General Ma Zhongying, a Muslim who had trained under Chiang Kai-shek at Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929, was the new 36th Division commander.

Ma Zhongying cited as his role models Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Bismarck, Hindenburg, and Zuo Zongtang.

A minor battle in which Chinese Muslim troops were expelled from the Aksu oases of Xinjiang by Uyghurs when they rose up in revolt.

[17] A minor battle when Chinese Muslim troops under general Ma Zhancang attacked and inflicted a defeat upon Uyghur and Kirghiz armies at Sekes Tesh.

[18] Uyghur and Kirghiz forces led by the Bughra brothers and Tawfiq Bay attempted to take the city of Kashgar from Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang.

A number of Han Chinese officers were spotted wearing the green uniforms of Ma Zhancang's unit of the new 36th division, presumably they had converted to Islam.

In 1934, 2 brigades of Soviet Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie (GPU) troops of about 7,000 backed by tanks, planes, and artillery with mustard gas, attacked the new 36th division near Tutung.

[20][22][23] New 36th division General Ma Fuyuan stormed Kashgar, and attacked the Uighur and Kirghiz rebels of the First East Turkestan Republic.

General Ma Zhongying gave a speech at Idgah mosque, reminding the Uighurs to be loyal to the Republic of China government at Nanjing.

[31] The new 36th division under General Ma Hushan administered the oases of southern Xinjiang, and their administration was dubbed Tunganistan by Western travelers.

[32] Islam barely played a role except as a "vague spiritual focus" for unified opposition against Sheng Shicai and the Soviet Union.

The New 36th Division retreated to Hotan, and when the Soviet Red Army occupied Pishan in early September, Ma Hushan abandoned his troops and fled to India.