Hui puppet state. The next year, the Japanese were defeated by the Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Hongbin, which caused their plan to collapse. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan at the Battle of West Suiyuan. Muslim Generals Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin defended west Suiyuan, especially at the Battle of Wuyuan in 1940. Ma Hongbin commanded the 81st Corps and suffered heavy casualties but eventually repulsed the Japanese and defeated them. The Japanese attempted to justify their invasion to the Muslim Chinese by promises of liberation and self-determination. Chinese Muslims rejected that, and hihad (Islamic struggle) was declared to be obligatory and sacred for all Chinese Muslims against Japan. The Yuehua, a Chinese Muslim publication, quoted the Qur'an and the Hadith to justify submitting to Chiang Kai-Shek as the leader of China and as justification for jihad in the war against Japan. Xue Wenbo, a Muslim Hui Chengda School member wrote the "Song of the Hui with an anti-Japanese determination". A Chinese Muslim Imam, Hu Songshan, was instrumental in his support of the war. When Japan invaded China in 1937, Hu Songshan ordered for the Chinese flag to be saluted during morning prayer, along with an exhortation to nationalism. He invoked Qur'anic authority to urge sacrifice against Japan. A prayer was written by him in Arabic and Chinese for the defeat of the Japanese and the support of the Kuomintang Chinese government. Hu Songshan also ordered for all Imams in Ningxia to preach Chinese nationalism. The Muslim General Ma Hongkui assisted him in that order by making nationalism required at every mosque. Hu Songshan led the Ikhwan, the Chinese Muslim Brotherhood, which became a Chinese nationalist patriotic organization that stressed education and independence of the individual. Ma Hushan, a Chinese Muslim General of the 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army), spread anti-Japanese propaganda in Xinjiang and pledged his support to the Kuomintang. Westerners reported that the Tungans were anti-Japanese and that under their rule, areas were covered with "most of the stock anti-Japanese slogans from China proper," and Ma made "Resistance to Japanese Imperialism" part of his governing doctrine. The China Islamic Association issued "A message to all Muslims in China from the Chinese Islamic Association for National Salvation" during Ramadan in 1940: We have to implement the teaching "the love of the fatherland is an article of faith" by Muhammad and to inherit the Hui's glorious