Equally dangerous to you is the enemy of your friend, the friend of your enemy.

- Arabic proverb

Niu Zhanchuan's Ma Ying army was forced to withdraw from Dihua under the heavy blows of the Soviet Red Army and Shengcai's army, passing through Dabancheng, passing through Tuoxun, and entering the Yanqi, Korla and Kuqa areas of the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Sheng Cai pressed forward militarily and at the same time politically cracked down on dissidents, which made Zhang Yuan, who was in Yili, very dissatisfied.

Zhang Yuan issued a letter to all the people of Xinjiang, announcing that he would cooperate with Ma Ying to implement the division of the north and the south in Xinjiang and completely eliminate the dictatorship of Sheng Cai. Due to the backwardness of the means of communication at that time, Ma Ying did not know about Zhang Yuan's actions and lost the opportunity for cooperation between the two sides.

One day, three strangers suddenly asked to meet Ma Ying.

Niu Zhanchuan inquired about their origins, and then reported to Ma Ying.

After these three people saw Ma Ying, they introduced themselves: "Hello Master Ma! We are General Zhang Yuan's subordinates Xu Wenfang, Han Xun and Lu Lun. Brigadier Yang Zhengzhong specially sent us to meet you. ”

Ma Ying beckoned, "Please take a seat." Wasn't General Zhang in Ili? Why did you get to southern Xinjiang? ”

Xu Wenfang sighed and said, "Alas, it's hard to say! ”

Xu Wenfang took a sip of tea and said slowly:

On January 1, 1934, General Zhang led us to capture Tacheng, and ordered the main force Brigade Commander Yang to advance in the direction of Dihua.

Sheng Cai hurriedly appointed Liu Bin, who had just annihilated Ma Heiying, as the acting envoy of Ili and the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, commanding a total of more than 3,000 people, including the White Russian army and the Northeast Volunteer Army, to march from Suilai to Wusu and meet our army head-on.

At Shengcai's strong request, two brigades of the Soviet Red Army, after careful preparations, pretended to be the Altai Army of the White Russian Army recruited in Altai, crossed the Sino-Soviet border, entered the territory of Tacheng, and cut off the connection between Ili and us.

At the same time, the reinforced regiment of the Soviet Red Army also falsely claimed to be the Tarbagatai Army of the White Russian Army, which had been recruited in Tacheng, crossed the border from Khorgos into Ili, and smashed our base camp. Soviet Red Army planes also blew up two city gates and powder magazines north and south of Huiyuan (located in present-day Huocheng County).

Encouraged by the Soviet Red Army's entry into Xinjiang to participate in the war, the morale of Shengcai's army was greatly increased, and a decisive battle was waged with our army at Sandaohezi in Hutubi County.

I didn't expect our soldiers to be disheartened and surrender without a fight. Brigade Commander Yang had to lead the remnants of the team to retreat to Jinghe County.

General Zhang was hit by the Soviet Red Army at Ili and was unable to support it. He saw a strong enemy attacking from the east and west, and in a hurry, he prepared to cross the Tianshan Mountains from Ili and withdraw to Aksu in southern Xinjiang.

On January 6, we walked to Tiepangou deep in the Tianshan Mountains and suddenly encountered a violent snowstorm. The hungry and cold retinue and soldiers fled back to Ili.

In despair, General Zhang was powerless to stop the mutiny, and wrote a suicide note with grief and indignation, lamenting: "One mistake is for Minister Luo, and then for Yang Zhengzhong." ”

General Zhang then shot himself.

The remaining officers and men of the 8th Division elected Brigade Commander Yang as the acting division commander and continued to lead us over the Tianshan Mountains and stationed in the three counties of Shaya, Baicheng and Kuqa in southern Xinjiang.

Han Xun continued: "Two days ago, Acting Division Commander Yang was very happy to hear that Division Commander Ma had also come to southern Xinjiang, and immediately sent three of us to Kuqa to meet Division Commander Ma, wanting to hear your views on the cooperation between the two armies. ”

Ma Ying thought to herself, they were just here to find out my tone, and important matters had to be discussed with Yang Zhengzhong face-to-face, so he said: "I very much welcome the cooperation between the two armies. As for how to cooperate, we'll talk about that later. ”

Yang Zhengzhong sent the three of them to express his attitude of cooperation with Ma Ying on his own behalf, and asked Ma Ying to incorporate the remnants of the 8th Division and absolutely obey Ma Ying's full command.

Seeing that Ma Ying was vague about the matter of making a wish to seal the official, Xu Wenfang and others had selfish thoughts and wanted to preserve and consolidate their personal status, so they did not truthfully express Yang Zhengzhong's opinion on obeying Ma Ying's command.

In turn, Ma Ying also became suspicious of the flickering words of Xu Wenfang and others. He sent Niu Zhanchuan to eavesdrop on their conversation in private, and asked the soldiers to pretend to be shopkeepers, and when he detected the true thoughts of Xu Wenfang and others playing deception and bent on splitting, he was so angry that he smoked and shouted: "Shoot these three traitors for me immediately!" ”

Subsequently, Ma Ying sent his confidant Niu Zhanchuan and three others to Shaya County.

Niu Zhanchuan and others visited Yang Zhengzhong and conveyed Commander Ga's wish for the two armies to cooperate and fight the enemy together.

Yang Zhengzhong naturally agreed.

Faced with a well-armed enemy with aircraft and artillery, Ma Ying and Yang Zhengzhong rested in Kuqa for a few days, and decided to avoid the strong enemy and go to Kashgar and Hotan Tunzha with the intention of resuming the situation. From then on, Ma Ying and Yang Zhengzhong sincerely united, helped each other, and joined forces to deal with the common enemy, the Xinjiang Provincial Army and the White Russian Army.

Ma Ying and Yang Zhengzhong arrived in Bachu County and began to reorganize their subordinates: the number of the 8th Division was revoked, Yang Zhengzhong and Ma Xun were appointed as deputy commanders of the 36th Division, Ma Hushan was still the commander of the former enemy, and the cadres of the original 8th Division and the Ili Reclamation Embassy were assigned to work in several parts of the 36th Division. The whole army is organized into nine cavalry brigades, and there are also four artillery battalions, engineer battalions, special service battalions, and communications battalions directly under the central government, with a total strength of more than 15,000 troops.

At the beginning, when Ma Ying and Sheng Cai were fighting in northern Xinjiang, there was a huge change in southern Xinjiang.

Born in Artush in Xinjiang, Grand Mullah Shabti is a pan-Turkist who advocates the union of all Turkic people into a single Turkic state. In the 1920s, he graduated from the Xinjiang Russian Grammar and Political Science College founded by Yang Xin, and then traveled to Egypt, Turkey, India, Afghanistan, the Soviet Union and other places, mastering English, Turkish and other languages. He saw that Muslim countries did not support the pan-Turkic movement in Xinjiang and turned to the British.

In February 1933, riots broke out in Moyu and Khotan in Xinjiang against Jinren, the head of Xinjiang Province. The pan-Turkist Muhammad Imin established the "Khotanese Provisional Regime", proclaimed himself Pasha, and elected Shabiti as prime minister.

In August, Shabiti came to Kashgar and, together with Muhammad Imin and others, captured Kashgar and returned to the city and controlled most of Khotan and Kashgar. Since then, Grand Mullah Shabti has frequented the British Consulate in Kashgar to seek British support for the establishment of an Islamic state.

On the night of 12 November, Mohammad Imin, Shabiti and others convened a meeting of the "East Turkestan Independence Council", which adopted the "Organizational Program of the East Turkestan Islamic Republic," the "Implementing Bills of Ministries and Offices," the "Governance Program," and the "Constitution," proclaimed the establishment of the East Turkistan Islamic Republic, elected "members of the regime," and formulated the "national flag" and "national emblem."

With the support and elaborate planning of British imperialism, a very small number of pan-Islamists and pan-Turkic elements have cobbled together a separatist regime in Kashgar under the banner of nationality and religion and in the name of establishing an "independent kingdom of Islam" to deceive the people of all nationalities and the masses of Muslims.

On the morning of 13 November, they hoisted the so-called "national flag" in Kashgar and held a so-called "popular assembly" and flag-hoisting ceremony. The "members of the regime" pretended to enter the meeting hall and ascended to the rostrum.

The presiding officer of the conference announced: "The Islamic Republic of East Turkestan was officially established. Okani Yazi Aji is the President, and Grand Mullah Shabiti is the Prime Minister. ”

They also have ministers of the interior, foreign affairs, military affairs, finance, education, agriculture and commerce, and health.

It was a separatist regime dominated by a reactionary religious upper stratum that combined feudal theocracy and monarchy. They are nominally a republic, but in fact they are pursuing an extremely narrow nationalist policy, wantonly creating the fallacy that "East Turkestan" is the place of residence of Turkic-speaking peoples, in a vain attempt to drive people of other ethnic groups out of Xinjiang.

After the establishment of the separatist regime, Grand Mullah Shabti sent a large number of representatives to travel around the world, begging everywhere in a low-lying manner, in a vain attempt to gain recognition from foreign countries and the support of international public opinion.

Ma Zhancang was Ma Ying's representative in Kashgar at that time. He cooperated with Ma Wu, the former governor of Kashgar, and prepared sufficient troops and weapons. They were at odds with the separatists, fought with the separatist forces on many occasions, and were besieged by the separatist forces in Shule for 11 months.

In January 1934, Ma Ying retreated to southern Xinjiang, and in order to relieve the siege of Ma Wu and Ma Zhancang's troops, he sent capable cadres Ma Shiming, Ma Fuyuan and Xian Fuhai from Aksu to launch an attack on the separatist regime in Kashgar, and defeated the separatist forces in Bachu, Jiashi and other places one after another.

On 6 February, Ma Ying's army routed the forces of Grand Mullah Shabiti and Muhammad Imin, who were besieging the city of Shule, and completely lifted the siege of Ma Zhanchang and Ma Wu.

On March 28, Ma Fuyuan, Ma Wu, and Ma Zhancang led their troops and jointly launched a general offensive against the troops of the "East Turkestan Islamic Republic" entrenched near Shule.

Most of the separatist forces were forcibly recruited peasants and herdsmen, who had not undergone rigorous training, and were defeated by the battle-hardened and well-trained horse army.

The "Islamic Republic of East Turkestan," which lasted for more than four months and more than 130 days, immediately collapsed. The "head of the regime" was either arrested or led the remnants of the army to flee in the wilderness.

After the Malay army occupied Kashgar, Muhammad Imin retreated to Khotan, where he established the so-called "Islamic Kingdom of Khotan".

Ma Hushan led the army to Khotan, and in one fell swoop eliminated the separatist regime "Islamic Kingdom of Khotan".

Muhammad Imin fled to India and later joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as a member of the Central Supervisory Committee. In December 1948, he served as the deputy head of Xinjiang Provincial Government. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he went into exile in India again. In 1964, in Turkey, he fell ill.

The Great Mullah Shabiti fled to Shache. In May, Khoganiyaz, who had fallen to the provincial capital, arrested Shabiti and escorted him to the provincial capital, Dihua. In the same year, Grand Mullah Shabiti was executed in Dihua.

So far, the Ma army has completely and cleanly eliminated the separatist regime in southern Xinjiang, and has made indelible contributions to cracking down on separatist forces and safeguarding national unity, which should be clearly recorded in history. This also made the separatist forces hold grudges, so much so that they later shouted the reactionary slogan of "killing Han and destroying Hui".

Ma Ying then arrived in Kashgar.

Foreign envoys stationed in Kashgar rushed to greet them. The British consul was particularly enthusiastic, bent on winning Ma Ying into the arms of the British.

Ma Ying unexpectedly accepted the invitation of the Soviet consul.

Everyone didn't understand Ma Ying's choice.

Ma Ying said to his subordinates: "We went out this time to oppose feudal rule and imperialism. The situation here is different from that in the interior, where Xinjiang has several thousand miles of borders with the Soviet Union, and has to deal with the Soviet Union in all aspects. Shengcai relied on the Soviet Union to defeat us. Shabbati relied on the British, but we wiped them out. This shows that the Soviet Union is sincere in helping people. Britain is gossip (gossip). Haven't you seen this ready-made example clearly? If we didn't rely on the Soviet Union, we would have to get on the British pirate ship. ”

Sheng Cai and Ma Ying have been fighting for many years, and their grievances are extremely deep, and they are incompatible. He absolutely could not accept Ma Ying's involvement in Xinjiang, and soon sent a large number of troops to southern Xinjiang.

The Soviet consul hurriedly intervened.

The two sides had arduous negotiations.

At the critical moment of the negotiations, the Soviet consul once again invited Ma Zhongying to the banquet.

Ma Ying arranged for other generals to stick to the barracks, and he took his secretary and Niu Zhanchuan to the Soviet consulate.

The Soviet consul warmly welcomed Ma Ying and his entourage. He knew that Ma Ying and the others were Muslims, so he specially invited the chef from Samarkand to cook as a sign of respect.

At the banquet, the Soviet consul raised the teacup and said cordially: "I have long heard that General Ma does not drink, smoke, eat, drink, prostitute and gamble. That's good. I admire. However, what I would like to tell General Ma is that Sheng is an official appointed official in China and has a very deep friendship with us, the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union sincerely hoped for peace and stability in Xinjiang. I don't think General Ma will doubt this, right? ”

The corners of Ma Ying's mouth curled slightly, revealing a childlike smile, and then said: "I, Ma Someone, have opposed feudal oppression and pursued national peace from the very beginning. If China and the Soviet Union can ensure that Shengcai abides by the law and that the people of Xinjiang can live and work in peace and contentment, why wouldn't I? ”

The Soviet consul said happily: "Please rest assured General Ma of this." China and the Soviet Union vouch for you. ”

He changed his words and continued: "When the situation in Xinjiang is stable, the people will be happy and harmonious, and the country will be prosperous and strong." In the past, it was General Ma, General Sheng, General Zhang and the Grand Mullah of Shabiti who divided the world. Now, the latter two are gone. General Ma and General Sheng are in full swing and are gaining momentum. However, there is a famous saying in your country, which is that one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers. ”

Ma Ying said with a smile: "Mr. Consul is too worried. I have been a soldier since I was a child, and my cultural knowledge is not high. If there is peace in Xinjiang, I will go to school. ”

The Soviet consul slapped his face in surprise: "Great." The USSR was willing to arrange everything for General Ma. ”

Ma Ying said seriously: "A word is a certainty. ”

After Ma Ying returned to the barracks, he held a meeting of the cadres of the whole division.

He officially announced that he would take a small number of his staff members to study in the Soviet Union; The 36th Division was commanded by Ma Hushan; Everyone must absolutely obey the leadership of the new division commander.

The cadres present opened their mouths in surprise and couldn't close them for a long time. They don't understand, what did Commander Ma inexplicably run to the USSR to study? Master Ma, is this a leave of us? Will he be able to come back after he went to the USSR?

They felt extremely frightened and helpless, and they couldn't imagine how they would live in the future without Commander Ga!