Feng Guozhang rose through the ranks during the last decade of the Qing dynasty, serving as a division commander, the director of the military school for Manchu princes and nobles, and as the superintendent of the General Staff Council.

He reportedly had to survive part of his early life by playing the violin in theatres, before in 1886 becoming an orderly to one of his great-uncles, a battalion commander in Li Hongzhang's Huai Army.

[1][2] The academy was part of Li Hongzhang's effort to create a modernized army in China, teaching subjects such as military drill, engineering, surveying, and mathematics, as opposed to traditional Chinese literary examinations or physical tests.

[2] Feng Guozhang was briefly an instructor at the military academy in Tianjin until 1891, when he was assigned to Nie Shicheng's unit in Port Arthur, northeast China.

After the war, Feng was recommended by Nie Shicheng to serve as military attaché to Japan when Yukeng was sent there by the Qing dynasty as the Chinese minister in Tokyo.

He spent several months observing the Japanese military modernization program, especially their training methods, and recorded this information in a notebook that he later gave to Nie Shicheng, who sent it to Yuan Shikai.

[2] From 1896[4] Feng Guozhang was part of the officer corps of this brigade-size force, which became the nucleus of the Beiyang Army and also included other prominent future leaders.

[6] In addition, he was also the director of the Military School for Princes and Nobles[2] from January 1906, and in that role was given the rank of acting deputy lieutenant general of the Mongol Plain Yellow Banner.

[1][11] When Yuan Shikai was removed as Beiyang Army commander in 1907 and then dismissed from all posts in 1908, Feng continued at his influential position on the General Staff Council.

He held back the Beiyang Army until Yuan Shikai was restored to power and then proceeded to capture Hankou and Hanyang from the revolutionaries in the Battle of Yangxia.

On August 14 China entered World War I on the side of the Allies after growing evidence of the German Empire's support for Zhang's coup was uncovered, as well as intense lobbying by Premier Duan Qirui.

Sun Yat-sen set up a rival government in Guangzhou during September 1917 and also declared war later that month in a failed attempt to get international recognition.