Zhang Zuolin
The Manchurian Warlord
Manchuria was the ethnic homeland of the ruling Manchu nobles of the Qing Dynasty. When the Qing Empire became the Republic of China after the 1911 Revolution, Manchuria became three provinces of the new republic.
The old Manchurian capital of Mukden is today’s Shenyang. In the 1920s, Shenyang was the capital of Fengtian. Last time, I briefly mentioned the Fengtian Clique. It was named for the warlords from that northeast part of China.
Their leader was Zhang Zuolin. He had been a mischievous child named “Pimple”. By the 1920s, after the Anfu-Zhili War in 1920, he controlled Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and was a participant in government in Beijing. He also became very wealthy.
How did this Pimple grow so large?
Manchuria had been hotly contested during the late Qing Dynasty. Both Japan and Russia were interested and had occupied it. Japan had temporarily taken possession during the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and 1895. The Empress Dowager’s government had then granted a lease of the strategic port at Dalian to Russia, which called it Port Arthur. Japan then took Port Arthur during its successful war with Russia in 1904 and 1905 and had kept it since then.
Why was Manchuria so desirable? It had good farmland, which grew wheat, millet, sorghum and soya beans. It also was rich in coal and iron ore. Food and minerals were key resources and especially desirable to industrializing and expansionary Japan.
Duan Qirui had allowed Japanese troops to be stationed in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia during the First World War as part of his agreements with Japan that led to him being called a traitor by his opponents.
Zhang Zuolin was born in 1875. As a youth, he enjoyed fishing, fighting and gambling. He had worked as a waiter and caring for horses at an inn. He would have been 19 years old when Japan attacked China and took control of Manchuria for a while. The next year, in 1896, Zhang joined a well-known bandit gang.
During the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing Army absorbed this bandit group. He escorted travelling merchants.
When Japan and Russia were at war, fighting in Manchuria, Zhang supported the Asian Japanese side. He then became a cavalryman who did border patrols and bandit suppression activities. If you are surprised that a bandit joined the army and then suppressed bandits, I would encourage you to listen to the last episode, when I discussed how bandits and soldiers worked symbiotically. Zhang is a case in point. By the end of the Qing Empire, he led a considerable number of men.
When the 1911 Chinese Revolution came, Manchurians faced some difficult choices. Their royal family abdicated. Some commanders wanted to declare independence. The governor, a Qing loyalist, used Zhang and others to keep control and set up a Manchurian People’s Peacekeeping Council. At its first meeting, the governor was shouted down by a revolutionary. Zhang and his men then brandished their pistols and the meeting ended.
The governor was then able to establish the council with himself as the head and without pesky revolutionaries disturbing it. He appointed Zhang as Vice Minister of Military Affairs. Zhang had 2500 men come into the regional capital to keep order for the governor. The revolution was set back by his efforts. His loyalty and show of force was rewarded and his military career advanced.
He was granted noble titles by the Qing near the very end of their empire. But once it seemed like Yuan Shikai would take the Presidency, Zhang allied himself with this head of the Beiyang Army in 1912. Zhang had a knack for picking the side that was going to win. He had done it with Japan against Russia. He had repeated it by siding with Yuan Shikai. We’ll see it again too.
Zhang sent Yuan a huge and precious ginseng root, expressing their close relations. Zhang murdered a number of revolutionaries in Manchuria.
In June 1912, the Mukden garrison revolted because of a shortage of supplies and general dissatisfaction. Tokyo threatened to intervene and send troops. Zhang was able to restore order in the provincial capital. Yuan Shikai was impressed and promoted him to lieutenant-general and renamed Zhang’s troops the Seventh Division.
Japan still controlled the port at Dalian, also known as Port Arthur and an area of about 3400 square kilometers. They also controlled the South Manchuria Railway. Zhang built good relations with them.
Yuan praised Zhang for his bandit suppressing activities but was also wary of him. He tried to transfer Zhang to Mongolia. But Zhang sent a refusal by telegram, reminding Yuan that it was Zhang who kept order in northeast China while Yuan had needed to quash the 1913 Second Revolution down south.
When Yuan Shikai was inquiring about becoming Emperor, he solicited feedback. The official commander-in-chief of Fengtian province was asked and advised Yuan to “think about it a bit more”. Yuan didn’t like that and transferred him out. But instead of promoting Zhang, Yuan brought in another loyalist to govern all three Manchurian provinces.
Zhang played it diplomatically and made a big show of welcoming his new boss while also sending a telegraph to Yuan in Beijing to confirm his loyalty.
When Yuan became Emperor, he awarded Zhang the title of Marquis, second class.
Zhang had no formal education and was unsure of the rank. He asked around and was told it wasn’t very high and the Chinese term included the character for son, suggestion that Yuan considered him like a son or child. In the Confucian system, that would mean that Yuan expected loyalty from Zhang as a father expects it from his son. Zhang was not impressed but bided his time.
Yuan’s efforts to become emperor caused rebellion in south China and Zhang used this to further grow his position in the northeast.
In March 1916, when Yuan was distracted by the rebellion to his new dynasty, Zhang expelled the military governor. He had the support of Japanese military commanders when he did it. Yuan accepted it as a fait accompli and appointed him as superintendent of military affairs in Fengtian province. When Yuan died, Zhang assumed the provincial civil governorship and from then on was both military and civilian governor in that province. Zhang had become the warlord of Fengtian by 1916.
He allowed Japan to increase its access to resources and markets. His opposition to the revolutionaries in the south and his independence from Beijing also suited Japan’s preference for its then divide and conquer strategy in China.
Zhang’s next big chance was in 1917, when there was that brief restoration of the Manchu dynasty in Beijing. Zhang was noncommittal, but once it failed, Zhang turned it to his advantage. One of Zhang’s subordinates who had previously plotted against Zhang, had been implicated in the restoration. Zhang was able to imprison him, fire him and absorb his soldiers. Then in August 1917, the northernmost Heilongjiang province had a rebellion, the local governor fled and Zhang assumed warlord power there too. Then two months later, he was able to manipulate Beijing to dismiss the warlord of Jilin province, who was implicated in the Manchu restoration bid. So, by October 1917, Zhang gained the other two provinces in Manchuria and was civilian and military governor of all three provinces. He now was on top of all of Manchuria, except for the parts controlled by Japan.
Premier Duan Qirui tried to get Zhang’s support for the Anfu Clique. Zhang was told that a shipload of Japanese arms, enough to equip seven brigades (perhaps ten thousand soldiers) was in a port just a few kilometers outside his province of Fengtian, in the direction of Tianjin. Zhang sent some officials to investigate. It was confirmed and they took control of the shipment.
Zhang then showed his appreciation by lending Duan 50,000 troops for the campaign against southern China. Beijing rewarded him with the title of Inspector of the Three Provinces in the northeast.
But by 1919, tensions were growing between Zhang and Duan Qirui. Duan’s campaign in the south wasn’t going well. Zhang had not been much help there. And Zhang was upset that Beijing had appointed Duan’s right-hand man to control the old imperial holdings in Chengde, where the imperial family had its hunting lodge and where they had retreated during the Second Opium War. That was just outside of Zhang’s area of control. And that other commander was also given control of what is now Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.
So just before the outbreak of the war between the Anfu and Zhili Cliques, Zhang was upset with the Anfu leader over this slight.
In March 1920, he invited representatives of eight provinces, including Zhili to his headquarters to discuss an alliance against the Anfu Group.
The Chinese President, Xu Shichang, also invited Zhang down to Beijing to act as a mediator between the two sides. Zhang took an armoured train down to Beijing, mounted with machine guns and with two whole battalions of guards.
An American writer wrote about that trip. He expected a fierce, uncouth, primitive creature from the north. Instead, he was surprised to meet a slender, delicate, little person wearing subdued silks, with soft hands and soft-spoken. I’ve posted a photo of him with this episode. Zhang had an English-speaking official with him. Zhang spoke directly without evasion. For instance, when talking about a regiment that had mutinied, he recommended executing them all.
One outcome of the trip was that Zhang was able to get the Beijing government to dismiss Duan Qirui’s right hand man as governor of those areas that Zhang coveted outside Manchuria.
But then Zhang understood he would be poisoned at his next dinner and abruptly left for Manchuria. Only once he was safely back home did he send a telegram saying that in the future, he would “mediate with military force.”
All prepared for war, which came in July 1920. I discussed it last episode. Zhang had supported Wu Peifu and the Zhili side by placing a large army on its side, but without committing them. They had avoided losses and now both Zhang and Wu Peifu’s forces occupied Beijing.
He captured a lot of military spoils and needed one hundred railway cars to transport them to his territory. He also captured twelve aircraft, which he sent north.
Zhili and Fengtian soldiers were trying to out do each other looting Anfu supplies. At one time, Zhili troops had confiscated two searchlights. Zhang insisted that his Fengtian Clique receive them. As a result, Cao Kun, the official leader of the Zhili Clique replied that “Zhang is really a bandit! He’s got so much stuff already, and he still wants those searchlights!” Zhang also recruited among the defeated Anfu soldiers.
When the new joint Fengtian / Zhili government was introduced, Zhang invited Japanese journalists to Tianjin where he promised “mutual collaboration” with Japan and that he would try to improve Japanese-Chinese relations. The Japanese responded favourably and supported him.
The new government in Beijing appointed Zhang to lead those commissioner posts in the former imperial hunting grounds, as well in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. He now controlled a huge landmass that wrapped around Beijing to the west, northwest, north and northeast. It did not have a huge population, but it had plenty of resources in its territory.
Zhang’s growth in status, power and wealth is difficult to imagine during the Qing Dynasty. The breakdown of the imperial system allowed this street fighter to rise virtually to the top of China.
Duan Qirui, meanwhile, went to the Japanese consulate in Tianjin and asked for sanctuary.
Zhang was not satisfied with being the leader of the north. He wanted to control Beijing too. He arranged for a change of Premier, without the approval of the Zhili Clique. That new cabinet then denied the Zhili Group money that had been promised. Zhili then retaliated and got the pro Fengtian Premier to resign after only a month.
The conflict then moved to the battlefield. War was declared between the two former coalition partners in April 1922. Each side had about 100,000 soldiers in the field, with Zhang’s Fengtian Clique probably having a small numerical advantage.
Wu Peifu was again Commander-in-Chief of the Zhili forces. Zhang was head commander of his side and he led his troops on the eastern side of Beijing. Wu Peifu personally guided his side west of Beijing.
Like in the Anfu-Zhili war, at first the Zhili troops were forced back, this time by Fengtian troops in the west. Manchurian shells kept the Zhili troops from regaining grounds. Then Zhili artillery responded, and it was a stalemate in the west.
Then Wu Peifu’s brilliance shone again. His side was able to outflank the Fengtian rear. Its 16th Division then defected to Zhili. The Fengtian western side retreated before attempting a counterattack. Wu faked a retreat, which overstretched the Manchurians as they advanced. It was an ambush. The Zhili troops outflanked them and achieved complete victory. The Fengtian western front was completely annihilated.
The Zhili army could then concentrate in the east. The Manchurians under Zhang had been doing better on that front and had initially been successful. But news from the west bolstered the morale of the Zhili side and gave them reinforcements.
Zhang Zuolin ordered a retreat of the troops he personally commanded. His son Zhang Xueliang led a fighting retreat but escaped with minor casualties. However, a third part of the Fengtian side initially had successes and had moved forward. But renewed Zhili forces scored a victory and as these Manchurian troops were retreating, they were exposed to 20,000 western Zhili soldiers reinforcing by train. Now, outmatched the Manchurians were defeated and the leftovers retreated further.
The Fengtian side had suffered about 20,000 dead, 10,000 desertions and 40,000 troops lost as prisoners or by surrender. Clearly, the Fengtian Clique had lost this war against the Zhili Clique in 1922.
The British helped mediate a peace whereby Zhang would retreat his forces northeast into Manchuria and Zhili would not pursue them. Zhang lost control of the lands outside Manchuria and Zhili controlled administration in Beijing. Zhang lived to see another day in his autonomous fiefdom and he planned to rebuild his forces. He would want revenge.
By now, however, a new force was emerging. The Russian Civil War was concluding, and both the Red Army and leftovers of the White Army were eyeing China. And a new political party had been founded in China.
Please join us next time, as Communism comes to China.
