Wu Peifu

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Wu Peifu or Wu P'ei-fu (Chinese: 吳佩孚; pinyin: Wú Pèifú) (c1874–1939), was a major figure in the struggles between the warlords who dominated Republican China from 1916 to 1927.

Born in Shandong Province in Eastern China, Wu initially received a traditional Chinese education. He later joined the Baoding Military Academy (保定軍校) in Beijing and embarked on a career as a professional soldier. His talents as an officer were recognized by his superiors, and he rose quickly in the ranks.

Wu joined the "New Army" (新軍) (renamed the Beiyang Army in 1902) created by the modernizing Qing Dynasty General, Yuan Shikai. Following the fall of the Qing in 1911, and after Yuan's rise to President of the Republic of China and his subsequent disastrous attempt to proclaim himself emperor, political power in China quickly devolved into the hands of various regional military authorities, inaugurating the era of warlordism.

After Yuan's death in 1916, his Beiyang Army split into several mutually hostile factions of cliques, which battled for supremacy over the following years. The major factions included Duan Qirui's Anhui clique, Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique, and Feng Guozhang's Zhili clique. Duan Qiuri sought to reunite China using the army, but Wu P'ei-fu and the other generals refused Duan's orders. The Zhili clique was taken over in 1919 by Cao Kun, Wu Peifu, and Sun Chuanfang. In 1920 the Anhui clique, which was accused of collaborating with Japan, was defeated by Cao Kun in the Zhili-Anhui War. The two other groups, the Zhili and Fengtian cliques, had two clashes in the 1922 First Zhili-Fengtian War and the 1924 Second Zhili-Fengtian War. After the first, Zhang Zuolin declared his independence, followed by many military governors of the south who reigned independently from the center in Beijing, now dominated by Cao Kun's Zhili clique.

After Cao Kun forced the puppet parliament to elect him president in 1923, the governor of Zhejiang, Lu Yongxiang (盧永祥), formed an alliance with Zhang Zuolin and Sun Yat-sen and threatened to take control of the key city of Shanghai. Wu Peifu dispatched Sun Chuanfang, governor of Jiangsu, to subdue Lu Yongxiang, but at the same time Zhang Zuolin attacked Wu's Zhili forces from the north.

Now called the "Jade Marshal" (玉帥) and generally acknowledged to be China's ablest strategist at the time, Wu Peifu was widely expected to win, and by doing so to finally put an end to various quasi-independent regional authorities. His warlord troops were some of the best trained and drilled in China, and as leader of the Zhihli Clique he almost continuously fought the northern Chinese warlords like Chang Tso-lin. Known as the Philosopher general he was said, at the time to own the worlds largest Diamond.

Hundreds of thousands of men fought in this major battle between Zhang's Fengtian army and Wu's Zhili forces. At a key moment, one of Wu's chief allies, Feng Yuxiang, deserted the front, marched on Beijing, and in the so-called Beijing coup d'etat (Beijing zhengbian) overthrew the existing regime and proclaimed a new and mildly progressive government. Wu Peifu's military strategy was thrown into confusion by this catastrophe in his rear, and he was defeated by Zhang's forces near Tianjin. After the victory of the Fengtian clique, Duan Qirui was made head of state and he proclaimed a provisional government.

Wu maintained a power base in Hubei and Henan in central China until he was confronted by the Guomindang army during the Northern Expedition in 1927. With armies detained by Guomindang allies in the Northwest, Wu was forced to withdraw to Zhengzhou in Henan.

In 1923, Wu ruthlessly broke a strike at the important Hankou-Beijing railway by sending in troops to violently suppress the workers and their leaders. The soldiers killed thirty-five workers and injured many more. Wu's reputation with the Chinese people suffered significantly because of this event, though he gained the favor of British and American commercial interests operating in China.

After the second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Wu refused to cooperate with the Japanese. In 1939, when the Japanese invited him to be the leader of the puppet government in North China, Wu made a speech saying that he was willing to become the leader of North China again on behalf of the New Order in Asia, if every Japanese soldier on China's soil gave up his post and went back to Japan. He then went back into retirement, dying later under what some people considered suspicious circumstances. He was a national hero before he died, a status he had never before achieved.