Hikiko
*This article is excerpted from "A Hundred Years of Chinese Memories - Ningxia Three Horses", written by Ma Dianjing. The original title "The Uprising of the Kuomintang 81st Army" feels a bit like scribbled confession materials.
Ma Dianjing (1908-1972)
Ma Dianjing (1908-1972), whose name is Liqing, was a native of Washan Mountain, Hanjiyang, Linxia County. Ma Hongbin's third son. He read poetry and Arabic at an early age, and lived in the barracks with his father for the long age. He served as the commander of the battalion, regiment, brigade and division of his father's department. In May 1938, Ma Hongbin was ordered to lead the 81st Army of the Army to Suixi to participate in the War of Resistance against Japan, and Ma Dianjing served as the chief of staff of the army. During this period, Ma Dianjing had commanded the post to engage in many fierce battles with the Japanese puppet army, and in 1943, Fang led his troops back to Zhongning County, Ningxia, for reorganization. In March 1946, the 81st Army was reorganized into the 81st Division, with Ma Dunjing as the division commander, and soon reverted to the 81st Army as the commander, and then served as the commander of the Haigu Corps, stationed in Guyuan, Haiyuan, Zhongning and other places.
In September 1949, after negotiations with Commander Zeng Siyu, plenipotentiary representative of the 19th Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, he signed an agreement on the peaceful settlement of Ningxia, that is, he led the 81st Army to revolt and realize the peaceful liberation of Ningxia. After the uprising, the 81st Army was reorganized into the 2nd Independent Army of the Northwest Field Army, and he still served as the commander. In September 1952, he was transferred to the commander of the Ningxia Military Region. After the abolition of the Ningxia Military Region in 1954, he was transferred to the vice chairman of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and in 1961, he was elected as a deputy to the Third National People's Congress. He died in Lanzhou in 1972 at the age of 65.
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The establishment of the eighty-first army
Army Commander Ma Danjing, Deputy Army Commander Ma Danxin, Chief of Staff Yang Yuchun, Chief of Staff Guo Kuiwu, Director of Political Work Division Ma Changrui, Director of Adjutant Division Wang Youdi, Quartermaster Department Wang Yudong, Military Medical Department He Yunshan, Military Affairs Department Wang Shugong, Military Judge Advocate Office Li Yusheng, Director of the Confidential Office Sun Zhaoxian, and Personnel Section Chief Xie Zhaofan.
Units directly under the army: Ma Zhengong of the guard battalion, Han Zhesheng of the engineer battalion, Sun Zhaoxian of the communication battalion, Wu Zhenwen of the artillery battalion, and Ma Zhengyou of the baggage battalion.
Military Divisions: Ma Dianbang, acting commander of the 35th Division, Ma Shaohan of the 294th Division, and Ma Mingde of the 358th Division. Three regiments per division.
The deployment of the 81st Army
In January 1947~1949, part of the military headquarters of the 81st Army was in Sanying Town, Guyuan, and part was in Zhongning County. In 1949, when the Liberation War was tense, a forward command post was set up in Sanying Town. During the liberation of Lanzhou, the command post was once stationed near Dongwan Town in Jingyuan County, and the military headquarters and family members lived in Haiyuan County. When the People's Liberation Army marched to Ningxia, the forward command post and the military headquarters in Haiyuan County and Zhongning County were all moved to Zhongwei County. In addition to the newly formed 358th Division, the main forces of the other two divisions, namely the 35th Division and the 294th Division, were deployed in the areas of Haiyuan and Guyuan. At that time, the recruits of the newly formed 358th Division had not yet been received.
Before and after the uprising
In 1949, the People's Liberation Army rapidly advanced westward, and quickly defeated the Chiang and Ma armies in the northwest with a devastating momentum. After the liberation of Xi'an, Lanzhou was liberated one after another on August 26, and the advance of the 19th Corps of the People's Liberation Army marching on the west road had reached Sanying Town, Guyuan County, and Ningxia had fallen into a situation of encirclement. At that time, Ma Mingsan, a gentleman from Sanying Town, sent someone to Zhongning County, Ningxia, and asked my father Ma Hongbin to meet at the place of four people south of Zhongning, and there were important matters to discuss. My father decided to send me to meet the family of four, considering that it was inconvenient for him to go. I went to the four of us to meet Ma Mingsan and others. Ma Mingsan said that they were sent by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Sanying Town, and conveyed to us the PLA's advice to our army, hoping that the 81st Army would quickly revolt and contribute to the peaceful liberation of Ningxia. He also said: "If you don't revolt at the moment, it's okay, but don't stop the PLA when it advances into Ningxia." At that time, my answer was: "The 81st Army is by no means an opponent of the PLA, please rest assured." "That's the end of it. At that time, although I knew that the general trend was gone and the rule of the Kuomintang would inevitably end, I had no understanding of the question of the uprising, so my answer at that time could only be vague. Judging from the situation at the time, I can only answer this for the following three reasons:
1. Although Ma Mingsan and others claimed to have been sent by the People's Liberation Army, there were no representatives of the People's Liberation Army among them, and they did not produce official letters or certificates, so I was naturally suspicious of their contact.
2. Although Lanzhou has been liberated, Ma Hongkui's forces in Ningxia have not suffered much loss, and their strength is still very strong compared with our troops. In addition, the relationship between us is not harmonious, and I am afraid that once the matter of the uprising is leaked, the Ningxia side will definitely strike first, and our department will certainly suffer a big loss. More importantly, I am afraid of losing my foothold.
Third, I don't have enough understanding, and I always feel that I can't let go of military power until the time comes. Because the safety of myself and my family depends on the army, if I give up military power, I can say that it will be over. More importantly, there was a lack of understanding of the nature of the revolution led by the Communist Party, and even if there was an uprising, it was difficult to dispel the fear. So the plan at that time was to walk and see.
In early September 1949, my father received two telegrams from Ma Hongkui in Ningxia" (original note: Ma Hongkui left Yinchuan on September 1, 1949 and fled to Chongqing, so Ma Hongkui sent a telegram asking Ma Hongbin to go to Yinchuan to discuss matters in late August. ), asked my father to Yinchuan to have something to discuss, mainly to study the problem of walking together. At that time, my father had no intention of leaving, and did not go to Yinchuan in person, so he sent me to Yinchuan to explain to Ma Hongkui the reason why he could not leave, and to see how Ma Hongkui planned to leave. I arrived in Yinchuan at around 11 a.m. and went straight to his house. At that time, Ma Hongkui was holding a meeting with military and political personnel, and he waited until he met with me after the meeting.
He asked, "Why can't your father come by himself, and will he go?"
I replied, "Father means that he is old and his family is heavy, so if he runs away, what will he do in the future?"
He replied, "Isn't your father afraid that the Communist Party will harm him?" I replied: "My father thinks that the Communist Party will not necessarily harm him." ”
I asked, "What will happen to Ningxia after you leave?"
He replied: "If you give a gift to the Communist Party, you have to give a full gift, I will go to Chongqing first, and then ask the boss to go (named Ma Dunhou, who was the commander of the Ningxia cavalry at that time), because the boss can't hold his breath and doesn't listen to the words of the second child (the second Ma Dunjing was the commander of the Ningxia Corps at the time), leaving him will make a mistake, and let the second child go when necessary." ”
Because Ma Hongkui was busy, this was the end of our conversation. I returned to Zhongning on the same day and told my father about my trip to Yinchuan.
In mid-September, the People's Liberation Army began to march to Ningxia, because Zhongning is the only way to Yinchuan, and in order to avoid contact, I moved all the military headquarters, troops, and families of the 81st Army stationed in Zhongning to Zhongwei County. At the same time, the telegram ordered the two regiments stationed in Jingyuan Beiwan to withdraw to the central guard as soon as possible. The two regiments could not rest after marching for days, and the troops were tired, so they decided to go to the opposite bank of the Yellow River (Xindun Wharf) about 7 miles away from Zhongning County ( Original note: In fact, Zhongwei County belongs to Changle and Zaolin on the south bank of the Yellow River. Rest, make a fire and make a meal. Before the meal was ready, one of the regiments was surrounded by the PLA and all disarmed, and the other was broken up by two companies. At this time, the main force of the 19th Corps of the People's Liberation Army had arrived in Zhongning County, and it was learned that a division of the 65th Corps of the 19th Corps had marched from the north road to Zhongwei, and the situation was extremely tense. At that time, I invited the gentlemen of Zhongwei County to the military headquarters for a meeting. I told them two things: (1) The 81st Army will never resist the PLA, and I asked them to tell the people of Zhongwei County not to be alarmed. (2) Ask them to go 40 miles out of the city to Shapotou to meet the PLA, explain to the PLA that the 81st Army will not resist the PLA, and ask them to slow down.
At this moment, I received a call from the Shikongbao garrison in Zhongning County, saying that the People's Liberation Army had sent a representative to discuss peace. I immediately took the bus to contact us. Only my second brother Ma Danxin (then deputy commander of the 81st Army) knew about this matter. After arriving at Shikong Fort, the representative of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) I met was Ma Chengjun (he was my father's subordinate adjutant), and his family lived in Zhongning County, which happened on September 17. At that time, I immediately sent Yang Zijun, a staff officer of the major, to Zhongning to contact the PLA, but he was too timid to negotiate any results and returned. On the 18th, I sent Ma Peiqing as a representative to make contact, and at dusk he came back with the terms of the peace talks and asked me to study them, and if they agreed, an agreement could be reached, and he proposed to sign the agreement on the beach in the middle of the Yellow River at 12 o'clock on the morning of the 19th, and if it was not overdue, the PLA would open fire.
At that time, I had a very fierce ideological struggle and a lot of mental pressure. At the critical moment when the soldiers were approaching the city, my father knew that the general trend had gone and could not continue to delay time, so he decided to go to Yinchuan and go to Suiyuan to see Fu Zuoyi. At this time, Fu had already rebelled, and his father wanted to see Chairman Mao through Fu Zuoyi in order to ask for an uprising. After his father arrived in Yinchuan from Zhongning, Xu Yongchang was also going to Suiyuan, so his father took his plane to accompany him.
At about 11 o'clock in the morning of September 19, I took Ma Peiqing and two relatives, La Peilin and La Zhong'an (these two are my eldest brother's wives and brothers, they came to Zhongning to take refuge because Ma Bufang captured troops), and took a sheepskin raft to the beach. Not long after, two jeeps drove from the other side, and the representatives of the People's Liberation Army got out of the car and took a sheepskin raft to the beach, and the representative who came was the military political commissar of the 19th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, and I forgot his name (original note: Comrade Fu Chongbi, who was the deputy political commissar of the 64th Army at the time. )。 After the meeting, I proposed that there was no place to sit on the beach, and it was inconvenient to talk, so it was better to go to Zhongning County to negotiate and sign. At first, the People's Liberation Army was afraid that we would not go to Zhongning because of our concerns, but after I earnestly proposed it, they also agreed, and in this harmonious atmosphere, we crossed the Yellow River together and took the People's Liberation Army car to Zhongning County.
There, I met Zeng Siyu, commander of the 64th Army of the 19th Corps, and after formal negotiations, he signed the agreement at 7 p.m. on the 19th and took a photo.
The representative of the 19th Corps is Commander Zeng Siyu, and the representative of the 81st Corps is me. Commander Zeng hosted a banquet to entertain us. At dusk that day, the People's Liberation Army sent us to the riverside, and we crossed the Yellow River on a sheepskin raft to Shikong Fort. I wanted to leave the army as soon as I signed it, but through the process of negotiating and signing, I realized that the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army were not as terrible as we thought. During the signing process, the PLA deputies said that after the reorganization of the 81 st Army, I would still be in charge, so the original idea of escaping was gone, and the desire to continue to serve as an official was born.
On September 21, the day after I arrived at Zhongwei, I immediately gathered the officers and soldiers stationed in Zhongwei and announced to them that our army had officially signed the uprising. When everyone heard this, they all cheered and celebrated.
At this time, the People's Liberation Army continued to march to Ningxia through Zhongwei, which was really strict in military discipline and welcomed by the people, and completely presented an atmosphere of victory.
Within a few days of the signing, the 19 th Corps sent more than 300 political workers to the Central Guard, and immediately assigned these comrades to divisions, regiments, battalions, and companies in accordance with regulations, and reorganized the 81 st Army into the Second Independent Army of the Northwest Military Region, appointed me as the army commander, and appointed Zhen Hua, director of the liaison department of the 19 th Corps, as the military political commissar.
In December of the same year, the commander and deputy commander of the Ningxia Military Region (Commander Wang Daobang and Deputy Commander Cao Youshen) went to Zhongwei to hold a flag-awarding ceremony.
The above is the process of the uprising of the 81st Army of the Kuomintang.
In March 1951, I was transferred to the post of commander of the Ningxia Military Region. Comrade Zhen Hua was also appointed deputy political commissar of the military region. The Second Independent Army was organized as the First Independent Division. In 1954, the two provinces of Gansu and Ningbo were merged and the Ningxia Military Region was abolished. I was transferred to Gansu to serve as vice chairman of the Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) until the eve of the Cultural Revolution.
(Contributed by Gansu Provincial CPPCC)
Sources:
A Hundred Years of Chinese Memories - Ningxia Three Horses