Shi Yousan

Shi was born in 1891 in Jiutai, Changchun, Jilin, to an impoverished local family. In his youth, Shi worked as an apprentice at the Bijia Grain Store in Changchun. There, Shi befriended Bi Guangyuan, a member from the wealthy Bi family, which enabled him to attend the government-run Dongguan Elementary. One of his elementary school teachers was a teenaged Shang Zhen. In 1908, he abandoned his studies to join the army, becoming a member of Wu Peifu's forces in the Third Division of the New Army, in the unit under Cao Kun's command, stationed in Changchun and later Langfang in Hebei. == Warlord Era ==

Service under Feng Yuxiang On 29 February 1912, while in Beijing, Shi abandoned Cao's troop when his fellow soldiers started the , motivated by unpaid salary and the controversial decision of Yuan Shikai to name Beijing the new capital in place of Nanjing. He answered a recruitment call by Feng Yuxiang, who described Shi as "having the head of a deer and the eyes of a rat, and [being] as skinny as firewood". Feng rejected his request to become a soldier in his army, for which Feng nicknamed him 'eight inches' () due to his short stature (160 cm), though he was allowed to join as a stableman. Shi eventually earned Feng's favor for displaying a strategic mindset during tactical meetings with his officers and showing off his hand-to-hand combat abilities he learnt during his three-month stay at a martial arts school (from which he was expelled after attempting to convince another student to take an exam for him). Additionally, despite being a senior secondary dropout, Shi still possessed a significantly higher education than most of Feng's soldiers and officers, and thus gradually rose through his ranks. In combat, Shi also distinguished himself as an effective commander, such as in the battle for Puyang under control of Chen Shufan during the Zhili–Anhui War. After several engagements by the regiments had failed, Shi organized a "death squad" composed of 120 soldiers, personally gave each one three silver dollars and led the charge on the village, resulting in a complete takeover. During his time in Feng's army, Shi became close to Gao Shuxun, who joined his company in 1916, and would regularly serve directly under Shi for the following decade and became sworn brothers. In 1924, Shi, along with Liu Guitang, led the North China National Protection Army, a largely independent unit known to engage in banditry in the rural area around Beijing. Shi became promoted to the commander of the 6th Division in September 1924. First Defections In 1926 during the Anti-Fengtian War, Shi's troops were stationed at Nankou (now Changping, Beijing), under regular threat of the Zhili and Fengtian clique alliance. Yan Xishan attacked the rear of the Guominjun from Shanxi, so Shi, along with Han Fuju's forces, were sent to fight against Yan's army. Due to the inferiority of their strength, Shi and Han brokered a non-aggression pact with Yan through Shi's old mentor Shang Zhen without Feng's knowledge and staged a retreat in August of the same year. The main force of Feng subsequently abandoned their hold in Beijing, with several deserters running into the units of Shi and Han and being absorbed into their forces. Facing defeat, Feng left the country for the Soviet Union, after which, Shi and Han decided to surrender to Yan. In June of the following year, the Guominjun was reorganized into the 2nd Army Group of the National Revolutionary Army, and Shi became the deputy commander-in-chief of the 1st Front Army and the commander of the 5th Army. In April, Shi participated in the against Sun Chuanfang, and was the only NRA general to maintain hold of the territory afterwards. By the end of 1928, the Northern Expedition was declared over. With the demobilization, Shi was assigned to the command the 24th Division of the National Revolutionary Army and was stationed at Nanyang. == Nanjing Decade ==

'' Central Plains War During the Central Plains War, Shi continued to serve under Feng. Following a series of defeats in May 1930, including the , and , Shi's secretary Liu Yidan arrived in Wuhan bearing a letter for He Yingqin, in which he agreed to side with the KMT government along with Han Fuju and all the soldiers under their command, totalling a third of all of Feng's forces. Shi had been incentivised by He's promise of generous concessions to generals under Feng willing to defect. It was this substantial loss that greatly contributed to Feng announcing his "retirement" and following flight to Taiyuan with Yan Xishan. On 1 June, Shi received a reward of five million yuan and was named commander-in-chief of the 13th Route of the Anti-Rebel Army in an impromptu ceremony in Xuchang through Chiang's emissary . Despite this, Shi would still covertly assist the remainder of the anti-Chiang forces under Sun Dianying in the Battle of Eastern Henan, capturing Caozhuang Village with plans to kidnap Chiang from his command post at nearby , but the assigned troops failed to complete the 30-mile trek due to rain. Conflict with Zhang Xueliang In early 1931, while in Shenyang, Shi initiated contact with fellow warlord Zhang Xueliang, who had similarly split off from Feng to work with the KMT, and offered to enter an alliance with him, to which Zhang agreed, giving Shi a monthly 600,000 yuan salary, with 200,000 yuan up front as a sign of goodwill. Shi then formed a military force headquartered in Xingtai, composed of tens of thousands of former soldiers under Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan and used them to occupy the Pinghan railway, having heard of Zhang's plans to do so. In May 1931, Shi began working with Wang Jingwei, who had also joined forces with Li Rongzen, Chen Jitang and Liu Guitang, promising Shi a position in the anti-Chiang government being established by the Western Hills Group led by Hu Hanmin in Guangzhou, also appointing commander-in-chief of the 5th Army Group and giving him 500,000 yuan. Assassination of Zhang Zongchang In September 1932, Shi was suspected of having taken part in the killing of warlord Zhang Zongchang, who had been a personal friend of his, in cooperation with his former allies Feng Yuxiang and Han Fuju, who had by then become military governor of Shandong. The day before Zhang's assassination, on 2 September 1932, Shi hosted a banquet in Han's name for Zhang to discuss a possible military operation to fight the Japanese, who had invaded Manchuria the previous year. Shi expressed great interest in the revolver Zhang carried with him and received the same gun as a present by the end of the festivities. The event was later alleged to have been a ploy intended to get Zhang drunk and disarm him before he left the province to depart for Beijing by ways of Jinan's train station, where Zhang would be shot to death by , the vengeful adoptive son of , a general under Feng and one of his brothers-in-law, who was killed by Zhang during the Warlord Era. Early Japanese Collaboration In October 1932, Shi left Jinan for the Japanese concession in Tianjin to attend clandestine meetings with Japanese general Kenji Doihara and collaborator Yin Rugeng, who had been providing him with local real estate for his cooperation. He also again associated with Liu Guitang, who was made an officer of the Manchukuo Imperial Army and had begun recruiting former warlords for Japan. Chiang Kai-shek was aware of this betrayal and ordered Beijing station commander to arrange Shi's assassination, who in-turn tasked agent Wang Wen with going to Tianjin. Wang bribed Shi's camp assistant Xian Hongxia to have a chef poison a hot pot Shi would eat with his third wife while she was on visit. The plan failed because Shi recognized the chef's anxious demeanour while serving and forced him at gunpoint to confess to the plot. Xian was arrested when she tried to grab Shi's pistol and handed over to Japanese authorities as an "agent of Nanjing", but Shi ultimately never learnt who ordered the attempt on his life. Shi briefly scaled back his dealings with Japan following the assassination of fellow warlord and collaborator Zhang Jingyao on 7 May 1933. That same month, following the Tanggu Truce, Shi was assigned Jibei (Northern Hebei) Security Command of the National Government by the Japanese occupation. Throughout 1934, during the late stages of the Pacification of Manchukuo, he and Liu Guitang acted as agitators for the Japanese concession, conducting bandit operations and organising public unrest against ROC security forces within civilian zones in Yutian, Zunhua, and other areas bordering Tianjin from their headquarters in Qinghe (now a subdistrict of Beijing). This ended on 3 August 1935, when Liu was critically injured in an assassination attempt in Luanzhou and temporarily put out of commission. The perpetrator, Li Zhenhua, claimed to have been acting on behalf of Shi and his inner circle, but Japanese officials heading the investigation instead blamed Tao Shaoming, who briefly held the executive office of supervisor and special delegate to the Manchukuo buffer zone before being ousted after refusing offers to become a collaborator. Tao was remanded into custody for two weeks, but let go after his release was negotiated due lack of evidence. In December 1935, Shi sought a government job from his old brother-in-arms Song Zheyuan, who was now Governor of Chahar Province. By this point, Song held a great deal of disdain for Shi, knowing full-well of Shi's repeated betrayals, but due to outside pressure from the Japanese, who held control over his governance, Song was convinced to make him the commander of the 181st Division, supposedly composed of former bandits under Feng Shoupeng in Hebei, to stop his persistent requests and keep him away from the Japanese forces he would likely be colluding with otherwise. Eventually, when the battalion was split into three regiments, Shi was reunited with Gao, who gained control of one of the other regiments along with Song. In early July 1936, Shi moved from the Japanese concession to the British concession in Tianjin, following another assassination attempt on Liu Guitang on 20 June. == Second Sino-Japanese War ==

In the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Shi pledged to aid the KMT in the resistance against the invasion of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, but secretly planned to overthrow Chiang from his leadership position, both in collaboration with and separately from several other ex-warlords. Shi's troops were reorganized into the 181st Division and later the 69th Corps. During the Battle of Taierzhuang, Shi and Gao commanded the 69th Corps and New Eight Army respectively. In the Battle of Wuhan the same year Shi briefly held Jinan with a garrison of 1,000 soldiers. Relations with the Eighth Route Army Starting around 1938, while serving as commander of the Nationalist 69th Corps and conducting guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in Shandong, Shi colluded with the Eighth Route Army of the CCP in Hebei without the knowledge of his superiors, after he gave them vital intel that allowed for the capture of guerrilla leader Qin Qirong, who was a trusted friend to Shi. While working with them, Shi would provide the Eighth Route Army guerillas with the locations of Japanese hideouts to strike, having planned to use the communists as a means to take control of Shandong, but grew disillusioned with this plan after realizing that he would not be getting promoted into higher ranks of leadership or given command over a large enough battalion to establish military governance. For a brief time, Deng Xiaoping and Yang Xiufeng worked in the departments supervised by Shi. Alliance with the Imperial Japanese Army In spring 1940, Shi, who had thus far kept his collaboration with the Imperial Japanese Army largely covert and on a transactional level, agreed with his contact Sasaki in Kaifeng and fellow NRA general-turned collaborator to use his troops to strike against his fellow Chinese, whether that be KMT or CCP, starting on precisely midnight to 1 January 1941, for which he was to be given the leadership of a puppet regime the Japanese would establish in Southeastern China. In November 1940, Shi married Lin Weijun, his fifth wife/concubine, making Shi the son-in-law of the late author , coincidentally a victim of Zhang Zongchang. Lin was coerced into marrying Shi by having his subordinates surveil and track her movements until she accepted his proposal. == Death ==

In late 1940, while leading the 39th Army Group of the National Revolutionary Army, Shi once more served with Gao Shuxun. While in Liulin in Dongming County, Shandong, Gao incidentally read a telegram in Shi's quarters that revealed his defection to the Japanese and confronted Shi with this. Shi let Gao in on his plans to switch sides and tried to convince him to join him in doing so. Gao was disgusted by the offer and declined, saying "I'd rather be a hungry ghost than a traitor!" () In response, Shi attempted to absorb several of the troops under Gao's command into his own; despite having different ranks, both controlled equal numbers of soldiers, who refused to subject the regiment size to change. Although Gao first kept quiet about Shi's betrayal, Gao began to suspect that a Japanese ambush on a railway near the KMT headquarters in Dingtao that resulted in 2,000 casualties in the summer was made possible by Shi's collaboration with the enemy, and believed it had been a precision hit in an attempt to kill him for having ruined his plans with Ding Shuben a few weeks earlier. Gao reported Shi and received orders from Wei Lihuang representing Chiang Kai-shek to have Shi executed for treason. Shi was kept under close watch for a few days until the evening of 1 December, when Gao had his troops storm a meeting he had staged between him, Shi, and Sun Liangcheng in Sun's camp in Liuxia, Puyang County. After four of Gao's men pinned Shi to the ground and disarmed his two bodyguards, Gao, in response to Shi's visible bewilderment, reportedly told him, "If it is not me who kills you, it will be the Heavens who kills you. If it is not the Heavens who kills you, it will be the Earth who kills you. If it is not the Earth who kills you, it will be Chiang who kills you! What goes around comes around, and crimes have just punishments!", ("") he revealed that he had informed his superiors and that the execution was an order from Chiang Kai-shek. Arrest and execution Gao's troops took Shi to the bank of the Yellow River just outside of Puyang, had a grave dug for Shi and proceeded to bury him alive. Initially, Shi vehemently protested and scolded Gao for being a disloyal friend, before he began pleading for his life. The burial took 30 minutes and Gao gained command of Shi's unit. Shi's death coincided with his 49th birthday. ==See also==