is successful, his heroic posture is strong, he is in a difficult situation, and his merit lies in the western region." Recently, the pace of the country is difficult, there are many constraints, and the imperial court has no choice but to suffer, and forgive the self-ability to bend the body." A sweet talk affirmed Dong Fuxiang's merits, made him sympathize with the hardships of the imperial court, sent him back to Lingzhou, Ningxia, "ruled the famous fields", and became a rich man who dominated one side.
Why was Dong Fuxiang able to save his life? One of Cixi's secret edicts explained the mystery: "Dong Fuxiang alone is not worried, while the foolish people of the two provinces disregard the overall situation, and are deeply afraid that a momentary agitation will suddenly become a great disaster." Cixi was still afraid of the rebellion of the people in the northwest, so she left Dong Fuxiang for later use. Moreover, Dong Fuxiang's remnants were still crowded, most of them were rebellious, and Dong Fuxiang was suddenly punished, and Cixi was worried that it would provoke an incident.
Ma Fuxiang and others were not punished by foreigners by name, and they were appreciated by Cixi, so naturally they were safe and sound. After Dong Fuxiang was relieved of his post, the Gansu army was reduced to eight battalions, of which five battalions were under the command of the viceroy of Shaanxi and Gansu, stationed in Gansu. Since then, Ma Fuxiang has broken away from Dong Fuxiang's Gan Army and embarked on the road of independent development.
The cavalry of Ma Fuxiang's troops was practicing slashing
In October 1901, the Qing government and the foreigners agreed to complete the agreement, and the "two palaces" returned to Beijing, and Ma Fuxiang led the troops to escort them. Walking to Zhiliqiu County, because the Western powers did not allow the old gan army to enter Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor summoned Ma Fuxiang and others at the Zhengding Palace and ordered them to return to defense.
Ma Fuxiang led his troops back to Gansu. In the days to come, he will continue to be promoted. In 28 years, Guangxu was promoted to vice general of the Gansu Jingyuan Xietai and Shaanxi-Gansu Governor Biaozhong Association. In the thirty-first year of Guangxu, he served as the commander-in-chief of Xining Town, and concurrently commanded Xining to continue to prepare various banners, and entered the ranks of senior generals of the Qing Army. Later, he also served as an envoy to the Altai Protectorate. In the first year of Xuantong, he also served as the commander-in-chief of the town of Daibalikun.
In 1909, the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Yun Sheng, implemented the new army organization, and organized the Gansu army into four standards of ma bu, and the second standard of infantry was reorganized from the units of Xining Town, Hezhou Town and Guyuan Viceroy, and Ma Fuxiang was the standard commander and commanded the second standard of infantry. In the winter, Chang Geng took over as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and changed the Gansu Mabu Sibiao into a patrol team, and Ma Fuxiang was appointed as the patrol commander of the West Road.
Just when Ma Fuxiang's steady development was promising, the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty broke out, and the Wuchang Uprising received a nationwide response.
On October 22, 1911, Zhang Fengyi of Shaanxi Province revolted in Xi'an, killing qing generals and deputy governors and establishing a military government, which affected Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Xinjiang. The governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Chang Geng, and the governor of Shaanxi, Shengyun, hurriedly reorganized and expanded the Gansu army, preparing for the Eastern Crusade to suppress the revolutionary uprising. Ma Fuxiang was also ordered to recruit ten battalions of troops, and his unit was changed to the Zhaowu Army to participate in the Eastern Crusade.
The governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Chang Geng, intended to make Ma Fuxiang the vanguard of the attack on Shaanxi.
However, Ma Fuxiang refused to go on the grounds that his father, Ma Qianling, had just died in August last year and wanted to serve the funeral, and refused to go. Ma Fuxiang took the initiative to give up such a good opportunity for development because he was different from other generals and read a lot of books. He saw that all parts of the country responded to the Wuchang uprising, and felt that the Qing Dynasty had exhausted its strength, "the degree of despotism will soon be completed, and the republic will be completed", so while taking the opportunity to expand its strength, he maintained a wait-and-see attitude.
Chang Gung and Yun Sheng had no choice but to order him to guard Lanzhou and replace Ma Anliang with Ma Anliang as a striker.
In the course of the Qing army's attack on Ningxia and the siege of Shaanxi, Ma Fuxiang suddenly received a letter from Huang Yu, commander of the Qing army in Qinzhou (today's Shui), saying that Qinzhou had already contacted the revolutionary military government in Sichuan and Shaanxi and decided to revolt, and advised Ma Fuxiang not to remain ambiguous and wait-and-see at this time of the new revolution and the old, but to lead his troops south to unite with the soon-to-be-established Qinzhou military government.
Huang Yu studied in Japan, joined the League, and had close relations with Huang Xing. After returning to China, he actively propagated the revolution, saw that the feudal forces in the northwest were stubborn, and needed to carry out revolutionary activities even more, because Chang Gung had old friends with his father, he rushed to Gansu. He first advised Chang Geng to judge the situation and not to raise troops to attack Shaanxi. Chang Geng was not impressed, and Huang Yu had no choice but to ask troops to garrison Qin Prefecture, in the name of blocking the Shaanxi army from invading Gansu, but in fact to contain Ma Anliang and others from attacking Shaanxi. Faced with the situation at that time, he believed that only by leading the Qinzhou garrison to revolt could the situation be reversed and the republic realized. But his military strength was weak, so he sought support everywhere. Seeing that Ma Fuxiang refused to go to hang the Xi'an revolution, he wrote a letter to Ma Fuxiang to make contact.
Ma Fuxiang did not reply and remained silent.
The next day, Huang Yu led the Qinzhou Uprising, declared independence, and established the Gansu Provisional Military Government. The whole province of Gansu was shaken by this, and the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Chang Geng, panicked and immediately dispatched troops to attack, and among the troops transferred was Ma Fuxiang's Ma Zhongxiao battalion.
On the third day, march 12, 1912, the Peace Agreement between the North and the South was reached, and the Qing Emperor Puyi officially abdicated. In Gansu, Chang Geng and Shengyun refused to publish the edict to the public.
Ma Fuxiang saw that the qing court was gone and it was difficult to recover, so he went to Chang Gung for consultation and explored his attitude towards the future situation. Chang Geng lay languishingly in his bedroom, lamenting that the Qing Dynasty had perished and that he was no longer able to influence the political situation in Gansu. Under the exposé and persuasion of Ma Fuxiang and others, Chang Geng finally had to publish Puyi's abdication edict and said that in the future, "local affairs, as good as everyone thinks, they should do it well, and the local people can make their own decisions." "Leave the affairs of Gansu to the gansu people to deal with."
On the same day, Chang Geng handed over the Shaanxi-Gansu Guanfang and the twelve banners of Wang Ming to some local feudal bureaucrats headed by Zhao Weixi, the acting envoy, and soon left Gansu and went to Beijing via Ningxia.
As soon as the edict of abdication was promulgated, the upper echelons of Gansu Province immediately contemplated supporting the republic. Ma Fuxiang gave up waiting and watching, took the initiative to intervene in the mediation of various factions, and ran for the republic. Zhao Weixi, the envoy of Gansu Province, Zhang Linyan, chairman of the Provincial Consultative Bureau, Ma Fuxiang, commander of the Zhaowu Army, and Wang Zhizuo and Mu Shouqi, the gentry, signed a telegram to Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government, openly expressing support for the republic.
Yuan Shikai's government immediately appointed Zhao Weixi as the provisional governor of Gansu. Ma Fuxiang, Wang Zhizuo, and others contacted people of Gansu nationality inside and outside the province to advocate the formation of a provisional parliament of Gansu Province, elected Li Jingqing as speaker, and more than thirty people, including himself, as parliamentarians, advocating recognition of the republic.
Immediately after that, there was a dispute between Zhao Weixi and Tianshui over the date of the Huang Yu uprising. Arguing about the date of the uprising was essentially a struggle for the right to rule gansu province. Both sides sent telegrams to the inside and outside of the province one after another to defend themselves, and even developed to the point of pulling apart the troops and forming an armed confrontation, and a major war was about to break out.
Ma Fuxiang believes that Gansu has been in constant war and chaos recently, coupled with serious natural disasters, and now it is necessary to choose to protect the border and the people and eliminate the trend of fire everywhere. He advocated reconciliation and was willing to take the initiative as a representative of the Gansu provincial side to negotiate with Huang Yu's representative Zhou Kun in Tianshui. On the verge of being ordered, Ma Fuxiang went to Qinzhou alone to negotiate. After some persuasion, Huang Yu decided to put the overall situation first, surrendered his military power, and the two sides reached a peaceful settlement clause, and then the Qinzhou military government announced cancellation, and Huang Yu also left Gansu.
Yuan Shikai's government issued appointments to Ma Fuxiang several times. Ma Fuxiang was first appointed as an envoy to the Altai Army, but he did not want to leave Gansu and did not arrive. Later, Ma Fuxiang was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Xining Town, but Ma Fuxiang still did not take office. Yuan Shikai's government reappointed Ma Fuxiang as the commander-in-chief of Xining Town and concurrently as the minister of affairs in Xining, but was strongly opposed by Ma Anliang, the governor of Gansu.
Ma Anliang held military power and influenced the political situation in Gansu. Zhao Weixi, fearing his great power, had no choice but to appoint Ma Fuxiang as the commander-in-chief of Ningxia, and personally went to his door to comfort Ma Fuxiang: "You are an innocent and upright man, the state is capable and useful, there is no need to compete with them, in order to avoid trouble, it is best to invite you to Ningxia, because the ningxia general Zhang Zike resigned, and there is an independence movement in Inner Mongolia, please go to Ningxia to suppress it." ”
After being appointed, Ma Fuxiang felt that Gansu could not gain a foothold, so he immediately went to Yinchuan to take up his post.
At that time, Ningxia Province belonged to Gansu Province, the richest area in Gansu, the Yellow River flowed through, forming the Yellow River irrigation area, known as the "plugged Jiangnan" reputation, ancient called "the world's Yellow River Funingxia", is a beautiful and fertile place. Ningxia has an important strategic position in the north of Suimeng and northern Shaanxi in the east, and Ma Fuxiang has this place, which provides important conditions for him to stand on and develop.