- Wu Peifu
Infobox Military Person
name= Wu Peifu; 吳佩孚
lived=birth date|1874|04|22 – death date and age|1939|12|04|1874|04|22
placeofbirth=Penglai ,Shandong
placeofdeath=Beijing
caption=Gen. Wu Peifu
nickname= "Jade Marshall" (玉帥)
allegiance=
branch=Beiyang Army ,Zhili Clique
serviceyears= 1898-1927
rank=General
commands= 3rd Division,Beiyang Army
unit=
battles=Zhili-Anhui War First Zhili-Fengtian War Second Zhili-Fengtian War Northern Expedition (1926–1927) Wu Peifu or Wu P'ei-fu (Chinese: 吳佩孚; zh-p|p="Wú Pèifú") (1874–1939), was a major figure in the struggles between the
warlord s who dominated Republican China from 1916 to 1927.Born in
Shandong Province in Eastern China, Wu initially received a traditional Chinese education. He later joined theBaoding Military Academy (保定軍校) inBeijing and embarked on a career as a professional soldier. His talents as an officer were recognized by his superiors, and he rose quickly in the ranks.Wu joined the "New Army" (新軍) (renamed the
Beiyang Army in 1902) created by the modernizingQing Dynasty General,Yuan Shikai . Following the fall of the Qing in 1911, and after Yuan's rise to President of theRepublic of China and his subsequent disastrous attempt to proclaim himself emperor, political power in China quickly devolved into the hands of various regional military authorities, inaugurating the era ofwarlordism .After Yuan's death in 1916, his Beiyang Army split into several mutually hostile factions of cliques, which battled for supremacy over the following years. The major factions included
Duan Qirui 'sAnhui clique ,Zhang Zuolin 'sFengtian clique , andFeng Guozhang 'sZhili clique . Duan Qirui sought to reunite China using the army, but Wu Peifu and the other generals refused Duan's orders. The Zhili clique was taken over in 1919 byCao Kun , Wu Peifu, andSun Chuanfang . In 1920 the Anhui clique, which was accused of collaborating with Japan, was defeated by Cao Kun in theZhili-Anhui War . The two other groups, the Zhili and Fengtian cliques, had two clashes in the 1922First Zhili-Fengtian War and the 1924Second Zhili-Fengtian War . After the first, Zhang Zuolin declared his independence, followed by many military governors of the south who reigned independently from the center in Beijing, now dominated by Cao Kun's Zhili clique.After Cao Kun forced the puppet parliament to elect him
president in 1923, the governor ofZhejiang ,Lu Yongxiang (盧永祥), formed an alliance with Zhang Zuolin andSun Yat-sen and threatened to take control of the key city ofShanghai . Wu Peifu dispatched Sun Chuanfang, governor ofJiangsu , to subdue Lu Yongxiang, but at the same time Zhang Zuolin attacked Wu's Zhili forces from the north.Now called the "Jade Marshal" (玉帥) and generally acknowledged to be China's ablest
strategist at the time, Wu Peifu was widely expected to win, and by doing so to finally put an end to various quasi-independent regional authorities. His warlord troops were some of the best trained and drilled in China, and as leader of the Zhili Clique he almost continuously fought the northern Chinese warlords likeZhang Zuolin . Known as thephilosopher general he was said at the time to own the world's largestdiamond .Hundreds of thousands of men fought in this major battle between Zhang's Fengtian army and Wu's Zhili forces. At a key moment, one of Wu's chief allies,
Feng Yuxiang , deserted the front, marched on Beijing, and in the so-calledBeijing coup (Beijing "zhengbian") overthrew the existing regime and proclaimed a new and mildly progressive government. Wu Peifu'smilitary strategy was thrown into confusion by this catastrophe in his rear, and he was defeated by Zhang's forces nearTianjin . After the victory of the Fengtian clique, Duan Qirui was made head of state and he proclaimed aprovisional government .Wu maintained a power base in
Hubei andHenan in central China until he was confronted by theGuomindang army during the Northern Expedition in 1927. With armies detained by Guomindang allies in the Northwest, Wu was forced to withdraw toZhengzhou inHenan .In 1923, Wu ruthlessly broke a strike at the important Hankou-Beijing railway by sending in troops to violently suppress the workers and their leaders. The soldiers killed thirty-five workers and injured many more. Wu's reputation with the Chinese people suffered significantly because of this event, though he gained the favor of British and American commercial interests operating in China.
After the
second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Wu refused to cooperate with the Japanese. In 1939, when the Japanese invited him to be the leader of the puppet government in North China, Wu made a speech saying that he was willing to become the leader of North China again on behalf of the New Order in Asia, if every Japanese soldier on China's soil gave up his post and went back to Japan. He then went back into retirement, dying later under what some people considered suspicious circumstances. He was a national hero before he died, a status he had never before achieved.References
* [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Rep/rep-event.html Chinese History - The Republic of China ä¸è¯æ°å event history (www.chinaknowledge.de) ] at www.chinaknowledge.de
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2584/is_n3_v15/ai_17426220 Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, August, 1995 by Arthur Waldron, Nicholas J. Cull]
* [http://www.allbiographies.com/biography-WuPeifu-34964.html Biography of Wu Peifu ] at www.allbiographies.com
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