In February 1918 he was ordered to suppress the Constitutional Protection Movement, but proclaimed his support for peace talks in Hubei and was stripped of titles but permitted to stay in command of his forces.

He later joined Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army and with the help and advice of Chinese diplomat Wang Zhengting, converted to Christianity in 1914, being baptized into the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1923 Feng was inspired by Sun Yat-sen and secretly plotted with Hu Jingyi and Xue Yue to overthrow Wu Peifu and Cao Kun, who controlled the Beiyang government.

This turnabout prompted Shandong warlord Zhang Zongchang to join the Fengtian and led to a decisive defeat of the Zhili forces.

Feng imprisoned Zhili-leader and president Cao Kun, installed the more liberal Huang Fu, evicted the last Emperor Puyi from the Forbidden City and invited Sun Yat-sen to Beijing to resurrect the Republican government and reunify the country.

Chiang then incited anti-Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among the Chinese Muslims and Mongols, encouraging them to topple their rule.

[13] Stripped of his military power, Feng spent the early 1930s criticizing Chiang Kai-shek's failure to resist Japanese aggression.

On 26 May 1933, Feng Yuxiang became commander-in-chief of the Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army Alliance, with Ji Hongchang and Fang Zhenwu as frontline commanders.

Ji Hongchang's army, numbering over 100,000 men according to Feng, pushed against Duolun, and by July 1933 drove the Japanese and Manchukuoan troops out of Chahar Province.

In this capacity Feng led Chinese forces early in the defense of Shanghai, but he was quickly relieved in favor of Zhang Zhizhong and later Chiang himself.

After World War II he traveled to the United States, where he was an outspoken critic of the Chiang regime and of the Truman administration's support for it.

Barbara Tuchman tells the story: "a few days after her husband's death, Mrs. Stilwell was upstairs at her home in Carmel, California when a visitor was announced with some confusion as 'the Christian.'

Mystified, she went down to find in the hall the huge figure and cannonball head of [Feng Yuxiang], who said, 'I have come to mourn with you for Shih Ti-wei, my friend.

Allegedly, those who knew details of the shipboard fire and its circumstances had reported that Feng and his daughter perished in the middle of night, with their cabin door(s) locked from the outside.

The Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong classified Feng as a "good warlord", and his remains were buried with honors in 1953 at the sacred Mount Tai[17] in Shandong.

Many of Feng Yuxiang's former subordinates joined or merged into Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army and fought with distinction in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

They include Song Zheyuan, Tong Linge, Zhao Dengyu, Sun Lianzhong, Liu Ruming, Feng Zhi'an, Yang Hucheng, Ji Hongchang and Zhang Zizhong.

Sir Richard Evans, author of Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China, described Feng as "an honest man" in his book.

[19] Peter R. Moody wrote in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science "Many of Feng's allies might dispute this, since he betrayed every one of them.