Born in 1898 in Wuyi, Zhejiang, Tang Enbo was a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, and therefore was familiar with the tactics of his Japanese enemy during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Tang's early resistance to the Japanese invasion was most ineffective, due to the political situation in China— Tang's superior Chiang Kai-shek was reluctant to devote his best troops to fight the Japanese invaders, wishing instead to use them to exterminate the Communists. Limited in troops and material, any commander would have had great difficulties in fighting such a superior enemy, and Tang Enbo was no exception.