Young people are volatile, and young people are prone to mistakes.

- Lisu proverb

Gong Lamei, Zhang Qingxiu and Yang Cuilian, who were in the same carriage, were assigned to Han Gong's house as envoys, and were specially responsible for taking care of the old people of the Han family, serving them tea and cooking.

Gong Lianchao was assigned to work at the Xining Power Supply Company.

Gong Lamei and others all came from Han Chinese families. Han Gong is a Salar who believes in Islam. Therefore, Han Gong ordered a man to invite an Ahong from the mosque to recite the sutra and name them, so that they could convert to the Islamic Hewani sect of the Han family.

From then on, Gong Lamei was called Asiya. Zhang Qingxiu's name is Ayixia. Yang Cuilian's name is Minal.

Althea had heard the story of Lord Han's murder in Ledu before, but now that she saw Han Gong himself, she couldn't believe her eyes and ears, and she was quietly blaming the people outside for talking nonsense and making things up in her heart.

Han Gong looked to be in his 50s, tall, wearing a black and red velvet salar hat on top of his head, a fair-skinned face with kind eyebrows, a thick beard under his ears and around his mouth, a white silk robe, black brocade shoulders, and usually did not speak much.

In the eyes of Althea, except for the silk and satin brocade clothes he was wearing, Lord Han was almost exactly the same as Hui Hui Grandpa on Xining Street, no matter how he looked at it, he didn't look like an executioner who killed a lot of people.

Han Gong's wife was a Salar woman. She bore two sons and two girls to Han Gong, one of whom married Ma Fang's daughter. Therefore, the Han family and the Ma family formed a family of sons and daughters, and they attached themselves to each other and became the two major families in Xining and even Qinghai Province.

Han Gong also married the wives of Han Chinese, Hui and Tibetans. These aunts and wives live in relatively independent small courtyards with their own children.

Sometimes, when Han Gong's electric lights were not lit, or the wires in the house needed to be remodeled, he would send his family to the power supply company to ask workers to repair them.

The manager of the power supply company knew that Gong Lianchao's sister was working in Lord Han's house, so he would do a favor and always send him to work at Lord Han's house.

When Althea saw her brother coming, she was overjoyed, and when she poured him tea, she always secretly put an extra piece of rock candy for him to enjoy.

Gong Lianchao quietly asked his sister in the gap between work: "How are you doing here?" ”

Althea also quietly replied, "Okay." ”

One day, Althea and Ayisha were doing laundry in the front yard. While they were washing their clothes, they talked about the foreign movies they had watched in the city with Mr. Han yesterday.

Suddenly, several family members dragged a man into the courtyard and fell heavily on the stone-paved ground.

Han Gong strode past the room, his face full of anger, his thick beard trembling. He angrily spat at the man lying on the ground, and scolded loudly: "The son of a bitch, I owe Nau two years of shop rent, and I want to run away quietly!" Where are you going? Come, burn the iron rod in the stove, and serve the soles of his feet. ”

Seeing this, Athea and Ayisha were frightened, and they didn't dare to take a breath. They wondered, how did Lord Han, who was usually kind, become a different person today?

After a while, a housekeeper came out of the kitchen with a red-hot iron rod.

Han Gong waved his big hand and ordered: "Just hit Nao in the heart of his feet." ”

The debtor was terrified and kept begging Lord Han for mercy.

Han Gong sat on the recliner, closed his eyes and recuperated, and ignored it at all.

As the iron rod came into contact with the soles of the debtor's feet, there was a "sizzle" sound on the soles of his feet, followed by wisps of green smoke. The debtor let out a heart-rending cry.

The smell of burnt flesh permeated the courtyard of the Han Mansion.

Althea and Ayisha trembled with fright, quickly dropped their clothes, and ran to the garden behind the compound. They hid in the purple garden, stunned as Mina watered the flowers and plants.

Minar asked curiously, "What's wrong with you two?" ”

Althea and Aisha turned pale and shook their heads like rattles. Eventually, a frightened Althea tells Minar about what happened in the front yard.

Minar was also very surprised when she heard this, and the watering can in her hand fell on the cobblestone road with a "clang".

From then on, the three of them finally understood why the common people called Lord Han the executioner and the killer king.

The Nationalist regime in Nanjing deteriorated from one year to the last year in the Kuomintang-Communist civil war. The Niu family in Gayindai, Linxia County, was also terminally ill, and gradually fell along with the national power.

Niu Zhanxiang followed Ma Lin back to his hometown in Linxia and bought the hillside opposite the east of Gayindai

, built a few courtyards there, and lived a leisurely and secluded life. He often wrote letters to his younger brother Niu Zhanhai, who was still serving in the Ma Army, about the situation at home and in his hometown.

He wrote: "At the beginning of the first month, in order to resist the advance of the People's Liberation Army to the northwest, Ma Fang sent Han Gong to Linxia County to arrest Zhuangding, and captured more than 4l,000 young adults at one time. Now, it's hard to see young men in both the city and the country. The fields were full of women and gray-haired old men.

Chen Maobai, the mediocre magistrate of Linxia County, did not know the current affairs, and when the people were in great pain, he ordered the demolition of a section of the city wall of the urn city at the south gate of Hezhou, which seriously affected the lives of the people nearby.

The angry people gathered to make trouble, blocked the gate of the county government, and demanded that the county magistrate Chen come out to make it clear, which frightened the county magistrate Chen and fled to Lanzhou in a hurry. Today, there is no county magistrate in Linxia County. ”

Niu Zhanchuan followed Commander Ma Ying into exile in the Soviet Union, and since then he has been like a mud cow into the sea, and there has been no news.

Niu Zhanhai followed his eldest brother's advice and bought the hillside opposite the southeast of Gayindai, and built several yards there. Except for a wife who accompanied him, several other wives and concubines and children lived in Gayindai's private house.

In order to escape the endless military service of the Nationalist regime and to earn a little income for their financially distressed families, Yushan and Tianshan left their hometown together and went to Xining, Lanzhou, Ganzhou and other places to do the business of selling skins. Due to the chaotic times, their business was very difficult, and their meager income was barely enough to survive.

Wan Shan, Jianshan and Yinshan, who stayed by Han Sophie's side, were unwilling to farm or go to school, and got together with a group of idle people in the village to gamble all day long. Instead of winning, they went into debt. In order to pay off their debts, they lost almost all the houses and yards that their father had left for them to live on, and then they also lost the land on which the family depended. In the end, they even quietly stole and sold the valuable blue and white porcelain vases and mahogany furniture in Han Sophie's room, and then participated in gambling and spending.

The population of the Niu family is always in a state of flux, sometimes decreasing, sometimes increasing, but the number of exclusive production is decreasing day by day. The Niu family has fallen from a wealthy family in the past to a miserable situation with almost no land and no housing. The dignity and scenery of the past are like the annoying autumn wind, gone forever.

The people who were suppressed by the Niu family back then and the people who were jealous of their wealth were happy all of a sudden. They gloated, snickering, talking, and sometimes laughing at the down-and-out Niu family in front of everyone.

At this time, although Ma Bin, Ma Kui and Ma Fang, who were guarding the three northwestern provinces, were related, they began to diverge in the face of political and military interests.

Let's start with Mabin.

Ma Bin, born on September 14, 1884 in Hezhou, Hanjia Jiyang Washan Village, is the grandson of Ma Qianling, a famous general of the Qing Dynasty, and the son of Ma Fulu.

When the Eight-Nation Coalition attacked Beijing, Ma Fulu was unfortunately shot and died in a bloody battle with the coalition forces at Zhengyangmen. Because his son Ma Bin was still young, he handed over his team to his younger brother Ma Fuxiang.

Ma Fuxiang later rose to prominence, but he never forgot the anointing of his second brother Ma Fulu, and always took his nephew Ma Bin with him to educate and cultivate.

Ma Bin was young, able to write and martial arts, and was very filial, so he was deeply doted on by his uncle.

Ma Fuxiang's partiality towards Ma Bin attracted the dissatisfaction of his own son Ma Kui.

Ma Kui has been making trouble for his cousin from time to time since he was a child. When he was the commander of the cavalry battalion, Ma Bin was already in charge, but Ma Kui still instigated his subordinates to have friction with his cousin's team.

Although Ma Kui is not convinced, he is still cousins, and neither side is willing to tear his face. The conflict between them broke out when Ma Fuxiang was transferred to the capital of Suiyuan, and Ma Fuxiang did not recommend Ma Bin to serve as the Ningxia town guard, and left all his troops to his nephew.

In 1926, Ma Bin's army was reorganized into the 22nd Division of the National Army, and Ma Bin was both the division commander and the Ningxia town guard.

In the spring of the following year, Mabin served as the commander of the Ganbian bandit suppression and was promoted to the commander of the 2nd Army of the 4th Front of the 24th Army. When Ma Ying and others got into trouble, Ma Bin also went to Hezhou alone to mediate.

Feng Xiang transferred Jichang's headquarters to the Henan front, and the vacant post of head of Ningxia Provincial Government was succeeded by Ma Bin.

Ma Bin accepted the appointment of Lao Chiang and reorganized his troops into the provisional 7th Division, and successively served as the division commander and the border commander of the three prefectures of Ganliangsu.

In 1931, Ma Fuxiang recommended Ma Bin as the head of the Gansu Provincial Government and Ma Kui as the head of the Ningxia Provincial Government.

Gansu was a large province during the Republic of China. Ma Kui complained about the injustice to his father. If it weren't for Ma and he being transferred to Shandong by Nanjing, the two sides would inevitably have to fight.

Ma Kui inherited his father's innate ability to make profits, and won the trust of Nanjing. Ma Bin is not good at words, and has a thin relationship with the lower class.

In 1932, after Ma Fuxiang's death, Ma Kui retaliated against his cousin from time to time, first limiting the stationing place of his cousin's team, and later refusing to pay him or pay him. In the end, the younger generation of the family came forward to mediate.

When Ma Bin took office in Lanzhou, he welcomed him from all quarters.

He was a soldier who was not good at politics, and some of the measures he took to manage the government had produced negative factors.

The first is to lay off employees and cut salaries, and eliminate part-time jobs. Gansu was originally a poor province, but after a year of chaos and famine, the people's power was exhausted. The warlords in various localities divided their territories and raised salaries on the spot, and their finances could not be unified. The eight counties near Lanzhou could not sustain the military and administrative expenses required by the province. Some public education workers are poorly paid, and many rely on part-time classes to make ends meet. Because of his financial difficulties and the inability to open up financial resources, Ma Bin wanted to lay off his staff and reduce his salary, cancel his part-time jobs, and reduce his expenses in order to reduce his expenses, which caused dissatisfaction among the public education personnel.

The second is to reduce military salaries. After Ma Bin's arrival, Ma Lin's security command has not been abolished.

More than 2,000 people are still stationed in Lanzhou. Originally, each soldier's daily ration was given at the rate of 1 catty and 12 taels. Ma Bin was reduced to one and a half catties per soldier per day, which caused Ma Lin's dissatisfaction.

The third is to interview the county magistrate. Ma Hongbin did not deal with the fact that the leading figures of the local gentry sponsored familiar people to be county magistrates, bureau chiefs, and other positions, and emphasized the examination to select talents, showing that he was selfless in employing people. He personally interviewed the county magistrate in the Sizhao Hall in the West Garden of the Civil Affairs Department, hung the curtain in the middle, and asked questions and answers across the scenes, thinking that they would not meet each other, and the selection would be fair. However, the first county magistrate to be announced afterwards included both his teacher and his fellow villagers, which caused people to laugh at him and ridicule him for listening to the government.

Fourth, they are not sociable to deal with each other. Mabin did not form a good friendship with the upper echelons, and gradually became disconnected and isolated. He was powerless to control and accept the various warlords who were stealing from the party at that time, and he was unable to open up the situation and establish a strong unified regime. The government decree does not go out of the provincial capital, and it is difficult to maintain the fiscal revenue.

Lei Tian saw that Ma Bin was politically incompetent, his troops in Lanzhou were very limited, and the Hui and Han warlords in the province did not confess the center to him, so he coveted it and launched the Lei Ma Incident.

Ma Bin took a very small number of guards into the city to attend the meeting, and when he went to the conference room in the back garden through the Civil Affairs Department, he found that the atmosphere was not right, so he immediately left the conference room and fled over the wall to hide in the City God Temple.

There was an exchange of fire between the armies of the two sides of Reima, and gunfire erupted.

Ma Bin knew that he would not be able to get out of hiding for a long time, and he was afraid that the battle would hurt ordinary people, so he went to the public security bureau and proposed a ceasefire between the two sides to avoid hurting people, and other things could be discussed.

The next day, the people who started the incident established the provisional provincial capital of Gansu, in which there was no name of Mabin.

In May 1932, Lao Jiang officially appointed Shao Li as the head of Gansu Province. From then on, Lao Chiang's forces gradually took control of Gansu Province.

Ma Bin returned to Ningxia from temporary house arrest until his later release.

In the winter of 1932, Ma Kui assumed the post of head of Ningxia Provincial Government. Lao Jiang fell in love with Ma Kui and ordered Ma Bin to be stationed in the areas of Jinji, Zhongwei, and Zhongning, under the command of Zhu Liang, director of the Gansu Pacification Office, and Ningxia would subsidize 20,000 yuan per month for military salaries.

Ma Bin and Ma Kui became even more discordant because of the conflict over power.

In 1933, Ma Bin, Ma Kui and Ma Fang joined forces to intercept Sun Dian's entry into the northwest. Ma Bin personally commanded the battle in Yinchuan and defeated Sun Dian. After the battle, there was a dispute between Ma Kui and Ma Bin over the army garrison and the supply of ammunition.

In the autumn of 1934, Ma Bin's 35th Division, with the exception of a small number of troops stationed in Zhongning and other places, set out for Qingyang and Huanxian in Gansu Province.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Mabin's army was organized into the 81st Army, and he served as the commander

At the end of February 1940, when the Yellow River froze over, the Japanese invading army that occupied Guisui crossed the river from the vicinity of Tuoketuo County and marched westward with 6 or 70 military vehicles carrying troops and artillery.

Some of Mabin's fighters held on to the forward positions, and in the end all of them died heroically. Ma Bin successively defeated the Japanese army in Suixi in the anti-Japanese frontier and became a model for the Hui people to resist the war.

Lao Chiang appointed Ma Bin as the commander of the defense of Suixi, stationed in Wuyuan and Linhe to prevent the Japanese army from invading the Hetao again. In the following year, Ma Bin was reassigned as deputy commander-in-chief to strengthen the defense of Suixi.

In 1947, when General Hu's army invaded Yan'an, Lao Jiang ordered Ma Bin to act in concert. The exchange of prisoners between Mabin and the PLA laid the foundation for mutual trust in the future cooperation between the two sides.

In July and August, Lao Chiang established the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region Bandit Suppression Headquarters, and appointed Ma Bin as the commander-in-chief, Ma Kui and Ma Fang as deputy commanders-in-chief, hoping that Zhuma would cooperate to attack northern Shaanxi and free up Lao Chiang's descendants to strengthen other battlefields.

Lao Bai invited Ma Bin, Ma Kui and Ma Fang to Nanjing to communicate with relevant personnel.

All the horses agreed in person, but when they returned, they went their separate ways. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region had a miscarriage.

In 1948, Lao Jiang appointed Ma Kui as the commander of the Ningxia Corps and Ma Bin as the deputy commander.

In July, Ma Bin was appointed deputy chief of the Northwest Military and Political Chief's Office. His son Ma Jing took over as commander of the 81st Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

At the beginning of 1949, Lao Jiang wanted to combine Ma Jing's 81st Army and the cavalry division of Baihai in Gansu into the Guhai Corps, with Ma Jing as the commander, hoping that Ma Bin's army would cooperate with Ma Kui and Ma Fang to resist the liberation of the northwest by the People's Liberation Army.

In the face of Lao Jiang's order, Ma Bin's heart was very unhappy, but he couldn't help but carry it out.

With the drastic changes in the situation at home and abroad, Ma Bin felt more and more that the national power had lost the support of the people and that there was no hope for the future. Therefore, he ordered his subordinate troops to wait and see how the situation unfolded before making a final decision.