Ma Bufang, who participated in the "Four Horse Meeting", learned the news on the way back. Suddenly learned that the entire 3rd Brigade and 1st Regiment of the 1st 00th Division on which he relied was wiped out by the Red Bandits, Ma Bufang was still a joke at first, and he didn't believe it at all, but when it was confirmed to be true, he couldn't help screaming, and immediately spurted a mouthful of blood and fell off the horse.

Ma Bufang is a person, and there are both praise and disapproval in history. Praise refers to the fact that when the Japanese invaded, they were still able to lead troops to fight; depreciation refers to the brutality under his rule, especially the brutality of the Red Army's Western Route Army. Of course, this praise and disapproval coexist, but it is far more derogatory than positive. The first thing about it is that he is extremely scheming. In his political and military career of more than 20 years, whether he was manipulating the internal government or maneuvering around the central government, he was resolute in handling things, thoughtful and thoughtful, grasped everything in a measured manner, and handled it appropriately, and at the same time used all kinds of means to the extreme. Everything he does is very purposeful, not for his own maximum benefit, such as kicking out his uncle and brother, monopolizing the military and political power of Qingma, and re-controlling the clan and subordinates; Either they are trying to get the most out of their own "groups", such as using Gansu and Qinghai as their bases, infiltrating Xinjiang and Tibet, conquering Tibetan areas, and chasing down the Red Army.

Shamelessness is Ma Bufang's biggest characteristic, which is very rare in the upper echelons of the Kuomintang. At that time, he openly said: "Whoever gave birth to me, and who gave birth to me, is guilty of adultery." It means that except for his own mother, and the daughter he gave birth to, everyone else is an object that can be happy. In this way, in addition to the wives and daughters of his subordinates, the sisters, nieces, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law of his own family will not escape his clutches. Even his granddaughter was raped and gave birth to a son. In order to hide people's eyes, Ma Bufang killed the baby with his own hands. According to the complaints made by Hui expatriates living in the Middle East to the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan, no less than 5,000 women, including Han, Hui, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh, and Saharan women, were ravaged by Ma Bufang.

Some people in later generations analyzed that Ma Bufang's animalistic violence was mainly manifested in five aspects: first, by virtue of political privileges, the wives and daughters of some subordinates repeatedly played with the families of military and political dignitaries and local tyrants and inferior gentry in the jurisdiction; 2. Ignoring the rules, violating ethics, seducing the inner room of some relatives, and not letting go of his sisters, nieces, cousins, and cousins' wives and concubines. 3. Seducing or designing harm to female students in school; Fourth, robbing certain women of the people, and extending the claws of the poor to their wives and daughters and refugee girls; 5. Buying and occupying some prostitutes in brothels. It is recorded that he once killed three members of the family in order to seize a pair of beautiful sisters at the same time. It is also said that he often went to the streets of Xining and Lanzhou to hunt for beauty, and when he saw a beautiful woman, he secretly caught her in a closed truck that followed him and sent her back to the Xining Mansion. He also raised a group of "ru sisters" in his mansion, not only to drink people on them every day, but also to do their best. In those years, he took the opportunity of attending the Kuomintang congress in Nanjing, and even went to Shanghai to engage in Russian and Japanese prostitutes, so that in the end, even the senior officials of the Nanjing Nationalist Government could not stand it, and they secretly accused and criticized him.

For a person like him who is heinous and unspeakable, although Li Jiansheng has some feelings about his contribution to the fight against Japanese invaders during the anti-Japanese war, he hates it in his bones. In particular, in the official history, Ma Bufang committed a heinous crime against the Western Route Army.

It turned out that although Ma Bufang, as a politician, had been mixed in the ranks since he was a child, he had not made any achievements in military command, and he only participated in strategic decision-making, but rarely intervened in the command of campaigns and battles, and rarely went to the front line. In the official history of fighting the Western Route Army, he invited the veteran Ma Yuanhai to take command, and he was more aware of the situation and supervised it at any time.

In the official history, the Western Route Army was chased and annihilated by the Ma Jiajun, and there was no chance to eat or rest, let alone rest. Often, as soon as they ran to a section where they could take a short rest, Ma Bufang's cavalry rushed over. And the Ma Jiajun took advantage of the rapid mobility of this cavalry to drag down the Western Route Army alive. You must know that the Red Army's West Route Army, with a total number of about 21,800 people, died more than 7,000 people after fighting with the Ma Jiajun, including 143 cadres above the regiment level and more than 20 cadres at or above the army and division level; about 5,600 were brutally murdered after being captured; About 4,700 people were rescued and returned to Yan'an; About 4,500 people were scattered along the route.

Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers. If it is pure death in battle, it can be said, but the murder of Red Army soldiers by cruel means is unforgivable!

How were the captured Red Army soldiers brutally killed? After Dong Zhentang, the commander of the Red Fifth Army, was killed, his head was cut off by the enemy and hung on a pole to show the public, and later Liu Chengde soaked it in alcohol and gave it to Ma Bufang; After Sun Yuqing, the commander of the Red Ninth Army, who was seriously wounded, was captured, he was hacked to death with a broadsword because he would never surrender; Xiong Houfa, commander of the 88th Division of the 30th Army, was seriously wounded, tied to the barrel of a cannon by Ma Bufang, and was bombarded to death. As for the other more than 2,400 male Red Army soldiers, they were buried alive on the spot, some crucified to trees, others burned alive. It can be said that burying alive, shooting, burning, picking hearts, taking gall, and cutting tongues are all caused by Ma Bufang, and this kind of brutality is simply appalling. It is recorded that it took about two hours to kill these Red Armymen. Because the Red Army soldiers had not eaten for several days and were powerless to resist, they were generally not tied up when they were escorted to the edge of the pit. The Red Army stood on the edge of the pit, stabbing one by one, and those who could kill died, and those who could not kill did not come off their heads, or cut them in non-vital places, and as a result, people went down to the pit and were still alive, and some Red Army soldiers asked for a supplementary shot. Ma Bufang's cousin, Ma Ying, later recalled, "I shot and killed seven or eight people. ”

Female warriors suffered more tragically than male warriors. Because at that time, there was the only women's independent regiment of the former Red Fourth Front Army in the Western Route Army. In addition to collecting firewood for cooking, these female warriors also had to fight like male warriors, and many female comrades died in battle. At that time, most of these female warriors were only in their 20s, which was the age of their prime. After the battle at Liyuankou, the female fighters of the women's regiment were scattered in the Qilian Mountains to fight guerrillas, and were taken as trophies by the armies of Ma Bufang and Ma Buqing. Some people did not comply, fought to the death with the enemy, and were finally killed. For example, after being captured, Hu Xiuying, a female soldier of the West Route Army, and Yang Guifang, a friend of the martyrs, slipped out of the gate by the sentry and fled to the Huangshui River outside the north gate, but were captured by the patrol. The director of the army hospital beat them up and said, "This communist woman has not changed her nature and cannot be used again!" That night, she and forty or fifty soldiers were taken to a mass grave and buried alive.

But this time, because of the appearance of Li Jiansheng, although the incident of the Western Route Army still happened, the losses were far better than the official history.

It turned out that after Li Jiansheng divided his troops that day, he led his troops to kill an entire brigade of Ma Buluan's headquarters to the point that the whole army was wiped out, and there was no one left alive, and then immediately rushed straight to Zhangye, where Ma Buluan's brigade was stationed. Because Ma Buluan's department has been completely wiped out, the station is an empty shelf, and Li Jiansheng's department is happy to harvest a bumper harvest. As a result, the Ma Buluan Brigade Headquarters and the 100th Division Headquarters were all captured by the locust-like Li Jiansheng Division. Not only did they clean up all the equipment in the warehouse, but they also rescued many of the Red Army soldiers who had been captured. Although most of the male Red Army soldiers were killed as in the official history, most of the female soldiers were rescued, and although Li Jiansheng was appeased and properly received one by one, he decided to turn around and hand them over to the political commissar to deal with. Because it is late November, the weather in the northwest is a little cold, and although Li Jiansheng's department is well prepared, the clothes are still insufficient. And this time, the annihilation of the Ma Yuanxiang Brigade, the annihilation of the Ma Buluan Brigade, and the headquarters of the 1st 00th Division gained a lot. Although there are not many guns and ammunition, there are still a lot of war horses, sabers and warm clothes. It is inevitable that Li Jiansheng's department has been well equipped again. In particular, although there are still too few warm clothes, they are barely enough to buy from the private sector, ensuring that one is available to everyone.

After cleaning up Zhangye, Li Jiansheng did not stop, and immediately led his troops to attack Ma Zhongyi's Third Cavalry Brigade. He rushed forward, but Ma Zhongyi's 3rd Cavalry Brigade had already caught fire with the troops led by Wu Zhengsuo. It turned out that Liu Chengde's regiment really couldn't withstand the ravages of Wu Zheng's department. You must know that Wu Zheng, Chang Kewu, Zhao Xun and others, who were provoked by Li Jiansheng, rushed forward non-stop, and even traveled day and night many times. Hungry, chew a few pieces of lamb on horseback; When you are sleepy, you snooze on horseback. The distance was not closer than Li Jiansheng's troops, but they forcibly grabbed the front. When Liu Chengde's department learned the news and wanted to organize resistance, Wu Zheng and others rushed to the vicinity as early as the afternoon of the first day to rest and recuperate for a night, and at this time they happened to pull the sacrificial flag with him. Wu Zheng's troops attacked head-on, and Zhao Xun and Chang Kewu formed a roundabout outflank on the left and right. Originally, the number of soldiers, the quality of soldiers, and firepower were superior, but in addition, the soldiers all had a fire in their hearts, and the tactics were appropriate, and Liu Chengde's regiment collapsed with only one charge. A collapsed infantry regiment is a complete target for a brigade brigade. Wu Zheng and others had already received Li Jiansheng's secret order of "not to take prisoners", and they neither shouted "surrender their guns but not kill", nor accepted any form of surrender, but just rushed back and forth, scattering and knocking down the enemy, and then scattered and annihilated, using knives, guns, and horses, and many infantry were trampled into meat sauce by Wu Zheng's cavalry. A whole group, a morning down, but there is no one left! Including Liu Chengde himself, he also died in the chaos!

Liu Chengde was still persuading Dong Zhentang to surrender the night before, bluntly saying that there was no way out for joining the Red Bandits, seeing that he was a man, he was willing to leave him a way out. If he refuses to agree, he will be beheaded. Unexpectedly, he was sprayed with spittle by Dong Zhentang. Liu Chengde has already made up his mind, and he will wait for two more days, and when the division commander Ma Bufang comes back, he will be beheaded after reporting it.

In the official history, in late October 1936, when Li Jiansheng led his troops to attack the city and seize land in the northwest at this stage, more than 20,000 Red Army troops were ordered to cross the Yellow River west and march into the Hexi Corridor area of Gansu to implement the Ningxia campaign plan. In January 1937, Dong Zhentang led the Red Fifth Army to capture Gaotai County, Gansu in one fell swoop. Just when the people of Gaotai celebrated the victory, the enemy Ma Bufang and other troops surrounded Gaotai with about 20,000 people, after 9 days and 9 nights of fierce fighting, because the enemy was outnumbered, forced to enter the city to hold on, under the attack of the enemy's powerful artillery fire, to the 20th Gaotai finally fell, Dong Zhentang and more than 3,000 Red Army officers and soldiers all martyred heroically, at the age of 42. After Dong Zhentang's sacrifice, Mao Weiren once said affectionately that Lu Yao knew horsepower and Dong Zhentang was a "resolute revolutionary comrade".

And during this time period, something similar happened, only a few months earlier. After Dong Zhentang led more than 2,000 troops to capture Gaotai County, Gansu Province, he was besieged by Ma Bufang's department, fought fiercely for more than ten days, and finally ran out of ammunition and food. Knowing that a big man of a red bandit had been arrested, Liu Chengde was overjoyed, on the one hand, he sent someone to treat Dong Zhentang, and on the other hand, he tried his best to persuade him to surrender. Helplessly, Dong Zhentang was very tough, the injury was almost cured by him, but he surrendered but did not loosen up at all, and after a few months, Liu Chengde also lost patience, and when the time was right, he would kill his head.

But the commander of the Ma family never dreamed that he did not wait for Ma Bufang's order, but waited for the bullet of the Red Army's revenge. As a result, he was gone, and he himself was killed. When Wu Zheng led his troops to clear Liu Chengde's station, he saved a group of Red Army soldiers, including Dong Zhentang!