Wu Pei Fu/Sun Chuanfang--maritime/naval assets

[Jerry Asher]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for an article for the naval and maritime assets of these two leaders? Preferable in English, French, Italian, Spanish but Chinese will do. If in Chinese any chance you can scan and email me @[email protected].
Here's my take--Wu Peifu--in 1926 has flotilla on Yangzi,, it does transport work, Wuhan to Yueyang? Some ships are used to evacuate Yueyang last week of August. Gunboat (gunboats) assist in defense of Wuchang August 31st through October 10th 1926. Which ships?nava? merchant? what is their port?
In re Sun Chuanfang--has access to all merchant shipping in lower and middle Yangzi--ships are major east west means of movement. Sun deploys Aug/Sept from Nanjing area to Juijiang/Nanchang battlefield,---these are not minor movements, somewhere between 60,000 to 100,000 men, mounts brillant amphibious ops to releive Wuchang--loses Nanchang then Juijiang retreats via sampan, junks and steamships---DETAILS (am aware of loss of Kiang Yun). Many thanks in advance.

[YC Chen]

Hello!

Excited to find someone who has the same interest and the same problem with me. I have been looking for information on Wu Peifu and Sun Chuangfang's maritime assets for quite a long time but found little. So I hope somebody here can help us out.

Maybe this weekend I'll dug up what I have find on this topic over the years and post them here.

[YC Chen]

Hello,
I have been very busy recently so still don't have time to dig up all the information I have found, although there is not much. But today I first share some information on one of the most intensive naval battles in China from 1920s: the battle of Zhapu(乍浦) between Sun Chuangfang and Chang Tso-lin's warships.

A very informative small Chinese article on this can be found here on a Chinese forum(hope you can read it):
http://www.cnhi.org/b/viewthread.php?tid=443297&page=1

And here I upload a Fengtian Clique document from November 1925. It is a report on the Battle of Zhapu from Fengtian side, and it claims that(see the underlined part) Fengtian fleet engaged with Sun Chuanfang's patrolling ship "Chao Wu"(超武) and "Hai Jing"(海靖). After a intense battle "Hai Jing" was sunk and "Chao Wu" was also damaged. The casualties on Fengtian side were few.

P.S. I just noticed that this is my 500th post on this forum!!

[Jerry Asher]

May I add: I now doubt that the Northeast Naval Squadron hired itself out to Wu Peifu or collaborated with him along the Yangzi. Wu did employ ships, merchant and naval--so the question is where did he get them? Were they local Hunan or Hubei lake or river craft? Certainly Sun Zhangfang, would not have wanted to assist, or wanted Yang Shuzhuang to have his ships get involved prior to August 1926. Still in late August and early September armed ships are still identified as Wu's assisting in defense of Wuchang. It is possible that in mid or late August, Sun, Yang or both did agree to work with Wu. But it is clear that Sun had significant naval support during his drive to lift the siege of Wuchang and deployed as far west as Daye. Much later, end of February 1927/first of March we have Chuyu, Chuchien and Chutung at Juijiang and by March 4th in support of 37th Army at Wuhu. The question is what naval units operated west of Wuhu and when? Also what merchant ships? We have the Kiangwo and Kiangwah west of Wuhu. What is it about Yang Shuzhuang I am missing? Did Yang's ships engage the Wusung fort prior to the arrival of Jiang Jieshi on March 26th 1927?