Feng Yuxiang Feng Yuxiang ( ; ; 6 November 1882 – 1 September 1948 ) was a warlord and leader in Republican China from Chaohu , Anhui . He served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1930 . He was also known as the " Christian General " for his zeal to convert his troops and the " Betrayal General " for his penchant to break with the establishment . In 1911 , he was an officer in the ranks of Yuan Shikai ' s Beiyang Army but joined forces with revolutionaries against the Qing Dynasty . He rose to high rank within Wu Peifu ' s Zhili warlord faction but launched the Beijing coup in 1924 that knocked Zhili out of power and brought Sun Yat - sen to Beijing . He joined the Nationalist Party ( KMT ) , supported the Northern Expedition and became blood brothers with Chiang Kai - shek , but resisted Chiang ' s consolidation of power in the Central Plains War , and broke with Chiang again in resisting Japanese incursions in 1933 . He spent his later years supporting the left - wing of the KMT , which cooperated with the Communists . Early life and career . As the son of an officer in the Qing Imperial Army , Feng spent his youth immersed in the military life . He joined the Huai Army when he was 11 , as a deputy soldier ( Fu Bing , 副兵 ) , the lowest rank in the army who only received uniform and food , but no salary like regular soldiers . By the age of 16 , Feng had proved himself and became a regular . Unlike other soldiers who gambled away their pay , Feng saved his salary and used a portion of it to help out other soldiers in need , especially those deputy soldiers ( Fu Bing , 副兵 ) , and hence he was popular among his fellow comrades - in - arms . Feng was hard working and motivated , and in 1902 , he was reassigned to Yuan Shikai ' s newly established Beiyang Army . During the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 , Feng joined the Luanzhou Uprising against the Qing Court and supported the revolutionaries in the South . The Uprising was suppressed by the Beiyang Army and Feng was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai . In 1914 , he regained military rank and spent the next four years defending Yuan ' s regime . In July 1914 , as brigade commander , he participated in the suppression of the Bailang Peasant Uprising in Henan and Shaanxi . During the National Protection War of 1915 - 16 , he was sent to Sichuan to fight the Anti - Yuan National Protection Army , but secretly communicated with revolution leader Cai E . In April 1917 , he was stripped of his military rank but still led his old troops in the campaign against Zhang Xun and was restored to his rank . In February 1918 , he was ordered to suppress the Constitutional Protection Movement , but proclaimed his support for peace talks in Hubei and was stripped of titles but permitted to stay in command of his forces . The capture of Changde in June earned him back his titles . By August 1921 , he was promoted to command a division and was based in Shaanxi . Conversion to Christianity . Feng , like many young officers , was involved in revolutionary activity and was nearly executed for treason . He later joined Yuan Shikai ' s Beiyang Army and with the help and advice of Chinese diplomat Wang Zhengting , converted to Christianity in 1914 , being baptised into the Methodist Episcopal Church . Feng ' s career as a warlord began soon after the collapse of the Yuan Shikai government in 1916 . Feng , however , distinguished himself from other regional militarists by governing his domains with a mixture of paternalistic Christian socialism and military discipline . He forbade prostitution , gambling and the sale of opium and morphia . From 1919 , he was known as the ' Christian General ' . In 1923 , British Protestant Christian missionary Marshall B . Broomhall said of him : He was reputed to have liked baptizing his troops with water from a fire hose . But no such incident is mentioned in Sheriden ' s detailed biography , or in Broomhall ' s account . Both Broomhall and Sheriden say that baptism was taken very seriously and that not all of Feng ' s troops were baptised . Rise . In the early 1920s , Feng rose to prominence in the Zhili clique of warlords , named so because their base of power was centred around Zhili . This Zhili Clique defeated the Fengtian clique , headed by Zhang Zuolin , father of Zhang Xueliang , in the First Zhili - Fengtian War in 1922 . It was at this time that Feng also began to move closer to the Soviet Union . Within the Zhili clique , Feng was demoted by Wu Peifu and sent to guard the southern suburbs of Beijing . In 1923 Feng was inspired by Sun Yat - sen and secretly plotted with Hu Jingyi and Xue Yue to overthrow Wu Peifu and Cao Kun who controlled the Beiyang Government . When the Second Zhili - Fengtian War began in 1924 , Feng was in charge of defending Rehe against the Fengtian clique . But he switched sides and seized the capital in the Beijing Coup on October 23 , 1924 . This turnabout prompted the Shandong warlord Zhang Zongchang to join the Fengtian and led to a decisive defeat of the Zhili forces . Hence , Feng ' s coup brought far - reaching political changes in China . Feng imprisoned Zhili - leader and president Cao Kun , installed the more liberal Huang Fu , evicted the Last Emperor from the Forbidden City , and invited Sun Yat - sen to Beijing to resurrect the Republican government and reunify the country . Despite being severely ill already , Sun came to Beijing and died there in April 1925 . Feng renamed his army the " Guominjun " or the National People ' s Army . To counter pressure from the Zhili and Fengtian factions , he invited Duan Qirui to take on the presidency , but was still defeated by a Zhili - Fengtian alliance in the Anti - Fengtian War in January 1926 . He lost control of Beijing , and retreated to Zhangjiakou where his army became known as the Northwest Army . In August , he went to the Soviet Union and returned in September , whereupon , on the advice of Wang Chen Ting , he joined the Nationalist Party . Feng threw his support behind the Nationalists in the Northern Expedition and merged his " Guominjun " with the National Revolutionary Army . In April 1926 , Sun Yat - sen ' s successor , Chiang Kai - shek , launched the Northern Expedition from Guangzhou against the northern warlords . The Nationalists vanquished the Zhili faction in the south and Feng asserted control over much of north - central China . Zhang Zuolin was forced to withdraw the Fengtian forces back to Manchuria . In October 1928 , Feng Yuxiang was appointed as Vice President of the Executive Yuan and War Minister of the Republic of China by President Chiang Kai - shek . Feng ' s patriotism was a basic motivation . Because of atrocities he saw Japanese soldiers commit during the Sino Japanese War of 1895 , Feng promised that he would fight the Japanese to death if he ever became a soldier . Every year on the anniversary of Japan ' s 21 Demands in 1915 , he and his officers wore belts on which was written " In Memory of the National Humiliation of May 7th . " By early 1929 , Feng grew dissatisfied with Chiang Kai - shek ' s Nationalist government in Nanjing . He joined Yan Xishan and Li Zongren to challenge Chiang ' s supremacy . He was defeated by Chiang in the Central Plains War . Chiang then incited anti Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among the Chinese Muslims and Mongols , encouraging them to topple their rule . Out of power . Stripped of his military power , Feng spent the early 1930s criticizing Chiang ' s failure to resist Japanese aggression . On May 26 , 1933 , Feng Yuxiang became commander - in - chief of the Chahar People ' s Anti - Japanese Army Alliance , with Ji Hongchang and Fang Zhenwu as frontline commander . With a strength claimed by Feng to be over 100 , 000 men , Ji Hongchang ' s army pushed against Duolun , and by July 1933 , drove the Japanese and Manchukuo an troops out of Chahar Province . By late July , Feng Yuxiang and Ji Hongchang established , at Zhangjiakou , the " Committee for Recovering the four provinces of the Northeast " . Chiang Kai - shek , fearing that Communists had taken control of the Anti - Japanese Allied Army , launched a concerted siege of the army with 60 , 000 men . Surrounded by Chiang Kai - shek and the Japanese , Feng Yuxiang resigned his post , and retired to Tai ' an in Shandong province . Later years . Between 1935 and 1945 , Feng Yuxiang supported the KMT and held various positions in the Nationalist army and government . In October 1935 , Chiang invited him to Nanjing to serve as the vice - president of the National Military Council . He held the nominal position until 1938 and remained a member of the Council until 1945 . During the Xian Incident , when Chiang Kai - Shek was held prisoner by rebellious warlords , he immediately called for Chiang ' s release . After the Second Sino - Japanese War began in 1937 he was Commander in Chief of the 6th War Area . After World War II , he traveled to the United States where he was an outspoken critic of the Chiang regime and of Truman administration ’ s support for it . While there he came to General Stilwell ' s house in California , as he admired Stilwell . Barbara Tuchman tells the story ( " Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911 - 1945 " , pp . 82 – 3 ) : " a few days after her husband ' s death , Mrs . Stilwell was upstairs at her home in Carmel when a visitor was announced with some confusion as ' the Christian . ' Mystified , she went down to find in the hall the huge figure and cannonball head of Feng Yu - hsiang , who said , ' I have come to mourn with you for Shih Ti - wei , my friend . ' " Although he was never a Communist , he was close to them in his final years . According to descendants whose father was raised as a young boy by Feng Yu - hsiang in his household , and was inspired by the elder Feng ' s example of service to country and countrymen to join and serve in the military , Feng Yu - hsiang also visited and lived for several months in Berkeley , California during his stay as visiting scholar . He died in a shipboard fire on the Black Sea while en route to the Soviet Union in 1948 , along with one of his daughters . Some believe he was murdered ; others deny it . The same descendants also learned from their father that many believed Feng was murdered by political adversary / ies ; and that those who knew details of the shipboard fire and its circumstances had reported that Feng and his daughter perished in the middle of night behind their cabin door ( s ) that had been locked from the outside . The Chinese Communists classified Feng as a ' good warlord , ' and his remains were buried with honors in 1953 , at the sacred Mount Tai in Shandong . His tomb is located immediately to the east of Tianwai Village square ( ) . His widow Lu Te - chiuan was Minister of Public Health of the People ' s Republic of China . Generals of the " Feng Clique " . Many of Feng Yuxiang ' s former subordinates joined or merged into KMT ' s National Revolutionary Army and fought with distinction in the Second Sino - Japanese War . They include Song Zheyuan , Tong Linge , Zhao Dengyu , Sun Lianzhong , Liu Ruming , Feng Zhian , Yang Hucheng , Ji Hongchang , and Zhang Zizhong . Notable exceptions were Sun Liangcheng and Qin Dechun who collaborated with Japanese . Other generals , who after serving a lengthy term in the warlord era , retired to live a life of pleasure . Legacy . Sir Richard Evans , author of " Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China " , described Feng as " an honest man " in his book . Peter R . Moody wrote in the " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science " " Many of Feng ' s allies might dispute this , since he betrayed every one of them . "