Urumchi. Ground was alternately gained and lost by both sides. During this time Ma's forces became notorious for their cruelty to both Turkic and Chinese inhabitants, destroying the economy and engaging in wholesale looting and burning of villages. Once seen as a liberator by the Turkic population, which had suffered greatly under Jin Shuren, many Turkic inhabitants of the region now ardently hoped for Ma's expulsion by Sheng Shicai and an end to the seesaw military campaigns by both sides. Ma also forcibly conscripted Uyghurs into his army, turning them into infantry while only Chinese Muslims were allowed to be officers. This led to outrage among the Uyghurs at Kumul. Meanwhile, the Han Chinese commander of Ili, Zhang Peiyuan, entered into secret negotiations with Ma Zhongying, and the two joined their armies together against Jin Shuren and the Russians. Huang Mu-sung, native of Kumul and a "Pacification Commissioner" from the Kuomintang government, soon arrived in Urumchi on an ostensible peace mission. Sheng Shicai suspected him of conspiring with some of his opponents to overthrow him. He turned out to be correct, since the Kuomintang secretly ordered Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan to attack Sheng's regime in Urumchi. As a result, he executed three leaders of the provincial government, accusing them of plotting his overthrow with Huang. At the same time Sheng Shicai also forced Huang to wire Nanjing with a recommendation that he be recognized as the official Tupan of Xinjiang. Chiang Kai-shek sent Luo Wen'gan to Xinjiang, Luo met with Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan and urged them to destroy Sheng. Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan then began a joint attack on Sheng's Manchurian and White Russian force during the Second Battle of Urumqi (1933–34). Zhang seized the road between Tacheng and the capital. Sheng Shicai commanded Manchurian and White Russian troops commanded by Col. Pappengut. Ma and Zhang's Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim forces were on the verge of defeating Sheng when he requested help from the Soviet Union. This led to the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang and Ma Zhongying's retreat after the Battle of Tutung. Kamal Kaya Efendi, a former Ottoman Turkish military officer who was Ma Zhongying's chief of staff, was captured by Soviet agents in Kumul in 1934, but instead of being executed he was made Commissar for Road Construction in Xinjiang, possibly because he was a Soviet agent himself. In January 1934 Soviet troops