Han Deqin

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Han became the chief of staff of the deputy commander-in-chief of the Third War Zone. He also served as the director of the Jiangsu Civil Affairs Department, overseeing guerrilla warfare in the province. In 1938, Han became the deputy commander-in-chief of the 24th Army Group and also acted as the commander of the 89th Army and the 33rd Division. He commanded troops during the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Wuhan. In 1939 he became the chairman of Jiangsu, where he suppressed the local Communist guerrillas. In October 1940, the Communist New Fourth Army attacked Han's troops at Huangqiao, Jiangsu.^[3] The Communist forces quickly overran the Nationalists and took over the town.^[4] As a response to the battle, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the New Fourth Army to move north of the Yangtze valley, a command that was not followed through.^[3] Chiang then used the prior events as a pretext to encircle the New Fourth Army in the subsequent New Fourth Army incident.^[5]

In 1945, Han was promoted to deputy commander of the Third War Zone. After the end of the war with Japan, he was sent to Jiangsu to reincorporate the troops of the Collaborationist Chinese Army back into the National Revolutionary Army.^[2] In 1946, Han became the deputy director of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office, and the following year, he became a deputy commander-in-chief of the General Suppression Headquarters of Xuzhou Garrison. After the Kuomintang defeat in the Chinese Civil War, he left for Taiwan and retired in 1952. He died in Taipei on 15 August 1988 at the age of 95.^[2]