grew to fear the nationalist cavalry unit and called it "Ma's Islamic Division". The Qinghai Chinese, Salar, Chinese Muslim, Dongxiang, and Tibetan troops, whom Ma Bufang had sent under General Ma Biao, fought to the death against the Japanese Army or committed suicide, instead of surrendering. When they defeated the Japanese, the Muslim troops killed all of them except for a few prisoners, who were sent back to Qinghai to prove that that the Chinese had won. In September 1940, when the Japanese made an offensive against the Muslim Qinghai troops, the Muslims ambushed the Japanese and forced them to retreat. Ma Biao was a relative of Ma Budang, who was the eldest son of Ma Haiqing, who was the sixth younger brother of Ma Haiyan, the grandfather of Ma Bufang. The stature of Ma Biao rose over his role in the Qinghai–Tibet War, and later in 1937, his battles against the Japanese propelled him to fame nationwide in China. The control of China over the border area of Kham and Yushu with Tibet was guarded by the Qinghai army. Chinese Muslim schools used the victory in the war against Tibet to show how they defended the integrity of China's territory, as it had been put into danger since the Japanese invasion. In the town of Huangzhong, in Qinghai, a journalist sat in a classroom of a literacy school in 1937. One student said, "I am a Qinghai person from China. No... wait, I am a Chinese person from Qinghai" after he had been asked about his nationality by the teacher. The teacher mentioned the Japanese invasion and that they were all being attacked were all brothers and Chinese. A play was written and shown in 1936 to Qinghai's Islam Progressive Council Schools by Shao Hongsi during the war against Tibet. The role of Ma Biao appeared in which he defeated the Tibetans. The play presented Ma Biao and Ma Bufang as heroes, who prevented Yushu from being lost to the Tibetans, and compared the situation to Japanese invasion of Manchuria by noting that the Muslims stopped the same scenario from happening in Yushu. Ma Biao and his fight against the Japanese were hailed at the schools of the Islam Progressive Council of Qinghai. Military training in schools and the efforts to defend China were emphasized in a Muslim magazine Kunlun. In 1939, Ma's batttles against the Japanese led to