What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
During the Republic of China period at the beginning of the last century, due to historical reasons, warlords everywhere supported their own troops and divided one side. Everyone's slogan of serving the country is actually their own way of doing their own thing, and their desire for profit is smoked. In order to expand their sphere of influence and compete for more plates, these people have gone to great lengths, and some have even resorted to foreign forces and engaged in traitorous activities in the name of saving the country.
At the beginning of the warlord melee, the strongest was Yuan Shikai, whose Beiyang new army was numerous, and also had cavalry, infantry and other branches of the army, and nearly three-quarters of the country's sphere of influence belonged to him.
After Yuan Shikai's death, the Beiyang warlords split into five major factions: the Anhui, Feng, Direct, Jin, and Northwest. Among these factions, if you talk about personal strength and fame, Zhang Zuolin, who is the first to promote the fengshi department, not only has the most sophisticated weapons, but also has an arsenal, and also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.
(In the middle, Zhang Zuolin)
So how powerful was Zhang Zuolin at his peak, so that he could rank first in the list of warlords in the Republic of China?
First, the military industry is the strongest.
At that time, China experienced a weak Qing Dynasty, the military industry was quite backward, and the basic weapons and equipment were imported from the hands of the great powers. However, the northeast military industry under Zhang Zuolin was very mature and developed.
Zhang Zuolin was born in the grass and the green forest, although he studied little, but he knew more about the significance of developing his own military industry than other warlords of his contemporaries who only knew how to spend money to buy weapons.
As early as 1916, he founded the Fengtian Firearms Factory. With the development and growth, and finally upgraded to the three eastern provinces arsenal, after ten years of painstaking management, this almost self-made ordnance enterprise, eventually became the largest weapons manufacturing base in Asia covering an area of more than 3,300 acres, with tens of thousands of processing equipment, the number of workers reached more than 50,000, and the annual expenditure of 24 million silver dollars.
In addition, Zhang Zuolin also introduced British professional technology and founded the Fengtian Mortar Factory, which by 1929 had more than 1,400 workers, which was unique among similar gun factories in China.
Although the industrial base of the whole country was still quite weak at that time, Zhang Zuolin's arsenals were not empty shelves with good looks. Take the Arsenal of the Three Eastern Provinces, for example, which not only invests huge sums of money every year, but also has a first-class production and management level in Asia, with a full range of advanced technologies from Japanese artillery to German explosives.
The production capacity of the arsenal is also very strong, reaching an amazing output of 400,000 rounds of ammunition per day, an annual output of 150 guns, more than 60,000 rifles, and more than 1,000 machine guns. Even the Japanese called it "the first in the East" after visiting.
(Fengtian Arsenal old photo)
Second, the strength is the greatest.
Zhang Zuolin defected to Yuan Shikai in 1912, and by 1916, when he was the governor of Fengtian Province, he had three divisions of troops, and the Fengzhi warlord clique was initially formed. By September 1918, after he had been appointed as the inspector of the three eastern provinces and controlled the military and political power in the northeast, his army had 10 mixed brigades in Jilin and Heilongjiang in addition to 4 divisions and 5 mixed brigades in Fengtian.
In 1920, zhang Zuolin participated in the Zhiwan War and helped his immediate family defeat the Anhui army, and then added prisoners of war into two mixed brigades. After that, he began to prepare for the establishment of the Fengzhi Air Force, which was the first of all the warlords at that time.
In 1921, Zhang Zuolin also served as a strategic envoy to Mongolia and Xinjiang, and took the opportunity to recruit 8 mixed brigades in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. At this time, the total strength of the Feng army had reached 5 divisions, 23 mixed brigades and 3 cavalry brigades, with a number of more than 200,000.
After the defeat in the first Zhifeng War, Zhang Zuolin reorganized the army into military training, strengthened the military training of officers and men, strictly enforced military discipline in the troops, opened an army lecture hall, and reformed the method of selecting officers, so that a group of promising young people with both political integrity and ability could stand out.
On the basis of the small achievements of the Air Force and the three aviation units under its jurisdiction, he also prepared for the establishment of the Navy, opened the Aviation Police School, and established the Northeast Coastal Defense Fleet, equipped with 4 warships, becoming one of the few northeastern kings in China with complete navy, land and air forces.
(Zhifeng War)
Third, the territory is the most extensive.
In the Second Zhifeng War, the powerful Feng clan defeated the zhi clan, after which Zhang Zuolin entered the pass in a big way, opening his road to the central plains, attacking Rehe, Kezhili, occupying Suzhou, capturing Shandong, taking Nanjing... From north to south, it is like a bamboo. By January 1925, even the international metropolis of Shanghai had become Zhang Zuolin's bag.
After the occupation of Suwan, Zhang Zuolin's sphere of influence reached its peak. At that time, the territory he controlled included eight provinces and three cities, and even the three major cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were under his control.
In terms of land area, Zhang Zuolin's sphere of influence at that time was larger than that of the Roman Empire in Europe in the Middle Ages, and was wider than that of the eight European powers at that time, such as Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and France and Austria.
After many years of conquest, Zhang Zuolin at that time had 370,000 elite soldiers, the army was well armed, the combat effectiveness was strong, and the army, navy and air force were unmatched. If the Japanese had not assassinated him, this powerful warlord who would have not yielded to the interests of the nation would have become the biggest stumbling block for the Japanese to invade China.