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Text | Wu Cong
Editor|Ah Rong
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, taking many diehards with him.
However, Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan, did not trust everyone who defected to him, and wanted to get rid of him at the slightest disturbance. Therefore, many people do not have a satisfactory life in Taiwan.
A typical representative of this is the emperor of Ningxia: Ma Hongkui.
In 1953, he was forced to flee to the United States again with 7.5 tons of gold.
However, with enough money for ordinary people to squander for several lifetimes, Ma Hongkui could not live satisfactorily, so much so that in his later years he often muttered to China that he wanted to return to China.
Why is that?
Ningxia Tu Emperor Ma Hongkui
The Ma family rose during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, when Ma Hongkui's father, Ma Fuxiang, was promoted to court official for suppressing the popular uprising of all ethnic groups in Hehuang.
When fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance, he escorted Empress Dowager Cixi to escape, and was appreciated by Cixi for his meritorious escort, and after that, his official became more and more powerful.
After he was promoted, for long-term planning, Ma Fuxiang bought Ma Hongkui an official in Zhixian County when he was 13 years old, so that Ma Hongkui could be a fool of the officialdom from an early age and slowly cultivate him.
Ma Fuxiang was a delicate person, and after the fall of Cixi, he won Yuan Shikai's trust. He made great contributions to Yuan Shikai's usurpation of the presidential throne.
Yuan Shikai tried to make him a senior official several times, but he refused. The reason for refusing was because he had long distrusted the Qing Dynasty and the presidential palace where Yuan Shikai was located.
Wise and calculating, he planned to support the army and self-respect, and as a "soil emperor", he had already chosen Ningxia.
While he refused to be elected several times, he did not forget to move up and down. After opening the joint, Yuan Shikai transferred him to Ningxia as he wished, and served as the town commander-in-chief of Ningxia.
Since then, Ma Fuxiang has taken root in Ningxia and installed his own forces in various political and educational systems in Ningxia. He built the foundation of the Majiatu Emperor and accumulated a lot of wealth by looting.
When Ma Fuxiang was old, he completely transferred power to his son Ma Hongkui.
Ma Hongkui ruled Ningxia longer than his father, Ma Fuxiang, for 17 years. On the basis of Ma Fuxiang's stay, he continued to exclude dissidents, completely suppressed those who were not loyal to him, and replaced them with his own cronies.
When Chiang Kai-shek came to power, Ma Hongkui, in order to gain Chiang Kai-shek's support, built a Jieshou library to express his allegiance to him.
Later, before Chiang Kai-shek came to Ningxia, he built a mansion specifically for him.
His fawning over him successfully won Chiang Kai-shek's favor, and Chiang Kai-shek really wanted to win over the Ningxia emperor and shield him.
It was clear that the educational circles in Ningxia were corrupt under his intervention, and Chiang Kai-shek even sent him a pennant award with a clear conscience, saying that he was a benchmark in the education field and enthusiastic about education.
Chiang Kai-shek gave face, and Ma Hongkui returned the favor and quite supported Chiang Kai-shek's work. Chiang Kai-shek also pushed the boat along the way and appointed him chairman of Ningxia Province.
So far, it is completely said in Ningxia. Later, even if Chiang Kai-shek wanted to install officials in it, Ma Hongkui could casually find an excuse to suppress or even shoot directly, and then replace it with his own people.
Seeing that Chiang Kai-shek's government did nothing to deal with his actions, Ma Hongkui believed that his position in the Ningxia region was unshakable, and he did not even care about the government's rules, but only concentrated on accumulating wealth.
The Republic of China government stipulated that local banks were not allowed to issue banknotes, but Ma Hongkui took the opportunity to issue banknotes several times in exchange for real money in the hands of the business community and the people, resulting in the depreciation of new banknotes, inflation, and misery for the people.
Ma Hongkui also tried to make Ningxia hereditary, passing it on to his son Ma Dunjing as a private property.
Therefore, in Ningxia, against the will of the people, a large number of soldiers were forcibly conscripted, private soldiers were established, a large number of horses were fed, their cronies were installed in the army, and the armor protection system was implemented.
When the Communists proposed a peaceful settlement of Ningxia, he flatly refused the Communists' offer because he did not want the life of his emperor to be affected.
After several confrontations with the Communists, he realized the strength of the Communists and did not want his own strength to be damaged, and after that, when the Kuomintang needed support, he often replied superficially to be running forward to support, and in fact had led the troops to retreat.
After Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, Ma Hongkui followed, because he understood that if he had done many evils, the people would come to him to settle accounts.
Ma Hongkui fled to Taiwan
The trip to Taiwan completely shattered Ma Hongkui's dream.
When Ma Hongkui's resistance to the Communists failed, he first fled to Chongqing to join Chiang Kai-shek. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had lost patience with him and did not want to entangle with him more, and once snubbed him.
Ma Hongkui also took the opportunity to declare that he was sick and closed his doors. When he saw Chiang Kai-shek, he knelt down and hugged Chiang Kai-shek's thigh, crying that he was sorry that the Kuomintang had lost the war, lost its territory, and so on.
Chiang Kai-shek did not say much, but said that Ma Hongkui was not in good health, and he would go to Taiwan to recuperate in the future.
The next day, Ma Hongkui took his family and all the real money and silver tens of millions of taels that were swept away from Ningxia at that time, and flew to Taiwan by charter flight.
Because of Chiang Kai-shek's snub, he was no longer qualified to go to Taiwan on a fighter plane, and could only pay for it himself.
A few days after arriving in Taiwan, it was Guo Zhixiao, then former chairman of the Gansu provincial government of the Kuomintang, who was promoted to vice minister of defense, and Ma Hongkui and his aunt went to congratulate them with rich gifts.
Ma's former rivals kept tripping him, banishing him from his apartment and turning over old accounts.
When the Kuomintang and the Communist Party clashed, Ma Bufang was defeated because Ma Hongkui had not come to support as requested by the government, at which point he again wrote to the Kuomintang government to try Ma Hongkui.
Ma Hongkui struggled several times and asked for help everywhere, but did not receive good results. He was greatly annoyed, and he knew that the Nationalist government would not let him go easily.
So he asked his fourth aunt to pretend to be ill and go to Hong Kong for treatment, and then the Hong Kong side gave Ma Hongkui a critical illness notice, and Ma Hongkui took a leave of absence from Chiang Kai-shek and went to visit.
At this time, as soon as New China was founded, Chiang Kai-shek was so busy that he was annoyed by Ma Hongkui that he approved Ma Hongkui's request.
Ma Hongkui rushed to Hong Kong with his family overnight, leaving only his eldest son's family in Taiwan as hostages.
However, because Chiang Kai-shek was too tightly stuck, Ma Hongkui could not go to the United States as planned.
So he asked his good friend Chennault to help him intercede with Chiang Kai-shek and help apply for a U.S. passport. Even with Chennault's face, this passport took a year and a half to get it.
Chennault was the commander-in-chief of the United States Air Force in China, and Chiang Kai-shek's air force was established with his help, so Chiang Kai-shek relied heavily on Chennault.
Ma Hongkui has a sense of leaving a way back, and he hooked up with Chennault early.
At that time, Chennault's wife Chen Xiangmei was Chinese, and Ma Hongkui instructed his fourth aunt to befriend him.
In order to befriend Chennault and his wife, Ma Hongkui also spent a lot of real money and gave Chennault the jade watermelon, a court treasure obtained during the Cixi period.
As early as 1947, when Ma Hongkui saw the decline of the Kuomintang, he had asked Chennault to help him disperse the real money he collected to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and then Chennault directly deposited it in American banks.
Now that the situation is not good, of course, he should quickly flee to the United States as planned.
Ma Hongkui fled to the United States
Although he fled to the United States with 7.5 tons of gold, Ma Hongkui's life in the United States was not as good as he imagined.
Just arrived in the United States, he tried to make a comeback, sent countless gold and silver jewelry, foreigners only treated him as an upstart, moving gold ingots, except for the benefits, other than to help.
In January 1952, he saw Chiang Kai-shek clamoring in Taiwan to counterattack the mainland, so he began to raise his arms in the United States, hoping that the United States would send troops to aid Chiang Kai-shek.
He thought that he would get Chiang Kai-shek's favor again, but Chiang Kai-shek asked Chennault whether Ma Hongkui intended to move closer to the Communist Party. Although Chennault denied it on his behalf in time, Chiang Kai-shek still did not believe it.
After Chennault returned to the United States, he truthfully told Ma Hongkui, who smiled sadly, and he finally understood that he no longer had any political conditions for Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek did not need his help.
Originally, his reputation was not good at home, and the Chinese outside were too lazy to deal with him, and then he was suspected by Chiang Kai-shek, and he gradually stopped, and never asked about political affairs.
Ma Hongkui fled to the United States in a hurry, bringing only five of his fourth aunt, fifth aunt, sixth aunt, younger son and eldest grandson, but these five people were five hearts.
Because he knew that Ma Hongkui had saved money in advance in the United States, the fourth and fifth aunts were jealous every day, intending to get more property, and only the sixth aunt was more secure because she was born as a maid and had no skills.
The fourth aunt was born in a famous family in the capital, can sing music, can also communicate, and the wife to the outside world has always been the fourth aunt. She worked hard and scheming, and once recognized Song Meiling as her godmother, in charge of the financial power of the Ma family, and has always been the master of everything.
The fifth aunt was a rare college student at that time, with knowledge, and she was always known as the secretary of Ma Hongkui's group.
At this time, Ma Hongkui was over 60 years old and still suffering from diabetes, and he couldn't manage the battle between his aunts and wives, and only occasionally compensated for his fifth aunt who always suffered losses in private.
Until one day, the fifth aunt directly told Ma Hongkui that she was in love with someone else and asked for a divorce. Ma Hongkui, who was already physically and mentally exhausted, agreed and gave his fifth aunt $50,000.
After that, the fourth aunt went out to work and taught Chinese in a school, Ma Hongkui could not speak English, and when he was struggling behind, he sold the luxurious house, went to the suburbs to buy a farmer, raised chickens, sheep, cattle, etc., and handed over the full power to the sixth aunt.
In his old age, his younger son often bullied his eldest grandson, and after he once reprimanded his younger son, the younger son, in a fit of rage, took them to the United States court to demand the division of the family property.
It was this accusation of the youngest son that made him completely lose face and become a laughing stock in the Chinese circle.
Ma Hongkui's condition also worsened because of this, and he felt that his time was running out and did not want to leave a stigma in history, so he wrote a letter on his hospital bed: To Ma Bufang.
The letter, published in American newspapers, shocked Chinese in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Ma Hongkui mainly accused Ma Bufang of several crimes, saying that Ma Bufang spent a lot of money to find someone to assassinate him. His current life is very simple, pure and self-willing, and he Ma Hongkui has long put life and death aside for the sake of truth and justice.
Ma Hongkui also refuted Ma Bufang's false accusation that he was ineffective in aiding him, and Ma Bufang himself had no ability. The Kuomintang's "Executive Yuan" should not have made a wrong judgment.
It was also revealed that Li Zongren was actually in cahoots with Ma Bufang and set up many anti-Chiang conspiracies so that Li Zongren could become acting president. Ma Bufang, however, described himself as a man who swore allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek.
He felt that Chiang Kai-shek had been hoodwinked by Ma Bufang and should not have given Ma Bufang an ambassador abroad. He also hoped that Chiang Kai-shek would not favor one over the other, that everyone would be equal before the law, that he would be able to redress his grievances and give him justice to Ma Hongkui.
For a person who no longer has any use value, Chiang Kai-shek ignored him.
Ma Hongkui did not wait for the expected results, but waited for the news that his guards in Taiwan had committed suicide due to poverty.
He suddenly felt that he was really a failure, the Ma family fell in his hands, the descendants who remained around did not respect and love him, and the descendants who were left behind did not know what the situation was.
So left a will: I hope to return to my homeland one day! He also brought the last treasured antique back to his homeland after his death.
While dying on the hospital bed, he kept staring at the east and shouting: "I want to go back, I want to go back..."