In the spring of 1926, Hu Lanqi left home for Guangzhou to work for He Xiangning, Minister of Women's Affairs of the Kuomintang (KMT) government. The following year, she became a cadet of the Whampoa Military Academy in Wuhan and enlisted in the KMT's National Revolutionary Army, which was then waging the Northern Expedition against the warlords. She was one of a small number of women recruits, which included Xie Bingying and Zhao Yiman. After initial success, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek turned against the Communists, who had been until then allied with the KMT, and committed the Shanghai massacre in April 1927. The Wuhan-based left wing of the KMT, who were sympathetic to the Communists, capitulated to Chiang's right wing. Hu Lanqi was discharged from the army when the military academy was dissolved in July 1927. Instead of returning home, she continued to work for the left-wing KMT leader He Xiangning, helping her unionize female workers. She broke up with her second husband whose political views differed from hers.