After Yuan Shikai's death, the old family that remained immediately fell apart and gradually evolved into three mainstream factions, the Anhui, direct and northeastern Feng factions took turns to take the stage, with the army as the main body to establish a ruling regime in the provinces, nominally still dominated by Beijing, but the cohesion was greatly reduced.
The Beiyang warlords fought their own battles, the Anhui clan relied on the support of the Japanese to occupy anhui, Fujian, Shaanxi and other provinces, the direct clan turned to Britain and the United States to control the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Zhang Zuolin outside the Guanwai became the hegemon of the northeast, in addition to Shanxi Yan Xishan, Gui clan, Guangdong clan and other factions, Yuan Shikai's death heralded a new round of reshuffle, the era of the winner is king, everywhere is war.
Among them, Zhang Zuolin may be the most well-known one, Zhang Zuolin has gathered multiple personalities, gangster origin, heavy love and righteousness, as a feudal official, Zhang Zuolin's northeast has always been fat in the eyes of the Japanese, but during Zhang Zuolin's lifetime, Japan encountered walls everywhere in the northeast, of course, he is essentially a warlord, territory and interests are the places he is most concerned about, during the reign of the three eastern provinces, Zhang Zuolin vigorously developed railway economic construction, attached importance to education investment, and operated the three eastern provinces into a solid fortress. In foreign relations, we have always maintained the bottom line and resolutely refrained from being national sinners.
Zhang Zuolin's life is full of legends, after three months of private school, he caused a fight and made a life, and his mother and other people turned to his grandfather, sold buns and worked as a walker, and also worked as a veterinarian specifically for ma to see the disease, no one would have thought that this lower-level rogue would become a party overlord.
However, Zhang Zuolin achieved a counterattack in his life, after the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to send troops to occupy the northeast, the local area fell into chaos, "militant" Zhang Zuolin pulled up a local insurance team to maintain law and order in nearby villages, Zhang Zuolin did a good job, and it was not long before he was favored by the Qing army, and after being incorporated, he became a sentinel commander.
Zhang Zuolin took the first step, from a "bandit" into a regular army, and then suppressed the revolutionary party, entered the ruling center, became a prominent figure in the Republic of China period, the division commander and provincial governor all the way to the highest chief of the three eastern provinces, opened schools, and established a military government, at this time Zhang Zuolin had the ambition to dominate, after two direct wars of the Fengfeng clan, the Fengjun army entered the customs in a big way, Zhang Zuolin became the grand marshal of the Beiyang government, began the final glory, and Zhang Zuolin also became the last ruler of the old forces in Beiyang.
As for why Zhang Zuolin was controversial, mainly his attitude towards the Japanese, as a spokesman for the three eastern provinces, it was inevitable to contact Japan, in order to get the benefits of the Japanese, Zhang Zuolin opened many "empty checks", turned the Japanese around, Japan's unreasonable demands could not be met, and killed the killer, in 1928, using pre-buried explosives to kill Zhang Zuolin, after his death, the northeast fell into chaos, Zhang Xueliang was obviously overwhelmed, unable to confront the Japanese, and repeatedly electrified the whole country. Announced the Northeast Yizhi.
From this point of view, Zhang Zuolin seems to be more worthy of the title of "national hero" than his son; throughout his life, he has ambitions, has a strong feudal ideology and is eager to conform to the trend, and several battles have been carried out, and the scale is larger than once, which can also be seen from this, and even some people rumor that Zhang Zuolin wants to shape the "Great Liao Empire.", objectively speaking, the northeast economy of Zhang Zuolin's period has developed rapidly, of course, the frequent military operations of the Fengjun army have caused great damage to economic construction.
As far as Japan relations are concerned, Zhang Zuolin has both compromises and struggles; although he is not a nationalist, he has made outstanding contributions to safeguarding the interests of the nation, and he can be called a legendary figure in the northeast, and he is such a person who also showed great uneasiness before his death.
Compared with the rest of the Fengzhi warlords, Zhang Zongchang's reputation is really not good, it can be described as a bad deed, a series of tragic cases were created in Qingdao, everyone dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, Zhang Zongchang dared to act so arbitrarily, that is, Zhang Zuolin was supporting him, as Zhang Zuolin's "concubine", Zhang Zongchang joined the Fengjun very early, and after the Fengjun entered the Central Plains, his power increased greatly, and Zhang Zongchang also followed his family and controlled the whole of Shandong.
It is reasonable to say that Zhang Zongchang should be highly valued, but this is not the case, in Zhang Zuolin's idea, the warlord has shortcomings but better control, which is why the "dog meat general" and so on become a big member of the party, but the most important point is that he can calm the people, but the son is not necessarily.
Zhang Zuolin looked at people with a vicious eye, and decided that Zhang Xueliang's character could not fight these old oils, Zhang Xueliang really did not have such talent, during the Northern Expedition of the Revolutionary Army, Zhang Zongchang was defeated all the way, he himself ate, drank, and had fun, wantonly amassed wealth, and even took out the local education funds to gamble with prostitutes, and after the failure, Zhang Zongchang immediately asked Zhang Xueliang for help, fortunately, Zhang Xueliang did not forget his father's instructions and insisted on rejecting all kinds of unreasonable demands, otherwise putting Zhang Zongchang into the northeast was bound to bring more suffering to the people of the northeast.