Long Yun Long ( Lung ) Yun ( ) ( November 27 , 1884 - June 27 , 1962 ) was governor and warlord of the Chinese province of Yunnan from 1927 to October 1945 , when ( " the Kunming Incident " ) he was overthrown in a coup by Du Yuming under the order of Chiang Kai - shek . Early life . Long Yun was an sinicized ethnic Yi ( Lolo ) , a non Han Chinese people native to Yunnan , among other provinces . General , and later Governor of Yunnan , Long Yun was a cousin of Lu Han . Long Yun first joined the local warlord ' s army in 1911 and was gradually promoted to the rank of corps commander . He served in Tang Jiyao ' s Yunnan Army for years until February 1927 , when he , together with Hu Ruoyu , launched a coup and expelled Tang from office . Soon after that he became the 38th Army commander within the National Revolutionary Army , at the same time continuing as Yunnan chairman for more than a decade . Sino - Japanese War . He was nominated as commander - in - chief of the 1st Army Group , fighting against the Japanese in his province . The Sino - Japanese War ( 1937 – 45 ) brought progress and modernization to Yunnan , as the Nationalist government developed the province into a war base against the Japanese . Factories , universities , and government agencies were transplanted there from the coastal regions , and fresh manpower , capital , and ideas poured into the province . Industries were established , and efforts were made by the government to develop the resources of the region . The Burma Road made Yunnan the corridor through which supplies flowed to Allied war bases in all parts of China , and Kunming became a key U . S . Air Force base . A major advance by the Japanese Army along the upper Salween River in 1944 was halted at Huitongqiao , near Tengchong , indicating the vital role that Yunnan played in the country ’ s defense . The following was written in " Time Magazine " about the 1944 battle with the Japanese along the Salween River : “ In a deep gorge on the upper Salween , foot - weary , battle - battered Chinese troops were finally backed up against the bridge , retreated across it while the Japanese from the other side rained down fire on them . The Chinese left their dead behind them , blew up the bridge , and crawled up the winding road to the heights on the China side . Across from them the Jap ' s guns bayed at the scent of tired game . The Chinese had been beaten and battered beyond human endurance . One of them broke . Before his troops a general killed himself . The men wavered , looked toward the rear . To the front dashed Lung Yun ( the Cloud Dragon ) , Governor of Yunnan Province . With the dead general at his feet , he called on the little soldiers for another last stand . The Japs would soon cross the Salween , their rolling stock ( tanks and trucks ) were already massing on the bluff . They would have to be stopped . It would be hard . Every beaten soldier there knew that the Japs across the Salween were from the crack Red Dragon armored division . As he spoke his soldiers suddenly turned away , looked at the sky . The Governor stopped talking , for he heard the noise , too — the steady , humming throb of aircraft engines . It grew into thunder . Six American P - 40 ' s whipped across the bluff . The A . V . G . s were on the job . They bellowed across the gorge , swung into column and dived on the Japs . Their 50 - caliber slugs tore into the gasoline drums on the trucks , sent them blazing . Their bombs uprooted lorries and tanks , and rolled them down the precipice . The Japs broke , dashed for the bushes , ran into patrols of cheering Chinese who had been left behind at the river crossing . On the China side , the dead general lay where he had fallen . His men , shouting their war cries , hurried down to the river and sniped at the Jap as he ran . Down the road into Burma fled the once elite Red Dragon , broken , bereft of his trucks and equipment . Six American youngsters and the Cloud Dragon had saved a bitter day . ” { See Battle of Salween link below } . A later summary , less concerned with drama , of this same battle : The Campaign involved Chinese troops , assisted by American forces , crossing the upper Salween on 11 May 1944 in order to drive Japanese forces from Yunnan into northern Burma . On 11 May , about 40 , 000 Chinese of the Chinese Expeditionary Force crossed the Salween initially and a further 60 , 000 arrived later . About 17 , 000 – 19 , 000 Chinese and 15 , 000 Japanese were killed in the resulting battle . The higher number of Chinese casualties was caused by the fact that the Japanese had time to prepare their fortifications on the south side of the river . Post war . Immediately following the war , Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek moved against Long Yun . When Chiang had retreated into western China , he was forced into an area barely under his control and hardly touched by the national revolution which had taken place after the fall of the Qing . Both of the two principal provinces of west China , Szechwan ( pop . : 60 million ) and Yunnan ( pop . : 11 million ) , were dominated by old - style warlords . In 1941 Chiang had ousted the warlord of Szechwan , appointing an honest and progressive governor . When the Dragon of Yunnan ' s turn came in 1945 , he was caught with his military pants down : patriotically obeying Chiang ' s diversionary orders , a good part of his private army of over 100 , 000 men had marched far away , into Indo - China . Long Yun was before this offered a face - saving job in Chungking , but he refused : the Dragon ' s teeth were not to be pulled so easily . The absence of his army , however , led to the final extraction . That night , 5 October 1945 ( " the Kunming Incident " ) , rifles cracked in Kunming , and the next morning a score of bodies lay at the South Gate . For four days the battle continued . Soldiers of Chiang Kai - shek ' s army were all over the place . Only a few companies of Lung ' s troops did any shooting , and the Dragon never had a chance . On the fourth day Premier T . V . Soong flew down from Chungking . He and the Chinese commander in chief , General Ho Ying - chin , had a morning conference with General Long and that afternoon escorted him by air to Chungking . General Lu Han , Long ' s former aide , took over the Yunnan government for the Generalissimo . After being removed from his reign of 18 years , and his meaningless appointment to a position in Chungking , Long Yun escapted to Hong Kong at the end of 1948 and joined the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee ( KMT - RC ) , a KMT anti - Chiang organization . In August 1949 , he declared his revolt against Chiang together with Huang Shaohong in Hong Kong . The KMT - RC ultimately became the largest " democratic party " under Communist Party rule after the founding of the People ' s Republic ) . Return to Beijing . Long Yun went back to Yunnan in 1950 , after the establishment of the People ' s Republic . The Communists in inviting him back were acting on the principle : " Any enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine . " Long Yun was not only reinstalled as Governor , but was awarded several high - ranking positions such as becoming a member of the Chinese People ' s Political Consultative Conference and of the Standing Committee of the National People ' s Congress . He also became vice - chairman of the National Defense Committee and vice - chairman of the Administrative Council of Southwestern China . But one of his son , long sheng - Zeng （ 龍繩曾 ） and his family were killed by the PLA . The all children that age was 13 ( son ) , 11 ( daughter ) , 9 ( son ) and a son was just several months . Only one son , Pao Fu Lung ( 龍保福 ） had survived as he was not together with the family . Anti - Rightest movement . Later , during the Anti - Rightist Movement , however , Long Yun was labeled a rightist because of his criticism of Chinese foreign aid policy . He maintained that if the living standard in the Soviet Union was so high that many ordinary workers could own their own car , then the responsibility for foreign aid should fall on the Soviet Union , and not on China , since the Chinese economy was much less advanced that of the Soviet Union because it was still recovering from wars . Long Yun refused to change his view and openly complained of his treatment for telling the truth . Ultimately , on the day following his death in 1962 , the Chinese government formally declared that he was not a rightist and was thus partially ' rehabilitated . ' In July 1980 , nearly two decades after his death , he was finally fully ' rehabilitated ' in accordance to the Chinese government ' s policy of admitting the Anti - Rightist Movement had been wrong .