Gansu, this ancient land, has been the home of many ethnic groups since ancient times. In the torrent of history, the disputes and contradictions between ethnic groups have left deep traces on this land. In Hezhou, Longnan, the power of the Hui warlord Ma Bu was deeply entrenched here, and the conflict with the Kuomintang army at that time continued to escalate. After the turmoil of the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion, the Ma Qi family, under the leadership of Ma Qi and with the support of Zuo Zong, gradually consolidated its dominance in this region. However, the entry of the national army made them suspicious, and they tried to expel the national army by various means in order to weaken the control of the national ** over this area.
However, the troops of the Nationalist Army stationed in Ha Chau were rather imprudent in dealing with ethnic relations, they did not respect the religious beliefs of the local people, their military discipline was corrupt, and they even used coercive means to collect food and taxes, which undoubtedly added to the discontent of the people.
In April 1928, conflicts broke out between new and old sects in the Xixiang and Nanxiang areas of Hezhou. Faced with this situation, Liu Dufen listened to some irresponsible slander, believing that arresting a few leaders and publicly executing them would calm the conflict. He instructed Zhao Xiyi"The Muslims rebelled"The crime of head murder on both sides. This one-dimensional approach not only failed to solve the problem, but further intensified the situation and led the parishioners involved in the case to organize themselves to attack the state.
Seeing the opportunity, the Hui warlord Ma and others in Hezhou quickly moved to incite the people to revolt. They were angry and dissatisfied with the suppression of the Nationalist Army, and finally launched a large-scale armed ** at the instigation of Ma Zhongying and others.
From May 10 to 23, 1928, more than 10,000 people led by Ma Zhongying launched a siege in the vicinity of Hezhou and Ninghecheng. Although Ma Qi ostensibly pretended to support Zhao Xipin to defend the city, he sent three battalions of troops. However, as soon as these troops arrived at the city of Hezhou, they mutinied one after another and joined Ma Zhongying's team, providing him with a large number of military backbones and precious **, so that his strength increased rapidly.
Ma Zhongying's forces launched three successive sieges of Hezhou, causing the war to spread to Niuxinshan, just 60 kilometers from Lanzhou, and the whole of Gansu Province was in turmoil. Although Ma Zhongying proposed it in the early days of the uprising"Don't kill back, don't kill Han, and kill the clerks of the National Army"slogan, but in fact, ** behavior almost never stops.
In late June 1928, the Han Epitek villages in the vicinity of Xiaonan Township in Hezhou suffered a terrible catastrophe, with at least 800 families killed, including the elderly and young children. This incident is described as:"An unprecedented first-class catastrophe"。
On February 26, 1929, Ma Zhongying's troops encountered resistance at Yongchang. After breaking through the city, they ** more than 2,000 men, making Yongchang become"Widow's City"。In the second month of the lunar calendar (March of the solar calendar), Ma Zhongying captured Minqin County again and carried out a big **. In the 20 days of occupying Minqin City, more than 4,600 people in this city with a population of less than 10,000 were **. The vast majority of those killed were elderly, infirm, women and children, many of whom tried to flee to the temple to survive, but ultimately did not escape their fate.
Ma Zhongying's troops not only killed innocent civilians indiscriminately, but also carried out savage destruction of precious cultural relics and temple buildings, among which the famous Zen Ding Temple was burned down during this period.
At the end of the summer of 1928, Feng Yuxiang mobilized elite troops to launch a fierce ** against Ma Zhongying. After seven consecutive days and nights of fierce fighting, Ma Zhongying was finally defeated and was forced to retreat all the way to Minzhou. Thanks to the covert support of forces such as Ma Qi, the Ninghai Guard, Ma Tingqin, and the Ma Yanxian Brothers, Ma Zhongying was able to escape the fate of annihilation every time he was defeated, and made a comeback soon after.
In the following year or so, Ma Zhongying traveled between the four provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and Mongolia, and was constantly pursued and attacked by the army led by Ji Hongchang, and was repeatedly defeated. In the end, in the Ningxia region, Ma Zhongying was incorporated by Ma Hongsu. Although Ma Zhongying's power was weakened, he still received the tacit approval of everyone, and finally managed to escape and go to Beiping.