Wu Guangxin, (; ; 1881–1939) Army general of the Republic of China. Military and Civil governor of

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

in 1920. Army Minister 1924–1925. Wu Guangxin was born in 1881 in Hefei,

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, China. He graduated from the Japanese Army Military Academy in 1904 and the War College in 1910. A career officer in the

Beiyang Army The Beiyang Army (), named after the Beiyang region,Hong Zhang (2019)"Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan, Tianjin, 1895–1899" ''The Chinese Historical Review'' 26(1) was a large, Western-style Imperial Chinese Ar ...

, he had close professional ties to his brother-in-law

Duan Qirui Duan Qirui (; ) (March 6, 1865 – November 2, 1936) was a Chinese warlord and politician, a commander of the Beiyang Army and the acting Chief Executive of the Republic of China (in Beijing) from 1924 to 1926. He was also the Premier of the R ...

. After the Republic of China was established, he held command of the 20th Division. In 1916 he was given the task of re-establishing northern military control over Yuezhou in northern

. In August 1917 Duan obtained

Feng Guozhang Feng Guozhang, (; courtesy: Huafu 華甫 or 華符) (January 7, 1859 – December 12, 1919) was a Chinese general and politician in early republican China. He held the office of Vice-President and then President of the Republic of China. He is ...

's appointment of Wu as Commander-in-Chief of the Upper

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

and concurrently Inspector of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, with orders to advance into Sichuan to resolve its internal conflicts. In January 1918, during the 1st Constitutional Protection War, Wu--who had retreated from Sichuan to the Sichuan-Hubei border--attacked Shi Xingchuan and Li Tiancai's army from the west along the Yangtze. Caught between Wu and

Wang Zhanyuan Wang Zhanyuan () (February 20, 1861 – September 14, 1934) was a Chinese general of the Warlord Era of China's Republican period, whose power base was in Hubei province. Biography In October 1911, during the Xinhai Revolution, he was a ...

in the

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

area, Shi and Li were defeated.

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

independent forces ceased to be a serious threat to Beiyang power in Hubei. In 1920 Wu became Military and Civil governor of

. During the Zhili–Anhui War he was captured and detained as one of the

Anhui clique The Anhui clique () was a military and political organization, one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique in the Republic of China's Warlord Era. It was named after Anhui province because several of its ...

's leaders by Wang Zhanyuan, but in 1921 he was released. Due to the victory of

Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...

and

Feng Yuxiang Feng Yuxiang (; ; 6 November 1882 – 1 September 1948), courtesy name Huanzhang (焕章), was a warlord and a leader of the Republic of China from Chaohu, Anhui. He served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1930. He wa ...

in the

Second Zhili–Fengtian War The Second Zhili–Fengtian War (Second Chihli-Fengtien War; ) of 1924 was a conflict between the Japanese-backed Fengtian clique based in Manchuria, and the more liberal Zhili clique controlling Beijing and backed by Anglo-American business int ...

, Zhang Zuolin named

as the new Chief Executive of the nation on November 24, 1924. Wu was appointed as Army Minister and in December 1924 inspector general. In February 1925 he was appointed Reconstruction Conference Association president. Due to the March 18 Massacre, Feng Yuxiang again revolted against the

Fengtian clique The Fengtian clique () was one of several opposing military factions that constituted the early Republic of China during its Warlord Era. It was named after Fengtian Province (now Liaoning), and operated from a territorial base comprising the th ...

and deposed Duan, who was forced to flee to Zhang's protection, and Wu--now deposed--went into seclusion in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. He died of illness on November 15, 1939, in Shanghai.

Sources

Edward A. Mccord, The Power of the Gun, The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism, University of California Press, Berkeley · Los Angeles · Oxford © 1993 The Regents of the University of California
* Arthur Waldron
From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924-1925, Cambridge University Press, 1995

External links

Woo Kwang-hsin (Wu Guangxin) 吳光新
from ''Biographies of Prominent Chinese'' c.1925. 1881 births 1939 deaths Republic of China warlords from Anhui Politicians from Hefei Governors of Hunan Members of the Anhui clique {{China-mil-bio-stub