Shangguan Yunxiang

Shangguan was born in Shanghe County in 1895. He enrolled in the infantry division of the Baoding Military Academy in 1917, being in the same class as Ye Ting and Gu Zhutong. After graduating in 1919, he served under Sun Chuanfang, and was eventually promoted in Sun's army. After the Beijing Coup in 1924, the Fengtian clique went south to occupy Jiangsu but was defeated by Sun. In 1925, with the support of Zhang Zongchang, Shi Congbin went south to attack Sun's forces. Shangguan led a group of troops, defeated Shi's forces and captured Shi himself.^[1][2]

In 1927, in order to resist the National Revolutionary Army's Northern Expedition, Sun Chuanfang allied himself with Zhang Zongchang. Zhang led his army south to support Sun Chuanfang. Shangguan disagreed with Sun over his alliance with Zhang and was forced into exile in Japan.^[3] In 1928, he returned to China and joined the National Revolutionary Army as the brigade commander of the 141st brigade of the 47th Division. In March 1929, he was promoted to the commander of the 47th Division, and in July he was promoted to the commander of the Ninth Army to participate in the Central Plains War and the campaign against the Chinese Communist Party. His troops suffered heavy losses in 1931 during the battle of Huangbei in Liantang during the third encirclement campaign of the Jiangxi Soviet. The following year, the 47th division engaged in the encirclement and suppression of Hubei, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu areas controlled by the communists. After the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army were expelled from the Central Soviet Area in 1934, he led his army to participate in the pursuit of the Red Army during the Long March. In 1935, he was promoted to lieutenant general. In 1936, he resigned because of a corruption scandal. On 4 May 1937, the Military Commission appointed him as the director of the appeasement office in the border areas of Henan, Hubei, and Shaanxi . After the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he served as the commander of the 11th Army, and was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 32nd Army Group the following year. In 1940, Shangguan led his department to move to the south of Anhui, and launched the New Fourth Army incident against the New Fourth Army in early 1941. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to deputy commander of the third theater. In 1947, Shangguan served as the deputy director of the Baoding appeasement office, and the following year as deputy commander-in-chief of the North China anti bandit commission.^[2][4]

In 1949, Shangguan left for Taiwan along with the Kuomintang government. He retired the following year and died in Taipei on 8 August 1969.^[1]