Wang Jingguo was a KMT

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

 general from Shanxi

Shanxi

' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....

. He was the son-in-law of the warlord who controlled Shanxi from 1911-1949, Yan Xishan

Yan Xishan

Yan Xishan, was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. Yan effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War...

. Wang served throughout his career in Yan's army, fighting in numerous campaigns.

Suiyuan

In 1936 units under Wang's command were sent to reinforce the Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

n province of Suiyuan, which Yan controlled. Wang's orders were to defend against an attack by the Japanese puppet army of Mengguguo

Mengjiang

Mengjiang , also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was an autonomous area in Inner Mongolia, operating under nominal Chinese sovereignty and Japanese control. It consisted of the then-Chinese provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, corresponding to the central part of modern Inner Mongolia...

, led by Prince Teh (Demchugdongrub)

Demchugdongrub

Prince Demchugdongrub was the leader of a Mongol independence movement in Inner Mongolia. He was the chairman of Mengjiang, a Japanese puppet state in World War II....

. Wang's senior commander in defending Suiyuan was Fu Zuoyi

Fu Zuoyi

Fu Zuoyi was a Chinese military leader. He began his military career in the service of Yan Xishan, and he was widely praised for his defense of Suiyuan from the Japanese. During the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, Fu surrendered the large and strategic garrison around Beiping to Communist...

, who was also an officer of Yan's. In the subsequent battle with Mengguguo, Prince Teh's forces were virtually annihilated, and Prince Teh lost all areas in Suiyuan and Chahar

Chahar

-Mongolian uses:* Chahar Mongols, a Mongol tribe* Chakhar dialect , a Mongolian dialect spoken by the Chahar tribe* Chahar Province a former province of China named after them* Chahar Right Front Banner, in Inner Mongolia, China...

 which were not under the immediate protection of the Japanese Kwangtung Army.

Second Sino-Japanese War

When the Japanese invaded Shanxi in 1937, Yan Xishan requested, and received, military aid from the Communist People's Liberation Army

People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...

, which entered Shanxi and set up operations in much of the province. By late 1938 Yan had become afraid of the rapid power and influence that the Communist forces operating in Shanxi quickly gained, and this fear caused Yan to become increasingly hostile to Communist agents and soldiers. In order to combat the spread and influence of communism within yan's armies and in the area that Yan controlled, Wang Jingguo persuaded Yan to establish an "National Revolutionary Comrades Association", a paramilitary organization that existed to identify and persecute Communists in Yan's territory and in the army. The actions of this Association eventually contributed to the destruction of all cooperation between Yan and the Communists in the winter of 1939. From 1939-1945 Yan was successful in keeping his territory free from Communist influence and activity.

Chinese Civil War

By 1948 all Nationalist forces in China, including Yan Xishan's forces, were being rapidly defeated by Chinese Communist armies. In March 1948 Yan himself was airlifted out of Taiyuan, taking most of the provincial treasury with him, apparently for the purpose of asking the central government to send more supplies and materiel to Yan's surrounded forces. Yan did not return. Wang Jingguo was left in charge of much of Yan's remaining forces, including all Nationalist reinforcements left stranded in Taiyuan. Wang's direct superior was a Japanese officer who had joined Yan's army after World War II, Imamura Hosaku, who continued to direct the resistance. In April, 1949, the Communists launched a final attack against Taiyuan's last defenders that included over 1,300 pieces of artillery and a force three times larger than the defenders. After Taiyuan fell, Wang Jingguo was captured. He was last seen in public being led through the streets at the end of a rope.