Morality is eternal, and wealth changes its owner every day.

- Greek proverb

Ibrahim's child was not yet full moon, and Ma Qi, the son of the northwestern warlord Ma Haiyan, sent his officers and soldiers to Xixiang to recruit soldiers.

Speaking of Ma Haiyan and Ma Qi, we have to go back to the late Qing Dynasty.

In 1837, Ma Haiyan was born in a poor Huihui peasant family in Monigou, Hezhou, Gansu Province. As a teenager, he surpassed his peers and specialized in hunting for a while.

When he was young, Ma Haiyan worked as a packer driving mules to transport goods, and traveled between Hezhou, Lanzhou, Labrang and other places, mainly engaged in the trafficking of medicinal materials and wood, and had frequent contact with merchants of various nationalities and was well-informed.

Although they can earn a considerable income, they often walk in the inaccessible countryside and have many opportunities to encounter wild animals and robbers. Ma Haiyan often practiced martial arts in order to defend himself, and was especially good at using a meteor hammer. His marksmanship is accurate, he shoots three times with one horse, and his bullets are not wasted, and he is very famous in the Saigo area.

Later, as the Ma family became wealthier, Ma Haiyan chose to give up business, began to study scriptures, and devoted himself to religious activities, so he had a close relationship with Ma Zhanao, a religious leader from the same family. He was deeply influenced by Ma Zhanao's thoughts, and later participated in the Shaanxi-Gansu Huihui Uprising during the Tongzhi period, serving as the vanguard of the Hezhou rebel army, besieging the city of Hezhou occupied by the Qing army.

After capturing Hezhou City, in order to further expand the Warring States, Ma Haiyan led the rebel army to attack the provincial capital Lanzhou, and then attacked the Xunhua Hall of Xining Prefecture.

In September 1866, Zuo Zongtang, the commander of the Qing Dynasty, sent Fu Xianzong and Xu Wenxiu as the vanguard to lead the Qing army to attack Hezhou and suppress the people's uprising.

The Qing army crossed the Tao River from Lintao, occupied Sanjiaji, and approached the gateway to Hezhou, Taizi Temple (today's Guanghe County, Gansu Province).

Ma Haiyan was brave and good at fighting, and led the rebel army to fight against the Qing army many times.

On the fourth day of the first lunar month in 1872, the Battle of Taizi Temple began.

Ma Haiyan led 500 elite soldiers, each with a wooden rafter, a pot of water and a piece of adobe, taking advantage of the cold night when the water turned into ice, secretly touched the new slope position of the Qing army, used the harsh winter to pour an ice wall, and built three solid ice cities on the hill in the middle of the core camp of the Qing army overnight.

At dawn on the fifth day of the first lunar month, the Qing army suddenly found that three ice barriers had appeared in front of their formation, and they panicked for a while.

Ma Haiyan commanded the rebel army to go deep alone and fight bravely. He commanded well and repeatedly repelled the attacks of the Qing army.

Fu Xianzong, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army's front line and the commander-in-chief of Liangzhou Town, personally led the Qing army to attack.

Ma Haiyan ordered the rebels not to shoot indiscriminately, and waited until Fu Xianzong was only more than ten steps away from the rebels' position before giving the order to shoot, killing Fu Xianzong, who was rushing to the front.

The rebel army took advantage of the situation to fight out of the position and engaged the Qing army in close combat.

The Qing army around the Taizi Temple was defeated on all fronts and was forced to retreat to Sanjiaji.

This is the famous black tiger heart-digging tactic in the battle of Taizi Temple.

Since then, Ma Haiyan has made a name for himself in political and military circles. Everyone in the Qing court knew that there was a Zhiduoxing Ma Haiyan in the northwest.

After the victory of the Taizi Temple, Ma Zhanao and Ma Haiyan took the opportunity of victory to surrender to the imperial court in order to obtain leniency.

The rebel army that surrendered was reorganized by Zuo Zongtang into the Three Banners Horse Team. Ma Haiyan was the leader of the horse team in the middle of the capital standard, and changed from the leader of the rebel army to the helper of the Qing massacre of the rebel army.

In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out between the Qing and Japan. Ma Haiyan and his eldest son, Ma Lin, served as the banner officers of the Central Banner under Dong Fuxiang of the Gan Army, and followed Dong Fuxiang into Jizhou (Jixian County, present-day Tianjin).

In 1895, the Hehuang Incident broke out in Gansu. Dong Fuxiang led the army to Gansu to suppress it, and ordered Ma Zhanao's sons Ma Anliang and Ma Haiyan to march first to relieve the siege of Hezhou.

In 1900, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing. Ma Haiyan accompanied Ma Fulu and Ma Fuxiang brothers into the battle to resist the invasion of foreign enemies, and led the cavalry to guard the left side of Zhengyangmen, dealing a heavy blow to the invading army.

After the crisis in Beijing, the Empress Dowager Cixi fled Beijing with the Guangxu Emperor in a hurry.

Ma Haiyan took his two sons, Ma Qi and Ma Lin, and followed Dong Fuxiang to protect the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. When they arrived in Xuanhua, Hebei Province via Datong, Shanxi Province, Ma Haiyan died of overwork on the way.

In order to commend Ma Haiyan for his loyalty to the country, the imperial court posthumously recognized him as a registered general soldier. His position was taken over by his eldest son, Ma Qi.

Ma Qi inherited his father's official position from the Jian Lian military sentry officer. He once served as Ma Anliang's Northwest Army commander. During the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, Ma Qi followed the Gan army into the war, and later took charge of the guard duties of the Empress Dowager Cixi in Beijing.

Ma Qi participated in the crusade against the Shaanxi Revolutionary Army and suppressed the Ningxia Revolutionary Army uprising. Under the protection of Ma Anliang's banner, Ma Qi used his military power to control the local power, and combined it with ethnic and religious forces to obtain absolute domination over Hezhou, which also laid the foundation for his family's future rule in Qinghai.

In 1912, Ma Qi organized his own armed Ning Navy and established an armed force independent of the Republic of China regime. He used his younger brother Ma Lin, eldest son Ma Qing, second son Ma Fang, nephew Ma Yuan, and Ma Ying of the same clan to form a family-type feudal army, and hired Han Li Dan and others as his staff.

The Ning Navy monopolized the local bulk trade, and used the furs, medicinal materials, gold, green salt and other special products produced in Hezhou to seek huge profits to strengthen the military force, forming the Qinghai Majia warlord system.

Since then, four generations, including Ma Qi, Ma Lin and his sons Ma Fang, Ma Qing, and grandson Ma Yuan, have supported the army and respected themselves, leaning towards one side, and have been promoted to the official positions of assistant, provincial chairman, chief of the Northwest Military and Political Administration, and commander of the Corps, ruling the people of all ethnic groups in Qinghai. The Ma family controlled the whole province of Qinghai and the Hexi Corridor for 37 years, and its military activities reached Xinjiang, Tibet, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places.

The feudal thinking in Ma Qi's mind is very serious, and he is bent on establishing a team under his own independent jurisdiction. He was always not at ease with people from other provinces, foreign races, foreign surnames, and other cities, so he constantly recruited troops in his hometown of Hezhou to enrich the strength of the Ma family's army. For a time, the Hui people, who were born in Hezhou, Gansu Province and surnamed Ma at the same time, became the primary condition for the promotion of magnates and soaring in the Ma family's army.

The government order to recruit troops came, and it was to be launched within three days.

Seeing that Ibrahim's children were still young, Isa left him at home to take care of the elderly and children, and sent 19-year-old Niu Zhanxiang, 18-year-old Niu Zhanchuan, and 16-year-old Niu Zhanhai to the Ning Navy.

The three brothers joined the Ma Jiajun, firstly, because they had the orders of the government and they had no choice but to do so, and secondly, they could get out of the poor mountainous area of Gayindai and go to the outside world to eat a mouthful of food.

Three days later, the three brothers followed the newly recruited team and went west to Dahejia on the bank of the Yellow River, stationed in Xunhua, where the Salar people lived, and occupied Bayon County (today's Hualong County, Qinghai Province), where Hui and Tibet lived together, and finally stationed in Xining City.

Suddenly there was a lack of three lively sons by the side of Isa and Maileyan, and their hearts suddenly became empty, and they were worried all day and night, and the tea and rice were not fragrant, and they missed the children who were far away.

In addition to persuading his parents to be relieved, Ibrahim planned to go to Xining to see what was going on in order to find out the actual situation of his younger brothers. He first went to Bafang in the west of Hezhou City to wholesale 20 catties of green tea leaves, and set off along the road of the Ma Jiajun's march.

In July 1921, Ibrahim crossed the Yellow River north through Huizang, Chuimatan, Baoan Sanzhuang and Dahejia in the Xixiang area, and entered the territory of Xunhua. While doing small business, I learned about the situation of my younger brothers.

At the same time, 13 advanced elements representing more than 50 members from various provinces across the country held the first national congress in the history of the organization in a small orange sample building in the Shanghai Concession, and decided to establish a new type of revolutionary political party, determined to overthrow feudalism and capitalism, and create a beautiful society in which all people are equal. Since then, the revolutionary movement has been surging in the southern part of China.

On the high slopes of the loess in the great northwest, the Isa and Mailiyan and many Han, Sa'erta, Huihui, Salar and Baoan people worked diligently on their land, desperately pulling out handfuls of grain from God's fingers and carefully storing them so that they could survive the difficult and cold winter.

Ibrahim met Ma Lin's troops stationed here in Xunhua City, met his eldest brother Niu Zhanxiang, who had been separated for half a year, and learned that he was assigned to Ma Lin's troops, who had been awarded the rank of major general by the Beiyang regime. Ibrahim also learned from him about the second and third brothers who served in the Ma family's army: Niu Zhanchuan was assigned to Ma Qi's subordinate Ma Ying's team. Niu Zhanhai was assigned to the team of Ma Biao, another of Ma Qi's subordinates.

Niu Zhanxiang happily told Ibrahim that Commander Ma Lin had been very kind to him after knowing that he was a Sarta from Hezhou, and had taken him as his own orderly, following him all day long.

Ibrahim spent a few days in Xunhua. He visited the tall and majestic green building on the edge of the city - Caotanba Worship Temple, and went to the street to see the burial of Gale Mang and Ahe Mang, as well as the famous white camel spring in the northwest, witnessed the precious ancient manuscript scriptures, and finally went to the ancient Lugongbei hanging high on the stone wall to pay homage to the sages.

When Ibrahimbai was about to return to Hezhou, Niu Zhanxiang insisted on pulling him to meet Ma Lin.

Ma Lin saw that Ibrahim was clever and quick-witted, knew how to know religion, could do business, and had learned the culture of the Han Chinese, so he kept him as a purchaser in his army.

Ibrahim learned that his brothers were doing well, and now that he heard that Chief Malin was going to keep him, he thought that he could be with his brothers from now on, and he was naturally very happy.

Without thinking, he agreed to Ma Lin on an errand, and then asked him to take a few days off, and returned to Hezhou first to report to Gayindai's parents.

Ibrahim said goodbye to Xunhua, walked in a southeasterly direction, crossed the Yellow River at Guanting, and followed the road he had come back to Gayin Dai in Jinggou.

He joyfully gave a detailed report on the situation of his three younger brothers to Isa and Maileyan, and then took out the gifts he had bought for the children of the family from his blanket and distributed them to everyone.

Ibrahim stayed in Gayin for three days, said goodbye to his parents, wife, and son, and returned to Xunhua without stopping.

This Ma Lin is a person with a prominent family background and a lot of background. He is the second son of Ma Haiyan, the younger brother of Ma Qi, and the uncle of Ma Fang, who was born in 1873 in Monigou, Hezhou.

During the Hehuang Incident, he and his elder brother Ma Qi assisted his father in recruiting militia and maintaining local law and order. When the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing, Ma Lin and Ma Qi followed their father to Beijing and participated in the Battle of Gengzi to resist the invasion of Westerners. After his father's death, Ma Qi inherited his father's army, and he served as a sentry under his brother.

Later, Ma Lin returned to his hometown in Hezhou, inheriting his father's early business career, selling furs and local products in the Tibetan pastoral area of Gannan to make money.

In 1909, Ma Lin served as the manager and director of the Xunhua camp.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the Shaanxi revolutionaries recovered Xi'an.

Ma Lin was ordered to follow Ma Anliang, the commander of the Northwest Army, to conquer Shaanxi and suppress the revolutionaries. At the end of November, he was ordered to go north to Ningxia to suppress the uprising of the Hui Party and the People's Army there, and was appointed as a guerrilla in the Hongguang Battalion of Ningxia.

In 1912, Ma Lin and Ma Qi jointly founded the Ning Navy, led troops to garrison the Labrang area of Gannan, had many contacts with the Tibetans there, and was promoted to the division of the Taomin region, which became a family of its own in the northwest army.

The following year, he served as the envoy of Liangzhou Town, Gansu. During the Republic of China, he served as the commander of the Gansu Security Department of the National Power and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division of the National Revolutionary Army, with the rank of lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army.

When Ibrahim returned to Ma Lin's troops, in addition to leading the soldiers to worship and explain the classics on time, he took a few energetic soldiers to the Xunhua market to buy food for Lord Ma Lin and other senior generals.

Sometimes, Ibrahim was assigned by Ma Lin to go to Xining to deal with some personal matters in his place. He passed through Gandu and Zhaba, crossed the high mountains of Bayon, came to the peace of Yima Pingchuan, and then went westward, crossed the big gorge and the small gorge, and then arrived at Xining City.