The republic of China period can be said to be an era of constant fire and wolf smoke, with imperialism on the outside and warlords fighting each other openly and covertly. At that time, the overseer of a province was one of the best positions. As long as you become an overseer, you are basically a prince of one side.
"Overseer", in fact, this word is not unfamiliar to us, as early as the ancient Eastern Han Dynasty has appeared. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty set up an overseer of the imperial history, and during the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties, he set up an official of the supervising army, all of which were equivalent to the supervision of the army, did not participate in military command but had great power, and supervised the affairs of the army on behalf of the emperor.
During the reign of the Beiyang government, most of the administrative and military chiefs of the local provinces were called "governors", and the main management was military.
After Yuan Shikai became president, in order to satisfy his ambition to become emperor step by step and achieve better state management, he implemented a policy of separating military and government administration, dividing the post of governor into administrative and military parts, with the governor in charge of administrative affairs and the governor still in charge of military affairs. Soon after, he also set up another civil affairs chief to manage administrative affairs, while the governor was specially in charge of military affairs, and the renaming of the overseer was actually the credit of Yuan Shikai.
After the Second Revolution, we, yuan shikai, were temporarily supervised by a provincial general in charge of the military affairs of a certain province. After Yuan Shikai's death, In order to unify the titles of officers in various provinces and regions, Li Yuanhong changed his title to Overseer for those who held real power. In the eleventh year, Li Yuanhong's advocacy of "abolishing the governor and reducing the army" failed, so he changed the overseer to the governor and was responsible for handling the aftermath of the military affairs of the provinces. Later, the title of Overseer was changed several times and was not always used.
We all know that during the reign of the Beiyang government, although the Republic of China was established, it still followed the system of the old society, changing soup without changing medicine, and with the rule of warlords in various places, the lives of the people were still miserable. Therefore, at that time, the power of the overseers of a province can be said to cover the sky with one hand, equivalent to the princes who divided one side in ancient times. They pride themselves on being "emperors" far away, and with the fact that they have military strength and economy on hand, they are also unscrupulous in doing things.
According to the political system of the early Republic of China, the governor can be said to be the supreme ruler of the province, and the overseer is second only to the governor. At that time, however, in fact, all matters in the province, large and small, were subject to the Overseers. The Overseer not only holds the financial power of a province, but even the distribution of government personnel in a province is decided by the Overseer. Because of the wealth and the right to have an army, the Overseer can be said to be the "crab walking sideways" in the province.
At that time, without the nod of the Overseer's consent, the provincial policy would be difficult to implement successfully. After all, it is said that having an army in a chaotic world is the best right to speak, so the governor at that time can be regarded as a useless position, more like a subsidiary existence.
For example, the chairman of the Nationalist government from 1931 to 1943 was Lin Sen, but we do not know anything about him, and it is chairman Chiang Kai-shek who wields real military power. The relationship between the Overseers and the Governors was similar to the relationship between Chiang and Lin Sen, so it is certain that the Power of the Overseers was definitely one of the best at that time.
After Yuan Shikai's death, warlords everywhere also showed their ambitions and began to stir up trouble, the Beiyang warlords split and divided, and China began to fall into the chaos of warlord division and disputes. So, how many troops could there be under the hands of a provincial overseer at that time?
It has been proved that the army of the overseers of a province depends on the actual situation. Because the military expenses of the warlords vary from place to place, and the economic situation determines how many troops the Overseers can have. You know, what an Overseer needs most is money to raise an army under his command. The family needs money to eat and drink on weekdays, not to mention tens of thousands of mouths, which is a big expense.
Generally speaking, the normal Overseers have an army of between 10,000 and 100,000 under their hands, and there are less than 10,000 troops with relatively backward economic conditions, and there are also some overseers who have developed rapidly, with a strength of up to hundreds of thousands.
At that time, the Beiyang warlords were divided into many factions, among which the most powerful ones were the Fengzhi warlords headed by Zhang Zuolin, the Anhui warlords headed by Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng, and the warlords of the direct lineage headed by Feng Guozhang.
Take Zhang Zuolin, a famous king of the Northeast in history, when he first arrived in Fengtian Province, his army was less than 10,000 people, claiming that he only had the strength of one division. At that time, this division was still pieced together in pieces, and its actual combat effectiveness was relatively low.
However, after Yuan Shikai's death, the brave and resourceful overseer revealed his ambitions. He began to go around commanding bandits to continuously expand the strength of his army, and slowly, he realized that he needed more military funds to cultivate a powerful army. Therefore, Zhang Zuolin began to develop the economy, fill the economic strength and expand the military. In February 1918, Zhang Zuolin intercepted a batch of ordnance purchased by the Hu Beiyang government from Japan and reorganized his army again, adding 1 division and 5 brigades.
After Zhang Zuolin took over as the envoy of the three northeastern provinces, he used his power to facilitate and decisively control the military and political power of the three provinces, rapidly developed the economy of the three northeastern provinces, and incorporated the armies of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces for his own use. At this moment, Zhang Zuolin's troops had reached 4 divisions and 15 brigades. In 1920, he participated in the Zhiwan War, and after helping the Zhi army defeat the Anhui army, he added 2 mixed brigades.
At its peak, Zhang Zuolin's army consisted of 35 army divisions, with a high number of more than 300,000 people. But Zhang Zuolin was not satisfied with the status quo, and he set up the Aviation Preparatory Office of the Three Eastern Provinces and began to turn his targets to the Air Force. Of course, the navy is also in Zhang Zuolin's preparatory plan, he opened an aviation police school, established the Northeast Coastal Defense Fleet, and had jurisdiction over 4 warships, including China's first seaplane mothership, the Zhenhai.
At this time, Zhang Zuolin had already occupied the northeast region and become the "king of the northeast" in everyone's mouth, and it can be said that Zhang Zuolin laid a certain foundation for the military conditions in the northeast. According to the records, japan had long been eyeing the northeast, but because Zhang Zuolin and his hundreds of thousands of troops were sitting on one side, the Japanese army was hindered by the strength of the Feng army, and could only temporarily abandon the plan of attacking the northeast and try to win over the Feng family.
It can be seen that Zhang Zuolin has gradually gone from being a bandit leader to a "King of Northeast China" who has an army that gathers the three major systems of sea, land and air, and still has certain capabilities. At this time, he was still concurrently serving as the overseer of Fengtian Province. It can be seen from this that as long as the development is good, the overseers during the reign of the Beiyang government are like "earth emperors", the power is in their own hands, and the army lives a relaxed and elegant life under its own organization. Then, how much ability the overseers in the Republic of China can have, it is not difficult to see from these stories.
Text/Chen Xiaoqi
Resources:
1. Warlord Politics and Republic of China Society (1916-1928), Zhang Xin
2. "Research on the Military and Political System of Provinces and Regions during the Beijing Government period of the Republic of China", Liu Dixiang
3. "Military Modernization in Northeast China during Zhang Zuolin's Reign", Kang Yanhua