Without dark clouds, without storms, there is no beautiful rainbow.

- Brazilian proverb

In 1935, in Kashgar, Xinjiang, Wu Yingqi, the former chief of staff of the 36th Division, Liu Jingfu, a staff officer, and Ge Jiyun, an adviser, returned from the Soviet Union and brought some weapons and Ma Ying's verbal order, saying that they wanted to take over the military power of the 36th Division and send Ma Hushan to study in the Soviet Union.

Although Ma Hushan is usually reckless and high-spirited, he is very sober at a critical moment. According to the situation of Ma Ying's trip to the Soviet Union, he knew that he would definitely have no return, so he resolutely refused to go to Moscow, but chose Ma Yanliang and others to go to the Soviet Union.

In Xining, Qinghai Province, Ma Lin was in charge of the provincial government for nearly five years, with mediocre political performance, financial disorder, and obstacles from the Ma family's young Zhuang faction, and gradually began to be unable to control the situation.

In August, when his nephew Ma Fang forced the palace and the people of Qinghai protested, Ma Lin had no choice but to call the Nationalist Government, under the pretext that he needed to take a six-month leave under the pretext of illness.

Jiang Jieshi sent a telegram to approve the leave and ordered Ma Fang, Ma Qi's son and Ma Lin's nephew, to temporarily act as the head of Qinghai Province.

On October 12, Ma Lin took Niu Zhanxiang and other personal attendants to Nanjing by plane in Lejiawan in Xining. Soon after arriving in Nanjing, he made a request for a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Jiang Jieshi immediately agreed, allocated 10,000 yuan to Ma Lin for travel expenses, and approved a five-month extension of leave.

On October 27, Ma Lin took Niu Zhanxiang and others to go abroad on a steamer in Shanghai.

The civil strife in Qinghai Province has been temporarily quelled, and the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province has seen another major incident that shocked China and the rest of the world.

At the beginning of 1936, Zhang Hao and Zhang Wentian, CCP cadres in Moscow, telegraphed Stalin's opinion that he did not oppose the main forces of the Red Army approaching Mongolia or Xinjiang in the Soviet Union to Zhu De and Zhang Guotao, who had moved to Sichuan and Shaanxi.

In the autumn, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army triumphantly joined forces in Huining County, Gansu Province, after a long march of 10,000 miles. The Central Committee decided to liberate the Hexi Corridor between Ningxia Province and Gansu Province in the next step, connect Xinjiang, which has close relations with the Soviet Union, and open up a channel of communication with the Soviet Union.

However, due to changes in the enemy's situation, the orders of the central authorities were repeatedly changed, and as a result, the main forces of the four front armies could not all cross the Yellow River in time.

On November 10, the central government ordered some of the Red Army troops who had crossed the Yellow River to form the Western Route Army and begin the long march westward, passing through the Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang, opening up the route from Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo to the Soviet Union. At the same time, Xu Xiangqian was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army, Chen Changhao as the political commissar, and Wang Shusheng as the deputy commander-in-chief.

The newly formed Western Route Army had three armies under its jurisdiction. Dong Zhentang, commander of the 5th Army, and Huang Chao, political commissar; Sun Qing, commander of the 9th Army, and Chen Haisong, political commissar; Cheng Shicai, commander of the 30th Army, and Li Xiannian, political commissar. The total number of troops in the army is 21,800, of which about 40 percent are organs, hospitals, wounded, sick and miscellaneous personnel.

When Jiang Jieshi found out that a Red Army was marching westward, he was very worried that the Red Army would be connected with the Soviet Union, and hurriedly telegraphed Ma Qing, the commander of the 5th Cavalry Division stationed in Hexi and Ma Fang's elder brother, to block the Red Army's westward movement.

Ma Qing's garrison areas are Wuwei, Jingtai, Gulang, Yongdeng, Yongchang, Minqin and other counties. The 5th Cavalry Division had 2 cavalry brigades, 1 infantry brigade, and artillery regiments, engineer regiments, and special service battalions directly under the division, and the division headquarters was located in Liangzhou (today's Wuwei, Gansu Province).

After Ma Qing received Jiang Jieshi's order, he recruited the masses along the way to build fortifications, and actively repaired the battlements of the old city of Liangzhou to prevent the Red Army from advancing westward.

In October 1936, the Red Army arrived in Jingyuan County, northeast of Lanzhou, and prepared to force the crossing of the Yellow River. In the face of the harsh natural environment and the ferocious enemy, the Western Route Army, which had just gone through a long march of 10,000 miles and was in dire need of food and ammunition, launched a bloody battle of majestic mountains and rivers.

Ma Qing believed that the Red Army was exhausted all the way to the expedition, but he was waiting for work at ease, and relying on the natural dangers of the Yellow River, it should be foolproof to stop the Red Army. He arranged three brigades on the north side of the Yellow River, focusing on the three major ferries of Hongshizui, Triangle City, and Wufo Temple, and stationed heavy troops to guard them.

On October 7, the 30th Army of the Red Army crossed the Yellow River and occupied Mitan, Zhonghebao, Beiwan and other strongholds.

Three days later, more than 20,000 members of the Western Route Army had crossed the Yellow River.

The Red Army routed the Ma Qing army, which was arrogant and underestimated the enemy.

Ma Qing had to ask his younger brother Ma Fang in Xining for help.

Ma Fang immediately sent Ma Yuanhai and other 3 cavalry brigades, 1 infantry regiment and 2 militia regiments to support, and Ma Qing's army, totaling more than 20,000 people, joined forces to resist the Red Army.

After the Red Army defeated the enemy in Wujiachuan and other places, the troops broke through and advanced westward in two ways. One route is Ganchaiwa, Hengliang Mountain, and Huangyangchuan to Gulang County; One route was stationed in the area from Dajing to Tumenzi, forming a horn trend and approaching Liangzhou, an important town in the Hexi Corridor.

The Red Army preliminarily judged that the walls of Gulang had collapsed and were easy to occupy. However, they did not expect to be attacked by the Ma army, and the 9th Army was almost completely annihilated, and the remaining officers and soldiers had to move north along the Changliu Canal on the east bank of the Gulang River to join the Red Army stationed in Tumenzi.

The Ma army just stood on the west bank of the Gulang River and watched, but did not dare to stop it.

In the Battle of Gulang, although the Red Army annihilated more than 5,000 enemies, it also suffered more than 2,000 casualties. The chief of staff, 1 division commander, 1 division political commissar, and most of the cadres above the platoon level were killed.

The next morning, the Ma army entered the county town of Gulang, and under the pretext of searching for the wounded and sick of the Red Army, they smashed open the doors of ordinary people's houses, turned over boxes and cabinets, and looted and plundered. Because the common people of Gulang welcomed the Red Army in the early stage, Ma Qing ordered the county seat to be burned as punishment, and set fire to Nanjie, where commerce was concentrated, into a rubble field.

At this time, the Red Army strode towards the city of Liangzhou.

Ma Qing's heart was very panicked, and he had no idea for a while. At the critical moment, he suddenly received a letter from Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and Dong Zhentang, the commander of the army.

The Red Army went out of the customs under false pretenses, opened up international routes, and had no intention of attacking Liangzhou, hoping that the Ma Army would not block it.

In late November, the vanguard of the Red Army arrived in Liangzhou, and sure enough, instead of attacking the city, it made a detour to the west at a distance of 4 or 5 miles south and north of the city.

Subsequently, large forces of the Red Army passed through Liangzhou day and night.

The Ma army followed to the forty-mile fort west of Liangzhou before catching up with the covering troops behind the Red Army.

Due to the lack of food in Yongchang County, the Red Army could not hold here for a long time, so it abandoned Yongchang in the middle of the night, broke out of the encirclement, and continued to march westward.

In order to ask for merit and reward, Ma Yuanhai lied to Ma Qing about the military situation and said: "We have conquered Yongchang City and captured and injured a lot of Red Army. ”

Ma Qing was so happy that his eyebrows fluttered, and he hurriedly reported to Jiang Jieshi, and was rewarded by Jiang Jieshi's general order.

After the Red Army left Yongchang and marched westward, Ma Qing, in order to preserve his strength, thought that since the Red Army had stepped out of his own defensive ground, he transferred back to his descendants under the pretext that the troops were going to rest and recuperate.

At this time, the central authorities demanded that the Western Route Army stop its westward advance and establish revolutionary base areas in the Yongchang and Liangzhou areas on the spot.

The central authorities originally planned to create the false impression that the Red Army in Hedong would join the Western Route Army in Hexi, mobilize most of the Nationalist Army to advance westward, and ensure the transfer of the main force of the Red Army in Hedong. However, the central government did not clearly inform the Western Route Army of this intention.

On December 9, Jiang Jieshi sent a telegram to Ma Fang, asking him to dispatch the main force of the Qing Army under the starry night, cooperate with Ma Qing's 5th Cavalry Division to block the Red Army, and be sure to destroy the Western Route Army within two weeks.

Ma Fang immediately dispatched the elite Ma Biao Cavalry Brigade, Ma Pu Cavalry Brigade and three cavalry regiments led by Ma Zhancheng, Ma Zonglin and Ma Bingcheng, and equipped with more than 3,000 infantry, plus more than 3,000 cavalry and more than 4,500 infantry of Ma Qing, a total of more than 24,000 people, and launched a fierce battle with the West Route Army in the Hexi Corridor.

Although Niu Zhanhai is only 27 years old, he has been promoted to the deputy head of Ma Biao because of his bravery and good command.

The cavalry of the Ma army was assembled on the largest scale in history, and an army of 170,000 men was mobilized successively to carry out a frantic attack on the Western Route Army.

In Moscow of the Soviet Union, after the news came that the Western Route Army had been encircled and suppressed by the Ma army in Hexi, the Soviet side sent more than 10 experts to set up a joint staff office with Ma Ying to study how to welcome the Red Army into Xinjiang and the Soviet Union. This staff office has been working continuously for more than three months.

One day, Niu Zhanchuan saw the Soviet frontier commander come to their station, made an appointment with Ma Yanliang, and proposed that Ma Yanliang, La Shouli, Ma Shijie, Yang Fuxing and other four people return to Xinjiang to lead the 36th Division, one is to cooperate with Sheng Cai to eliminate the Mamuti rebels in southern Xinjiang, and the other is to seriously rectify the 36 Division, leaving only one regiment or one battalion in Hotan, and all the rest will go out of the customs to participate in the anti-Japanese resistance. The USSR made every effort to ensure the security of the rear.

Before they left, Ma Ying asked Niu Zhanchuan to invite Ma Shijie and Yang Fuxing to his room, and specifically told them to go to Dihua after returning to China, have a serious exchange with Sheng Cai, and then come to Moscow.

Ma Shijie and others agreed one by one, promised to complete the task, and then embarked on the journey back to China.

On January 1, 1937, the Red 5th Army, the General Supply Department and the Women's Anti-Japanese Pioneer Regiment each captured Linze City. Army Commander Dong Zhentang and Director of the Political Department Yang Keming led the 39th Regiment and the 45th Regiment and two companies of the Military Cavalry Regiment, four companies of the Special Service Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the Women's Anti-Japanese Pioneer Regiment to capture Gaotai City.

On the 9th, Ma Yuanhai, commander-in-chief, Ma Biao, Ma Pu, Han Qilu, Han Sancheng 4 cavalry brigades, 3 artillery, spies, pistol 3 regiments, and some militia regiments of more than 20,000 people divided the Western Route Army and fiercely besieged Gaotai County together.

For the Red Army, which had fought thousands of miles, the Hexi Corridor was a strange place that had never set foot before. The geographical environment of the vast area and the sparsely populated area, the flat river, and the enemy fighting on horseback and coming and going like the wind all made it difficult for the Red Army to carry out the sports warfare, night battles, ambushes, and surprise attacks, which the Red Army was best at, and it was forced to fight with the enemy in positional warfare, and at the same time it was difficult to obtain supplies.

After 7 or 8 days and nights of fierce fighting, most of the main leaders of the Red 5th Army and the Red 9th Army died heroically. The Red Army suffered casualties.

In the face of the Red Army, which fought valiantly, the Ma Army summed up its tactics in time after repeated losses. When attacking, drive the militia to rush to the front, and the elite troops accumulate strength and stand by. When attacking, each person carried only two or three rows of bullets, and after the bullets were fired, they rode back to get them again to prevent the bullets from falling into the hands of the Red Army. When attacking a city, it is often to surround the three ends and let go of an opening. When the Red Army retreated, it sent cavalry in pursuit. When the Red Army is stationed, it will start fighting, and the Red Army will not be given time to mobilize the masses, relocate the wounded, and rebuild its forces. When fighting, the tactics of crowds and waves were adopted to not give the Red Army a moment to breathe.

The troops of Ma Biao, Ma Pu, and Ma Lu attacked the county seat of Gaotai.

Ma Yuanhai also led the infantry cavalry and militia regiments to attack the headquarters of the West Route Army and its subordinate units stationed in Linze County. After several days of fierce fighting, the Red Army broke through at night and joined up with the Red 30th Army stationed in Nijiayingzi, Xixiang, Ganzhou (now Zhangye).

On the 20th, the officers and men of the Red 5th Army held on to Gaotai City. After 9 days and 8 nights of fierce fighting, he finally fell because he was outnumbered. Army Commander Dong Zhentang, Director of the Political Department Yang Keming, and more than 2,000 officers and men below all died heroically, except for a few who broke through the siege.

Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian led the general command and more than 2,000 troops of one regiment of the 9th Army to march to Dagu Mountain on the side of Qilian Mountain, and entered Zhangjiagou on the edge of Qilian Mountain in the second half of the night.

On the 27th, the 30th Army defeated the Qinghai Military Police Regiment and the 100th Division Pistol Regiment at Xidongbao and Longshou Fort, killing more than 800 enemies and surrendering more than 1,200 guns, war horses, bullets, etc.

On the morning of the 28th, when more than 300 cavalrymen marched to Baichengzi, more than 30 miles east of Xidongbao, they were ambushed by the Ma army, and all but 10 people were spared.

The Central Committee strongly demanded that Chiang Jieshi order the Ma Army to immediately stop the military offensive of the Western Route Army. In order to relieve the crisis of the Western Route Army, the central government planned to make peace with Ma Fang and others, and was willing to exchange 100,000 to 200,000 silver yuan for an armistice.

The headquarters of the Western Route Army also sent a letter to Ma Yuanhai in accordance with the spirit of the Central Committee: "Send representatives to negotiate everything. ”

Ma Yuanhai always refused to accept the suggestion of the Western Route Army, and continued to command the Ma Army to continuously launch attacks on the Nijiaying Western Route Army defense.

The officers and men of the Red Army fought bloodily for more than 10 days, annihilated nearly 10,000 enemies, and suffered heavy casualties themselves, so they were forced to abandon the Ni family camp and move to the area of Xidongbao and Longshou Fort.

Ma Fang sent a pistol regiment and a military police regiment to reinforce and continue the siege of the Red Army.

It was a cold winter, and the Red Army had no supplies and was in a very difficult situation.

Ma Yuanhai led the cavalry in pursuit.

Ma Fang sent troops from Xining to take a shortcut to Anxi, blocking the Red Army's westward advance.

On February 26, the Central Committee replied to the Western Route Army, "Holding on for 50 days, we are using various effective methods to assist you." ”

On the 27th, the Western Route Army broke out of the encirclement and moved westward to the area of Sandaogou, where it was divided and surrounded by the Ma Army.

On the night of March 11, the Western Route Army broke through from Sandaogou and retreated to the vicinity of Qilian Mountain.

After many bloody battles such as Yongchang, Gaotai, Nijiayingzi, and Sandaogou, the Red Army inflicted heavy losses on the Ma Army many times, while its own casualties were exhausted, and senior cadres were killed one after another.

On the 12th, the 9th Army of the West Route Army and the 2nd Battalion of the Women's Anti-Japanese Pioneer Regiment entered the mountain to cover the headquarters and the 30th Army, and blocked the hill on the south side of Liyuankou. The 9th Army lost two regiments in the bloody battle, and more than 10 cadres above the regiment including Chen Haisong, the political commissar of the army, and more than 40 soldiers of the Women's Anti-Japanese Pioneer Regiment died bravely. In the absence of rescuers, supplies, and ammunition and food, the Western Route Army was finally wiped out.

The rest of the Red Army broke through and entered the Gobi Desert in Xinjiang.

This was the end of the Hexi Campaign.

After defeating the Western Route Army, Ma Fang and others celebrated while calling Jiang Jieshi to ask for merit, and on the other hand, they launched a large-scale massacre of the captured personnel of the Western Route Army.

Ma Fang's cousin, Ma Ying, later confessed that in the spring of 1937, he participated in the massacre of captured soldiers of the Western Route Army twice, both at the mass grave outside the south gate of Xining. Before the massacre, the captured soldiers were not fed for several days, so that they lost the ability to resist.

In the middle of the night, he first lured the soldiers of the Western Route Army to the mass grave under the pretext of seeing a doctor, and then cut them down in the mass grave one by one. The soldiers of the Western Route Army, who were slaughtered, scolded Ma Fang as a bandit and shouted Long live the Communist Party. The swordsman tied a 7- or 8-year-old child to a female Red Army, then raised his knife to slash the female Red Army and pushed her into the pit. The child screamed and fell into the pit. If they are not dead, they are replaced with bullets and rocks, and then buried with earth.

A few days later, the floating earth above the mass grave was still moving.

In the summer, the pit smells of corpses, which is very unpleasant. The horse army is covered with another layer of mud to mask the smell.

On the way to escort the captured soldiers of the Western Route Army to Qinghai, Ma Fang's younger brother Ma Ying actually took out the gall of 30 Red Army soldiers alive and used them to make eye medicine.

After the captured Red Army troops arrived in Xining, thousands of people were buried alive and slaughtered, most of the female soldiers were rewarded to officers and soldiers as wives and concubines, and the remaining more than 3,000 people were organized into supplementary regiments and escorted to Xunhua and Hualong to work as coolies.

The total number of the Western Route Army was about 21,800 at the time of its expedition. More than 7,000 people died in the Battle of Hexi, more than 12,000 were captured, more than 6,000 people were killed after being captured, about 4,700 people were rescued and returned to Yan'an, and about 4,500 people were scattered along the way.

In April 1937, the remaining more than 400 commanders and fighters, under the leadership of Li Xiannian, entered Xinjiang from Xingxing Gorge and were rescued by their Xinjiang comrades-in-arms.

The majestic Qilian Mountains and the bubbling Heishui River silently witnessed the tragic battle in the Hexi Corridor.

Such bloody battles have been seen for generations since ancient times, and they have been repeated again and again. Whether it is the Qiang, Xiongnu, Yuezhi, Wusun, Han, Turkic, Tubo, Uighur, Tuyuhun, Mongols, Dangxiang, Huihui, and Manchurians, they all shed their blood and sacrificed their precious lives on this land.