Pang Bingxun

Pang Bingxun 庞炳勋
General Pang Bingxun
Nickname(s)	Pang The Undead
Born	1879 Xinhe County, Hebei
Died	1963 Taipei, Taiwan
Allegiance	Republic of China Nanjing Government
Years of service	1900-1949
Rank	General
Unit	Northwestern Army
Commands held	39th division, 3rd army, 40th corps, 24th army group, provincial governor of Hebei
Battles/wars	Xinhai Revolution, Zhili-Anhui War, First Zhili–Fengtian War, Beijing coup, Second Zhili–Fengtian War, Anti-Fengtian War, Northern Expedition, Central Plains War, Defense of the Great Wall, Actions in Inner Mongolia (1933–1936), Third Encirclement Campaign against Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet, Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, Battle of Taierzhuang, Battle of South Shanxi, Handan Campaign
Awards	Order of Blue Sky and White Sun, Order of the Ferocious Tiger
Other work	Restaurant owner, politician

Pang Bingxun (Traditional Chinese: 龐炳勳 Simplified Chinese: 庞炳勋 pinyin: Pang Bingxun; Wade–Giles: Pang Ping-hsun) (October 25, 1879- January 12, 1963) was a high-ranking nationalist military commander who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army and Chinese Communist Army. He stopped the IJA 5th Division led by General Seishirō Itagaki, one of the principal architects of the 1931 Manchurian incident, from capturing Linyi and converging with General Rensuke Isogai's IJA 10th Division at Tai'erzhuang District, foiling their plan to assault Xuzhou. [1]

General Pang was born in rural household in Hebei Province and joined the newly formed modern army under Qing Dynasty. After graduating from the Manchurian surveying Academy, he was given a rank equivalent of a captain, but when the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911 and his superiors suspected him as a revolutionary sympathizer and forced him to resign. After he returned home, Pang started several small businesses in order to make a living. In 1920, a bad drought hit his hometown and a famine broke out, he decided to take up military service again at the age of 41. So he entered the Northwestern Army and served under a number of local warlords, and eventually became one of the best known military commanders in the North China Region. When Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek launched the Northern Expedition in 1926, Pang was serving under General Wu Peifu, one of the most powerful warlords controlling Central and North China. Pang demonstrated his political shrewdness when he announced he was for the nationalist revolution and joined with General Tang Shengzhi. After Chiang Kai-shek purged the communists in the Shanghai Massacre, the Wuhan Nationalist Government ordered Pang Bingxun to attack Nanjing, Pang instead joined General Feng Yuxiang's Second Army Group and became a division commander in Feng's units. He fought with courage and distinction for Feng Yuxiang in the Central Plains War, but when General Zhang Xueliang, Commander-in-chief of the Northeastern Border Defense Army, formerly known as the Fengtian clique declared himself for Chiang Kai-shek, the anti-Chaing forces were quickly defeated. Pang again switched sides and declared himself for the Nationalist Government and became commander of the 40th corps. He participated in a number of actions against the Chinese Communist forces in Shaanxi province and defended North China against the Imperial Japanese Army led by Field Marshal Baron Nobuyoshi Mutō in the Defense of the Great Wall. In 1935, General Feng Yuxiang and a number of his old colleagues were involved in the Actions in Inner Mongolia (1933–1936) against Japanese penetration of the region. Because President Chiang Kai-shek still held out hopes for a peaceful settlement with Japan. President Chiang sent War minister General He Yingqin to disband Feng Yuxiang's Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army and named Pang Bingxun as Chairman of Chahar Province in order to appease the Japanese military leaders. The Nationalist Government made him a lieutenant general in 1936 and General Pang again supported Chiang Kai-shek during the Xi'an Incident and joined the Second Sino-Japanese War next year.