1931–1933: Local pirate ''|upright=0.7 In 1931, Xu Ashu led a large pirate raid in
Ganpu (a town by
Hangzhou Bay). The local government in Jiangsu eventually defeated and captured Xu Ashu with a hastily assembled fleet. While in captivity, Ashu told the authorities that Huang and her associate Shi Lianyuan (the salt merchant) had participated in the attack and had been significant in providing the weapons used. Huang and Lianyuan escaped and hid in various places to avoid the authorities. Almost a year later in 1932, Huang emerged again as a pirate. She is recorded to have plundered, kidnapped and murdered traders and ordinary people and in one notable incident boarded a
steamer and robbed the eight wealthy families on board. At this time Huang operated under the alias "Woman He-Zhang" (何張氏;
Hé-Zhāng shì). One report mentions that Huang and 6,000 subordinates were fighting for the Japanese in early 1938. Huang was captured by Japanese forces in
Pudong in August 1938 and was the subject of a propaganda campaign to paint her as a traitor solely aligned with Japan. This had little effect and she was shortly thereafter free again and once again recruited by the Chinese military. In 1939, the Chinese government-aligned magazine
Friends of the Wounded published an article praising Huang as a war heroine with impressive shooting skills and downplaying her criminal and suspect past. She also led her forces in several battles, particularly in western Zhejiang. She captured some towns in the region and expanded her control to encompass a relatively large local area. She also aided Chinese forces through escorting agents and covert operatives into Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Huang was briefly captured by the communist
New Fourth Army in 1942 but released after being given a "brief education". As
World War II intensified in the
Pacific Ocean and the Chinese forces began cooperating with the United States, Huang was in contact with the United States
Office of Strategic Services. She was assisted by the United States military and was at one point given four new pistols and eight new submachine guns by the Americans. She was sometimes promoted and publicised in Chinese propaganda.
1945–1948: Interwar life After the conclusion of the war with Japan in 1945, Huang was relieved of her large-scale military duties on account of the Chinese military mistrusting her. Huang returned to her hometown, where she was appointed as the leader of a minor military unit called the
Pinghu Community Defense Corps. Only a few months into this role, Huang revolted against the government, bringing many of the Pinghu Community Defense Corps and a large number of weapons with her into Lake Tai and resuming her career as a pirate. Huang raided local communities and sent her followers out on missions to assess the movements of government forces sent to suppress her. The motivation for Huang to return to piracy are unclear. In practical terms her actions differed little from how she had operated during the war. Huang was eventually defeated by government forces but was not punished for her crimes. Instead, the government spread a
fake news story that she had not been present during the uprising or during the pirate attacks and that previous reports had been erroneous. After this, Huang acquired a seaside hotel in Zhapu. Huang's hotel became a popular resort, visited by reporters, writers, diplomats and government officials. Huang also invested in real estate, opened several shops, gave talks about her battles against the Japanese during the war, and was elected as a representative to the council of Pinghu County.
1948–1951: Chinese Civil War Huang was once more recruited by the Chinese military in 1948, invited to join a bandit-suppression committee to help make battle preparations against
Ding Xishan, a bandit-turned-commander for the communist forces. Huang was tasked to collect intelligence information and mobilise guerrilla forces in Pinghu,
Haiyang and Jinshan. In 1949, Mao Sen recruited Huang and her husband to lead forces along the coasts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They shortly thereafter moved to the Yangshan islands, where Mao Sen made them the leaders of a new branch of his army, the
Haibei Combat Corps. As commanders, Huang and Xie participated in battles and were in contact with forces on the mainland. In March 1950, Huang and her forces defeated communist forces in battle close to Zhapu. Within a month of their victory, a renewed communist assault forced most of the nationalist forces at Yangshan to escape to
Taiwan. Huang was among the last to leave, staying for a few weeks before leading the last remaining defenders to the
Dachen Islands. In May 1950, she is recorded to have arrived in Taiwan to take part in the defense of the island and to help prepare a counteroffensive to retake the Chinese mainland. Huang was reported by the
United Press to have stated that she considered Taiwan itself to be "unconquerable". In between military missions, Huang also served the government in other ways. When
Soong Mei-ling, wife of the nationalist leader
Chiang Kai-shek, created the
Chinese Women's Anticommunist and Anti-Soviet-Union Association in 1950, she invited Huang to serve on the organization's committee. As a committee member, Huang oversaw the care of orphans and widows on the Dachen Islands. The outbreak of the
Korean War (1950–1953) influenced the United States to strengthen relations with the remaining Chinese nationalist forces on Taiwan. As part of this, the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created a joint guerrilla warfare programme with the nationalists and began to recruit leaders in secret. Huang was one of the first approached, being contacted in 1951, but she was advised by her friends and by some government officials not to join, perhaps out of suspicion of the CIA and due to preferring to work directly with the nationalist forces. == Later life and death ==