war of cliques

what were the four cliques

Zhili, Fengtian, Anhui

Guangxi

what did the warlords want

international recognition, power, money?

who was Fengtian clique warlord Zhang Zoulin?

• led manchuria with japanese backed funds (connections via russo-japanese war)

• funded army into a modernized and well-trained unit

• gained lots of arsenal, mongolian and zhili territory from the anhui vs zhili-fengtian war of 1920

• felt held back by Japan but still made the central government his puppets

who was Wu Peifu warlord of Zhili clique?

• fought with Fengtian in 1920

• now hates him because he is an imperialist

• offered help from Japan (as well as anhui) but refused because he was backed by Italy

how did the foreigners play a part in this?

• were in trading ports

• supported by britain, france, italy, and (especially) soviet union, japan

• not ideological, simply power

• japan was seemingly non-interventionist; they wanted him in just japan for their own interests

• provided weapon surplus even though it was illegal

• employed by Zhang Zongchang (F) and Sun Yat Sen

who was Sun Yatsen leader of the Kuomintang (KMT)

• a party for democracy, originally from 1912

• against warlords

• used soviets

compare the Zhang and Wu armies

men: 120K vs 100k (250K?)

field guns: 150 vs 100

machine guns: 150 to 100

describe the first war of the cliques

• fengtian’s zhang convinced Sun Yat Sen and Anhui to attack Zhili from all fronts

• Sun Yat Sun had to leave due to regional conflict

• Used Marco Polo Bridge, and North/South railway lines in the north to fight

• Zhili Christian Warlord beat Fengtian making them flee to Shanghai

• Zhili now had control of Beinjing but couldn’t go after Zhnag in Manchuria

how did Zhang respond to his first loss?

• made his three provinces independent from Beining

• created central headquarters

• Japanese trained officers

• 200k in combat groups

what infighting occured for the Zhili?

• Cao Kun bribed to presidency but fought for power against Wu

• Feng Yuxiang (Christian Warlord) was a Zhili Clique Officer who resented Wu’s Control

what happened after Zhili’s takeover? the second war

• they were cornered by enemies but had a plan to unite everyone

• caused infighting between Anhui and Zhili in Shanghai

• Zhang Zoulin accepted called for help

• Wu divided army into 3 and one would go to Manchuria

• Zhang stopped advance though

• Feng Yuxiang (Christian Warlord) refused to listen to immoral Wu due to his progressiveness and when tasked with attacked Zhang from behind, went to arrest Cao

• Wu retreated without weapons to Huawei (guangdong) and lost power

what happened after the Zhili lost power?

• Zhang and Feng redistributed Zhili land

• Soviets liked Feng but not Zhang so they sent him weapons and ….

• Zhang was worried about invasion

• So the “Guomindang?” and Fengtian fought

how did the people see feng and zhang?

feng was a traitor and zhang was an illegimate ruler

what was going on in the south with Sun Yat Sen?

• he was unifying plans against warlords

• the kmt would become a viable alternative

• but they needed military victory over the north

• decided to create nationalist, revolutionary ideology via military academy for loyalty

• soviets gave support (grifting to communism from CCP, led by Chen Duxiu)

what happened after Sun died?

• the KMT became more extremist on both sides

• Chiang Kai Sek launched a national expedition with the National Revolutionary Army

• Fengtian was strong after victory over Gumong?

• plan was to go after one warlord at a time then capture wuhan

• defections allowed for capture of Nanjing?

• National pacification army against south’s communism

• NRA moved to Shanghai but foreigners sent troops

• Chiang tries to console them “the people’s wishes, guard foreigners”

how did the CCP break off from the KMT?

• the ccp and left wing of kmt used Wuhan as an anti-chiang center

• accused chiang of dampening message to soothe fears

• peasants went to CCP (over 50K members)

• KMT and CCP began to crumble as they represented opposite things, anti-peasants

• in 1927, they nullifed Chiang’s power over them

• Chiang purged CCP in Shanghai

what happened after this split?

• soviets urged for unification

• KMT in nanjing, CCP in wuhan

• national pacification army working

• for now CCP and KMT would work together back north

• Zhang w/ Chiang but recaptured Bejing

• Communist uprisings distracted the soliders

• KMT was fragile, CCP under ground after Chiang stepped down

what happened after Chiang stepped down?

• Sun tried to retake Nanjing but NPA won

• in 1928, Zhang returned for new expedition to Japanese territory ?

• Japan moved troops more inward

• Still Japanese dog even though he complained about them

• Japnese and NRA Chiang incident on May 2nd

  • who attacked who first

  • Japan ruthless to keep image

• weakened Zhang politically and abandoned beijing; killed by Japanese bomb

what happened after Zhang’s murder?

• NRA got capital with little resistance

• Zhang’s death allowed for more control of Manchuria; son joined KMT as resistance

• CCP? flew flag over arsenal for “Golden Decade”

• Japan uses more force

• CCP organized under MAo