Beiyang Army
Sun Chuanfang was born in Licheng, Shandong Province. Wang Yingkai, a rising officer in the Beiyang Army and protégé of Yuan Shikai, the commander of the Beiyang Army, married Sun's sister, and Sun took advantage of his brother-in-law's position and joined a training camp in 1902. Wang later recommended Sun to Tianjin Military Academy because of the latter's outstanding capabilities; in 1904 he also sent Sun abroad to Japan for more education at the Tokyo Shimbu Gakko, a military preparatory school. Sun eventually graduated from the sixth class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and returned to China in 1908. Upon his return from Japan, Wang and his political ally, Tie Liang, happened to be the ones presiding over the examination aimed at testing fresh graduates’ ability. Sun passed the tests and became an officer of the Beiyang Army and later was recruited by Wang Zhanyuan to join the Zhili clique following the Xinhai Revolution, rising quickly through the ranks. Sun became the military governor of Fujian on 20 March 1923. He was based in Hubei Province, and fought in the Zhili–Anhui War of 1920.