During the Liaoshen Campaign he served as the deputy commander-in-chief of Manchuria and director of the command center in Jinzhou with the rank of lieutenant general in the National Revolutionary Army.

In 1920 he was transferred to the Department of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, fighting local pirates and repress smuggling activities, and then he was promoted to the rank of captain on the Jiangping Warship.

Because the successful outcome of the first KMT-CPC cooperation, Fan Hanjie had high hopes for the national revolution and he took the entrance exams and was easily admitted, is the only student who held the rank of colonel in the entire academy.

By Chiang Kai-sheik's orders, he was sent to the Zhejiang province as the garrison commander, as a Whampoa graduate of first class, and in August, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, Zhejiang Guard division was abolished and Fan Hanjie was transferred to the NRA General Headquarters of the 8th Route Army.

Because Wei Lihuang refused to concentrate the majority of the nationalist forces in Jinzhou and unable to disobey the orders of his superior officer, Fan fought as hard as he could, but he was outmaneuvered by the communist forces led by Lin Biao, who used massed artillery to achieve a breakthrough into the city defense, and on October 15, 1948, Jinzhou had fallen and Fan was captured by the communist Manchurian Field Army.