Ma Yukun, courtesy name Jingshan was a Chinese army general who primarily served the

Huai Army The Huai Army (), named for the Huai River, was a military force allied with the Qing dynasty raised to contain the Taiping Rebellion in 1862. It was also called the Anhui Army because it was based in Anhui province. It helped to restore the stabil ...

and the Resolute Army; he served during the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

and the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

Biography

Early Years

Ma was born in 1838, at Maji, Anhui,

Mengcheng County Mengcheng County () is a county in the northwest of Anhui Province, China. It is under the administration of Bozhou city, bordering Lixin County Lixin () is a county located in north-eastern Anhui province, China, under the jurisdiction of Bozh ...

. His family was poor and were primarily an agricultural one however Ma was a martial artist and became a well known local trainer. Due to his martial arts skills, Song Qing found an appreciation for him and personally enlisted him to attack the

Nian Army A ''nian'' () is a beast in Chinese mythology. Nian live under the sea or in the mountains. The Chinese character ''nian'' more usually means "year" or "new year". The earliest written sources that refer to the ''nian'' as a creature date to the e ...

during the

Nian Rebellion The Nian Rebellion () was an armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) in South China. The rebellion failed to topple the Qing dynasty, but caused immense economic ...

, and accumulated meritorious work to the capital, giving him the title of ''Zhenyong Baturu''. In 1874, Ma Yukun and

Zuo Zongtang Zuo Zongtang, Marquis Kejing ( also spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang; ; November 10, 1812 – September 5, 1885), sometimes referred to as General Tso, was a Chinese statesman and military leader of the late Qing dynasty. Born in Xiangyin County ...

's department jointly fought against the aggression of Agubo and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in the

Qing reconquest of Xinjiang The Qing reconquest of Xinjiang () was the event when the Qing dynasty in China reconquered Xinjiang after the Dungan Revolt (1862–77), Dungan Revolt in the late 19th century. After a century of Xinjiang under Qing rule, Qing rule, the Uzbek pe ...

, and then led the army to garrison the northwest for more than 10 years. During the Guangxu period, he was transferred to

Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th-century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...

. In 1894, he was awarded the commander-in-chief of

Taiyuan Town Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, to assist Song Qing in garrisoning the Beiyang Naval Base in Lushunkou before the

broke out.

First Sino-Japanese War

During the war, he would command 6 garrisons of the Yi Army to Northern Korea to guard the east bank of the

Taedong River The Taedong River (Chosŏn'gŭl: ) is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthening ...

outside the South Gate of

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

. In the early morning of the 15th, there was a fierce battle with the Japanese ninth brigade. Because of Ma's strict defense and good command, he wiped out nearly 3 Japanese squadrons, killing 140 Japanese soldiers and wounded more than 290 soldiers, and secured Pyongyang South Road despite the later Chinese defeat at the battle. After the fall of Pyongyang, he led his army back to the Chinese mainland and assisted Song Qing in defending the Yalu River defense line. On October 24, the

Battle of Jiuliancheng The Battle of Jiuliancheng (九連城之戰) was a land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China. It is sometimes referred to as the , thus creating confusion with the previous naval conflict of ...

broke out and led his own men to assist Qing with the Japanese. After yet another defeat, Yukun participated at the

Battle of Lüshunkou The Battle of Lüshunkou (; Japanese: ) was a land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place on 21 November 1894 in Lüshunkou, Manchuria (later called Port Arthur, in present-day Liaoning Province, China) between the forces of ...

, defending the west hill of Longwang Temple as the two sides fought until 2 PM that afternoon when the Japanese sent reinforcements. When Hei Tian could no longer fight, Ma pulled back temporarily returned to the camp at Shilibao. Ma then launched a counterattack which managed to kill 50 Japanese but because his army was fatigued and he didn't bring artillery, Chinese casualties during the battle were high and almost all of Ma's officers were killed during the battle. On February 24, 1895, during the Japanese offensive on Haicheng, Ma Yukun led his troops to defend villages such as Qiligou in Beishan, climbing the ice and laying by the snow, overseeing the battle. The Japanese attacked from three sides and set up dozens of cannons to continuously bombard the Qing army. After a day of fierce fighting, the Qing army had no backup, ran out of ammunition and food, and fell into a heavy siege. Song Qing ordered a breakout. Ma Yukun broke through the siege and found that Song Qing was still surrounded, and then rushed into the enemy's encirclement to reinforce Song's army. Song's three horses were all killed by artillery shells as Ma Yukun led his subordinates to break through the siege many times, changing mounts three times, killing more than 300 Japanese soldiers and wounding more than a thousand soldiers. Later, he moved to

Yingkou Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

, Tianzhuangtai and other places with Song Qing. Because of his bravery in battles and his repeated achievements, the Japanese army feared him. In 1899, he was promoted to Admiral of Zhejiang Fleet. During the

, the

Eight Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove f ...

and others invaded, Ma Yukun lead the Resoloute Army to resist. The two armies fought in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

and Beicang. They held a stalemate for more than a month, and Ma Yukun finally retired due to isolation and helplessness. By the next year, he would return to

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and died in there in 1908 from illness.''

Draft History of Qing The ''Draft History of Qing'' () is a draft of the official history of the Qing dynasty compiled and written by a team of over 100 historians led by Zhao Erxun who were hired by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China. The draft was publis ...

'', Volume 461 Biography 248 Ma Yukun

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yukun, Ma 1838 births 1908 deaths Qing dynasty generals Generals from Anhui Politicians from Bozhou Republic of China warlords from Anhui Chinese people of the Boxer Rebellion