Ma Zhongying



Ma Zhongying, also Ma Chung-ying (c. 1910–1936?) was a Hui Chinese Muslim warlord during the Warlord era of China. Ma Zhongying's birth name was Ma Buying. Zhongying was a warlord of Gansu province in China during the 1930s. He allied himself with the Kuomintang, which gave his soldiers an official designation, the 36th Division, with Zhongying as its commander. He was ordered to overthrow Jin Shuren, the governor of Xinjiang. After several victories over Provincial and White Russian forces, Ma Chung-ying attempted to expand his territory into southern Xinjiang by launching campaigns from his power base in Gansu, but was eventually stalled by Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai in 1934.

The rise of Ma Chung-ying
Ma Zhongying joined the Muslim militia in 1924 when he was 14 years old.

Ma Zhongying seized Hezhou, and vanquished his great-uncle Ma Lin's army which was sent to recapture the city from Ma Zhongying. Ma Zhongying's commander, his uncle Ma Ku-chang, discharged Ma Zhongying for disobeying orders because he did not order Hezhou to be captured.

Ma Zhongying attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929.

Xinjiang during the 1930s


"He was like the rider on the pale horse, which appeared when the fourth seal war broken: 'And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunder and eath, and with the beasts of the earth.'"

Sven Hedin on Ma Zhongying

Ma Zhongying battled against the forces of pro-Soviet Governor Jin Shuren, leading the Chinese Muslim 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) in the name of the Chinese government against the white Russian and Chinese forces of Jin Shuren in the Kumul Rebellion.

Ma's forces committed atrocities both against Han and Uyghur civilians in Xinjiang during the fighting. He conscripted Han and Uyghurs into his army to use as cannon fodder while all the officers were Hui.

The Soviet Union and Sheng Shicai claimed that Ma Zhongying was being supported by the Japanese and also claimed to have captured Japanese officers serving with his army. Despite this, Ma officially proclaimed his alleigance to the Chinese government in Nanjing.

After originally fighting against Ma Zhongying, the Han Chinese General Zhang Peiyuan and his Han Ili army defected to Ma Zhongying's side to fight against the provincial government and the Russians.

Ma Zhongying then battled against the Russians in the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang.

Ma Chung-ying returns


"He was a silly boy. He went mad. He murdered everyone."

Rewi Alley on Ma Zhongying

The Kuomintang wanted Jin removed because he had signed an illegal arms treaty with the Soviet Union without their approval.

Ma used Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun banners in his army, and Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun armbands. He himself wore a Kuomintang armband, and a 36th Division uniform to show that he was legitimate representative of the Chinese government.

Personal character
His troops sang Chinese Muslim marching songs, Ma Zhongying himself had a harmonium with him, and he spent hours playing Muslim hymns on it. He had Mauser pistols. Ma Zhongying quoted as his models Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hindenburg, and Zuo Zongtang.

The western traveler Peter Fleming reported that in 1935, Xinjiang was the only Chinese territory where Japanese agents were not at work.

Downfall
Sven Hedin's caravan of truck lorries was hijacked by the Chinese Ma Zhongying who was retreating from northern Xinjiang along with his Kuomintang 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) from the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang. While Sven was detained by Ma Zhongying, he met General Ma Hushan, and Kemal Kaya Effendi.

Ma Zhongying's adjutant claimed to Hedin that Ma Zhongying had the entire region of Tien-shan-nan-lu (southern Xinjiang) under his control and Sven could pass through safely without any trouble. Hedin did not believe his assertions. Some of Ma Zhongying's Tungan (Chinese speaking Muslim) troops attacked Hedin's expedition by shooting at their vehicles.

In April 1934, after his forces had stormed Kashgar during the Battle of Kashgar (1934) Ma Chung-ying himself arrived in the city and gave a speech at Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, telling the Uighurs to be loyal to the Chinese Kuomintang government at Nanjing.

"Ma denounced Sheng Shicai as a Soviet puppet, and reaffirmed his alleigance to the Chinese government of Nanjing".

During the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang Ma Zhongying played a major role in fighting the invaders but his troops had to withdraw again and again. The last defense line was set up around Khotan from where Ma finally fled into Soviet territory and was not seen again.

The book "Who's who in China" mistakenly claimed that Ma Zhongying came back from the Soviet Union in 1934 to Tianjin, China, and was residing there that year.

British telegrams from British India in 1937 said that Tungans like Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan had reached an agreement with the Soviets whom they had fought before, that since the Japanese had began full scale warfare with China, that the Tungans, led by Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan would help Chinese forces battle Japan, and that Ma Zhongying and Ma Hushan would return to Gansu, with Ma Zhongying being sent back to Gansu by the Soviets, who had been keeping him in Russia.

Aftermath
In 1936, Zhang Guotao's forces crossed the Yellow River in attempt to expand the communist base into Xinjiang and make a direct connection with the former USSR. Some sources allege that Ma Chung-ying enlisted in the Red Army and became a high-ranking special adviser to the proposed Soviet force that was planning to take action according to Zhang Guotao's forces. Ma Chung-ying's tasks were, reportedly, to advise Soviets on the situation in Xinjiang and to help the Soviets negotiate with his cousins Ma Bufang, Ma Hongbin, and their families so that these warlords would not hinder Zhang Guotao's forces. However, the Soviet plan did not materialize because Zhang Guotao's communist force was met, in accordance with the order of Chiang Kai-shek, and rapidly annihilated by the united 100,000-soldier Ma clique Kuomintang Army (Ma Bufang forces from Qinghai, a remnant of Ma Chung-ying forces from Gansu, and Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin forces from Ningxia). Zhang Guotao's considerable 21,600-soldier Fourth Red Army force (in comparison with 8,000-soldier First Red Army force, led by Mao Zedong) collapsed much faster than the Soviets had expected, and not one of Chinese communist soldiers reached Sinkiang alive.

Nothing more was heard from Ma Chung-ying after 1936. There are at least five different versions of Ma's end by various sources:
 * Ma was killed in a crash prior to World War II.
 * Ma was executed after being taken to Moscow in 1936.
 * Ma was imprisoned at a labor camp and later executed during the Great Purge of Army in 1937–1938.
 * Some writers, such as Red Army General Konstantin Rokossovsky, allege that Ma was first arrested during the Great Purge but was later released and participated in the Great Patriotic War.
 * According to Sheng Shicai's memoir, "Red Failure in Sinkiang," (Michigan University Press, 1958) Ma was killed by Stalin, together with all his staff, in Moscow during the summer or spring of 1937.