caption death_place death_date birth_place birth_date rank image article_title name
chen jitang taiwan november 3 , 1954 fangcheng , guangxi january 23 , 1890 general -lrb- four stars -rrb- chen jitang2.jpg chen jitang
 chen jitang 陳濟棠
chen jitang

chen jitang -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- january 23 , 1890 -- november 3 , 1954 -rrb- , also spelled chen chi-tang , was born into a hakka chinese family in fangcheng , guangxi .
he joined the chinese revolutionary alliance in 1908 and began serving in the guangdong army in 1920 , rising from battalion to brigade commander .
he was designated commander of the 11th division within the 4th army in 1925 and took up the garrison of qinzhou city in guangxi , in 1926 , thus staying in the south during the northern expedition .
in 1928 he was made commander of the 4th route army .
in addition to his military position , chen also held governing authority over the guangdong province .
from 1929 to 1936 , he made tremendous contributions to the province 's development , growth , and modernization .
he paved the city streets and built high-rise commercial centers , numerous factories , and the first modern bridge across the pearl river .
he oversaw the establishment of a public school system with modern elementary and high schools and prestigious colleges and universities -lrb- including the sun yat-sen university -rrb- .
people of the province fondly referred this period as the golden age of guangdong and called him 南天王 -lrb- the celestial king of the south -rrb- .
becoming chairman of the government of guangdong in 1931 , he turned against chiang kai-shek in the south after the arrest and release of hu hanmin and allied with new guangxi clique army commanders ; another civil war might have broken out as a result if there had been no september 18 incident in shenyang , which reminded all sides of the necessity to unite .
from 1931 to 1936 he was commander in chief 1st army group .
during chiang kai-shek 's fifth campaign against jiangxi soviet , chiang named chen jitang as the commander-in-chief of southern front , commanding over 300,000 troops , or 30 % of the one million total nationalist force mobilized against the communist base .
chen 's job was to blockade the southern border of the communist base and prevent the communists from escaping from the south .
however , ever suspicious that chiang 's true intent was to take over his territory , as chiang did to the local warlords in fujian earlier , chen only participated in the campaign half-heartedly .
although 300,000 of his troops were mobilized on paper , chen only deployed 180,000 , and their deployment was not complete until well after the chinese red army had already passed chen 's territory .
furthermore , chen made a secret deal with the communists that would ensure the chinese red army would pass his territory as fast as possible , while chen 's force would not stop them in the process .
this arrangement would ensure the communists would be out of chen 's territory rapidly , and that chen 's force would occupy the region the communists had passed thus eliminating any excuse for chiang kai-shek to send his force into chen 's territory for potential takeover .
the deal was carried out successfully and neither chen nor the communists lost anything .
in may 1936 , chen 's biggest political supporter , hu hanmin , died .
chiang thought of weakening chen further by suggesting ending guangdong 's autonomy .
chen immediately reacted by conspiring with the new guangxi clique to overthrow chiang under the pretext of his failure to confront japanese aggression .
this proved to be counterproductive to his efforts , as many of his men saw this as a weakening against the imminent imperial japanese onslaught , and defected to the central government , including future ace-fighter pilot in the war of resistance , captain shen tse-liu .
after months of political maneuvering , bribery , defections , and negotiations ; the liangguang incident -lrb- : zh : 两广事变 -rrb- was resolved peacefully with chen resigning in july and fleeing to hong kong .
guangxi abandoned the plot in september .
this is seen as a preview of the more infamous xi'an incident in december which involved the kidnapping of chiang .
during world war ii , he was a member of the national government , supreme national defense commission , and strategic commission , also taking up the agriculture and forestry ministry of the cabinet .
he was named governor of hainan island -lrb- then part of guangdong province -rrb- after the war .
he fled to taiwan in april 1950 , when hainan came under communist control , and was named a `` strategic adviser of the president . ''
he died on november 3 , 1954 , in taiwan .
