It is better to save a hundred sheep than a wolf.

- Han proverb

At this time, Niu Zhanchuan was rushing to Xinjiang in the midst of the wind and snow.

In January 1933, in the western corner, the weather was freezing and dripping into ice.

Niu Zhanchuan followed the 3,000 main forces led by Ma Ying and Yao Lebos, set off from Suzhou and stepped into the gate of Xinjiang for the second time.

On the 25th, Niu Zhanchuan was still on the way to Hami, and Ma Quanlu, who had advanced to Xinjiang first, commanded an elite cavalry to raid the Xinjiang Provincial Army and defeated the enemy.

When the news of the defeat reached Dihua, the whole city was shocked and people's hearts were fluctuating.

At that time, there were only more than 700 Xinjiang provincial troops and more than 300 Belarusian troops in Dihua City.

On the 29th, Kim Ren demanded that most of the gates of Dihua be closed, leaving only one part of the east gate for citizens to enter and exit. At the same time, he ordered all the shops in the city to close their doors, and the merchants to defend the city with loaded guns.

Beginning on February 19, Ma Quanlu led hundreds of cavalry to haunt and attack on the outskirts of Dihua City, constantly harassing and attacking, and once entered the Hongshanzui near the west gate of Dihua City, and captured the radio station of Xiaoxiaochang, the high ground outside the north gate, and the area around the West Bridge.

The two sides fought fiercely at the West Bridge, which runs through Dihua and Laomancheng.

In order to prevent the radio station from falling into the hands of Ma Quanlu, the Xinjiang Provincial Army lit a fire and burned down all the houses in it.

On the 23rd, Ma Quanlu was finally defeated and attacked the suburbs of Dihua instead. The battle in Dihua City has come to an end for the time being.

After the war, the corpses of Dihua City were all over the field, and it was unbearable to see. On March 4 alone, more than 1,000 bodies were transported out by local charities, which shows the intensity of the fighting.

Sheng Cai led the Xinjiang Provincial Army from Shanshan back to Dihua for defense. He was often exhausted by Ma Quanlu's harassment. Often, the fighting here is not over, and the fighting there has started again, leaving the officers and men exhausted.

Niu Zhanchuan and others went west out of Xingxing Gorge and arrived at Hami all the way.

Ma Ying held a high-level military meeting in Hami and announced his huge plan to everyone: First, Ma Quanlu continued to contain the main force of the Xinjiang Provincial Army around Dihua City. Second, the main force of Hami was divided into two routes, the first road started from Hami, along the Tianshan South Road to Shanshan and Turpan, and then entered Dihua; The second road took the Tianshan North Road, from Zhenxi County (today's Balikun County) along Muleihe County and Qitai County to the west, and joined the First Route Army and Ma Quanlu's army outside Dihua City to jointly attack Dihua City. Third, he sat in Hami in the name of the new 36th Division of the Army and commanded the overall situation.

Everyone felt that this plan was feasible and agreed.

In March, Ma Ying's two-way army began to set out.

After the two armies set out from Hami, they posted a "Letter to the People of Xinjiang for the Crusade against Jin Ren" along the way, listing Jin Ren's ten major crimes, proclaiming that the 36th Division was following the orders of the central government, aiming to resolve disputes, save the crisis, and make Xinjiang compatriots jump out of the fire pit, and call on the people to support themselves.

Reports from the front kept coming back to Hami: the First Route Army led by Yao Lebos successfully occupied Shanshan and Turpan without major battles. The Second Route Army led by Ma Jie did not go well, and encountered great resistance in the area from Zhenxi to Fukang, which was heavily guarded by the Xinjiang Provincial Army.

Immediately afterwards, news came from Dihua: on April 12, the White Russian army under Jin Ren and the old department of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army launched an incident, and Sheng Cai was elected as the superintendent of Xinjiang. Kim in was forced to step down and run away.

Sheng Cai is more cunning and clever than Jin Ren. He first sent people to secretly collude with Ma Quanlu's subordinate Ma Dexiang, and lured him with high-ranking officials, not only instigating Ma Dexiang to kill Ma Quanlu, but also incorporating more than 2,000 people from Ma Quanlu's remaining troops, eliminating a major hidden danger that threatened Dihua City under his nose.

Ma Ying and Khoganiyaz had disagreements and contradictions over how to distribute the spoils. Sheng Cai was resourceful and the city government was very deep, and he saw this rare opportunity and deliberately assigned southern Xinjiang to the management of Hogani Yazi, inducing him to disassociate himself from Ma Ying, which led to the collapse of the Homa Alliance.

Ma Ying's army occupied Muleihe County, besieged Qitai County, and captured 4 cannons, more than 50 light and heavy machine guns, and more than 8,000 rifles. However, his younger brother Ma Jie was tragically killed.

Ma Jie is Ma Ying's favorite younger brother. Ma Ying was so angry that her eyes burst into flames, and she vowed to avenge her brother. When he learned that the most powerful part of the battle was the White Russian army, he immediately ordered the execution of more than 20 White Russian prisoners.

Ma Ying contacted the local chamber of commerce and the bank, and asked them to pay 1 million taels of Xinjiang provincial currency in advance to pay his subordinates. Except for the more than 300 prisoners of the Xinjiang Provincial Army, who were in the prime of life, the rest of the prisoners were paid travel expenses and sent home.

After Ma Ying finished handling the chores, he sat down to study the combat problems with his staff. He believes that it is necessary not to rely solely on military force but also to do diplomatic liaison work, and it is necessary to obtain an international line.

He decided to send the deputy division commander Ma Heiying to lead a cavalry of more than 300 people, under the pretext of making a detour to attack Tacheng, but in fact to contact the Soviet consuls there.

Dihua's political circles and mass organizations all hoped that the provincial government would hold peace talks with Ma Jun, and sent telegrams to Ma Ying to inquire about it.

After receiving the telegram, Ma Ying sent a telegram back to express his agreement to accept peace talks and invited representatives from the provincial government to Qitai for specific talks.

After studying with various parties, Liu Wenlong, head of the Xinjiang provincial government, decided to send Wu Aichen, the leader of the mass organizations, and five other people as representatives to Qitai to negotiate peace talks.

At 7 p.m. on June 3, the Dihua delegation arrived at Qitai.

Niu Zhanchuan was in charge of receiving the Dihua delegation.

Ma Yingli assigned Yang Boqing to exchange views with them on behalf of the 36th Division and proposed peace terms.

The representatives of the provincial government were all members of mass organizations, and they were not authorized to put forward specific conditions, so they could only express their sincerity for peace on behalf of the provincial government and invite the representatives of Ma Jun to Dihua for consultations.

The aides and the two accompanying Ahong agreed to hold peace talks. However, since Ma Ying and the brigade commanders and regiment commanders had won every battle since they entered Xinjiang, they had captured a great deal of money, and they had long believed that it was only a matter of time before they seized provincial power by force, and they had little interest in peace talks.

Ma Ying did not have the sincerity to negotiate peace, and the peace representatives he sent were only trying to win favor from people from all walks of life in Dihua.

The provincial government proposed to Yang Boqing, Ma Ying's representative, that Ma Ying be appointed as the appeasement commander of southern Xinjiang, and that all the 36th Division must be stationed in southern Xinjiang.

Yang Boqing hoped that Ma Ying would take control of the military power of the whole province of Xinjiang, and Sheng Cai would take up the administrative position.

The demands of the two sides were too far apart, so they had to resume their preparations for war.

On June 11, when Yang Boqing and the second group of delegates sent by the provincial government returned to Fukang, Niu Zhanchuan followed Ma Ying's army to the nearby Ziniquan.

A big war is about to begin.

Ziniquan is located in the west of Santai Town between Fuyuan County and Fukang County at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and is a military stronghold leading to Hami and Dihua respectively.

As early as June 7, the White Russian army under Sheng Cai began to advance from Fukang in the direction of Ziniquan. At the same time, Hoganiyaz and Sheng Cai made a secret agreement, and also led his subordinates to move away from Ma Ying's army to Ziniquan.

In order to protect the suburbs of Fuyuan City, Ma Ying was forced to advance to Ziniquan, intending to use the village of Ziniquan as a cover, attacking and retreating.

On the morning of the 12th, fierce fighting broke out between the two sides.

This time, Ma Ying had more than 5,000 infantry and cavalry, and was well armed. Since it was the height of summer, the soldiers wore summer uniforms.

The Xinjiang Provincial Army was the Jilin Self-Defense Army led by Sheng Cai and the White Russian Army of less than 2,000 men. The Northeast National Salvation Army also arrived to support after hours of fierce fighting.

The artillery fire on both sides was extremely intense.

Soon, Niu Zhanchuan found that the sky was gradually darkening, with overcast clouds, heavy rain, and hail from time to time. Temperatures also plummeted below freezing.

Because of the rain and snow, Ma Ying lost contact with commanders at all levels. The unfamiliar Gan soldiers could not continue to fight in the midst of the wind and rain.

Many of the Ma soldiers in thin clothes and trousers froze to death that night. Even those who survived the cold night were frozen in their hands, and they could barely continue to shoot with their guns.

Most of the Xinjiang provincial troops were local soldiers, and although they marched and fought in the hot summer, they prepared leather clothes, so they were not greatly affected by the rain and snow.

At dawn the next day, the Xinjiang Provincial Army, which had rested all night, launched a fierce offensive against Niu Zhanchuan's camp, without giving them a chance to breathe.

Ma Ying's army suffered more than 200 casualties.

Ma Ying saw that he was powerless to resist, and he had only one way to retreat. So, he led more than 1,000 cavalry, more than 2,000 Hami militia, requisitioned more than 3,000 camels, carried the captured booty, and retreated to Turpan and Shanshan to rest.

Sheng Cai won a complete victory this time, killing more than 600 Ma soldiers, capturing more than 1,000 guns and more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition, and only 300 casualties in his own team.

Just as Sheng Cai and Ma Ying were fighting in Ziniquan, Huang Musong, the Nationalist Government's envoy to Xinjiang and deputy director of the General Staff Headquarters, arrived in Dihua.

Huang Musong's visit to Xinjiang shouldered the heavy responsibility of the Nationalist power, that is, to quell the civil unrest in Xinjiang and bring Xinjiang into the actual jurisdiction of the Nationalist Government, thus changing the situation in which Xinjiang was nominally subordinate to the central government and in fact divided from Yang Xin.

In order to fight Ma Ying on the East Road, Sheng Cai left in a hurry after meeting with Huang Musong. His eyes and ears are all over Dihua, but he is always monitoring Huang Musong's every move.

After the victory in the battle of Ziniquan, Sheng Cai captured the Japanese Daxi Zhong, who had followed Ma Ying into Xinjiang and assumed the pseudonym of Huating, in Qitai.

Onishi was proficient in deciphering the code of telegrams, and was captured by Ma Ying's soldiers on his way to Xinjiang through Gansu that year, and remained in the staff headquarters of the 36th Division to be in charge of intelligence work. At that time, many people suspected that he was a spy for Japan.

Sheng Cai used Onishi Zhong to decipher Huang Musong's telegrams with the Nationalist Government, and knew Huang Musong's movements well. He seized the fruits of the victory of the April 12 Incident, and gradually squeezed out the initiators of the incident with his military strength, causing dissatisfaction and anger among this group.

Chen Zhong, Tao Mingyue, Li Xiaotian and others moved closer to Huang Musong, hoping to obtain the support of the national power through the channels of the central officials and limit the expansion of Sheng Cai's power.

At the same time, in order to realize the intention of the national power, Huang Musong carefully concocted a plan to abolish Sheng Cai's supervision and establish a military committee instead, accommodating Hogani Yazi, the remnants of the former Jinren regime, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army who entered Xinjiang, Ma Ying, and Zhang Yuan, the Ili Tun reclamation envoy, as members, and elected Sheng Cai as the chairman of the committee.

Huang Musong hoped that through this plan, Sheng Cai's rights would be restricted, and the unrest throughout Xinjiang could be quelled.

Huang Musong's wishful thinking is very different from Sheng Cai's plans. Sheng Cai abandoned the work of the General Staff of the National Revolutionary Army and entered Xinjiang with personal ambitions, and seeing that he had become half of the king of Xinjiang, how could he tolerate the loss of power?

In late June, Sheng Cai abruptly stopped pursuing Ma Ying's army and hurriedly led his cronies back to Dihua.

On the evening of the 25th, Sheng Cai summoned Chen Zhong, Tao Mingyue, and Li Xiaotian in the name of a meeting, captured them on the spot, and then shot them.

This bloody tactic paid off.

Liu Wenlong, the head of the provisional provincial government in Xinjiang, was so frightened that he cried and demanded to resign from the post of head of government. The provincial government office staff unanimously proposed to Huang Musong to withdraw the plan to abolish the Border Supervision Office.

Sheng Cai secretly instructed his subordinates to spread the word that Huang Musong was colluding with Ma Ying, and at the same time openly declared that Onishi was a spy for Japan and Ma Ying was a lackey of Japanese imperialism. The implication is that Huang Musong's contact with Ma Ying is actually an open-minded gesture for Japanese imperialism.

As soon as this remark came out, it really aroused the righteous indignation of the Northeast Volunteers who were occupied by Japan. Most of the Northeast Volunteers who remained in Xinjiang were embroiled in the civil war. 5,000 people paid with their precious lives in the war that followed in less than half a year.

Seeing the chaos in Xinjiang, Jiang Jieshi and Wang Jinwei were worried and expressed their views on the current situation in Xinjiang.

On July 10, Wang Jinwei, the premier of the Nationalist Government, put forward three principles for resolving the Xinjiang issue: First, diplomacy should be unified with the central government. Second, the military should be unified with the central authorities. Third, religion should be free and ethnic groups should be equal.

The next day, Ma Ying sent a telegram to the Nationalist regime, saying that he would obey the instructions of the central government.

On the 20th, Sheng Cai and Liu Wenlong also called Jiang Jieshi and Wang Jinwei, expressing their obedience to the principles of the central authorities.

On August 1, at the 118th meeting of the Executive Yuan, the Nationalist Government appointed Liu Wenlong as the head of Xinjiang Province, Sheng Cai as the Frontier Supervisor, and Zhang Yuan as the Ili Tun Reclamation Envoy and the commander of the new 8th Division of the Army.

After Wang Jinwei's three guidelines were announced, Ma Ying had trouble sleeping, because he Ma Ying was not mentioned at all.

One day, he stared at Niu Zhanchuan, who was pouring tea, with pale yellow eyes, and asked, "What do you mean by Dean Wang's speech?" ”

Niu Zhanchuan replied without hesitation: "The local government obeys the central government, and Xinjiang will achieve peace." ”

Ma Ying said with a sad face: "You see, the central government officially recognized Sheng Cai's status, and at the same time, it has not forgotten Zhang Yuan, who is far away in Yili, but did not mention us. That means we're bandits and bandits. ”

Niu Zhanchuan glared at the big eyes and scolded: "Those cubs of theirs are rogues and bandits!" We are the newly formed 36th Division of the Revolutionary Army. ”

Sheng Cai's killing of Chen Zhong and the three people shocked the dissidents who opposed him in Dihua City, and put the central envoy Huang Musong under house arrest, and began to think about dealing with his henchman Ma Ying.

After Ma Ying's defeat at Ziniquan, he retreated to Turpan to recuperate, on the one hand, he went east to Shanshan and besieged Qitai; On the other hand, Ma Shiming was sent back to the suburbs of Dihua to harass him, and at the same time ordered Ma Heiying, who had arrived near Ahsan (today's Altay), to attack Tacheng, and also sent a small number of troops west to Kashgar, with the intention of creating a larger territory.

Ma Shiming returned to Nanshan in Dihua, sent people to assassinate the traitor Ma Dexiang, and gathered the old troops to harass the suburbs of Dihua again.

Sheng Cai dispatched the Northeast Volunteer Army and the White Russian Army to encircle and suppress Ma Shiming in the Shuixigou area of Nanshan, but was ambushed by Ma Shiming, and the commander Liu Kuaileg was killed.

The situation in Dihua is tense again.

Under internal and external pressure, Sheng Cai was forced to pretend to hold peace talks with Ma Ying, which coincided with Ma Ying, who was in a state of distress.

Representatives of the two sides met several times in Turpan and Dihua. Among them, Zhang Yashao, Ma Ying's representative, also had a long talk with Sheng Cai in Dihua all night.

Sheng Cai proposed to appoint Ma Ying as the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Xinjiang Garrison and Hami as his military defense area.

Zhang Yashao proposed the division of southern Xinjiang and northern Xinjiang, with Ma Ying occupying southern Xinjiang and Sheng Cai occupying northern Xinjiang, each of which did not offend each other.

The differences between the two sides are significant. The peace talks were at an impasse for a time.

At this time, Ma Ying knew very well that no matter how stubborn he was, he would be unknown. Therefore, Ma Ying, who had a tough attitude, suddenly changed his mind and fully accepted the peace conditions proposed by Sheng Cai.

After Hoganiyaz returned to the provincial army of Shun Shengcai, he continued to fight with Ma Shiming in the area of Tuoxun County, and Ma Shiming annihilated most of the army in one fell swoop, and retreated to Yanqi County in southern Xinjiang in embarrassment.

Sheng Cai saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly sent someone to Yanqi with a huge amount of money to reward Hogani Yazi.

Khoganiyazi's subordinates were a mass of mud that could not hold up the wall, and they were soon defeated by Ma Shiming and fled to the more distant county of Kuqa in a hurry.

Ma Ying was very annoyed by Hogani Yazi's attack on Ma Shiming, and concluded that Sheng Cai deliberately instructed him, so he refused to go to Hami for some reason.