Since ancient times, the land of rivers and rivers has been a mix of many ethnic groups and cultures.
Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the Han, Tibetan, Hui and other ethnic groups have joined hands with Sangzi and coexisted day and night.
However, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were endless disputes between the old and new religious sects in Gansu, coupled with the expansion of the population, the reduction of arable land, and the intensification of social contradictions.
By 1928, the "Hehuang Incident" broke out, like a bloody storm sweeping across the Central Plains, raging like a storm.
Ma Zhongying waved his army to burn the temple, ruthlessly slaughtered the Han people, burned the prairie with remnants, and blood was everywhere.
As a result, the Hehuang region fell into a vicious circle of ethnic groups and religions, with vendettas and killings, and society plunged into panic and gloom.
The Hehuang Incident: The Bloody Storm and National Vendetta of 1928
The Hehuang Incident, the rise and fall of the four records
Since the ancient Hezhou, now known as Linxia, often devastated by war, since the Qing Dynasty, the people of the northwest were unwilling to give in, and repeatedly clashed with the Qing court.
All kinds of rebellions, known in history as the "River Huang Incident", a total of four times.
In the 46th year of Qianlong, that is, in 1781, the uprising of Xunhua Su 43 was known as the first Hehuang Incident. In the Tongzhi period, Ma Zhanao led the resurgence for the second time.
In the twenty-first year of Guangxu, in 1895, Ma Yongrui and Ma Yonglin led the Salar and Hui people to rebel for the third time.
By 1928, the situation of the Republic of China was changing, and Ma Zhongying set off the most earth-shattering Fourth Hehuang Incident.
In the winter of 1927, in the name of the Northern Expedition, Feng Yuxiang telegraphed Xining and Liangzhou (now Wuwei) to send 1,500 cavalry each to Henan to participate in the war.
After receiving the telegram from Ma Qi, the envoy of the Ninghai Protector of Ganbian, and Ma Ting, the envoy of the Liangzhou town guard, they repeatedly delayed and did not show sincerity on the grounds of geographical remoteness and military difficulties.
Liu Yufen, who was then the commander-in-chief of the First Group Army and the Seventh Front Army of the National Revolutionary Army and chairman of Gansu Province, felt that the situation was urgent.
Han Junjie, president of the Gansu High Court, was sent to Xining, Zheng Daoru, director of the Department of Education, and Xu Weibing, chief of the general staff of the General Headquarters, were sent to Liangzhou in order to clear the deadlock and urge the two places to send troops.
However, Ma Ting still repeated his old tricks in Liangzhou and used excuses to shirk.
Ma Ting's fourth brother, Tingxian, suddenly revealed to Zheng Daoru that Xining and Liangzhou had actually colluded with the Feng warlords in order to sabotage the rear of the National Revolutionary Army and hinder the progress of the Northern Expedition.
After Zheng Daoru learned of this, he immediately asked Xu Weibing to return to Lanzhou first and report the situation to Liu Yufen.
For a time, the situation in Gansu was extremely tense.
At the same time, it was reported that Liu Yufen's chief of staff, Yang Yaodong, was intercepted and killed by bandits on the way, which made the situation even more confusing.
The leader of the bandits, Yang Lao Er, belonged to the Hui ethnic group, which led to suspicion that the matter might have been instructed by Xining or Liangzhou.
Yang Yaodong's body was later returned, and an examination revealed that the documents in the car were not lost, only the guns and money were robbed, which seems to prove that the bandits' interception of the car was only a robbery, not a political motive.
In Gansu at that time, the military force was divided into two camps: Han and Hui.
Among them, Chen Yuyao, the envoy of Longdong Town, Tong Linge, the envoy of Longnan Town, Zhao Xipin, the envoy of Hezhou Town, and Pei Jianzhun, the envoy of Suzhou Town, all belonged to the Han nationality and were loyal to Feng Yuxiang.
The Ganbian Ninghai Protector Ma Qi, the Liangzhou Town Guard Ma Tingxing, the Ganzhou Town Guard Ma Lin, and the Ningxia Town Guard Ma Hongbin are Hezhou Hui people, who are strong and ambitious with each other, and they are not easy to control.
In the first half of 1927, Liu Yufen sent people to inspect Ma Qi and Ma Ting's troops, which were organized into the 26th and 27th Divisions.
The main force of the Nationalist Army in Gansu was Dai Jingyu's 25th Division, while others, such as the Seventh, Eleventh, and Seventeenth Divisions, were mostly new recruits and inferior to Dai's Division in terms of equipment, training, and combat effectiveness.
The political whirlpool between Xining and Liangzhou intensified.
By March, Ma Zhongying in Xining, manipulated by local political forces, openly raised an anti-Feng banner.
Ma Zhongying, Ma Qi's cousin (Ma Zhongying's grandfather Ma Haiyuan and Ma Qi's father Ma Haiyan are brothers).
Because his father had been recuperating for a long time due to mental illness, Ma Zhongying, who was only 17 years old, had temporarily replaced his father as a battalion deputy in the army.
In March 1928, Ma Zhongying led a small number of troops from Xining, raided the Xunhua County Government, seized the weapons of the local police and the Nationalist Army, and thus rapidly expanded his power and continued to advance towards Hezhou.
After the incident broke out, Ma Qi immediately reported to Liu Yufen, saying that his subordinates had mutinied and spread in the direction of Hezhou, claiming that he had sent troops to pursue him.
After Liu Yufen received the call, she understood that this was Xining's strategy, even if there was a renegade inside, she was deliberately laissez-faire, and attacked Hezhou in the name of this.
Therefore, Liu Yufen immediately sent a telegram back to Ma Qi, instructing his pursuing troops not to cross Xunhua, so as not to accidentally injure friendly troops, and at the same time deploy interception in the Hezhou area to prevent the situation from further expanding.
At the same time, Ma Tingxing's uncle Ma Guoliang (Ma Anliang's younger brother, then deputy commander of the 27th Division and commander of the 70th Brigade) died of illness, and Ma Tingxing requested to return to Hezhou from Liangzhou on the grounds of mourning.
Liu Yufen was highly skeptical of this, believing that Ma Tingxing took the opportunity of the funeral to return to Hezhou in a hurry, and may have colluded with Ma Zhongying's rebellion.
In addition to expressing condolences, Liu Yufen continuously sent telegrams, urging Ma Tingxing to return to Liangzhou as soon as possible to garrison in order to stabilize the defensive line.
However, the situation deteriorated further.
After Ma Zhongying entered Hezhou, as the number of his troops increased, the troops led by Ma Tingxing's cousin Ma Tingbin (Ma Guoliang's son, then the commander of the 27th Division) came into contact with Ma Zhongying, and some soldiers defected to join Ma Zhongying.
In addition, some of Ma Tingxian's other subordinates in Hezhou also joined forces with Ma Zhongying.
The River State Incident, Tyranny and the Banner of Righteousness
Ma Zhongying's power grew day by day, and on May 9, 1928, Ma Tingxian set fire to his own house, and as a sign of determination, he joined forces with Ma Zhongying to launch the first siege of Hezhou.
Zhao Xipin, the commander of Hezhou, held the city, while Liu Yufen adopted a two-pronged strategy of both extermination and pacification.
He sent troops into Rivers State in two directions, and simultaneously organized field political committees to deal with the crisis in a politically and militarily manner.
Liu Yufen also specially invited well-known figures of the Hui nationality in Hezhou, such as La Shijun and Ma Guoli, to participate in the event, in order to show the government's attitude of treating the Hui and Han ethnic groups equally.
In addition, it has actively carried out propaganda to emphasize the government's lenient policy, that is, only the first culprits will be held accountable for this incident, and that the coerced people will be exempted from punishment and return home to live and work in peace and contentment as long as they surrender their arms.
The main attacking force set out from Nanda Road, crossed the Tao River, and marched to Hezhou through Taizi Temple, while the other route, commanded by Li Songkun, approached northeast of Hezhou from the small roads of Manping and Tangwangchuan.
Thanks to Ma Guodong's familiarity with the terrain and the active propaganda of the Field Political Committee, the troops made smooth progress, and finally joined forces with Hezhou on May 23 and successfully lifted the siege of the city.
Ma Zhongying and his troops were forced to retreat to the western part of Hezhou.
In this battle, Dai Jingyu was unfortunately injured in the chest and had to return to Lanzhou for treatment, and Li Songkun temporarily took the position of division commander.
After the operation, Liu Yufen quickly carried out the aftermath work, and sent Yu Jiapei, chief of staff of the headquarters, to Hezhou to preside over the local appeasement and governance work.
Yu Jiapei settled in the Bafang Mansion in Hezhou and carried out active appeasement work.
In view of the local dissatisfaction caused by Zhao Xipin's hard-line policies in the past, Liu Yufen decided to transfer him back to Lanzhou, and Chen Yuyao, the envoy of Longdong Town, acted as the envoy of Hezhou Town.
Liu Yufen therefore freed up her hands and prepared to solve the Liangzhou problem and take a decisive approach to Ma Yan.
The conditions for the provincial government's appeasement of Hezhou were: first, Ma Zhongying and his troops must withdraw to Dahejia and Hanjiaji, and it is strictly forbidden to continue to plunder, burn, and kill, and they must be inspected and incorporated at designated places;
The incorporation of troops will be based on the number of weapons, with one battalion for every three hundred guns, three battalions into a brigade, and so on;
Once integrated, the troops must be absolutely subordinate to the government's commands, and those who do not want to join the army must disarm and be issued with death certificates to return to their hometowns to live in peace, and the government promises not to pursue their past.
Ostensibly, Ma Zhongying and his troops accepted these conditions.
Yu Jiapei, as the main appeasement officer, was immersed in the comfortable life of the Grand Mansion and was paralyzed by carelessness.
In the early morning of June 27, during a thunderstorm, Ma Zhongying launched a surprise attack.
He had set up snipers in the streets, shops, and houses of Bafang in advance, and launched a fierce attack on Hezhou City.
At that time, the Grand Mansion was surrounded by enemy troops, and the defenders of the city tried to rescue them three times, but they were all unsuccessful due to the sniper attack of Ma Zhongying's troops, and suffered heavy casualties.
Zhao Zhonghua, the brigade commander of Hezhou, was unfortunately shot and killed by snipers while commanding on the city wall.
The city's connection with the Grand Mansion was quickly severed, and the remaining engineer battalion of the 25th Division put up stubborn resistance.
By about 3 p.m., Ma Chung-ying's troops were piling up firewood and bamboo around the Grand Mansion in an attempt to burn it.
Under the urgency of the situation, An Youguang, a military judge accompanying the headquarters, proposed to dig a wall to break through.
The soldiers of the engineer battalion dug several holes in the north wall, connecting several courtyards and passing through a mosque occupied by horses.
On this route, they encountered fierce battles, protecting Yu Jiapei and others all the way to the south gate of Hezhou.
However, the road was extremely treacherous, with mud and horse-sniper fire taking a heavy toll on the road.
Chen Yuqing, commander of the engineer battalion, and An Youguang, a military judge, were both killed in the battle, and many company commanders and platoon commanders also suffered heavy losses.
Yu Jiapei himself was stabbed in the leg with a spear while fleeing, and many were burned wounded.
They eventually made a detour to the east gate to enter the city. Of the original 480-odd people, only more than 150 survived, and the casualty rate was as high as two-thirds.
After this battle, Ma Zhongying did not stop the offensive, but continued to increase its efforts, and his troops even spread to the area of Tangwangchuan and Manping in the northeast of Hezhou to attack the Huang Weicheng Brigade near Niuxin Mountain.
When the situation was urgent, Lanzhou sent students and military reinforcements, and after fierce fighting, this wave of crisis was temporarily resolved.
Beacon fire for many years, troubled times in Hezhou
After the Hezhou Incident in 1892, the Lanzhou authorities often entrusted Ma Anliang or his subordinates with handling Hui religious disputes.
By 1928, Ma Qi and Ma Tingxun thought that Liu Yufen would still ask for advice routinely, but Liu Yufen made an exception and acted alone.
When Ma Zhongying raised troops to attack Hezhou, Ma Tingxing rushed back to Dahe's house to mourn, still standing on Liu Yufen's side, and his statement can be seen from the actions of his cousin Ma Tingbin.
However, Ma Tingbin failed to trap Ma Zhongying, and the three parties turned against each other. Ma Zhongying intended to attack the Dahe family, and Ma Tingxing urgently mobilized Sala back to 3,000 soldiers to defend Jishi Mountain, but Liu Yufen regarded this as a rebellion.
Ma Tingxing fled from Liangzhou on 13 May, counterattacked Liangzhou on 3 June, and fought again on 17 July.
On 16 August, he evacuated Liangzhou. In the autumn of that year, with Sun Lianzhong marching westward, the war in Hezhou expanded.
Ma Tingxian joined the battle because Zhao Xipin burned the eight directions, wanting to take revenge.
The war was raging in Hezhou, Feng Yuxiang was unable to solve it, and the negotiations between the two sides were fruitless.
The war in the Central Plains was suspended due to the compromise between Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang, Feng Yuxiang's troops advanced westward, and in October the Nationalist army attacked Hezhou in a big way, and the situation was temporarily suspended.
Ma Zhongying and others retreated to Tianshui.
By October, he had gathered 70,000 or 80,000 people, relying on the vast number of Hui people in Hehuang.
Liu Yufen led the Nationalist Army into Lanzhou, forcing Ma Zhongying to retreat.
Ma Zhongying planned to return to Xining, and Ma Tingxian considered fleeing to Sichuan. The two had a difference of opinion, and Ma Qi handed over Xining peace to Sun Lianzhong.
Ma Zhongying gathered forces in Minxian County, but in the end, due to a mismatch of strategy, he contradicted the local ethnic groups, leading to deeper conflict and destruction.
In the spring of 1929, Ma Zhongying moved from Tibet to Xining and temporarily defeated Ma Lin. However, in the face of the insistence of Sun Lianzhong's troops, they did not dare to go deeper, so they diverted to Hexi.
On 25 January, he reached Yongchang and breached the city, then retreated to Minqin.
In September, Ma Zhongying withdrew from Minqin and moved to Ningxia, but timely reinforcements from Ji Hongchang's troops forced him to retreat into Hetao, and Ma Tingxian failed to conquer Ningxia and moved to Longnan.
The conflict between Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren and Yan Xishan scattered the Gansu defenses, and Ma Zhongying took advantage of the situation and planned to return to Gansu.
However, Ma Hongbin detained him in Ningxia.
Soon after, Ma Zhongying escaped, and with the support of the Zhongwei garrison, he reorganized the old department, absorbed the victims, and returned to Hexi.
In December 1930, he declared independence, proclaimed himself commander-in-chief of the Gansu-Ningqing Coalition Army, and planned to establish Hexi Province.
In April 1931, in the face of Ma Bufang's strong attack, Ma Zhongying withdrew to Jiayuguan and fled into Xinjiang.
In 1933, Ma Chung Ying supported the Hami Uyghur rebellion against Kim Shu Jen's rule, but was unsuccessful.
Subsequently, Jin Shuren counterattacked Hami, and Ma Zhongying retreated to Khotan. Gradually falling into trouble, he handed over the remnants to his cronies and went to the Soviet Union to buy weapons himself.
Later, it was rumored that Ma Zhongying accidentally fell to his death while performing an air show in the Soviet Union. After Ma Zhongying's death, his troops were partly subordinated to Sheng Shicai and partly wiped out.
The battle between the two horses, the change of heaven and water
At that time, Ma Zhongying and Ma Tingxian had another disagreement in the desolate land of Ningxia, and the routes of the two horses were very different from each other.
Ma Zhongying decided to return north to Hexi, while Ma Tingxian led his troops south to Tianshui.
With the support of many Hui people in Ningxia and Gansu, Ma Tingxian turned the tide and entered Tianshui on April 8, 1930.
In 1931, the Nanjing government took a fancy to its power and appointed Ma Tingxian as the commander of the Longnan appeasement, and Yang Hucheng soon after, he also gave him the post of garrison commander.
After capturing Tianshui, Ma Tingxian continued to expand his power and went south to capture Wudu.
In the winter of 1931, he sent troops to Wenxian County.
However, Yang Fuquan, the commander of the Han army in western Sichuan, led his troops to counterattack, not only recapturing Wudu, but also instigating the think tank Huang Yin to attack Tianshui from the north of Wudu and Wenxian in an attempt to penetrate deep into the hinterland of Gansu.
Against this background, the Sichuan army quickly arrived on the outskirts of Tianshui.
At the beginning of December, Ma Tingxian was forced to abandon Tianshui, and on December 18, Yang Hucheng's troops advanced westward, and on the 25th, Huang Yin, worried about being attacked before and after, telegraphed the Shaanxi army to take over the defense of Tianshui, and then the whole army withdrew to Sichuan.
When the Sichuan army retreated, Ma Tingxian's troops lurked in Beishan, and a team called Ma Beige attempted to surprise the east gate, but was besieged by Ma Qingyuan's division and forced to surrender.
After this battle, Ma Tingxian no longer had the power to command, so he had to hide in the Beijing and Tianjin area with a few cronies.
His subordinates either defected to Qinghai and Ningxia, or scattered to the fields, and gradually faded out of the stage of history.
In the course of the Hehuang Incident, the Han and Hui people revolted extensively against the Nationalist Army, and mutinies and religious armed struggles broke out in the region.
After several years of fighting, Gansu was temporarily divided by warlords and warlords, and then the province was gradually enveloped by the dark rule of the Kuomintang.
The Hehuang incident was actually led by a small group of careerists.
Ma Zhongying launched the siege of Hezhou mainly because of the greed of the Hezhou authorities under the leadership of Zhao Xipin and the injustice of the Han people to the Hui.
This kind of expropriation and ethnic discrimination aroused Ma Zhongying's righteous indignation, so that his uprising had a righteous glow from the beginning.
Ma Zhongying, who is only 17 years old, has won the hearts of the vast number of Hui people in Hezhou with a legendary color of youth.
In the early days of the war, although he had few troops and poor equipment, he received the unwavering support of the local Hui people, and he reached a stalemate with the Nationalist Army in Ho Chau.
However, as the war spread to Taomin, Tianshui, Longnan, Ningxia, and even Hexi and Xinjiang, Ma Zhongying's actions gradually lost the aura of their original intentions and began to bring disaster.
Wherever his army passed, the first thing they did was to loot food, brutally attack and even massacre villages that protested.
In the battle of Yongchang City in Hexi, more than 2,000 men were slaughtered and many women were violated.
The tragedy of Minqin City is even more shocking: after the city was broken, Ma Zhongying's department set fire to the city, Tian Yubing, the county magistrate in the city, committed suicide in grief and indignation, and the gentry and people in the city suffered great killings, and hundreds of people died tragically.
These acts are horrifying, and the actual historical figures may be even more disastrous to show the extent of the disaster that Ma Zhongying and his troops have inflicted on the local people.
At first, in the name of justice, but in the end, it ended in the indiscriminate killing of innocents.
Resources:
Read Han Dingshan's "Ma Zhongying and the Hehuang Incident" Zhang Hainan and Zhang Hailong
Ma Zhongying and the Hehuang Incident Han Dingshan