Northwest Ma Family Army

Author: / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-08-01
Features: In July 1940, Ma Biao was transferred to Linquan in northern Anhui and Shenqiu on the border between Anhui and Henan, and was reorganized into the 8th Cavalry Division. The division consisted of 3 regiments, plus direct (battalions) and (companies). After reorganization, it remained under the command of the War Zone, while simultaneously receiving orders from the Li Xianzhou Group Army of the Fifth War Zone. In August, the division was deployed to Woyang, Mengcheng, and Huaiyuan counties in northern Anhui, garrisoning the triangular area south of the Woyang River and north of the Sha River to contain the Japanese forces along the Beijing-Hankou Railway in Bengbu. The 8th Cavalry Division frequently launched proactive attacks against Japanese and puppet forces, striking unexpectedly to destroy railways, highways, and bridges in enemy-occupied areas, disrupting enemy supply lines and making it difficult for them to transport goods. The Japanese and puppet forces referred to the division as the "Ma Huizi Army" or "Ma Huzi Army," keeping them on high alert. In September, in Longgang Town on the Woyang River in Huaiyuan County, Ma Biao's division engaged in fierce combat with Japanese forces. The Ma forces first destroyed an enemy tank with landmines, then relied on strong defensive fortifications to engage in close combat. In this battle, nearly a thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. As the Japanese retreated, they even used poison gas to hinder our pursuit. After this battle, Japanese and puppet forces in northern Anhui became like birds startled by a gunshot, no longer daring to act rashly. The reputation of the "Ma Huzi Army" spread throughout enemy-occupied areas, instilling fear in the enemy. In March 1942, Ma Biao was appointed as the deputy commander of the second cavalry army under He Zhianguo. There were rumors that Ma Biao would be promoted to the commander of the 64th Army. Ma Buofang, however, listened to slanderous remarks and believed that Ma Biao had ambitions to break away from the Qingma Group. Additionally, the replenished troops mostly came from Henan, Anhui, and Shaanxi, making them difficult to control. Ma Buofang flew to Chongqing to lobby He Yingqin and obtained Chiang Kai-shek's approval, appointing his cousin Ma Buokang as the successor to the division commander, while Ma Biao was transferred to the position of a deputy division commander in the Military Advisory Institute. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the 8th Cavalry Division, along with other allied forces, was ordered to move to Xuzhou for "reception." As a "" (heterogeneous army), the division could only garrison the suburbs. In January 1946, it was transferred to Fuping in Shaanxi via the Longhai Railway. Later, due to the army's reduction in size, it was merged with Ma Lu's temporary cavalry division to form a new 8th Cavalry Division, with Ma Buokang remaining as the division commander. In March, it was stationed in Yongdeng, Gansu. The cavalry units of the Ma family army in Qinghai fought across thousands of miles during the Anti-Japanese War, annihilating a large number of Japanese invaders. Their officers and soldiers showed great bravery on the battlefield, with the majority of them dying in battle for the country. They paid a heavy price but also earned a good reputation. However, it should be noted that due to the characteristics of the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China during the entire Anti-Japanese War, the defensive areas of the Qingma forces coincided with the operational areas of the New Fourth Army. The Ma family army participated in or initiated several encirclement attacks against the New Fourth Army, resulting in casualties on both sides. For example, in October 1938, Ma Yuanxiang's division was ordered to launch a surprise attack on the New Fourth Army, which was advancing against Japanese and puppet forces, resulting in the death of over 50 soldiers from the New Fourth Army's Fourth Brigade. Later, the New Fourth Army launched a counter-encirclement, capturing over 160 soldiers and officers from Ma Yuanxiang's division. In October 1939, they attacked the New Fourth Army in the Yellow River floodplain. In September 1940, they launched another attack against the New Fourth Army in the Woyang River area, capturing over 200 cadres and trainees from the New Fourth Army, along with 200 rifles, 100 machine guns, and 200 sets of uniforms. All these actions demonstrate that the Ma family army's anti-communist and anti-people nature had not changed significantly even during the Anti-Japanese War.
### "Six Major Center Works"
In March 1938, after Ma Buofang was appointed as the acting chairman of Qinghai Province, he consolidated the province's military and political power under the Ma family, marking the peak of their rule in Qinghai. He responded to Chiang Kai-shek's call for the "New Life Movement" and implemented "new policies" in Qinghai, imitating the practices of the New Guangxi clique. He called for "self-defense, self-governance, and self-sufficiency" and actively promoted the "Six Major Center Works." These works included:
(1) Organizing Baojia Systems
In 1938, following Chiang Kai-shek's decree to implement the Baojia system, Ma Buofang made the organization of Baojia the top priority of the "Six Major Center Works." He established the "Qinghai Province Baojia Organization Committee," chairing it personally and appointing eight trusted individuals, including Ma Ji and Ma Shirong, as committee members. He formulated four regulations, including the "Procedures for Organizing Baojia Across the Province." The Baojia system was defined as a "local organizational system below the county level, implementing a four-tier structure of districts, towns (or townships), Bao, and Jia." Subsequently, Baojia Organization Committees were established in counties across the province, beginning the organization of Baojia. The province was divided into seven districts. Due to the vast and sparsely populated nature of Qinghai, the implementation was forced. By 1949, 15 counties had organized 240 towns (or townships), 1,081 Bao, and 11,628 Jia, totaling 161,729 households and 952,671 people (excluding pastoral areas). Ma Buofang's enthusiasm for implementing the Baojia system in Qinghai was primarily to strengthen his feudal autocratic rule and further control the people. He stated that implementing the Baojia system was "to (ly organize the people), (strengthen our forces), and use self-defense organizations to advance self-governance." He believed that implementing the Baojia system was not only the center of the "Six Major Center Works" but also "laying a foundation for the future of Qinghai's politics and religion that would last for generations." He ordered the personnel responsible for organizing Baojia to, after completing household registration, issuing resident ID cards, and electing Baojia leaders, have the people sign "Joint Liability and Mutual Supervision Agreements" and establish "Baojia Covenants." The covenants stipulated: "Each household must supervise one another, obey commands, and not resist. Visitors must report to the Jia leader and deliver them to the officials on time. All Jia and household leaders must sign the Joint Liability and Mutual Supervision Agreements, promising never to secretly communicate with bandits or conceal spies. Anyone who violates this must be reported immediately, and those who conceal it will face collective liability." Additionally, it was stipulated that "Bao and Jia leaders are responsible for collecting taxes, searching for criminals, supervising the construction of watchtowers, training young men, and supervising the repair of highways." All administrative measures were implemented through the Baojia system. This subjected all ethnic groups to severe political oppression and brutal economic exploitation.
(2) Training Young Men
Historically, Qinghai had implemented a system of drafting young men door-to-door, known as "" (door-to-door soldiers). After Ma Buofang took office as the provincial security commander in 1935, he formulated and implemented measures based on the National Government's "Plan for Organizing the Security Forces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia," officially training young men. According to the National Party Central Committee's regulations, young men aged 18 to 40 were required to undergo national military training. However, Ma Buofang's "Provisional Regulations for Organizing Young Men" expanded the age range to 17 to 50. He combined the organization of Baojia with the training of young men, establishing district command posts, county young men command posts, township battalions, Bao teams, and Jia groups, with each group consisting of 16 young men. All team and group leaders were appointed by district, township, Bao, and Jia leaders, while military instructors were selected from active-duty officers. The young men under the district security battalions numbered around 100,000. The training of young men was conducted in three phases: the first phase trained young men aged 17 to 30, the second phase trained those aged 31 to 40, and the third phase trained those aged 41 to 50. Each phase lasted two months. The young men were required to support themselves and provide their own clothing. In addition to military training, they also participated in labor tasks such as road construction, tree planting, and canal digging. In 1943, under the banner of "" (militarization of the entire population), Ma Buofang gathered and trained all Islamic Imams and Monks, instilling in them reactionary ideas such as "opposing the Communists is saving the country, and saving the country means preserving the religion." While young men in pastoral areas did not participate in young men's training, the children of Tibetan and Mongolian nobles and thousand-household heads were lured to Xining, given positions as guards or deputy officers, ostensibly to show care but actually as hostages to facilitate control. Ma Buofang's direct purpose of organizing Baojia and training young men was to expand the army's recruitment and strengthen the military machine. According to the National Government's regulations, regular soldiers were to be decided by lottery. However, Ma Buofang adopted direct conscription, forced recruitment, and mandatory drafting. The so-called mandatory drafting involved drafting one young man from every two households, two from three households, and two from four households, thus drafting most young men into the army. Many people deliberately disabled themselves to avoid service or spent their entire families' wealth to bribe officials to buy exemptions. As a result, farmland was abandoned, production was severely damaged, and people lived in hunger and cold.
(3) Constructing Highways
During the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government's Ministry of Transportation established the Northwest Highway Engineering Bureau in Lanzhou to prepare for constructing transportation arteries and highways related to Qinghai. Ma Buofang, responding to the needs of the time, made efforts to coordinate and included the construction of highways as one of the province's center works. The plan was to construct six main roads and 19 branch roads, totaling over 10,000 kilometers. The six main roads were the Qinglan, Qingliang, Ninglin, Ningyu, Qingxin, and Qingchuan sections, while the branch roads connected counties within the province. The first to be constructed was the Ningxiang section of the Gansu-Qinghai Highway, 110 kilometers long. In addition to mobilizing over 1,000 laborers, Ma Buofang deployed the Ma Teng Handgun Brigade and soldiers from the 299th Division to construct it. They used a method of paving with sand and stone, and the project was hastily completed within a few months. Subsequently, construction began on the Ningyu section of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. The Ningyu Highway, 827 kilometers long, mostly ran at altitudes of 3,000 to 4,000 meters, making the project extremely challenging. Ma Buofang forced over 1,000 captured Red Army soldiers to construct it, completing only 288 kilometers of temporary roads by the end of 1938. In June 1943, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway Engineering Bureau was established in Xining, with Ma Ji, the construction director, concurrently appointed as the bureau director. It had four sections, seven general engineering divisions, 25 sub-divisions, and set up chief supervisors and division supervisors to oversee the road construction. Engineering technicians were appointed by the Ministry of Transportation. After surveying and measuring, construction on the Ningyu section began in full in 1943. The original plan called for the mobilization of 10,000 laborers and a construction period of 100 days. However, due to Ma Buofang's violent suppression of the Guoluo people, local Tibetans rebelled, so not a single one of the 2,000 laborers assigned to Guoluo arrived. Only 6,600 laborers actually participated in construction due to the late start and extremely harsh weather. Only 40% of the original plan was completed that year. In early June 1944, all the general divisions began construction, with 17,996 laborers arriving, exceeding the original plan by nearly 8,000. Ma Buofang demanded that the entire project must be completed before the cold of September. Construction workers labored on the plateau, struggling with shortness of breath, nosebleeds, swollen faces, and suffering from lack of water and food. Sometimes, when encountering swamps, they had to transport wood and stones from hundreds of miles away to pave the road. Tibetan villagers, unaccustomed to using iron hoes and baskets, often used their hands to dig and carry the soil in bags, the scene so miserable that it was (unbearable to witness). The Ningyu section was declared "completed" after only four months. Although the National Government allocated special funds for road construction, most were embezzled by Ma Buofang, and managers at all levels enriched themselves, resulting in extremely poor quality. In October 1944, a trial run was conducted from Xining. Due to the uneven road surface and slow travel, the journey sometimes required people to push or pull the carts, taking 19 days to reach the Jiegu Town in Yushu. Except for the section from Xining to the Daotang River, most of the road could not be used by cars. The blood, sweat, and tears of the laborers and soldiers were wasted. As for the branch roads constructed in eastern Qinghai, most were built by mobilizing laborers for compulsory unpaid labor, and the quality was extremely poor. Ma Buofang even banned the use of traditional wooden-wheeled carts for fear of damaging the road. Road construction, which was supposed to benefit the people, instead brought them many inconveniences.