Early military career

This section does not cite any sources. (April 2024)

Yu Yingqi was born in Baojing, Hunan. His family lived in Miao County in western Hunan for generations. At the age of eleven, he followed his father Yu Kaichen (who served as the commander of the Guangdong Army in Leizhou, Guangdong) to study at the Guangdong Provincial Police School and Zhaoqing Xijiang Martial Arts Hall, and entered the beginning of his military career. After graduation, he served as a police inspector. Later he transferred to Yu Hanmou's troops under Chen Jitang of the Guangdong Army and served as a platoon leader. During Chen Jiongming's Eastern Expedition, he was promoted to captain and company commander for his bravery in combat. Appreciated by Chen Jitang, he was promoted to major and battalion commander. Later, he served as the major and squadron leader of the officer brigade under Chen Quzhen of the Hunan Army. Soon he was transferred to the major battalion commander of the third battalion of the New 34th Division Teaching Group, and then was transferred to the deputy commander of the Longshan Security Group lieutenant colonel. After the Hunan Army troops were reorganized, they returned to the Guangdong Army Chen Jitang's troops as colonel commander.

Second Sino-Japanese War

This section does not cite any sources. (April 2024)

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yu was appointed colonel of the 956th Regiment of the 160th Division of the 66th Army of the National Army, and went north to fight against Japan and participated in the Battle of Shanghai. Due to his bravery in combat, he was promoted to major general and brigade commander of the 478th Brigade of the 160th Division of the 66th Army. Two months later, he was ordered to lead the troops to participate in the defense of Nanjing. On 5 December, in Tangshan, outside Nanjing, he fought with the Japanese army for three hours with only one regiment left. He was shot several times, but he continued to urge his subordinates to resist the enemy without risking his own life. He bled excessively and fainted. The soldiers carried Yu Yingqi into the city of Nanjing, and were protected and rescued by doctors from the American Red Cross Drum Tower Hospital. Then he traveled to Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital via Shanghai for half a year. After treatment, the bullet was still lodged in his right knee and left numerous scars on his back, hence the name Nine-spotted Dragon. After the defense of Nanking, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Yu Yingqi to Wuhan, asked him about his injuries in the battle, and awarded him 10,000 silver dollars as a consolation. Yu Yingqi put all the money in his hometown of Baojing to establish "Yingqi Primary School".

In 1938, he was transferred to Major General of the 20th Independent Brigade and was stationed in Huizhou to fight against the Japanese on the Nanxun line in Jiangxi and Baoan in Guangdong. His goal was to intercept the enemy lines between Qingyuan and Fogang in northern Guangdong to prevent Guangzhou from falling.

In the autumn of 1939, he was ordered to move to the front line of Huiyang and attack the enemies on the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway, as well as the enemy's military strongholds, ammunition warehouses and granaries in Shenzhen, which made the Japanese army exhausted.

From 1940 to 1942, Yu Yingqi went to Chongqing Army University to study in the fifth general class. In 1943, he entered the U.S. Military Officers' Tactical School in China, India and Myanmar for training. He rescued Allied pilots many times and received awards from the Allies. After graduation, he served as major general commander of the Hailufeng Garrison Area of the Republic of China. In the winter of 1944, he entered the General School Research Class of the Cadre Training Group of the Military Commission for training. In 1945, he served as major general and deputy division commander of the 209th Division of the Youth Army of the Republic of China until the end of the Anti-Japanese War.

Chinese Civil War

In 1946, the Youth Army was demobilized, and Yu Yingqi entered the military service class of the Central Training Corps for training. After graduation, he was transferred to Major General Commander of Guangdong Hailufeng Garrison Area.

In 1947, he returned to Hunan from Guangdong and ran for the Hunan representative position at the National University, and was elected with a high vote. At that time, T. V. Soong was in charge of Guangdong and was appointed as the Administrative Inspector of the Fifth District of Guangdong Province and the Commander of the Fifth Suppression District. More than a thousand young people from western Hunan admired him and went to Guangdong to follow Yingqi's example and enter the cadre training class. After training, the political team was engaged in intelligence, and the military team was responsible for clearing the guards of the district headquarters and the commissioner's office. At this time, the communist army in Dongjiang became increasingly active, and local security was no longer calm. After the communist army crossed the river, the National Revolutionary Army suffered successive defeats and the war situation continued to reverse. In early October, Chiang Kai-shek hosted a banquet at the official residence of Guangdong Provincial Chairman Xue Yue in Guangzhou. He summoned Yu and gave him face-to-face instructions on how to suppress communists. He also issued instructions to the Ministry of National Defense. Yu Yingqi was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Fujian-Guangdong Border Region Bandit Suppression Headquarters, with the rank of lieutenant general, stationed in Songkou, Meixian County.

From 1948 to 1949, he took up his post in Songkou. Less than half a year later, the national army's campaign to suppress the Communists failed successively, and the army retreated south one after another. After Hu Lien's 12th Corps broke out of the Huaihai Campaign, it moved to Guangdong and restationed in Meixian and Chaoshan areas. Yu Yingqi was ordered to hand over the task of suppressing the Communists in the area to Hu Lian's 12th Corps. Yu Yingqi's Fujian-Guangdong Border Area Bandit Suppression Headquarters was moved to Chao'an, leaving only one security brigade and an infantry division transferred from Taiwan by the central government, with a total strength of more than 10,000 troops. In order to undermine Yu Yingqi's prestige, the Communist Army used the incident of detaining Jieyang celebrity Wu Luxun to create public opinion in newspapers and magazines. Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily also called Yu Yingqi the "King of Eastern Guangdong."

In 1941, when Yu Yingqi was studying at Chongqing Army University, he met Peng Siyan, a fellow student from Chongqing Jiangjin Normal College. Peng Siyan joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1938 and served as Secretary of the Baojing County Committee of the CCP in 1939. Yu Yingqi enthusiastically pursued Peng Siyan. This was the second period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the CCP. According to the CCP's united front policy, Peng Siyan determined that Yu was the object of unity, and she agreed to marry Yu Yingqi. In 1948, Peng Siyan settled in Hong Kong and tried every means to find a party organization, and finally met Rao Zhangfeng, who later served as director of the United Front Work Department of the South China Bureau of the CCP. Rao knew all about Peng's experience and political situation, so he arranged relevant work for her. At that time, Yu Yingqi served as Lieutenant General Commander-in-Chief of the Bandit Suppression Headquarters in the Fujian-Guangdong Border Region. Peng Siyan traveled between Hong Kong and Chaoshan many times to collect information about the strength and equipment of the Kuomintang's Aodong troops and report to the Hong Kong underground party. She also risked her life to raise funds for the East River Column of the People's Liberation Army and assisted the party organization in instigating rebellion against Yu Yingqi.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1949, the national situation was in complete turmoil, with inflation and financial chaos. In order to strengthen the military strength, Hu Lien's Twelfth Corps conscripted civilians in the Chaoshan area and used them as soldiers (later public opinion also attributed this account to Yu Yingqi). On 23 April, the government of the Republic of China moved the capital to Guangzhou. Wuhan fell, and the Communist army approached Guangdong along Hengyang, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou in Fujian. Yu Yingqi implemented two major methods of raising taxes. One was to allow public gambling in Shantou, and the other was to impose a per-piece escort tax on cargo loaded on incoming and outgoing ships at various river ports in eastern Guangdong. Hu Lian filed a lawsuit against the central government claiming that Yu Yingqi had allowed gambling in Shantou, and the gambling was therefore suspended. Only by relying on this escort tax can the armaments and salaries of multiple new regiments be self-sufficient. He was ordered to concurrently serve as lieutenant general and commander of the 321st Division of the Army.^{[citation needed]}

The 321st Division evacuated Shantou on 8 October. When they arrived at Huangpu, the central government had decided to abandon Guangzhou and move to Chongqing. The troops of the 321st Division then turned around and retreated toward Leizhou Peninsula. Stationed in Shuidong Township, Dianbai County for a week to gather and replenish. The central government changed Yu Yingqi's Fujian-Guangdong Border Area Bandit Suppression Headquarters to the Guangdong-Guangdong East Border Area Bandit Suppression Headquarters. Yu Yingqi was appointed interim commander of the Fifth Army of the Republic of China to provide unified command for the retreat. Yu Yingqi's troops advanced in three directions to the south of Guangdong, and retreated in a unified manner along southern Guangdong. Including all the party, government, military, agencies, banks and associations in southern Guangdong; plus the small army of Bai Chongxi, the Central China governor who was defeated by Lin Biao, nearly ten thousand people also defected to Yu Yingqi. They retreated along the road and recruited local teams. When the troops arrived in Maoming County, there was a regiment of troops. Including party, government, and public education employees, the total number of troops exceeded 80,000. Under the offensive of the People's Liberation Army, on 31 October, Yu Yingqi led his troops to withdraw from Maoming County together with Wu Bin, Commissioner of the Thirteenth District, and Miao Renren, Magistrate of Maoming County. Soon, the People's Liberation Army occupied Maoming County on 2 November.^[1]

On 10 December, he arrived outside Lianjiang. Yu Yingqi visited Shen Fazao, commander of the Fourth Corps, who had been fighting hard for many days in Lianjiang, to discuss cooperation strategies against the enemy. Since the Communist Army was good at long night battles, the two sides agreed that all parties would hold their positions firmly that night and meet with support aircraft from Hainan Island the following morning for a joint land and air battle involving 100,000 troops. That night, because the troops had been marching for a long time and had not eaten for a long time, they asked Shen Fazao to hold a meal. Unexpectedly, during the meal, the Communist troops, who were delighted with the sneak attack at night, launched a lightning attack on the troops who were dining and surrounded the troops in an arc. And the circle is more than 40 kilometers long. Shen Fazao's 20,000 troops and Yu Yingqi's troops were caught off guard, and the whole army collapsed. Yu Yingqi was captured in Lianjiang the next day.

After Yu Yingqi was captured, he was detained in Meihua Village, Dongshan, Guangzhou. The Communist Party Governor of Guangdong, Ye Jianying, and the Mayor of Guangzhou, Fang Fang, successively used conciliatory measures in the hope that Yu Yingqi would be loyal to the Communist Party, but he refused to surrender. In November 1950, Yu Yingqi was taken back to Shantou for public trial, locked in a wooden fence, and paraded through the streets. On 28 November, Yu Yingqi was shot to death by the Dongjiang People's Liberation Army. His body was exposed to the public and was not allowed to be buried. It was quietly buried by an unknown Buddhist charity a few days later. On 30 March 1951, the President of the Republic of China issued an explicit order praising Feng Zhun for entering the Martyrs' Shrine. In 1985, the Chinese Communist Party gained access to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.