Although the Republic of China only had a short period of thirty-eight years, according to statistics, the total number of warlords of all sizes in those thirty years was as many as three thousand.
We often say that the Beiyang warlords, Yuan Shikai was the first president of the Beiyang government, so many people take it for granted that Yuan Shikai is the head of the Beiyang warlords, and Yuan Shikai is a warlord.
In fact, I don't think Yuan Shikai is a warlord, a warlord is a local separatist force that relies on his own military power to be independent of the central government, but Yuan Shikai is the president of the Beiyang government, a supreme leader of the whole country recognized by everyone at home and abroad, and he is not a local separatist force, so naturally he cannot be regarded as a warlord.
The warlord melee was also after Yuan Shikai's death, and the forces of all sides broke the balance, and no one obeyed anyone, so they triggered a scuffle in order to compete for control of the Beijing government.
These three thousand or so warlords, what is their strength?
As for which warlord has the most strength, it is actually staged, and in terms of the Beiyang warlords, in addition to the four years from 1912 to 1916, there are also 12 years from 1916 to 1928.
From 1916 to 1928, it could be divided into three phases, in which three different warlords were the most powerful.
In 1916, Yuan Shikai's imperial system went bankrupt, and then he died of depression on June 6 of that year, and once he died, who should lead the Beiyang government?
At that time, Duan Qirui was the most vocal within the Beiyang department, but in order to eliminate the opposition from the south as much as possible, second, Li Yuanhong was the "first heir" appointed by Yuan Shikai, so Duan Qirui did not compete with Li Yuanhong for the presidency because of a momentary brain fever, but gave way to Li Yuanhong, who had no foundation in both the south and the north, and he himself became the premier of the state.
It is precisely because Li Yuanhong does not belong to the Beiyang department nor to the southern camp, so although he became president, he actually has no real power to speak of, and Xu Shuzheng even dared to directly shoot the table and sing to him on stage.
Therefore, although Duan Qirui was relegated to the post of premier, he was the actual controller of the Beiyang government, and even if Li Yuanhong later used the National Assembly and his direct family to force Duan Qirui away in the "dispute between the government and the court", he finally had to ask Duan Qirui to come back and clean up the situation.
The most powerful warlord at this stage is obviously Duan Qirui, followed by Feng Guozhang, who is directly related to Feng Guozhang, again to Zhang Zuolin, who has already begun to become a fengzhi, and then again to local warlords such as Yan Xishan, Lu Rongting, and Tang Jiyao.
In 1920, the direct and Anhui clans fought the "Zhiwan War", Duan Qirui was defeated, and the direct clan took control of the Beijing government.
However, it is worth noting that at this time, the head of the direct warlords was no longer Feng Guozhang, who entered Beijing for a year as acting president, and Duan Qirui continued the "dispute between the government and the court" for a year, and finally stepped down, and died of illness in December 1919.
As soon as Feng Guozhang died, the direct family completely fell into the hands of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu.
In fact, since Feng Guozhang entered Beijing as acting president, his control over the direct army has been declining, and his death is only a reason for Cao and Wu to justifiably control the direct family.
Cao and Wu were two, one in charge of the government and one in charge of the army, but Cao Kun's ability was obviously inferior to Wu Peifu's, so don't look at the fact that Cao Kun became president later, but it was Wu Peifu who made the decision. Taking Zhang Zongchang's bribe to Cao Kun and wanting to defect to Cao Kun, Cao Kun accepted Zhang Zongchang's benefits and had already agreed to accept Zhang Zongchang, but Wu Peifu said no, and Cao Kun did not dare to speak.
The Zhi and Feng clans fought a war in 1922, and Feng Zhang was unable to defeat Zhi Wu, so he obediently retreated to the northeast and buried his head in development.
After Wu Peifu defeated Zhang Zuolin, he was invincible, and for a time he was angry, actively expanding his power, reaching his peak in 1924, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and was rated as the "strongest", so the strongest warlord at this stage was Wu Peifu, followed by Zhang Zuolin, and then Yan Xishan and the like, and the southern Sun camp was still not enough to see.
However, Wu Peifu could not avoid the result of prosperity and decline, and in 1924 he fought another battle with Feng Zhang, and lost to Zhang Zuolin.
At this time, it was clear that Zhang Zuolin had replaced Wu Peifu and became the strongest warlord in the period from 1924 to 1928.
Zhang Zuolin once controlled the territory of "eight provinces and three cities" at the peak of his power, and the number of troops directly controlled by Zhang was as high as 300,000.
However, although Zhang Zuolin defeated Wu Peifu, Wu Peifu did not completely lose his position, but ran to Hubei and lay dormant, but he was no longer the strongest among the warlords directly under his direct lineage. At that time, the most powerful warlord in the direct line was the newly rising Sun Chuanfang, who later became known as the "King of the Southeast" and once served as the commander-in-chief of the combined forces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Suzhou, Anhui and Gansu.
In addition to Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Sun Chuanfang, the three Beiyang warlords, Feng Yuxiang's strength was also very strong at one time, followed by Yan Xishan and the like.
At this time, the Southern Sun camp had also risen, drove out Chen Jiongming, and "Li Bai" came to vote, and cooperated with the Soviet Union to establish a military academy, and its strength was rising rapidly.
Subsequently, the Northern Expedition defeated Wu and Sun successively, and forced Feng Zhang, Zhang Zuolin was forced to return to Fengtian due to the situation, and was later assassinated by the Japanese.
Was there no warlord after 1928? Obviously not, the local warlords still have Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Liu Xiang, Long Yun, Han Fuyu, Sheng Shicai, Northwest Zhuma and others, and even the Gui clan of "Li Bai" is also a warlord group.
However, after 1928, the strength of local warlords was the most "Li Bai", followed by Xiao Zhang, who did not lose the three provinces.
Therefore, the so-called warlord strength ranking is not at the same stage and cannot be discussed.