A member of the Fengtian clique, Zhang was notorious for his brutal and ruthless behavior, eccentric personality, and extravagant lifestyle, which earned him nicknames such as the "Dogmeat General"; Time dubbed him China's "basest warlord".

[1] Zhang's troops were defeated by the National Revolutionary Army during the Northern Expedition in 1928, and he fled to Japan before returning to Shandong in 1932, where he was assassinated by a young officer.

[6][7] However, the division's connection with the revolutionaries caused General Feng Guozhang to disband the entire unit, reducing Zhang to a merely symbolic role.

They trained their Chinese counterparts, resulting in greater efficiency in taking care of Zhang's wounded troops, a significant boost for morale and combat capability.

[13] In 1924, he took part in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War, capturing the crucial Lengkouguan Pass after the Zhili clique's defenses were thrown into chaos due to Feng Yuxiang's betrayal.

[15][11] He also acted as benefactor for artists, writers, entertainers, arms dealers, drug kingpins, diplomats, and Western journalists.

[15] As his position in Shandong was threatened to be overrun, Zhang requested a resident German technician named Franz Oster to build more aircraft for his air force to counter the advancing KMT.

Gathering tens of thousands of demobilized soldiers who were still loyal to them, the three warlords fought for several months against Liu's followers, thereby causing great destruction and many casualties among the civilian population.

[21] Later that year, he was living quietly in Beppu, Japan, with his mother, though he was thrown into the spotlight again when he "accidentally" shot Prince Xiankai (憲開), a cousin of the deposed emperor Puyi.

[22] After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese government arranged Zhang's return to China in agreement that he would use his connections to recruit remnants of the Beiyang Army for them.

Instead, upon arrival, Zhang declared his intention to assist the Chinese resistance against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, meeting with the new military governor of Shandong, Han Fuju.

When he returned to the city's railway station to travel to Beijing at around 6 p.m., Zhang was fatally shot by Zheng Jicheng [zh].

"[15] Zheng, after peacefully surrendering to the authorities, was kept imprisoned for seven months before being granted clemency and receiving a full pardon by the Kuomintang government in 1933.

[24] Contemporary claims were made that the "filial murder" might have been part of a plan set up by Han to remove Zhang with assistance from Shi, who might have aimed to leave Zhang defenseless by flattering him into handing over his means of self-protection, as a potential political rival, combined with the fact that Han was a personal friend of Zheng Jinsheng during the Warlord Era.

[23][25][26] At Han's house, Zhang had actually been inadvertently seated in direct line of sight with a photo of Zheng Jinsheng and was briefly believed to have suspected ulterior motives when his expression changed drastically during the banquet, only to instead take note that exactly thirteen people were in the room.

[15] After his death, a shop clerk named Liang Zuoyou claimed to have found a $30 million check belonging to the Nanjing government on Zhang's body.

Finance Minister T. V. Soong provided Liang with a first-class train ticket to personally return the check to the state treasury in Nanjing.

The government was ridiculed by the press for the event, while the clerk greatly profited, as he had exchanged the first-class ticket for a third-class one and pocketed the difference.

Zhang Zongchang was one of the most infamous and well-known Chinese warlords,[2] and it is difficult to differentiate truth from slander and legends in regards to his life.

[32] His opponents stated that his behaviour was "mindlessly brutal" during his military campaigns[6] and that he had "the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger".

[35] Writer Lin Yutang called Zhang "the most colorful, legendary, medieval, and unashamed ruler of modern China".

He repeatedly met and played poker with Oei Hui-lan, a socialite and wife of Chinese statesman Wellington Koo.

[42][50] However, some sources have disputed these poems as being fabrications made by his political opponent Han Fuju to slander Zhang Zongchang.

Though not very pious, Zhang was strongly influenced by a Daoist diviner,[52] Tong Huagu,[7] who had allegedly convinced the warlord of his powers by successfully prophesying that a train would derail.

[52] In summer 1927, a famine struck Shandong particularly hard, and Zhang Zongchang was reported to have gone into a temple of the Dragon King to pray for rain.

After defeating the army of general Wu Peifu by making his enemy's forces defect, he rewarded the defectors by allowing them to keep their original ranks.

[54] He usually travelled with a coffin planted atop a car during his campaigns; this was a typical way at the time to signify one's willingness to die in combat.

When his troops were forced back during one campaign he was true to his word—he was paraded through the streets, sitting in his coffin and waving to the cheering crowd.