Yang Hucheng

Yang Hucheng (traditional Chinese: 楊虎城; simplified Chinese: 杨虎城; pinyin: Yáng Hǔchéng; Wade–Giles: Yang Hu-ch'eng) (26 November 1893 – 6 September 1949) was a Chinese general during the Warlord Era of Republican China and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War.

Yang Hucheng
Yang Hucheng
Personal details
Born	26 November 1893 Pucheng County, Shaanxi, Qing dynasty
Died	6 September 1949 (aged 55) Chungking, Republic of China
Political party	Kuomintang 1924 — June 10, 1949[1]
Military service
Allegiance	Republic of China
Branch/service	National Revolutionary Army

Yang Hucheng joined the Xinhai Revolution in his youth and had become a popular warlord of Shaanxi Province by 1926. Following the defeat of Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan in the Central Plains War of 1930, Yang allied himself with the Kuomintang's Republic of China government becoming commander of the Kuomintang's Northwest Army. Ordered to destroy the newly established Communist Party of China (CPC) stronghold at Yan'an with Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army in 1935, both Yang and Zhang Xueliang were impressed with the Communists' determined defense and fighting capabilities. They were convinced by the Communist proposal for a united Chinese defense against the Japanese invasion of China.

As both sides ceased hostilities, Kuomintang chairman Chiang Kai-shek flew to Xi'an in early December to investigate the inaction. In the following Xi'an Incident, once Chiang refused the Communist proposal to join forces against the Japanese, Yang and Zhang Xueliang had Chiang Kai-shek arrested and held him captive until he agreed to an alliance between the Kuomintang and Communists. Flying back to the Kuomintang capital at Nanjing with Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Xueliang was arrested upon their arrival. Yang was also secretly arrested later and he would remain in prison for over thirteen years until Chiang Kai-shek ordered him executed in September 1949, along with his wife and children and some of his officers,[2] shortly before the Communist capture of Nanjing near the end of the Chinese Civil War. The Martyrs Cemetery of General Yang Hucheng (杨虎城烈士陵园) is in Chang'an District, Xi'an. Some of his other family members joined the CPC.[3][4]

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  Yang Hucheng
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  Yang Hucheng
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  Memorial statue of Yang Hucheng in Gele Mountain, Chongqing

References

1. Expelled from the party.
2. 蒋介石屠杀杨虎城全家秘录
3. "杨虎城曾想把17路军改编成红军". Cpc.people.com.cn. Retrieved 2013-01-19.
4. crystaldagger,redapple. "杨虎城的遗孀和儿女". Shang.cnfamily.com. Retrieved 2013-01-19.

• Dupuy, Trevor N. Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992.