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• 1 2019-11-18T17:18:26-05:00 The Second Sino-Japanese War 10 Manchuria Aviation Company; Guomindang; Ma Hongkui; Gobi plain 2021-09-28T10:38:39-04:00 38.85068, 105.70228 Alashan Ejen-e 41.95854, 101.06893 1937-1941 Sakura Christmas Ma Hongkui Muslim Army Manchuria Aviation Company

  With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, however, the future of these desert airports looked increasingly uncertain. The Nationalists ultimately were able to overtake Ejen-e. In an attempt to gain ground against the local warlord Ma Hongkui and his Muslim army, the Nationalists set out to establish a presence in western Inner Mongolia. They raided the Japanese special intelligence unit in Ejen-e and arrested the ten Japanese stationed there, including two Manchuria Aviation Company employees, and took them to Lanzhou for execution.

  To counteract the Republican advance in Ejen-e, Ma Hongkui then attacked Alashan in 1938. Manchuria Aviation Company workers evacuated to Manchukuo, while the local prince hired coolies to hide the hundreds of canisters of gasoline in a secret chamber of a lamasery. Meanwhile a Japanese caravan carrying gasoline, ammunition, and supplies bound for Ejen-e inexplicably vanished into the Gobi, most likely captured by the Nationalists, with their three Manchuria Aviation Company handlers also sentenced to death in Lanzhou.