"As a Chinese, I hope to return to my hometown for burial after I pass away."
At the beginning of 1970, an old man lay quietly on a hospital bed in the United States, his mouth whispering, looking a little weak. He is Mr. Ma Hongkui, who used to be a powerful party. When he was dying, his heart was filled with longing for his hometown. Recalling the scene when he arrived in the United States with a huge amount of gold, the style is impressive. Now he is lonely and a wanderer who longs to return to his homeland. Ma Hongkui is a Chinese who once held power in Ningxia. When he decided to go to the United States, he took with him a large amount of gold, about 7.5 tons, and the scenery was unlimited. Now, however, he just longs to get back to his roots, to his hometown. He lay there, his mind drifting back into the distance, thinking of the land and the people there. His story reminds us that no matter where we are, the nostalgia for home can never be erased.
Ma Hongkui's long-term position in Ningxia caused a great obstacle to the revolutionary process. With the victory of the war, the man, known as the "Emperor of the Earth", fled to Taiwan in a hurry. However, he did not gain the favor of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan and suffered a liquidation. Subsequently, he was forced to go to the United States and took with him a lot of wealth. But this once prominent official was very desolate in his later years, and eventually died in a foreign country. This incident is a classic story of political power struggles and the ups and downs of personal fortunes.
What kind of life did the king of Ningxia experience in his later years? How did he ever become a hegemon and wield enormous power?
[1. The perverse behavior of the king of Ningxia]
During the Central Plains War in 1924, Ma Hongkui gradually expanded his sphere of influence in Ningxia with the help of the Northwest Warlord Feng Yuxiang. In the complicated situation of the war, Ma Hongkui showed a very keen eye, and he realized that it was impossible for the local warlords to contend with Chiang Kai-shek of the Central Army. Therefore, he understands that in order to grow and develop, he must find a strong backer. During this period, Ma Hongkui's decision-making showed his thoughtfulness and strategic vision. To put it simply, it was in the context of that period that Ma Hongkui used resources to expand his influence, and understood that relying on strong forces can better develop. This involves the political context and the struggle between the warlords.
In 1929, Ma Hongkui publicly broke with the Feng faction and turned to Chiang Kai-shek, turning his back on the old leaders who had promoted him. Since then, Ma Hongkui has sided with Chiang Kai-shek many times, and even helped Chiang Kai-shek suppress the betrayal actions of Han Fuqu and Shi Yousan, reflecting his absolute loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek. Because of this display of loyalty, Chiang Kai-shek trusted Ma Hongkui very much and gave him the important task of "suppressing the Communists". To put it simply, the changes in Ma Hongkui's relationship with Chiang Kai-shek and his performance in the political struggle were all part of the political situation.
Ma Hongkui's military ability was not outstanding, and he suffered repeated defeats on the battlefield, much to Chiang Kai-shek's dissatisfaction. But because Ma Hongkui's father Ma Fuxiang interceded with Chiang Kai-shek, Ma Hongkui was saved. Chiang Kai-shek understood that Ma Hongkui was not a close confidant of his own, so he arranged for him to change positions with Ma Hongbin and let him go to Ningxia alone. This whole affair has a political dimension.
Ma Hongkui realized that Chiang Kai-shek intended to make him lose everything, so he responded in advance and installed trusted subordinates. After arriving in Ningxia, he rapidly expanded his power and succeeded in taking control of the military and political power in Ningxia. As a result, Ma Hongkui's strength increased and he became a hegemon, with a very high status and power in the Ningxia region. As a result, he became a great local warlord and was known as the "Emperor of the Earth".
Ma Hongkui's rule in Ningxia was very popular, and he used his influence to have his cronies join the government of Ningxia one after another to hold important positions at all levels, so that his influence could completely penetrate and control Ningxia. He enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle in his daily life, and he ate and wore everything extravagantly. It is rumored that he even weighed a staggering 200 kilograms, which undoubtedly shows his pursuit of the enjoyment of life. He believes that the reason why he was able to live such a life is all because he has the power of the army in his hands.
During Ma Hongkui's reign in Ningxia, he began to recruit soldiers frequently, and implemented the conscription system of "two for every five people" and "one for every three people", which caused the local residents to face huge recruitment pressure and seriously reduced labor resources. Under this pressure, people's livelihoods are struggling. After Ma Hongkui recruited soldiers, he began to promote the breeding of local horses, and many excellent horses were bred. Under his guidance, a large number of cavalry units were formed. Under the leadership of Ma Hongkui, the local horse industry was also vigorously developed, and a considerable number of cavalry units were successfully built on the basis of excellent war horses. However, this process has high requirements for the conscription of ordinary people, and their lives have been under certain pressure. Through this strategy, he further consolidated his dominance in Ningxia. At the same time, these war horses have also become one of the important resources of Ningxia.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek tried to place some officials in Ningxia in an attempt to restrain Ma Hongkui's expansion of power. However, his arrangement did not work, because in the end he was unable to resist Ma Hongkui's power. All of the officials who were assigned to the city were replaced. This is a political contest.
Ma Hongkui built an extremely luxurious office, and employees had to report on their work in advance. When they enter the office, they must salute him and kneel, as if reminiscent of ancient royal etiquette. In this office, he is like an ancient emperor.
After Ma Hongkui increased the number of troops, he posed a serious security hazard to the revolution. The geographical location of Ningxia and Shaanxi gave him many opportunities to provoke our army, which brought great trouble to the revolutionary cause.
In 1936, Ma Hongkui launched an ambush on the Western Route Army, which led to heavy losses for our army.
After his power gradually stabilized, Ma Hongkui began to massively increase taxes in the Ningxia region to amass wealth. At first, he took into account Chiang Kai-shek's influence and acted a little more restrained. After the end of the war, he observed that the state of the Nationalist government was getting worse and worse, so he began to brazenly amass large amounts of wealth and leave a way for his future.
As a result, Ma Hongkui began to manufacture and issue gold yuan coupons in large quantities. He used these gold yuan to exchange real gold and silver with the people. This action caused prices in Ningxia to skyrocket, and the problem of inflation was extremely serious, but all the valuable gold and silver were eventually concentrated in his hands. According to the data, when he left Ningxia in 1949, he had made and used more than 3 million gold yuan coupons, and collected as many as 7.5 tons of gold. Ma Hongkui adopted the method of printing money on a large scale, and he used these gold yuan coupons to exchange real money in the hands of the people. In doing so, prices in Ningxia swelled to such an extent that his pockets were filled with priceless gold and silver. Statistics show that by the time he fled Ningxia in 1949, he had printed more than 3 million gold yuan in exchange for a whopping 7.5 tons of gold reserves. As a result of this measure, Ma Hongkui collected a large amount of gold and silver in a short period of time. Due to the circulation of a large number of gold yuan bills to the market, the inflation in Ningxia is very serious. Amazingly, however, he managed to amass a large amount of gold and silver reserves, and by the time he left Ningxia in 1949, he had printed more than 3 million gold yuan and collected 7.5 tons of gold.
The People's Liberation Army fought a series of battles against Ma Hongkui's regime in Ningxia and finally destroyed his local dominance. Then, with the beginning of the Battle of Lanzhou, this also hinted that the days of the "Three Horses" group in control of the northwest had entered the countdown. To put it simply, as the battle progressed, the "Three Horses" group could not escape the fate of defeat in the end.
[2. The hasty escape of the king of Ningxia]
In the early days of the Liberation War, General Peng and Chairman Mao had an in-depth discussion on the situation in the northwest. They agreed that the key issues in the northwest were mainly focused on Hu Zongnan and the two local forces known as the "Second Horse." The "two horses" refer to Ma Bufang in Qinghai and Ma Hongkui in Ningxia, who are influential ethnic armed forces in the region. In fact, these two forces were backed by Chiang Kai-shek. This issue is a politically sensitive area.
The horse team has caused a lot of trouble for our army. Their main strength was cavalry, and our troops had been fighting the Japanese and Kuomintang reactionaries for many years, and had relatively little experience in fighting cavalry. We need to be more vigilant and prepared for their cavalry superiority.
Mr. Peng, Hu Zongnan and Erma had many battles, and in the continuous confrontation, he gradually discovered and identified the enemy's weaknesses.
The team led by General Hu was a force close to Chiang Kai-shek, and its weaponry and logistical support were very complete, and its main task was to attack Yan'an. The team led by Erma is different, although they are also part of the national army, they are more like a local force. In Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, their contingent could only be regarded as a "non-main force", so they could not get his all-round support. To put it simply, this is a complex issue involving political context and the strength of the military.
As for the use of local forces, Chiang Kai-shek paid more attention to whether they could wear down the strength of our army. In fact, people like Erma didn't really serve Chiang, they just wanted to maintain their power and increase their strength by expanding their own power. They are more inclined to let Hu Zongnan and our army form a fierce conflict, so that they can watch from the sidelines to see who is stronger. It looks more like they're waiting for an opportunity that will bring them a benefit, and then take advantage of it. Such a mentality reflects an attitude of taking advantage of the situation and not actively helping. To put it simply, they did not really contribute to Chiang Kai-shek, but wanted to gain their own interests through the evolution of the situation.
In the end, the PLA defeated Hu Zongnan's forces, forcing them to lead the remaining forces to retreat south. Some of them chose to defect to Erma. Erma mistakenly thinks that he has gained benefits, but this is falling into the strategy of Mr. Peng, who plans to defeat his opponents one by one. Subsequently, Mr. Peng quickly led his troops westward and engaged Erma.
For the first time in military history, the PLA and Erma engaged in a head-on confrontation. Despite the large losses suffered by both sides, our troops did not achieve the expected operational objectives. However, through many encounters and the accumulation of experience, our army gradually mastered the skills of fighting cavalry. In the end, we managed to turn the tide of the battle and move forward with high morale.
At this point in time, there was a major contradiction between the two horses. In order to balance the forces of the two horses, Chiang Kai-shek skillfully appointed them together to form the Ningqing Corps, and gave them different positions: military and political governor of the northwest and chairman of Gansu Province. The powers of these two positions differ, with local offices having greater powers. This incident is clearly a political issue.
As a result, the two figures surnamed Ma began to compete for the position of military and political chief in the northwest. In order to obtain this position, Ma Hongkui performed well on the battlefield and actively befriended various forces to gain support. However, Ma Bufang directly operated through the wealth network in Nanjing and easily obtained the position of military and political governor of the Northwest. This led to Ma Hongkui's plan falling through, and he had to succumb as Ma Bufang's deputy. Despite his efforts, he was unsuccessful in obtaining the position.
However, Ma Bufang was not willing to give Ma Hongkui a chance to be promoted. As soon as he took office, Ma Bufang immediately dismissed Ma Hongkui from all his positions. This made Ma Hongkui dissatisfied, so he decisively ordered all his troops to withdraw. Such a move is obviously Ma Hongkui's rebellion against Ma Bufang.
As the situation in the northwest was about to get out of control, Li Zongren and Yan Xishan came forward to coordinate and stabilize the situation. After they cooperated, they joined forces again against our army.
Although the two sides have been fighting, in front of our army, the strength of the second horse is obviously weak. Ma Bufang was quickly defeated, and our army was defeated in one fell swoop. Immediately afterwards, Ma Hongkui's situation was also urgent, and he finally had to admit defeat. Throughout the process, the fighting between the two sides continued, but the victory ultimately belonged to our army.
Ma Yuankui was completely defeated in the engagement, and his main army was trapped in Ningxia. Seeing that the general trend had gone and that Ningxia would not be captured, his subordinates advised Ma Yuankui to consider a way of peaceful liberation.
In Ningxia, Ma Hongkui has been entrenched here for a long time, but he did not choose to compromise, but decided to engage in a protracted confrontation with our army. After Fu Zuoyi saw this situation, he tried to persuade him to change his attitude. However, Ma Hongkui did not choose to revolt, but strengthened the city defenses, increased the number of troops, and arrogantly stated that he would fight with our army. This toughness of his attitude is impressive.
However, Ma Hongkui only shouted empty slogans, and his real actions showed his fear of death and danger. On September 1, 1949, he fled his hometown and flew to Chongqing with all his possessions. After that, he continued to flee and eventually arrived in Taiwan.
At first, the living conditions in Taiwan were not bad, and they could live a fairly prosperous life in a short period of time. In the early days in Taiwan, the living conditions were acceptable, and a relatively comfortable and prosperous life was possible for a short period of time.
However, Chiang Kai-shek did not forgive Ma Hongkui. The kings of Ningxia in the past no longer have the prestige and influence they once had, and they no longer have much use. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek began to deal with the problem of Ma Hongkui. First, the procuratorate proposed his impeachment, and then the newspapers began to blame Ma Hongkui for the defeat in the Northwest War. This issue is politically relevant and therefore involves complex relationships of power and interests.
Ma Hongkui gradually realized that it was not wise to stay in Taiwan for a long time. In order to survive, he decided to take the gold with him to the United States.
[3. The sad old age of the king of Ningxia]
Because the fourth aunt was too seriously ill and needed to go to Hong Kong for treatment, Ma Hongkui found a chance to get out. He took advantage of the fact that Chiang Kai-shek was too busy with the war to take care of anything else, claiming that the fourth aunt was too seriously ill and needed to go to Hong Kong for advanced Western medical treatment. So, Ma Hongkui cleverly used this as an excuse to fly to the United States logically, and took a lot of gold with him. His travels, which appear to be on business, are actually a clever tactic to circumvent censorship. In short, Ma Hongkui took advantage of Chiang Kai-shek's busy war situation, and used the fourth aunt's illness as an excuse to go to the United States through Hong Kong, while secretly carrying a large amount of gold. This act has something to do with politics.
When Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taiwan, he found Ma Hongkui fleeing with a large amount of gold. At that time, he was in dire need of money, but found that the gold had been lost. Chiang Kai-shek, though extremely angry, could not be reversed. Ma Hongkui later went to the United States to continue his life of luxury, but the gold was not enough for him to squander. Put simply, it is a question of politics and economics intertwined.
In ten years, Ma Hongkui's wealth has been exhausted, which makes him think of other ways. So he remembered his old acquaintance, Mr. Chiang Kai-shek. Upon learning that Mr. Chiang was preparing to launch a new attack, Ma Hongkui rekindled his hope. However, Mr. Jiang was deeply dissatisfied with Ma Hongkui's escape and made it clear that he would sever ties with Ma Hongkui. This is a political issue that needs to be approached with caution.
Ma Hongkui was forced to gradually sell off his former assets, but this was only a temporary stopgap measure to ease the predicament. He was already under tremendous financial pressure.
In the early 1960s, Ma Hongkui's financial resources were already meager, and his life became simple and ordinary. But the two sons of the Ma family still retained the previous way of spending money, without the slightest moderation, they still maintained a luxurious life, and did not care about the passage of money. Their lives were as unbridled as ever. Although he no longer lived a luxurious life, his two sons still maintained a habit of high consumption.
Ma Hongkui's children had a property dispute, and the situation was so severe that he became so emotional that he had to be hospitalized. This dispute caused his physical condition to decline sharply, and Ma Hongkui suffered great mental pressure as a result. Since then, Ma Hongkui's life has become dependent on a wheelchair, and he can no longer present the image of the king of Ningxia in the same majestic manner as in the past, and now he looks more like a frail old man.
In 1970, Ma Hongkui's life had come to an end, and his waking moments were becoming rarer. Whenever he was conscious, his eyes were always turned to the East. He kept repeating words that he could only hear if he got closer. His words were full of persistence and persistence, and he repeatedly said: "As a Chinese, I hope to be buried in China after I die." This is his attachment to his hometown and his insistence on identity.
In his later years, Ma Hongkui felt the weight of homesickness, and although he had been in a foreign country for many years, he still longed to return to his homeland. However, fate failed to give him this opportunity, and he was never able to set foot on the journey back home. He spent his old age in this boundless loneliness and desolation, until January 14, 1970, his life came to an end. This is a scene that every Chinese feels in their old age, but it also leaves Ma Hongkui with lifelong regrets. Looking back on the past years, his days away were full of helplessness and loneliness, and homesickness always haunted his heart. He will never be able to see his hometown again, nor can he feel that deep-rooted nostalgia again. This kind of emotionally intertwined life in old age also makes people feel a lot of emotion.
After Ma Hongkui's death, no one felt sorry or sad. His family was more concerned with the distribution of the inheritance, which seemed to be his due retribution. Although he contributed to the war of resistance, his actions brought great disasters to the people. He has done almost nothing useful for the country, and such an ending can be said to be self-inflicted.
Ma Hongkui, a member of a former warlord who had committed serious crimes against revolutionary fighters and the people, was forever condemned for his actions. Sadly, Ma Hongkui was not convicted by a public trial, but fled to the United States with a large amount of gold to enjoy his old age. Although he may have avoided retribution for his crimes, the pain he inflicted on the people of Ningxia is still deeply engraved in the hearts of the local people. Such scars are unforgettable and destined to live forever.