During the Republic of China period, several very powerful warlord forces were entrenched in the northwest region to commit misdeeds, and because their leaders were all surnamed Ma, they were called "Northwest Gunma". Of course, the "horse" here refers to the pejorative meaning of "black sheep", which shows the hatred and scorn of the people. Among them, Ma Bufang, who is famous for his absurdity and tyranny, has also been fortunate to become the most powerful force among the "Northwest Guns".
Ma Bufang
In 1949, along with the liberation pace of the People's Liberation Army sweeping through thousands of troops, Peng Dehuai led the First Field Army to the northwest battlefield and fought a decisive battle with Ma Bufang through the strategy of "tonging horses to fight Hu" and "pincers to fight horses" and "pincers to fight horses". And Ma Bufang also boasted about Haikou, claiming that Lanzhou was an "iron city that could not be breached", and at this time, he not only tried to protect Lanzhou, but also intended to go straight to Xi'an.
Under the iron hooves of the People's Liberation Army, Lanzhou was completely liberated, and Ma Bufang became a dog that lost his family, completely ending his absurd and tyrannical rule in the northwest. It is worth noting that Ma Bufang only has tens of thousands of troops, while our army's First Field Army has a full 300,000 troops, and in the case of such a huge disparity in strength, why does Ma Bufang dare to fight With Peng Dehuai in a decisive battle against Lanzhou so arrogantly?
The Red Army's sworn enemy "Horse Bandit Army"
In 1949, the Liberation War entered the end of the war, at this time most of the mainland has been successfully liberated, but the northwestern forces that are rooted in the vast Gobi Desert --- horse bandit army, which still hinders the pace of liberation. In the more than eighty years that the horse bandit army of the "Northwest Gunma" has been entrenched in the northwest region for more than eighty years, they have relied on their armed forces to oppress the people, embezzle and corrupt, and rob the women of the people, making the people in the northwest region miserable and living in a deep and hot water.
Horse bandit army
At the same time, most of this group of "horse bandits" was composed of natives in the northwest who had learned martial arts since childhood and were tall and large, mainly cavalry, and their combat effectiveness was extremely high. Coupled with the fact that they have been entrenched in the northwest region for a long time and are very familiar with the terrain and environment of the northwest, the "horse bandit army" can often use the advantages of the environment to surprise and strictly guard the northwest region. Not only that, the "Horse Bandit Army" also took advantage of the characteristics of the gathering of ethnic minorities in the northwest region to adopt religious control, further eliminating the infiltration of other dissident forces, and aggravating the deep suffering of the ordinary people in the northwest region.
In the "Horse Bandit Army", the most fierce and fierce is the unit led by Ma Bufang: Qingma. And the "green horse" and the Red Army have formed a beam a long time ago.
Qinghai Majiajun
During the Long March of the Red Army, the Red Army's Western Route Army tried to establish a revolutionary base area in the Hexi region, but it was caught off guard by Ma Bufang's troops, Qingma, who had been killed halfway. At this time, the Red Army's Western Route Army was already facing a difficult situation of running out of ammunition and exhaustion after the Long March of the Red Army, but it still insisted on fighting to the death in the case of a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, and finally the more than 20,000 Red Army West Route Army washed the northwest in blood, almost the entire army was destroyed, and only a few hundred people survived smoothly.
The Red Army crossed the snowy mountains
Ma Bufang's hands were stained with the blood of more than 20,000 Red Army soldiers, and since then he has established a bloody and deep vendetta with our party, and our party has not forgotten this blood and tears humiliation for a moment, until thirteen years later, in 1949, Peng Dehuai led more than 300,000 troops to Lanzhou, which was bound to avenge the tragic death of more than 20,000 loyal souls in the northwest of the Red Army's Western Route Army, and completely liberated the oppressed people in the northwest.
Why did Ma Bufang dare to fight with Peng Dehuai in Lanzhou?
Lanzhou can be described as the economic and political center and military center of the entire northwest region, which can contain the Hexi Corridor of Gansu and the west can be directly connected to Qinghai and Xinjiang, which is of great strategic significance. Therefore, Lanzhou has become a must for the People's Liberation Army, and once Lanzhou is taken, it can liberate the entire Great Northwest with one horse and one horse.
The People's Liberation Army in 1949 was already different from the past, and had the strength to compete with the Horse Bandit Army, but what was unexpected was that Ma Bufang, who had only tens of thousands of troops, dared to openly fight with the 300,000 People's Liberation Army and fight a decisive battle in Lanzhou.
Peng Dehuai commanded the war room of the Lanzhou Campaign
- Ma Bufang refused to give up his rare official position
In 1949, the final stage of the Liberation War, the general trend of the Kuomintang had gone, and looking at the whole country, only the "hard bone" of the northwest seemed to be safe and sound. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek decided to make a desperate bet and throw the heavy military and political responsibilities in the northwest to Ma Bufang, the most powerful of the "northwestern guns," and appointed Ma Bufang as the "military and political chief of the northwest" in order to shoulder the great responsibility of defending the northwest and reserve territory for the Kuomintang to reverse the situation.
It should be known that the official position of "Northwest Military and Political Chief" can be said to be the largest official position in the northwest region during the period of the National Government, and holding this position means that Ma Bufang has become the "Northwest Boss" officially approved, standing out among the competitors of the Northwest King, and even Ma Hongkui, who is higher than him, must be respectful to him.
And Ma Bufang is a very greedy and ambitious person, as early as before he took the position of "Northwest Military and Political Chief", he loved "gold to open the way", and used the looted people's fat to exchange for power and status for himself. Therefore, when he sat on the high position of "Northwest Military and Political Chief" with difficulty, he would not easily hand him over to others.
Ma Hongkui
As a result, Ma Bufang, who was then the "chief military and political officer of the Northwest", left the lair that he had been operating for many years: Xining, came to Lanzhou with great enthusiasm to take up his post, trying to fight a resounding battle in Lanzhou, prove his strength to the Kuomintang government, and repay the Kuomintang's "grace of knowledge".
- Lanzhou is blessed with unique geographical advantages
Of course, the reason why Ma Bufang is so arrogant is that there is still some confidence. Lanzhou, the place of decisive battle, is bordered by the Yellow River in the north, the steep mountains in the south, and a natural fortification from north to south. On the basis of natural defense, during the anti-Japanese period, Lanzhou also specially built fortifications, which surrounded Lanzhou tightly, which was very easy to defend and difficult to attack. In addition, Lanzhou's transportation routes are dense, which is convenient for support and transportation, and is conducive to maintaining the defense of the inner line. Therefore, Ma Bufang called Lanzhou an "unbreakable iron city".
Battle of Lanzhou
- The situation in the northwest is easy to encircle and encircle
Judging from the overall situation in the northwest, in addition to the green horses led by Ma Bufang, there were also Hu Zongnan, who was in charge of 200,000 troops in the northwest, and Ma Hongkui, who was holding tens of thousands of troops, and the support force was very remarkable. Therefore, Ma Bufang believes that as long as the two forces join hands to encircle and encircle the PLA, its strength will be enough to compete with the PLA.
On the contrary, in Ma Bufang's eyes, the PLA Labor Division Expedition is extremely prone to supply difficulties and the situation of double life, let alone his opponent, so he does not pay attention to the strength of the PLA. Moreover, in the early years, the People's Liberation Army also planted it in his hands once.
- He once took advantage of the Hands of the People's Liberation Army
As early as 1948, Peng Dehuai had suffered losses at the hands of Ma Bufang. At that time, Peng Dehuai was leading the Northwest Field Army to attack Luochuan, but he could not attack for a long time. Therefore, Peng Dehuai led his army to fight in Xifu. Unexpectedly, Ma Bufang joined forces with Hu Zongnan to attack Peng Dehuai in two ways in Xifu, causing greater losses to the Xiye Army.
Northwest Field Army
Based on the glory of the Battle of Xifu, in this Battle of Lanzhou, Ma Bufang, who maintained his own geographical and strategic advantages, was so arrogant. Therefore, Ma Bufang formulated a plan for "river defense warfare", and very arrogantly claimed that he would not only defend Lanzhou, but also go straight down to Xi'an.
Dream of Lanzhou
But Ma Bufang's lofty ideals were soon disillusioned by the People's Liberation Army. As early as March 1949, the Party Central Committee formulated the strategic goal of liberating the Great Northwest, and Chairman Mao formulated the strategic principle of "clamping down on the horse and fighting the beard, first hu and then the horse" according to the situation of the war. That is, to first contain the "two horses" of Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui, and concentrate on attacking Hu Zongnan in Shaanxi.
Hu Zongnan (middle)
After Hu Zongnan was defeated, Chairman Mao formulated the "division of the two horses." The strategic principle of "taking advantage of the victory and fighting the horse" divides the military strength of the two horses from each other and concentrates on attacking Ma Bufang. Chairman Mao's series of strategic plans undoubtedly shattered Ma Bufang's ambition to unite with the other two major forces in the northwest to encircle and encircle the PLA.
At the same time, Peng Dehuai, who led the army in actual combat, annihilated more than 40,000 enemy troops in one fell swoop after conducting the "Battle of Fumei" with Hu Zongnan, and directly liberated Guanzhong. Therefore, Peng Dehuai took advantage of the situation to change the strategic policy to "clamping down on Hu and fighting horses", taking advantage of Hu Zongnan's weakness to clamp him down, and directly attacked Ma Bufang, who was more powerful among the "two horses", and accelerated the pace of liberating the northwest.
Marshal Peng Dehuai
According to the battle plan of the "River Defense Battle", Ma Bufang laid out a defensive main force of 50,000 people in Lanzhou, defended the left wing of Lanzhou with 30,000 people, and 20,000 people to protect the right wing of Lanzhou. In order to carry out a full blow to Ma Bufang, Peng Dehuai also made very strict military arrangements: the 1st Corps plus the 18th Corps and the 62nd Army directly attacked Ma Bufang's old lair in Xining, and the 18th Corps and the 1st Corps' Seventh Army and the 19th Corps 64th Army suppressed the remnants of Hu Zongnan's forces and strictly prevented Ma Hongkui's support. The remaining troops, all of whom were in Lanzhou, surrounded on three sides, east, west and south, forcing the Horse Bandit Army to the north of the Yellow River Iron Bridge.
The People's Liberation Army pursued the horse bandit army
However, at the beginning of the campaign, under the situation that the horse bandit army was strictly defending Andromed in Lanzhou, our army did not make substantial progress after a day of fierce fighting, so Peng Dehuai immediately decided to stop the attack and re-formulated the battle plan according to the enemy's firepower points and defensive surfaces. At the same time, Chairman Mao, who was always concerned about the war situation in the northwest, called and instructed:
It is planned to concentrate the main forces of three corps in the Battle of Lanzhou... Be prepared to open once and use a second or third attack.
At Chairman Mao's suggestion, after two days of rest, Peng Dehuai immediately ordered a large-scale general offensive from three directions, east and west of Lanzhou, with the total strength of the five corps of the 2nd Corps and the 19th Corps, breaking through three lines of defense of the enemy in a row, and capturing the Shenjialing Heights in only thirteen hours. Ma Bufang's son saw that the general situation had gone, and Hu Zongnan and Ma Hongkui did not make the slightest move, so they ordered the whole army to retreat. Due to the chaotic retreat, the horse bandit army all poured into the narrow Yellow River Iron Bridge in northern Lanzhou, and was chased and destroyed by the People's Liberation Army.
Capture of Shenjialing
In the end, the People's Liberation Army successfully liberated Lanzhou with the brilliant record of annihilating more than 40,000 enemy troops, and then liberated the entire Great Northwest with a horse and a horse. And Ma Bufang can only be forced to flee to Taiwan, facing the tragic fate of being removed.