Ma Hongkui's ability to get Chiang Kai-shek's approval to return to Ningxia is not unrelated to the cessation of the war in Shanghai.

During the Shanghai war, despite the lack of heavy artillery and aircraft assisting the war, the 19th Army, which had obtained a large number of equipment and the Fifth Army, which later joined, did not allow Japan to seek good luck. Faced with serious casualties, the Japanese army was even forced to change the commander several times. In addition, Zhao Zhenzhong once reminded Chiang and Cai to prevent the Japanese army from landing in Taicang Liuhe, so the entire war lasted 22 days longer than in history.

It was not until March 25 that when facing the Japanese army with more than 70,000 troops after continuous combat, after continuous combat, the exhausted 19th Route Army and the Fifth Army had a total of about 50,000 troops, they could not withstand the Japanese bombing and were forced to retreat to the second line of defense.

As for the Japanese army in Shanghai, of course, they hoped to continue to fight in order to seek brilliant results as created by the Kanto Army. However, the pressure exerted by Japan and the opposition from Britain, the United States and other countries forced the Japanese army to announce a ceasefire after achieving the intended goal.

The Japanese army launched the January-28th Incident, in addition to seeking greater benefits in Shanghai, one of the main purposes was to divert the attention of the League of Nations and international public opinion and to gain time for the establishment of Manchuria. Now the Manchuria was established in early March, and the Chinese army had retreated. Britain, the United States and other countries suffered damage to their interests due to interruption of the Yangtze River shipping, and they continued to force the Japanese government to negotiate. Therefore, on March 25, the Japanese army announced a ceasefire after occupying Zhenru and Nanxiang.

On April 8, China and Japan mediated in Shanghai to start negotiations in Shanghai. The armistice agreement after the defeat was definitely not good for China, but the result was not too outrageous. At least there was neither compensation nor cede territory, which made the Nanjing authorities' group very grateful.

Just as China and Japan were arguing endlessly during negotiations, Ma Hongkui sent another telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, who moved the capital to Luoyang, and asked to lead his troops back to Ningxia. In February, Ma Fuxiang resigned from the position of chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Committee due to a heart attack and went to Tianjin to recuperate, and also wrote a letter to Chiang Kai-shek, saying that he could not bear to fall into the hands of the bandits and begged the central government to restore the northwest as soon as possible, which could not only relieve the people from danger, but also make plans for future strategic rear strategies.

In history, Ma Hongkui was leading his troops to encircle and suppress the CCP forces in Henan for 32 years, but now he is still entrenched near Tai'an. The reason is that he was beaten by the escort army last spring and was unable to recover his vitality. Although Ma Hongkui timely organized the militias he controlled into the 15th Army, arrested many strong men, and barely gathered up more than 20,000 troops, but the weapons were not enough to be replenished for a while, and nearly 4,000 people were holding big swords and spears. If such a unit went to Henan to suppress the CCP, it would be just a way to deliver vegetables to people. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek did not call the troops after he severely reprimanded Ma Hongkui.

Now that the Ma family and son are willing, and the war in Shanghai has been over, the recovery of the northwest as soon as possible is indeed conducive to strategic rear construction. In addition, the 15th Army has been trained for about a year, so Chiang agreed to Ma Hongkui's request. Since he wanted to send the 15th Army back to Ningxia to fight, he couldn't let him hold a big knife and a spear, right? Chiang Kai-shek asked He Yingqin to arrange for Ma Hongkui's troops to provide radio stations, weapons and equipment and other supplies. The emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, so Chiang still has this little bit of weight.

With Chiang Kai-shek's permission and equipment, Ma Hongkui was happy and hurriedly communicated with Han Fuju and Zhang Xueliang to contact all the transportation issues of the 15th Army. Han Fuju was naturally happy about the fact that he could finally send Ma Hongkui away, and patted his chest to ensure that the 15th Army went north to Tianjin. Zhang Xueliang is now the director of the Beiping Pacification Office, and only promised that the Pingjin Railway would be used without any problem. As for the Pingsui Line, Ma Hongkui had to negotiate with Yan Xishan, director of the Taiyuan Pacification Office.

When Ma Hongkui learned that he wanted to deal with Yan Xishan, he felt that his head was more than a circle. Nothing else, in the war last year, Ma Hongkui and Yan Laoxi's Liangzi were too big! If Ma Hongkui had not led his troops to fight to the death to block Fu Zuoyi's troops south of Tai'an, the Jinsui army would have gone south to Xuzhou to seize Lao Chiang's retreat, and could even force Nanjing. Moreover, not only blocked the Jinsui army's southward, but also attacked Ma Hongkui's 15th Army also attacked the Jinsui army many times during the counterattack. Tai'an City was captured by the unit's tunnel blasting. Later, Ma Hongkui's troops drove the Jinsui army all the way across the Yellow River. In all these, the 15th Army could be regarded as an important accomplice in causing Yan Laoxi to step down. Now Ma Hongkui is seeking to have good fruits on Yan Xishan, which is back.

However, the situation is stronger than that. In order to lead his troops back to Ningxia as soon as possible, Ma Hongkui still gritted the bullet and sent a telegram to Yan Xishan, asking for a crossing westward via Pingsui Road. Although he knew that Yan Xishan would not miss his chance, after seeing the resumption of the Taiyuan area, Ma Hongkui almost pissed his nose and couldn't help but curse: "Grandma, Yan Laoxi is really not a thing! My army is a bit bold, but he doesn't need to watch it tighter than guarding against thieves!"

Since Ma Hongkui was ordered by the central government to suppress bandits in the northwest, Yan Xishan could only agree to the 15th Army's crossing through the Pingsui Line. But at the same time, Yan Xishan used the current tight transportation capacity of Pingsui Line and could not use trains to transport troops in large quantities, and required the 15th Army to transport one battalion every day in the battalion. Moreover, in order to prevent the 15th Army from disturbing the people along the way, Yan Xishan clearly required each battalion of Ma Hongkui's troops to carry supplies on their own, and officers and soldiers were not allowed to get off the car to purchase supplies at each station along the way. Of course, in order to avoid unhappiness, during the 15th Army's transit, Yan Xishan would arrange for the officers and soldiers of the Shanxi-Sui Army to station in various stations along the Pingsui Line to maintain order.

According to Yan Xishan's requirements, more than 20,000 troops in the 15th Route Army had to be transported for nearly two months before it could be transported. As summer was coming, wouldn't this arrangement make the officers and soldiers who were stuck in iron cans all the way to heatstroke?

Restraining the anger in his heart, Ma Hongkui called Ma Quanliang, handed him Yan Xishan's telegram, and said, "This old guy Yan Xishan is clearly making things difficult for us. If we don't do it, we won't go to the Pingsui Line, but the Longhai Line. Then we go to northern Shaanxi and then to Hedong, Ningxia."

"Commander-in-chief, if we change the route, we will not need faster time than going to Pingsui." Ma Quanliang reminded after reading the telegram, "Now there is only a road between Tongguan and Dingbian, northern Shaanxi. Brothers have to walk all the way after getting off at Tongguan, and it takes a lot of time. And after a long-distance marching, the troops will definitely be even more tired."

"At least we are not obsessed with the cowardice of Yan Laoxi!" Ma Hongkui waved his hand and said unquestionably, "You contact the main stations on the Longhai Line in my name to see if you can arrange the car as soon as possible. I will also send a telegram to Yang Hucheng, Shaanxi to see if he can provide us with some help along the way."

Seeing that Ma Hongkui had made up his mind, Ma Quanliang didn't say much and got up and arranged for it. The 20,000 army marched more than 1,000 kilometers, which was not an easy task. After nearly half a month of busy work, Ma Hongkui and Ma Quanliang handled the relevant matters properly. They just waited for the troops to assemble and boarded the bus and headed south to Xuzhou.

However, at this critical moment, an urgent telephone was sent from Yanghu City, Xi'an, claiming that the cholera epidemic was found in the Tongguan area in early May, and the epidemic was spreading further. I hope that Ma Hongkui's troops would not take risks in Tongguan.

After receiving the telegram, Ma Hongkui thought Yang Hucheng was a slander, and was very dissatisfied. But when he saw the outbreak of cholera in Tongguan from the Ta Kung Pao on May 9, "more than 60 children died in each village", and the reports that it stretched east to west Henan and west to Guanzhong, he was completely stunned. The busy work in the past half month was acceptable. What made Ma Hongkui extremely depressed was that now he could only ask for the old guy Yan Xishan again.

Ma Hongkui had to follow the Pingsui Line due to cholera outbreaks in Tongguan and Guanzhong, and Chiang Kai-shek also adjusted his combat deployment due to the epidemic.

According to Lao Chiang's original plan, in addition to continuing to clear out the Communist bandits in Jiangxi, the increasingly powerful "civil bandits" in the northwest cannot be ignored. In order to restore the occupied areas of Gansu, Ning and Qing provinces as soon as possible, Lao Chiang, in addition to sending Ma Hongkui to lead his troops back to Ningxia, Lao Chiang also ordered Yang Hucheng and Yan Xishan to organize troops from Shaanxi, Gansu, Qing, Sui and other provinces to jointly attack the People's Army. Even Lao Chiang wanted to send the Central Army into Shaanxi and extend the central force into the northwest under the name of suppressing bandits. However, with Tongguan, cholera spreading to the surrounding areas in Guanzhong, Lao Chiang had to change his original intention and temporarily suspend the second encirclement and suppression of the People's Army, at least after the epidemic.

Since it will take some time for the northwest to talk about it, Chiang Kai-shek turned his attention to the CCP forces. Just in May, shortly after the official signing of the "Shanghai Armistice Agreement", Chiang Kai-shek served as the commander-in-chief of the "bandit suppression" of the three provinces of Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Hunan, and mobilized troops to launch an encirclement and suppression of the two base areas of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, he formed the General Headquarters of the "bandit suppression" of the Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and even Hunan, headed by He Yingqin, to command the troops from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and even Hunan, to contain the armed forces of the Communist Party of China in Jiangxi, and to prepare for the subsequent large-scale attack.

Chiang Kai-shek stepped up his troops to mobilize his troops to launch an offensive, but Ma Hongkui could only pinch his nose and accepted Yan Xishan's conditions in a suffocational manner. Under the "escort" of the Jinsui Army along the way, the first battalion of the Japanese transport battalion advanced towards Baotou. Each battalion of the 15th Army after arriving in Baotou was driven to the Ningxia area south of Linhe County and north of Dengkou County under the strict escort of Wang Jingguo and Zhao Chengshou's troops.

The area where the 15th Route Army gathered was located between the People's Army-controlled area and Suiyuan Province, and belonged to the Ningxia Provincial territory in terms of administrative divisions. When the gifts from Ma Hongkui's troops were sent here, Yan Xishan, Fu Zuoyi and others could explain them in all aspects.

However, Ma Hongkui, who led his troops to gather here one after another, had a hard time. Ma Hongkui's troops are now receiving food and pay from the central government, and Ningxia cooperates with pay. However, although the remaining areas in Ningxia that were not occupied by the People's Army are vast, they are mostly desert areas and there is not much oil or water at all. And relying solely on the food and pay provided by Chiang Kai-shek, the ministry will definitely go hungry.

In desperation, Ma Hongkui had to bite the bullet and go to Guisui to ask Fu Zuoyi, his former enemy.

"I'm sorry, Suiyuan is poor and cannot provide too much help to Chief Ma." Fu Zuoyi said directly, "I'm not hiding Chief Ma. In addition to bandit suppression and daily defense tasks, the troops stationed in Suiyuan Province must also implement reclamation to meet their own supply. I think Chief Ma might as well implement reclamation in Ningxia. It's May now, and the autumn grain is still in time."

After hearing Fu Zuoyi's face-to-face reply, Ma Hongkui opened his mouth but could not continue to ask for help. Before coming here, Ma Hongkui also heard that the Suiyuan garrisons such as Wang Jingguo, Fu Zuoyi, Zhao Chengshou were indeed engaged in reclamation in Suiyuan. Moreover, Ma Hongkui also specially watched the reclamation area of ​​Wang Jingguo's troops west of Baotou, and knew that what Fu Zuoyi said was true. He could not let other people's troops work hard. He, Ma Hongkui, brought people from all over the world but enjoyed his achievements, right? There was no friendship between Ma Hongkui and the Jinsui army, but only hatred...

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