Hu Kexian

Who was Hu Kexian?

Hu Kexian was a Chinese general who served in the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. The 6th year graduate of the famous Whampoa Military Academy the age of 19, Hu Kexian became a major general at the age of 28 and was in charge of the only heavy artillery regiment of the ROC army during his time. His heavy artillery regiment played a major role during the Second Sino-Japanese war such as the Battle of Shanghai because the artillery regiment was trained under the German Nazi instructors and possessed the most effective weaponry in both skill and technology for its time.

The son of an ex-government official of the Qing Dynasty, Hu Kexian was sent away by his parents to study business in Chongqing when he was a teenager; However, Hu Kexiang ran away en route to Chongqing and joined the Huangpu Army Academy in Nanjing. The young man had the ambition of helping Chiang Kai-shek to restore order to China during the period of chaos with warlords throughout the country. By the time Hu Kexian graduated the academy, the campaign against the warlords had already ended, but the invasion of the Japanese had just begun.