Han Fuju or Han Fu-chü (; 1890 – 24 January 1938), courtesy name Xiangfang (向方), was a Chinese warlord who ruled Shandong from 1930 to 1937. A protégé of Feng Yuxiang in the Guominjun (Northwest Army), he twice defected from his mentor before being rewarded with the governorship of Shandong after siding with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang in the 1930 Central Plains War.
During his seven-year rule, Han implemented administrative reforms, suppressed bandits and communists, built infrastructure, and promoted education. He maintained an uneasy autonomy from the Nationalist government, balancing between Chiang and Japan. He refused to fully commit to the Nationalist war effort, prioritizing the preservation of his own army over national defense. Han is mainly known today for his failure to defend Shandong against the Japanese invasion, which led to his execution by Chiang Kai-shek.
Opinions on Han are divided. He has been stereotyped as an ignorant and illiterate warlord on account of his rural background, as well as a pro-Japanese traitor. However, revisionist views place Han as an able administrator who fought against the Japanese before his unauthorized retreat.
Early life and career Childhood and early years Han Fuju was born in 1890 into a well-off landowning family in Dongshantai Village (), Ba County, Zhili Province. Han's family owned around 30 mu of land along the Zhongting River, which ensured they were self-sufficient.
In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out. Han Fuju's family residence was a target for the Boxers, who burned it down and forced Han to flee. In the chaos, the Boxers also killed Han's grandmother and uncle. Afterwards, the Han family's financial situation declined precipitously, forcing Han Fuju to do farm work. Despite this newfound poverty, Han's father insisted on sending him to school.
According to writer Frank Dorn, Han had "little aptitude for schooling,"Frank Dorn, The Sino-Japanese War, 1937-41: From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor (New York: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 81-82 and soon dropped out; however, he did manage to acquire literacy. Nevertheless, the stereotype of Han being an illiterate, rural boor would remain in the popular imagination.
Han began accumulating heavy debts from gambling, even pawning off his wife's clothes and jewelry for more gambling money. His family resolved to provide him stable employment, and in 1905 he began work as a scribe in the Ba County household registration office. After around two years, he had relapsed into gambling, which his meager salary could ill-afford. In 1909, he fell deep into debt and fled his hometown the next year, resolving to move to Manchuria.
Joining Feng Yuxiang Han had hoped to find his elder brother, whom he had heard had also moved to Manchuria. However, after around a month of searching, Han once again ended up penniless in Xinmin, Fengtian. On the verge of destitution, he met with a fortune-teller, who suggested he join the Qing army and offered to introduce him. Han Fuju thus joined the 20th Division of the 3rd Regiment of the Beiyang Army. The 3rd Regiment was then under the command of Feng Yuxiang, who took a liking to Han and appointed him as a clerk.
In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out. Feng, who had already been secretly forming anti-Qing organizations, launched an which was suppressed by Yuan Shikai and . Due to Han's participation in this uprising, he was sent back to his home county.
After the revolution ended and the monarchy was deposed, Yuan Shikai became President. He again reorganized the army, reappointing Feng as a battalion commander. Upon hearing of this, Han went to Nanyuan to rejoin the Beiyang Army. soon ranking up to quartermaster sergeant. In August 1913, when Feng was promoted to regimental commander, Han was also promoted to a platoon leader, thus beginning his formal military career.
Over the next few years, as China collapsed into the Warlord Era, Han accompanied Feng on several military campaigns. He took part in the suppression of the 1914 Bai Lang Rebellion, but Feng's regiment refused to fight for Yuan Shikai when he proclaimed himself Emperor and the National Protection War began. During the 1917 Manchu Restoration, Han and Feng fought against and defeated the forces of royalist general Zhang Xun. Around this time, he had been stationed in Langfang, bringing his wife with him.
In 1918, during the Constitutional Protection War against Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou junta, Feng's army reluctantly captured Changde, and Han was stationed here. By now, he had become a battalion commander in Feng's artillery regiments, and was known as one of Feng's "thirteen guardians/protectors" (), or Feng's most trusted subordinates.The other Thirteen Protectors were: Sun Liangcheng, Sun Lianzhong, Tong Linge, Liu Ruming, Shi Yousan, Zhang Weixi, Guo Zhigang, Wen Chenglie, Cheng Xixian, Ge Jinzhang, Zhao Xiping, and Han Duofeng.
China had by then fractured into various warlord cliques; the two most powerful of which were the Zhili and Anhui cliques. Feng and Han were affiliated with the Zhili Clique, and played a role in the defeat of the Anhui in the 1920 Zhili–Anhui War. He continued fighting for the Zhili throughout the early 1920s, helping depose Chen Shufan in 1921 and then defeating the Fengtian clique in the 1922 Zhili–Fengtian War. By October 1922, Han Fuju had become a regimental commander in the 11th Division.
With the Guominjun: two defections
Beijing Coup and first defection In 1924, another war broke out between the Zhili and Fengtian cliques. Feng, by now resentful of the Zhili, organized a coup in Beijing instead of fighting against Fengtian. The coup succeeded and President Cao-kun was placed under arrest, with Feng and his allies forming the Guominjun (National People's Army). Han had participated in this coup, and was promoted to brigade commander of the 1st Division for his services. In December 1925, he fought against Li Jinglin of the Fengtian army, capturing Tianjin and forcing Li to flee the province. Because of this, he was once again promoted to commander of the 1st Division.
By now, the Anti-Fengtian War had begun in earnest. Despite its name, the main feature of the war was a coalition of Northern warlords—Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Yan Xishan—forming an alliance to oppose the Guominjun. Feng was soundly defeated and fled to the Soviet Union, leaving to rule in his stead. Facing attacks from all sides, the Guominjun retreated to Nankou. It was in this situation that Han had finally been promoted to the commander of the Guominjun's Sixth Army, stationed at the strategic Juyong Pass, but he had been dissatisfied by Zhang's leadership and the poor conditions of his army; they had run low on ammunition and supplies, and Zhang had informed him that there were no reinforcements available. Nevertheless, the Sixth Army was ordered to attack Datong in Shanxi. When the assault predictably failed due to lack of supplies, the morale of Han's army further collapsed. It was then that Shi Yousan, another Guominjun general, urged Han to surrender and defect to Yan Xishan's Shanxi clique, an offer which Han took.
Yan Xishan appointed Han Fuju as the commander of the 13th Shanxi Army Division, stationed at Baotou and Guisui.
Return to Feng Yuxiang and second defection
In November 1926, during the Northern Expedition, Feng Yuxiang, now back in China and affiliated with the Kuomintang (KMT), went to Shanxi to win back the generals who had defected. Feng was reportedly understanding, saying that defecting officers' actions were forced by necessity and that they had had no other choice. The two reconciled in Baotou, and Feng named Han as commander of the Sixth Route of the Guominjun. Yan Xishan's army attempted to stop this defection, but Han threatened to fire on them, and they backed down. Around this time, Sun Tongxuan became a division commander in Han's army; he would later become one of Han's most loyal subordinates.
Han fought in several campaigns during the Northern Expedition, initially against Zhili-aligned warlords in Shaanxi and Gansu. Later, in 1927, his army attacked into Henan, capturing Luoyang and Zhengzhou. Having linked up with the rest of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), Han pressed his advantage by advancing further into eastern Henan and Jiangsu. At a battle at Lanfeng, Han executed a flanking maneuver, capturing 30,000 Zhili troops. After this triumph, he continued attacking, advancing further to the gates of Xuzhou over Feng Yuxiang's recommendations; consequently, he ended up encircled and had to be rescued by Liu Ruming's forces. Of this incident, Feng reportedly commented that Han's military achievements were undone by his greed. Only in December 1927 was Xuzhou finally captured for the Northern Expedition.
Race to Beijing: growing disloyalty In February 1928, the second phase of the Northern Expedition was launched against Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique. By now, Han Fuju had become commander of the Third Route of the Guominjun, which had been reorganized into the Second Collective Army under the NRA. The joint offensive of the NRA, Guominjun, and Shanxi (which had also joined the KMT's cause) quickly overrun Shandong. Feng Yuxiang's army was attacked by Fengtian troops in a battle at the Zhang River, and Feng ordered Han to join the battle. However, Han retreated after incurring heavy losses against the Fengtian forces, prompting Feng Yuxiang to institute a no-retreat order, on pain of death.
After repeated failed assaults on the Fengtian lines, Han reportedly threw himself to the ground and said: "Our only option now is to advance: otherwise, the Commander-in-Chief (Feng) will surely execute me. If I'm going to be shot anyway, I'd rather die here!"(in Chinese: 我们现在的情形是只有前进，否则总司令必定枪毙我，我与其被枪毙而死，不如即死在此处！) Another account of this event has a similarly desperate Han threatening to jump into a river, only to be dissuaded by his own officers. In either case, this incident boosted the morale of his forces enough to break through the Fengtian defenses, which had collapsed by May. Han's armies subsequently advanced deep into Zhili, capturing Puyang, Xingtai, Daming, and Shimen.
Feng Yuxiang resolved to reach Beijing before Yan Xishan or any other NRA force. By June 6, Han Fuju's army had reached Nanyuan, entering the city two days before Yan Xishan and earning him the nickname of the "Flying General" (飞将军). He thus became the first NRA commander to enter Beijing during the Northern Expedition.
However, Chiang Kai-shek of the Nanjing government had already entrusted the area to Yan Xishan, which meant that the Guominjun would have to leave Beijing. Han and Feng were both humiliated by this, but Feng ordered Han not to make his displeasure public.
In the spring of 1928, an international incident occurred in Beijing, when Han Fuju conducted an unauthorized disarmament of a brigade belonging to former Fengtian commander , which had been withdrawing to Manchuria before being surrounded by Han's troops. This went against an agreement that the Nanjing government had conducted with foreign powers, assuring a peaceful and orderly withdrawal of Fengtian forces from Beijing. When envoys from Britain, the United States, Japan, and France attempted to negotiate the matter with Han, he refused all discussion, stating simply that the disarmament of the Fengtian army was an internal Chinese affair. During this incident, Han was also reportedly shirtless. Feng Yuxiang sent an urgent telegram to Nanjing, claiming that the disarmament happened before orders arrived and that it was not an intentional act of defiance on Han's part. Han was forced to release Bao Yulin's brigade and return the seized weapons, although not before incorporating some of its men into his army.