After the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, the Beiyang warlords ruled, after the death of Yuan Shikai, the direct lineage from Beiyang, the Anhui family and the Feng family successively took power, after the success of the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army in 1928, new warlords appeared, such as the new Gui system, the Jin Sui system, the Northwest Army, the Northeast Army and other relatively large warlords, in addition to the Sichuan system, the Yunnan system and other small warlords. As for the final result, we all know that most of the warlords were cleaned up by Lao Jiang, and only the new Gui faction broke with Lao Jiang to the end. So why did the new Gui faction have the last laugh than the other factions? Let's take a look at the main factions after the success of the Northern Expedition.
1. Jinxiang system
The Jin Sui faction is a Northern Expedition faction headed by Yan Xishan, most of its main characters are Shanxi people, the territory of the Jin Sui faction is mainly Shanxi, and the peak period also involves Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Suiyuan and other places.
The Jin Sui Army sprouted in the Xinhai Revolution, originated in the Beiyang period, and reached its peak in the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930) before the Central Plains War of Jiang Fengyan. After the defeat of Feng Yan in the Central Plains War, the strength and status of the Jin Sui army decreased significantly, but it still maintained a relatively complete structure. Yan Xishan, the landlord Lao Cai, regarded the Jin Suijun as his lifeblood, and rejected foreign troops to Shanxi.
Yan Xishan
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yan Xishan led the Jin Sui army to join the civil war, but unexpectedly met his fellow countryman Xu Xiangqian, and by 1949, most of Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army was annihilated, and Yan Xishan fled to Taiwan alone. Fu Zuoyi, who was born out of the Jin Sui system, was also a small faction during the Liberation War, and with the victory of the Liberation War, Fu Zuoyi announced a peaceful uprising in 1949, so far the Jin Sui system was completely destroyed.
Jin Sui Department to Yan Xishan as the soul of the soul, when the old Chiang nominally unified China, in 1935 awarded Yan Xishan the National Revolutionary Army a first-class general, had wanted Yan Xishan to serve in Nanjing, but Yan Xishan was afraid of being detained and losing his army, so he let Xu Yongchang go to Nanjing to replace himself, and he himself sat in Shanxi and served as the emperor of the soil for 38 years. Therefore, Yan Xishan did not have many people of his own in the central part of Nanjing, and he was just a local prince, and he was inferior to Lao Jiang in terms of political means, so he was naturally not Lao Chiang's opponent.
2. Northwest Army
The soul of the Northwest Army was Feng Yuxiang, a unit that split off from the warlord forces of the Beiyang government. Under the leadership of Feng Yuxiang, after the victory of the Northern Expedition in 1928, the power of the Northwest Army reached its peak, with a total strength of more than 400,000 people, and its territory expanded to Shaanxi, Gansu, Ning, Qingdao, Shandong, Henan and other provinces.
In 1929, because of the disarmament of Lao Jiang, Feng Yuxiang and other local princes were dissatisfied, so Feng Yuxiang united with Yan Xishan and Li Zongren to jointly fight against Chiang, Feng Yuxiang did not leave a way back for himself, and pressed all the troops on, as a result, under the political offensive of Lao Jiang and the rebel general Han Fuyu and others in the Northwest Army, the Northwest Army was defeated and completely collapsed, Feng Yuxiang announced his resignation, and since then he has lost his descendant troops. also lost the capital that Lao Jiang could compete with.
Feng Yuxiang
After the Central Plains War, the remaining Northwest Army was organized into an army under the return of Song Zheyuan, stationed in Chahar and Pingjin, and later developed into the famous 29th Army, but after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Song Zheyuan left the army, and Lao Jiang split the 29th Army and sent it to various battlefields to fight against the Japanese army, and General Zhang Zizhong from the 29th Army died heroically in the battle against the Japanese in 1940 and became the highest-ranking general who sacrificed.
The rebel general Han Fuyu occupied the land of Shandong after the Central Plains War and ran many people in Shandong. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Han Fuyu passively resisted the Japanese, successively abandoned Jinan, Tai'an and Jining, and was ordered to be executed by Lao Chiang in 1938.
Another general from the Northwest Army, Sun Lianzhong, was reused by Lao Jiang, but after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Sun Lianzhong's troops were wiped out by Liu Deng, and Sun Lianzhong also lost the opportunity to lead the troops
The Northwest Army was a faction that lost its rivalry with Lao Chiang relatively early, and I personally think that the main reason for this is Feng Yuxiang, who does not have the political acumen of Lao Chiang, and he can't play with power and scheming Lao Chiang, and he does not have his own descendants in the central part of Nanjing. Moreover, Feng Yuxiang treats his subordinates as paternalistic figures, beating and scolding at every turn, which is also one of the reasons why there are more rebel generals in the Northwest Army.
3. Northeast Army
The predecessor of the Northeast Army was the army under the command of the warlord Zhang Zuolin, and after Zhang Xueliang announced the change of banner in the Northeast in 1928, it was reorganized by the Nanjing National Government into the Northeast Frontier Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China the following year, referred to as the "Northeast Army", commanded by Zhang Xueliang. In 1930, during the Central Plains War, Zhang Xueliang sent troops to help Chiang Kai-shek, and Zhang Xueliang became the second person after Lao Chiang.
Chang
However, during the 918 Incident, Zhang Xueliang implemented Lao Chiang's policy of non-resistance, which also caused the Northeast Army to be scolded, and later the Northeast Army had to enter the customs and was transferred to the northwest to fight the Red Army, but it also failed to take advantage. In 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident, in an attempt to force Lao Chiang to stop the civil war and unite with the outside world. Under the mediation of the CCP, the Xi'an incident was resolved peacefully, but Zhang Xueliang was imprisoned by Lao Chiang, and the Northeast Army was also divided and split by Lao Chiang and sent to various battlefields, and the Northeast Army never formed a force after that.
With the imprisonment of Zhang Xueliang, the Northeast Army no longer had a figure who could compete with Lao Chiang.
4. River system
In the Republic of China, large and small factions, no faction is more chaotic than the Sichuan faction, the Sichuan faction is large and small factions within the Sichuan system Liu Xiang, Liu Wenhui, Yang Sen, Deng Xihou, Wang Lingji, etc., since the Xinhai Revolution to 1932, Sichuan warlords fought a total of about 470 times, in the autumn of 1933, after the battle of Liu, Liu Wenhui was defeated and took Xikang, and Liu Xiang became the leader of the Sichuan army.
Liu Xiang
Since then, Lao Jiang has always wanted to send his own people into Sichuan, but he was resisted by Liu Xiang and other Sichuan generals. In 1935, Liu Xiang was appointed chairman of Sichuan Province, but Chiang Kai-shek's main forces also entered Sichuan, forming a situation in which the Central Army controlled Sichuan. Liu Xiang had no choice but to rectify the Sichuan army.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Liu Xiang published the "Letter to the Sichuan Kang Army and the People for the National Salvation War of Resistance", leading the Sichuan army out of Sichuan to resist the Japanese, unfortunately Liu Xiang died of illness in early 1938, the Sichuan army lost its leader, and the successor Deng Xihou and others could not fully control the Sichuan army, and the Sichuan army did not have a character who could compete with Lao Jiang since Liu Xiang, so it would naturally be cleaned up by Lao Jiang.
5. Glue system
The Yunnan faction was also a small faction, and since 1927, when the four towns of Yunnan overthrew the Tang Dynasty, Long Yun became the leader of the Yunnan warlords. However, the power of the Yunnan system is not strong, and it is basically a province in Yunnan. Long Yun ruled Yunnan for 18 years, but his power was small, so he naturally could not form a confrontation with Lao Jiang, but he secretly had always been dissatisfied with Lao Jiang, which Lao Jiang also knew, so after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the veteran instructed Du Yuming to launch a mutiny, dismissed Long Yunben from various positions, transferred to the military council of the military council, and Lu Han succeeded him as chairman of Yunnan Province. Lu Han did not have the capital to compete with Lao Chiang. So Luján declared a peaceful uprising in 1949.
Long Yun
6. New Gui system
In 1924, Li Zongren united with Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong to defeat Lu Rongting of the old Gui line and established the new Gui lineage. Since then, Li Bai has partnered with the two and led the Xingui department to be active in the political arena in the future. After the success of the Northern Expedition, the power of the Xingui system extended from Liangguang to Lianghu and northward to the Pingjin region, becoming a nationally important military group.
Li and Bai are also good at recruiting talents, and many senior Gui generals in the Gui army, such as Li Pinxian, Ye Qi, Liao Lei, Xia Wei, and others, are mostly Bai Chongxi's classmates or alumni at the Baoding Military Academy, and there are also many soldiers from other provinces who participate in the Gui army, such as Hu Zongduo, Tao Jun, and Zhang Dingfan. After Guangxi was built into a "model province of the Three People's Principles" in the thirties, more civil and military figures from other provinces joined the Gui Group. Therefore, compared with other factions, the new Gui faction still has more talents.
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi
In addition, Li and Bai's personal abilities are still relatively strong, and the two of them drove Lao Jiang into the wild three times. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren served in the central government of Nanjing, Bai Chongxi commanded the troops outside, there were people inside the court, and there were soldiers outside the court, compared with other factions, this was a great advantage, so Lao Jiang had to consider the new Gui faction no matter what he did. Especially after the Huaihai Campaign, Lao Chiang's descendants were wiped out, and under the pressure of Bai Chongxi, he had to announce his resignation from the presidency and Li Zongren as the acting president, which can be regarded as the peak of the power of the new Gui lineage.
However, no matter how powerful the Xingui system is, it is not the opponent of our army. Soon our army crossed the Yangtze River, all the way to the south, and defeated the Gui army in the hands of Bai Chongxi, and without the army in his hands, he naturally lost the capital to compete with Lao Jiang, so after the Gui army was annihilated, Li Zongren went abroad, and Bai Chongxi went to Taiwan.
Brief summary:
Therefore, compared with these main factions, I personally think that there are two main points that the new Gui faction can compete with Lao Jiang to the end, one is that the new Gui faction is headed by the two of them, and the two cooperate tacitly, one is inside and one outside, the main has a very high status in the center, there is an army outside the main, and only with the army can there be strength, just as Chairman Mao said, "power comes out of the barrel of a gun". The second is that Li and Bai also have strong personal abilities, and at the same time pay attention to recruiting talents, and they are not all people from their own province like Yan Xishan. So Li Bai was able to fight with Lao Jiang to the end.