User:Dwzhu/sandbox

Zhu Pei-de
Zhu Pei-de, October 29, 1888 - February 17, 1937, Nationalist Chinese military officer and government official; commander of the Third Army during the Northern Expedition 1926-1927 and later commandeer of the 5th Route Army and 1st Army Group; governor of Jiangxi province 1927-1929; member of the Central Executive Committee and of the Central Political Council of the Kuomintang (KMT); and later chief of the general staff, director general of military training, and director of the administrative office of the Military Affairs Commission.

Early Career
Zhu was born in Yanxing (Yenhsing), Yunnan province, China and grew up in Anning in Yunnan. At 18, he enrolled in an army battalion military school in Kunming, Yunnan. When the Yunnan Military Academy was established in 1910, it incorporated the battalion school where Zhu was influenced by Cai E, an instructor at the school. When Cai E led his 37th brigade in a revolt against Manchu authority in Yunnan in 1911, Zhu joined him, becoming a staff officer in the revolutionary forces. After the failure of the revolt, Zhu returned to the Academy, graduating at the top of his class in 1914.

When Yuan Shikai declared himself monarch of China in 1915, Zhu joined the revolt with Cai E and Tang Jiyao, commanding a column of the Second Army under Li Liejun. During this conflict, Zhu was promoted to a regimental commander, and then as a brigade commander. By 1917, Zhu was in command of the 4th Division of the Yunnan Army, which was supporting the unification efforts of Sun Yat-sen. While on duty in Guangzhou, Zhu married Chao Hui-chun in 1919. The following year, Zhu campaigned in Sichuan province against the Zhili clique. The campaign was a failure, however, and Zhu was invited by Sun Yat-sen to take Guangxi province for the Kuomintang (KMT)as a preparatory step to launching the Northern Expedition. This was accomplished in 1921, and in May 1922, Sun Yat-sen ordered an attack on Jiangxi province, including Zhu's army which helped to capture Ganzhou in southern Jiangxi on June 13, 1922. After Chen Jiongming revolted against the KMT and drove Sun Yat-sen's forces, including Zhu's, out of Guangzhou that June 1922, Zhu's army retreated back to Jiangxi. After the KMT retook Guangzhou in January 1923, Zhu was ordered back there and his forces were reorganized into a guards unit at Sun Yat-sen's headquarters, and Zhu was made acting minister of war in the Guangzhou regime, as well as guards commander and headquarters adjutant general. When Chen Jiongming sought to retake Guangzhou, Zhu's "military actions played an important role in defending the regime's base, and his personal prestige rose accordingly," and was subsequently given command of the First Army of the National Construction Army in 1924.

The Northern Expedition and the Collapse of the United Front
When the Northern Expedition began in 1926, Zhu commanded the Third Army. The campaign opened with his attack on the troops of Sun Chuanfang in Jiangxi province. Commanding the right wing, Zhu's troops took the capital of Nanchang in November 1926. He garrisoned the city and later governed the province. Zhu's "position thus came to be of key importance in the sharp struggle that developed in the Yangtze valley during 1927 between the right and left wings of the Kuomintang." Chiang Kai-shek, who was the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, had established his military headquarters at Nanchang. In the meantime, the left wing of the KMT established its own capital at Wuhan under their leader Wang Jingwei. The Communists were also active in the surrounding countryside in Jiangxi province, and in January 1927, future Communist leader Zhu De offered his service to Zhu Pei-de to help set up an officer training regiment. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek broke with the Wuhan regime and set up an opposition government in Nanjing. Because of his personal acquaintance with Wang Jingwei, Zhu continued to be aligned with the Wuhan regime, and when some of Chiang Kai-shek's troops attempted to regain control of Jiangxi province, Zhu negotiated an agreement where the province would be declared neutral territory. On August 1, 1927 after Chiang Kai-shek had begun purging Communists from the KMT earlier in the year, Communist forces under He Long and Ye Ting staged the Nanchang Uprising. Their forces, with the help of Zhu De, surrounded and disarmed two regiments that Zhu Pei-de left in Nanchang, capturing 3,000 men and the city. Their success was short-lived, however, and Zhu Pei-de soon drove the Communists out, pursuing them south and breaking up their forces.