Ma Zhanshan
Encyclopedia
Ma Zhanshan or Ma Chan-san (born November 30, 1885, Huaide (Gongzhuling
), Jilin
, China - died November 29, 1950, Beijing
, China), was a Chinese Muslim
general who initially opposed the Imperial Japanese Army
in the invasion of Manchuria, briefly defected to Manchukuo
, and then rebelled, and fought against the Japanese in Manchuria and in other parts of China.
, in Jilin
province, in a poor shepherding family,. At the age of 20 he became a security guard of Huaide County. He was promoted to Guard Monitor of the 4th Security Guard Battalion for his good marksmanship and equestrianism, by Wu Junsheng
, Commander of Tianhou Road Patrol and Defense Battalion of Mukden in 1908.
According to some western sources Ma Zhanshan was Born in Liaoning
in 1887. However most others give it as 1885.
Ma's Muslim name was Muazzam Husain
.
Ma Zhanshan was a Chinese Muslim
.
In 1913, Ma was appointed as Major and Company Commander of 3rd Company, 3rd Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the Central Cavalry Army in the Army of the Republic of China. In 1920, he was promoted to colonel
and followed his patron, warlord
Wu Junsheng
.
He started his military career in Zhang Zuolin
's Northeastern Army
, serving as a brigade commander of 5th Cavalry Brigade, 17th Cavalry Division then as brigadier of 3rd Infantry Brigade of the Heilongjiang
Army. After Zhang's death in 1928 Ma was nominated as Heilongjiang Provincial Bandit Suppression Commander, and Heilongjiang Provincial Cavalry
Commander-in-chief
in 1928.
British diplomatic documents described him as one of the "bandit" military men who received no training and did not receive learning or instruction, he was a master sharpshooter and horserider.
, when the Kwantung Army invaded the provinces of Liaoning
and Jilin
, Governor Wan Fulin
of Heilongjiang
Province was in Beijing
, leaving no one in authority in the province to take charge of defenses against the Japanese. Zhang Xueliang
telegraphed the Nanjing
Government to ask for instructions, and then appointed Ma Zhanshan to act as Governor and Military Commander-in-chief of Heilongjiang Province on October 10, 1931. Ma arrived in the capital Qiqihar
on October 19 and took office the next day. He held military meetings and personally inspected the defense positions while facing down parties advocating surrender, saying “I am appointed as Chairman of the province, and I have the responsibility to defend the province and I will never be a surrendering general”.
Ma became famous around the world after the incident.
The Japanese invaders repeatedly demanded to repair the Nenjiang River Bridge, that had been dynamited in earlier civil strife to prevent an advance by a rival Chinese warlord. These demands were refused by Ma Zhanshan. The Japanese, determined to repair the bridge sent a repair crew, guarded by 800 Japanese soldiers. Nearby were 2,500 Chinese troops and a Battle of Nenjiang Bridge
ensued. Each side charged the other with opening fire without provocation, and thus began the Jiangqiao Campaign
. Although eventually forced to withdraw his troops in the face of Japanese tanks and artillery
, Ma became a national hero for his resistance to the Japanese, which was reported in the Chinese and international press. Ting Chao
and other senior commanders followed Ma's example at the industrial city of Harbin
in Jilin
province and elsewhere, and his successes inspired the local Chinese to aid or enlist in his forces. On November 18, Ma evacuated Qiqihar. However, after the General Ting Chao was driven from Harbin, Ma's forces suffered serious casualties and were soon driven over the Soviet border.
Ma appealed in a telegram to the League of Nations
asking for help against the Japanese.
$2,000 were cabled by Chinese in America to Ma to help him fight.
offered Ma Zhanshan a huge sum of $3,000,000 in gold to defect to the new Manchukuo Imperial Army
. Ma agreed, and offered to tour the country to reconcile the local inhabitants to the new government. He flew to Shenyang
in January 1932, where he attended the meeting that founded the puppet state
of Manchukuo
. Ma was ill at that time, and thus avoiding signing the Independence Declaration of Manchukuo. He attended the inaugural ceremony of Pu Yi as Emperor of Manchukuo in March the same year, and he was appointed as War Minister of Manchukuo and Governor of Heilongjiang Province under the new government. However, the Japanese did not fully trust Ma, and (as with other Manchukuo officials), he had to ask approval from his Japanese advisor about all matters of the province before taking any actions.
General Ma had secrectly decided to rebel against the Japanese after his "defection", using large amounts Japanese money to raise and reequip his new volunteer force with munitions. He secretly transported weapons and ammunition out of the arsenals and evacuated the wives and families of his troops to safety. On 1 April 1932, he led his troops from Qiqihar
supposedly on a tour of inspection. However, at Heihe
on April 7 he announced the reestablishment of the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, and his independence from Manchukuo. Ma reorganized his troops into 9 brigades at the beginning of May, and then he established another 11 troops of volunteers at Buxi, Gannan
, Keshan
, Kedong and other places. This force was styled the “Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army” and Ma appointed as nominal Commander-in-chief, over the other volunteer armies
in the region, commanding a total fighting force of about 300,000 men at its peak strength.
The units under Ma undertook ambushes along the major roads and badly mauled Manchukuo and Japanese troops in several engagements. In the “Ma Chan-shan Subjugation Operation” the Kwangtung Army transferred a large mixed force of Japanese and Manchukuo troops to encircle and destroy Ma's Army. Ma Zhanshan's troops, though seriously depleted in the fierce battles, escaped due to the laxity of the Manchukuo troops. In September Ma Zhanshan arrived in Longmen County
and established relationship with the Heilungkiang National Salvation Army
of Su Bingwen
. In the “Su Ping-wei Subjugation Operation”, 30,000 Japanese and Manchukuo troops forced Ma Zhanshan and Su Bingwen to retreat across the border into the Soviet Union
in December. Most of these troops were then transferred to Rehe
.
General Ma Zhanshan commanded 3,500 guerilla fighters against the Japanese, conducting attacks such as a raid on the Manchukuo treasury, attacking Changchun, the capital, and hijacking from an airfield six Japanese planes.
General Ma caused so much trouble to the Japanese, that when his equipment and horse were captured, the Japanese presented them to the Emperor in Tokyo, assuming that he was dead. They were enraged to discover that he had survived and escaped. The China monthly review reported that "the persistence with which the Japanese telegrams reiterate and insist that General Ma Chan-san is dead is little short of comical" The Japanese, over the course of several months, coninuously invented different versions of how Ma Zhanshan allegedly "died".
After General Ma escaped, his men kept up the fight, terrorizing the Japanese invaders. They seize 350 Japanese and Korean hostages and held them for weeks and kidnapped foreigners such as a British General's son and an American executive's wife.
, Germany
and Italy
only returning in June 1933.
Ma Zhanshan was allegedly one of the commanders of the Soviet army during the Xinjiang War (1937)
, during which he fought against the fellow Muslim General Ma Hushan. It was reported that he led Russian troops disguised in Chinese uniforms along with bombers during the attack, which was requested by Sheng Shicai
. Other sources do not mention this doubtful participation of Ma Zhanshan in this war, since he was a Commander in Chief of Cavalry in the National Revolutionary Army in China in 1937.
He went to Chiang Kai-shek
ask for armies to fight against the Japanese but was refused assistance. Ma then settled in Tianjin
until October 1936 when Chiang Kai-shek suddenly sent him to the front of the Chinese Civil War
. At Xi'an
at the time of Xian Incident, he suggested to Zhang Xueliang
not to kill Chiang Kai-shek while the country was in trouble and signed on the “Current Political Situation Declaration” issued by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng
. Zhang Xueliang appointed Ma Zhanshan as the Commander-in-chief of the “Anti-Japanese Aid Suiyuan Cavalry Group Army”, which was suspended afterwards when Zhang Xueliang was detained by Chiang Kai-shek.
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
, Ma Zhanshan was appointed as Commander of the Northeastern Advance Force in charge of the four northeastern provinces Liaoning
, Jilin
, Heilongjiang and Rehe
. Ma Zhanshan established a headquarters in Datong
in August 1937 and led his troops to fight the Japanese in Chahar, Suiyuan Datong and Shanxi
and he cooperated with Fu Zuoyi
's troops in the defense of Suiyuan and in the Yinshan War.
Ma Zhanshan abhorred the nonresistance policy of the Kuomintang
government and he sided with the Chinese Communist Party in its anti-Japanese policy. He visited Yanan
in 1939 in order reach an accommodation with the Chinese Red Army. Ma Zhanshan was appointed as Chairman of the Provisional Government of Heilongjiang in August 1940 by the Chinese Communist Party, and held that title in secret to the end of the war.
After the defeat of Japan, the Kuomintang government appointed Ma Zhanshan as Northeast Deputy Security Commander. He took office in Shenyang, but a half year later he retired to his home in Beijing saying he was ill. He crossed over to the Communist Party in January 1949 after persuading General Fu Zuoyi
to allow the city to be taken bloodlessly by the Communists. After the founding of the People's Republic of China
, Chairman Mao Zedong
invited him to attend the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
in June 1950, but he failed to attend because of illness and he died the same year on November 29, 1950, in Beijing.
Gongzhuling
-Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:*Dongsan Subdistrict , Tiebei Subdistrict , Tiedong Subdistrict , Henan Subdistrict , Hebei Subdistrict Towns:...
), Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
, China - died November 29, 1950, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China), was a Chinese Muslim
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
general who initially opposed the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
in the invasion of Manchuria, briefly defected to Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
, and then rebelled, and fought against the Japanese in Manchuria and in other parts of China.
Early life
Ma was born in GongzhulingGongzhuling
-Administrative Divisions:Subdistricts:*Dongsan Subdistrict , Tiebei Subdistrict , Tiedong Subdistrict , Henan Subdistrict , Hebei Subdistrict Towns:...
, in Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
province, in a poor shepherding family,. At the age of 20 he became a security guard of Huaide County. He was promoted to Guard Monitor of the 4th Security Guard Battalion for his good marksmanship and equestrianism, by Wu Junsheng
Wu Junsheng
Wu Junsheng, or Wu Tsi-cheng, 吳俊陞, General of the Fengtian clique and its cavalry commander.Wu Junsheng was born in a peasant family in Changtu, Fengtien province , on November 23, 1863. He joined a cavalry troop in 1880, crushed the Manchu independence plan in 1912...
, Commander of Tianhou Road Patrol and Defense Battalion of Mukden in 1908.
According to some western sources Ma Zhanshan was Born in Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
in 1887. However most others give it as 1885.
Ma's Muslim name was Muazzam Husain
Husain
Husain is a common Arabic name especially among Muslims, because of the popularity of Hussein bin AliGrand son of Muhammadhe said .....al husain o mini wa ana minal hussain* Adrian A...
.
Ma Zhanshan was a Chinese Muslim
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
.
In 1913, Ma was appointed as Major and Company Commander of 3rd Company, 3rd Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the Central Cavalry Army in the Army of the Republic of China. In 1920, he was promoted to colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and followed his patron, warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
Wu Junsheng
Wu Junsheng
Wu Junsheng, or Wu Tsi-cheng, 吳俊陞, General of the Fengtian clique and its cavalry commander.Wu Junsheng was born in a peasant family in Changtu, Fengtien province , on November 23, 1863. He joined a cavalry troop in 1880, crushed the Manchu independence plan in 1912...
.
He started his military career in Zhang Zuolin
Zhang Zuolin
Zhang Zuolin was the warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to 1928 . He successfully invaded China proper in October 1924 in the Second Zhili-Fengtian War. He gained control of Peking, including China's internationally recognized government, in April 1926...
's Northeastern Army
Northeastern Army
The Northeastern Army , was the Chinese army of the Fengtien clique until the unification of China in 1928. From 1931 to 1933 it faced the Japanese forces in Manchuria, Jehol and Hebei, in the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War.Zhang Xueliang commanded this army after the assassination of...
, serving as a brigade commander of 5th Cavalry Brigade, 17th Cavalry Division then as brigadier of 3rd Infantry Brigade of the Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
Army. After Zhang's death in 1928 Ma was nominated as Heilongjiang Provincial Bandit Suppression Commander, and Heilongjiang Provincial Cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
Commander-in-chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
in 1928.
British diplomatic documents described him as one of the "bandit" military men who received no training and did not receive learning or instruction, he was a master sharpshooter and horserider.
Invasion of Manchuria
After the Mukden IncidentMukden Incident
The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, was a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China known as Manchuria in 1931....
, when the Kwantung Army invaded the provinces of Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
and Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
, Governor Wan Fulin
Wan Fulin
Wan Fulin was the military governor of Heilongjian province from 1928, and part of the Fengtian clique. On Dec 29th 1928, Wan Fulin along with Zhang Xueliang, son of late Zhang Zuolin, together with Zhang Zuoxiang, against Japanese threats and coercion, declared in a public wire that the four...
of Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
Province was in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, leaving no one in authority in the province to take charge of defenses against the Japanese. Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang , occasionally called Peter Hsueh Liang Chang in English, nicknamed the Young Marshal , was the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father, Zhang Zuolin, by the Japanese on 4 June 1928...
telegraphed the Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
Government to ask for instructions, and then appointed Ma Zhanshan to act as Governor and Military Commander-in-chief of Heilongjiang Province on October 10, 1931. Ma arrived in the capital Qiqihar
Qiqihar
- Subdivisions :Qiqihar is divided into 16 divisions: 7 districts , 8 counties and 1 county-level city .-Economy:...
on October 19 and took office the next day. He held military meetings and personally inspected the defense positions while facing down parties advocating surrender, saying “I am appointed as Chairman of the province, and I have the responsibility to defend the province and I will never be a surrendering general”.
Ma became famous around the world after the incident.
The Japanese invaders repeatedly demanded to repair the Nenjiang River Bridge, that had been dynamited in earlier civil strife to prevent an advance by a rival Chinese warlord. These demands were refused by Ma Zhanshan. The Japanese, determined to repair the bridge sent a repair crew, guarded by 800 Japanese soldiers. Nearby were 2,500 Chinese troops and a Battle of Nenjiang Bridge
Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge
The Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge was a small battle fought between forces of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army against the Imperial Japanese Army and collaborationist forces, after the Mukden Incident during the Invasion of Manchuria at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War...
ensued. Each side charged the other with opening fire without provocation, and thus began the Jiangqiao Campaign
Jiangqiao Campaign
- External links :*****Topographic maps of campaign area.* San-chien-fang 三间房 area, Angangxi , Tsitsihar* Nenjiang Bridge area...
. Although eventually forced to withdraw his troops in the face of Japanese tanks and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, Ma became a national hero for his resistance to the Japanese, which was reported in the Chinese and international press. Ting Chao
Ting Chao
Ting Chao or Ding Chao was a Chinese General, known for his defense of Harbin during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and 1932....
and other senior commanders followed Ma's example at the industrial city of Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
in Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
province and elsewhere, and his successes inspired the local Chinese to aid or enlist in his forces. On November 18, Ma evacuated Qiqihar. However, after the General Ting Chao was driven from Harbin, Ma's forces suffered serious casualties and were soon driven over the Soviet border.
Ma appealed in a telegram to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
asking for help against the Japanese.
$2,000 were cabled by Chinese in America to Ma to help him fight.
Manchukuo
Because of his fame and heroics efforts in resisting the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Colonel Kenji DoiharaKenji Doihara
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....
offered Ma Zhanshan a huge sum of $3,000,000 in gold to defect to the new Manchukuo Imperial Army
Manchukuo Imperial Army
The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the armed force of the Japanese dominated puppet state of Manchukuo, serving as the land forces, along with the Manchukuo Imperial Guards...
. Ma agreed, and offered to tour the country to reconcile the local inhabitants to the new government. He flew to Shenyang
Shenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
in January 1932, where he attended the meeting that founded the puppet state
Puppet state
A puppet state is a nominal sovereign of a state who is de facto controlled by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
. Ma was ill at that time, and thus avoiding signing the Independence Declaration of Manchukuo. He attended the inaugural ceremony of Pu Yi as Emperor of Manchukuo in March the same year, and he was appointed as War Minister of Manchukuo and Governor of Heilongjiang Province under the new government. However, the Japanese did not fully trust Ma, and (as with other Manchukuo officials), he had to ask approval from his Japanese advisor about all matters of the province before taking any actions.
General Ma had secrectly decided to rebel against the Japanese after his "defection", using large amounts Japanese money to raise and reequip his new volunteer force with munitions. He secretly transported weapons and ammunition out of the arsenals and evacuated the wives and families of his troops to safety. On 1 April 1932, he led his troops from Qiqihar
Qiqihar
- Subdivisions :Qiqihar is divided into 16 divisions: 7 districts , 8 counties and 1 county-level city .-Economy:...
supposedly on a tour of inspection. However, at Heihe
Heihe
Heihe is a city in Heilongjiang, China.It is located at , on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur River, across the river from the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk...
on April 7 he announced the reestablishment of the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, and his independence from Manchukuo. Ma reorganized his troops into 9 brigades at the beginning of May, and then he established another 11 troops of volunteers at Buxi, Gannan
Gannan
Gannan may refer to the following locations in China:*Ganzhou, which is often referred to as "Gannan" *Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture , Gansu*Gannan County , of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang**Gannan Town , seat of said county...
, Keshan
Keshan
Keshan County is a county in Heilongjiang, China, about 100 km northeast of Qiqihar. It is named from a city-shaped extinct volcano, which has a name of Erkeshan in its territory. Its total area is , with a population of 460,000. Post Code: 161610. The government of Keshan county is located in...
, Kedong and other places. This force was styled the “Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army” and Ma appointed as nominal Commander-in-chief, over the other volunteer armies
Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies
After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....
in the region, commanding a total fighting force of about 300,000 men at its peak strength.
The units under Ma undertook ambushes along the major roads and badly mauled Manchukuo and Japanese troops in several engagements. In the “Ma Chan-shan Subjugation Operation” the Kwangtung Army transferred a large mixed force of Japanese and Manchukuo troops to encircle and destroy Ma's Army. Ma Zhanshan's troops, though seriously depleted in the fierce battles, escaped due to the laxity of the Manchukuo troops. In September Ma Zhanshan arrived in Longmen County
Longmen County
Longmen County is a county of Guangdong Province, China. It is under the administration of Huizhou city....
and established relationship with the Heilungkiang National Salvation Army
Heilungkiang National Salvation Army
On September 27, 1932, the forces of Gen. Su Bingwen mutinied in Hailar. Calling themselves the Heilungkiang National Salvation Army they moved eastwards aboard trains towards Tsitsihar to join Gen. Ma Zhanshan in re-capturing that provincial capital....
of Su Bingwen
Su Bingwen
Su Bingwen , was a Chinese military leader. Graduating from officers school in 1914 he joined the Model Regiment as a platoon leader in 1916, became a company commander, and then battalion commander. He served in the Fujian Army in 1920 as the first Army Brigade Chief of Staff, then the Chief of...
. In the “Su Ping-wei Subjugation Operation”, 30,000 Japanese and Manchukuo troops forced Ma Zhanshan and Su Bingwen to retreat across the border into the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in December. Most of these troops were then transferred to Rehe
Rehe
Rehe , also known as Jehol, is a defunct Chinese Special administrative district and later province.-Administration:Rehe was located north of the Great Wall, west of Manchuria, and east of Mongolia. The capital of Rehe was the city of Chengde. The second largest city in the province was Chaoyang,...
.
General Ma Zhanshan commanded 3,500 guerilla fighters against the Japanese, conducting attacks such as a raid on the Manchukuo treasury, attacking Changchun, the capital, and hijacking from an airfield six Japanese planes.
General Ma caused so much trouble to the Japanese, that when his equipment and horse were captured, the Japanese presented them to the Emperor in Tokyo, assuming that he was dead. They were enraged to discover that he had survived and escaped. The China monthly review reported that "the persistence with which the Japanese telegrams reiterate and insist that General Ma Chan-san is dead is little short of comical" The Japanese, over the course of several months, coninuously invented different versions of how Ma Zhanshan allegedly "died".
After General Ma escaped, his men kept up the fight, terrorizing the Japanese invaders. They seize 350 Japanese and Korean hostages and held them for weeks and kidnapped foreigners such as a British General's son and an American executive's wife.
Second Sino-Japanese War
Ma himself stayed abroad in the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
only returning in June 1933.
Ma Zhanshan was allegedly one of the commanders of the Soviet army during the Xinjiang War (1937)
Xinjiang War (1937)
In 1937, an Islamic rebellion broke out in southern Xinjiang. The rebels were 1,500 Uighurs and Tungans led by Kichik Akhund, against the pro-Soviet provincial forces of Sheng Shicai.- Start of rebellion :...
, during which he fought against the fellow Muslim General Ma Hushan. It was reported that he led Russian troops disguised in Chinese uniforms along with bombers during the attack, which was requested by Sheng Shicai
Sheng Shicai
Sheng Shicai was a Chinese warlord who "ruled" Xinjiang province from April 12, 1933 to August 29, 1944....
. Other sources do not mention this doubtful participation of Ma Zhanshan in this war, since he was a Commander in Chief of Cavalry in the National Revolutionary Army in China in 1937.
He went to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
ask for armies to fight against the Japanese but was refused assistance. Ma then settled in Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
until October 1936 when Chiang Kai-shek suddenly sent him to the front of the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
. At Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
at the time of Xian Incident, he suggested to Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang , occasionally called Peter Hsueh Liang Chang in English, nicknamed the Young Marshal , was the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father, Zhang Zuolin, by the Japanese on 4 June 1928...
not to kill Chiang Kai-shek while the country was in trouble and signed on the “Current Political Situation Declaration” issued by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng
Yang Hucheng
Yang Hucheng was a Chinese warlord during the Warlord Era of Republican China and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War....
. Zhang Xueliang appointed Ma Zhanshan as the Commander-in-chief of the “Anti-Japanese Aid Suiyuan Cavalry Group Army”, which was suspended afterwards when Zhang Xueliang was detained by Chiang Kai-shek.
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War .The eleven-arch granite bridge, Lugouqiao, is an architecturally significant structure,...
, Ma Zhanshan was appointed as Commander of the Northeastern Advance Force in charge of the four northeastern provinces Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
, Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
, Heilongjiang and Rehe
Rehe
Rehe , also known as Jehol, is a defunct Chinese Special administrative district and later province.-Administration:Rehe was located north of the Great Wall, west of Manchuria, and east of Mongolia. The capital of Rehe was the city of Chengde. The second largest city in the province was Chaoyang,...
. Ma Zhanshan established a headquarters in Datong
Datong
Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province of North China, located a few hundred kilometres west by rail from Beijing with an elevation of...
in August 1937 and led his troops to fight the Japanese in Chahar, Suiyuan Datong and Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
and he cooperated with Fu Zuoyi
Fu Zuoyi
Fu Zuoyi was a Chinese military leader. He began his military career in the service of Yan Xishan, and he was widely praised for his defense of Suiyuan from the Japanese. During the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, Fu surrendered the large and strategic garrison around Beiping to Communist...
's troops in the defense of Suiyuan and in the Yinshan War.
Ma Zhanshan abhorred the nonresistance policy of the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government and he sided with the Chinese Communist Party in its anti-Japanese policy. He visited Yanan
Yanan
Yanan may refer to:*Yan'an, Chinese city in Shaanxi province, which was the Communist Party's capital from 1936 to 1948*Yana language, extinct language formerly spoken in north-central California...
in 1939 in order reach an accommodation with the Chinese Red Army. Ma Zhanshan was appointed as Chairman of the Provisional Government of Heilongjiang in August 1940 by the Chinese Communist Party, and held that title in secret to the end of the war.
After the defeat of Japan, the Kuomintang government appointed Ma Zhanshan as Northeast Deputy Security Commander. He took office in Shenyang, but a half year later he retired to his home in Beijing saying he was ill. He crossed over to the Communist Party in January 1949 after persuading General Fu Zuoyi
Fu Zuoyi
Fu Zuoyi was a Chinese military leader. He began his military career in the service of Yan Xishan, and he was widely praised for his defense of Suiyuan from the Japanese. During the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, Fu surrendered the large and strategic garrison around Beiping to Communist...
to allow the city to be taken bloodlessly by the Communists. After the founding of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, Chairman Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
invited him to attend the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference [], shortened as 人民政协, Rénmín Zhèngxié, i.e. "People's PCC"; or just 政协, Zhèngxié, i.e. "The PCC"), abbreviated CPPCC, is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China...
in June 1950, but he failed to attend because of illness and he died the same year on November 29, 1950, in Beijing.
See also
- Defense of HarbinDefense of HarbinThe Defense of Harbin occurred during the early Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932.-Background:...
- Pacification of ManchukuoPacification of ManchukuoThe Pacification of Manchukuo, was a campaign to pacify the resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo between the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies of Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and the forces of the...
- Manchukuoan Anti Bandit Operations