Zhang Fakui - Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Fakui commanded the 8th Army Group in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, 2nd Army Corps in the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. He Commanded 4th War area from 1939 to 1944, defending Guangdong and Guangxi against the Japanese in South China, achieving a victory in the Battle of South Guangxi. He then was appointed as commander in Chief of the Guilin War Zone during the Japanese Operation Ichigo. As Commander in Chief 2nd Front Army he accepted the surrender of the Japanese Twenty-Third Army in Guangdong at the end of the War.

There was a unique feature for the telephone conversations with Chiang Kai-Shek, because Zhang was a Hakka, and the two had difficulties in understanding each other: instead of simply hanging up the phone after giving out orders like he did to everyone else, during the conversation with Zhang, Chiang always asked Zhang if he understood what he had just said, and Chiang always waited until after Zhang gave an affirmative answer.

During the struggle against the Japanese, Zhang was among the first Army Corps commanders to ask the Chinese military to change its code because he discovered that Japanese could easily decode the Chinese code at the early stage of the war. After the war he was made to march into Hong Kong accept the surrender of the Japanese troops and stayed until the restoration of the British.Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His medal was presented by Governor of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young in May 1947. (The Straits Times, 3 May 1947)

Zhang was nicknamed Zhang Fei, after the historical Three Kingdoms figure.