Chapter 333 Chapter 34 The Battle of Fumei: The First Round of the Great Northwest Battle

In the summer of 1949, under the command of Commander Peng Dehuai and political commissar, the First Field Army won the victory in the Shaanxi-Central Campaign to smash the joint Huma attempt to counterattack Xi'an.The Huma Group had no choice but to retreat across the board and formed a "dumbbell" formation in the Guanzhong area in an attempt to compete with our army again. The north and south ends of the "dumbbell" are about 40 kilometers apart, and the Qishui River runs through it. The southern end of the "dumbbell" is the main force of the Hu Zongnan Group and the Longnan Corps.Li Zhen's 18th Corps led the 38th Army and 65th Army on both sides of the Longhai Railway, which is located in the south of Fufeng and north of the Weihe River; area.The 119th Army of Wang Zhiqi of the Longnan Corps is located next to the 18th Corps on the front line from Wugong to Fufeng.In addition, the 17th Army, 69th Army, and 57th Army each defended the fortress area at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains from the south of Xi'an to the south of Baoji.The total force is more than 70,000, under the unified command of Pei Changhui, commander of the 5th Corps and director of Baoji Command Post.

The northern end of the "dumbbell" is the Liangma Group, and in the neighboring county and Changwu area north of Xi'an are the 82nd Army and the 129th Army of Ma Bufang's Longdong Corps, led by Ma Bufang's son Ma Jiyuan.Immediately to the west of the Longdong Corps are the 11th Army and 128th Army of Ma Hongkui's Shaanxi Corps, commanded by Ma Hongkui's son Ma Dunjing, located in the Yongshou and Cuimu town areas.The total strength of the Two Horse Group is more than 80,000. Ma Bufang was born in 1903. During the reign of Chiang Kai-shek, the forces of local warlords were either eliminated or weakened. However, Ma Bufang expanded the family's armed forces that were not firmly established and became the "King of Qinghai". In 1930, he completely surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek, and since then he has actively fought against the Chinese Communist Party. In July 1936, when he fought against the Red Army of Chinese Workers and Peasants for the first time, Ma Bufang instructed his subordinates to massacre more than a thousand wounded and sick Red Army soldiers in Qinghai and Sichuan border areas, and brutally killed captured Red Army soldiers. blood.

Ma Hongkui was born in 1892, 11 years older than Ma Bufang, and Ma Bufang called him "old daddy" according to his seniority.He first attached himself to Feng Yuxiang, and then to Chiang Kai-shek. He served as the chairman of Ningxia Province for 17 years and was known as Ningxia's "Emperor of Earth". At the age of 8, Ma Hongkui was able to meet Cixi, Guangxu, Longyu, Li Lianying, Xiao Dezhang and other former Qing dignitaries in the Xi'an palace. In his early 20s, he served Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong successively as military attaches in Beijing. In 1932, Ma Hongkui was formally appointed Chairman of Ningxia Province by Chiang Kai-shek.His credo is what he often said: "If you have soldiers, you have power, and if you have power, you have money."

Because of this, people call Ma Bufang "Qing Ma" and Ma Hongkui "Ning Ma", collectively known as "Qing Ning Ma". Although there were certain contradictions between the two horses of Qingning and Ningxia, as well as between Hu Zongnan and the two horses of Qingning and Ningxia, they all joined hands on the basis of retaking Xi'an with their own goals.