Defend Jinling: From the Start, I Have a Fortress

In 1908, young officer Zhu Qing'an transmigrated to the closing years of the Qing dynasty and became the regimental commander of a regiment in the Beiyang Army’s Sixth Division. Though only a mid-ranking officer, he used his forward-looking tactical ideas to make the most of his limited authority: improving equipment, training elite troops, and quietly laying the foundations of his own military-industrial enterprise within the logistics system. In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and the situation changed dramatically. Zhu Qing'an seized the opportunity history offered, leading his best troops to victory in a pivotal battle with a brilliant tactical strike. He quickly emerged as a rising power among the revolutionary forces. After the Republic of China was founded, his military achievements and outstanding ideas on army-building earned him the government’s trust. He was given the chance to create and command a brand-new model force of his own. A firm believer in “saving the nation through military industry,” he drove sweeping military reforms: standardizing the adoption of German equipment, establishing a modern staff system, founding an officers’ academy, and investing heavily in heavy industry and defense technology. Knowing that war with Japan was inevitable, Zhu Qing'an devoted his life to building an iron-blooded army whose equipment and tactical thinking were ahead of their time. When the flames of the War of Resistance against Japan engulfed the country in 1937, his steel force had become a Great Wall that made the invaders tremble, determined to change the fate of the nation once and for all.