Perang dan Pembentukan China Baru 1922-1928
Era Warlord di China berlangsung dari tahun 1916 hingga 1928. Ini adalah masa kekacauan dan kekerasan di mana gubernur militer daerah, didukung oleh pasukan pribadi, bersaing untuk kekuasaan, pengaruh, dan senjata. Pemerintah pusat di Beijing lemah dan diatur oleh siapapun jenderal yang kebetulan memegang kota. Warlord bergabung menjadi aliansi yang berubah-ubah yang dikenal sebagai klik, dan pada tahun 1920 ada empat klik utama: klik Anhui, Zhili, dan Fengtian mendominasi China tengah dan utara, sementara selatan kebanyakan dikontrol oleh pemerintah Canton terpisah yang dipimpin oleh revolusioner republik Sun Yat-sen. Pada tahun 1928, Chiang Kai-shek memimpin Northern Expedition untuk menghancurkan warlord Manchuria sekali dan untuk selamanya, tapi aliansi dengan Partai Komunis, intervensi Soviet dan Jepang semua berarti bahwa Era Warlord China tidak akan berakhir dengan tenang.
Meskipun Chiang berhasil menaklukkan kebanyakan warlord, aliansinya dengan Partai Komunis dan intervensi asing membuat situasi di China tetap tidak stabil. Pada akhirnya, perang saudara dan perang dengan Jepang akan menghancurkan harapan China untuk mencapai stabilitas politik dan ekonomi selama bertahun-tahun. Era Warlord di China dianggap sebagai salah satu masa tergelap dalam sejarah negara itu, yang ditandai dengan kekerasan dan korupsi yang meluas.
Selain itu, era ini juga ditandai dengan pengaruh asing yang kuat, khususnya dari Jepang dan Uni Soviet. Jepang, yang memiliki rencana besar untuk Manchuria, memberikan dukungan militer dan intelijen kepada beberapa warlord yang dianggap sebagai "stooge" asing oleh rakyat China. Sementara itu, Uni Soviet memberikan dukungan kepada para nasionalis revolusioner China, termasuk Sun Yat-sen dan Partai Komunis China, yang menimbulkan kekhawatiran di kalangan negara-negara asing lainnya tentang perkembangan komunis di China.
Era Warlord juga ditandai dengan pemecatan tanah yang luas dan pengusiran penduduk dari tanah-tanah mereka, khususnya di wilayah Manchuria. Ini menyebabkan masalah sosial dan ekonomi yang kompleks dan menambah masalah yang dihadapi oleh rakyat China saat itu. Selain itu, perang saudara yang terus berlangsung dalam era ini menyebabkan kerusakan lingkungan yang luas dan pengungsi yang masif. Kebanyakan rakyat China mengalami kesengsaraan ekonomi dan sosial yang luar biasa selama era ini.
Secara keseluruhan, era Warlord di China merupakan masa yang sangat sulit bagi negara dan rakyatnya. Kekacauan politik yang berkepanjangan, pengaruh asing yang kuat, dan perang saudara yang berkepanjangan membuat situasi di China sangat tidak stabil. Pemerintah yang lemah dan korupsi yang meluas hanya menambah masalah yang dihadapi oleh rakyat China. Namun, setelah era Warlord berakhir, China mulai bangkit dan menjadi negara yang lebih kuat dan stabil, meskipun masih menghadapi banyak tantangan di masa depan.
Namun, perjuangan para nasionalis revolusioner dan gerakan untuk mencapai stabilitas politik dan ekonomi yang lebih baik akhirnya mengarah pada perubahan besar dalam sejarah China. Ini membuat jalan bagi pembentukan Republik Rakyat China dan membuat China menjadi negara yang lebih kuat dan stabil. Walaupun masih menghadapi banyak tantangan, China saat ini telah menjadi salah satu negara terkuat di dunia dan terus berkembang dalam berbagai bidang.
War of the Cliques - Warlord Era 1922-1928 (Chinese History Documentary)
"It’s March 1922, and in China tensions are building between the two most powerful warlords in the country. The resulting war will be just one of many in a swirling kaleidoscope of shifting alliances, betrayal, and battle. The chaos culminates in 1928 as Chiang Kai-shek leads the Northern Expedition to crush the Manchurian warlords once and for all – but his tense alliance with the Communist Party, Soviet and Japanese intervention all mean that China’s turbulent Warlord Era will not end quietly. Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and welcome to the Great War. By 1916, China had entered a chaotic and violent Warlord Period that would last a dozen bloody years. The fragile republic established in 1912 all but collapsed after just a few years, and regional military governors backed by private armies competed for power, influence, and weapons. The toothless central government in Beijing served at the whim of whichever general happened to hold the city. Over time, warlords grouped together into shifting alliances known as cliques. By 1920, there were four major cliques: the Anhui, Zhili and Fengtian cliques dominated central and northern China, while the south was mostly controlled by a separate Canton government led by republican revolutionary Sun Yat-sen. The toothless central government in Beijing served at the whim of whichever general happened to hold the city. Over time, warlords grouped together into shifting alliances known as cliques. By 1920, there were four major cliques: the Anhui, Accounts of his early life vary, but most agree he originally ran with bandit gangs in Manchuria. During the Russo-Japanese War he worked for the Japanese, who then supported him when he became a warlord. By 1916, he was refusing orders from the weak government in Beijing and essentially running Manchuria as his personal fiefdom. The quality and loyalty of the men varied, but compared to other warlord armies, Fengtian forces were fairly well-equipped, trained, and modern. This was largely due to Japanese support. The Japanese had big plans for Manchuria, and they hoped that Zhang could help achieve them. But Zhang himself had bigger aspirations, and he began to exert more influence over the weak central government in Beijing – which started rumors in the rest of the country that the government was nothing more than Fengtian puppets. Zhang’s Japanese support gave him a military edge, but gave Wu political ammunition to accuse him of being a foreign stooge. Japan, of course, was not the only foreign power that got involved in China’s warlord disputes. Foreign business and military influence in China was centred on ports and major cities in which western powers had forced the Chinese to grant them concessions. Zhili refused though because they were working with the Italians. So, Japan chose Zhang as its ally in Manchuria. Officially Tokyo had a policy of non-intervention, but in practice the Japanese army provided Fengtian arms, military advisors, and intelligence. The relationship though was rocky. Zhang depended on Japanese support to bolster his army, but Japan didn’t support his more ambitious goals for national prominence. Emissaries like Mikhail Borodin contacted Chinese revolutionary nationalist groups, including Yat-sen’s Canton regime. Sun Yat-Sen was eager for arms and expertise so he accepted Soviet help, which caused Japan and other foreign powers to worry about Bolshevik feelings in China. Foreign powers also influenced events in China more indirectly. Other foreign adventurers also made names for themselves in the turbulent world of warlord politics. Sun Yat-sen’s bodyguards included Abraham ‘Two Guns’ Cohen - a Polish-born British-Canadian with a penchant for dual wielding revolvers, while Frank ‘One-Armed’ Sutton was an Englishman who oversaw Zhang’s Mukden arsenal and produced copies of the British Stokes mortar. Zhang had already been preparing for the conflict with Wu for some time. He had increased his forces to 120,000 men, 150 field guns and 200 machine guns, numbers few other Chinese armies could match. On paper, Zhili had 250,000 men after they absorbed the defeated Anhui forces, but in reality they had barely 100,000 troops, 100 guns, and 100 machine guns. ” (Dreyer 99) Fengtian moved its forces south in late April, but Zhang’s grand alliance lost one member as Sun Yat-sen’s troubles in the south prevented him from joining. Major clashes occurred near the Marco Polo bridge outside Beijing, and as was common in Chinese warlord conflicts, fighting raged up and down the north-south railway lines. 3000 soldiers had been killed and 7000 wounded. Despite his victory, Wu was unable to pursue Zhang into Manchuria. Zhang declared his three provinces independent from Beijing, and began a series of extensive reforms: he created a General headquarters, and replaced his bandit leaders with Japanese-trained Chinese officers. Meanwhile, high-ranking officer Feng Yuxiang started to resent Wu’s restrictive leadership and control of the clique’s finances. These tensions came to a head in the next war, which wasn’t long in coming. Despite becoming the most powerful faction in China, the Zhili clique was surrounded by enemies. In mid-1924, Wu planned to unite much of China in a decisive military campaign. One of them was to march into Manchuria through the Shanhai Pass, a narrow passage through the Great Wall. Zhang concentrated his troops on the shortened front, and brought the Zhili advance to a standstill in October. Wu then realized he could strike at Zhang from behind, so he ordered Feng to attack Zhang in the west. When the Japanese offered him a bribe of 1,500,000 yen, Feng made his choice. On October 23, 1924, he pulled back his forces, sent them to Beijing and arrested President Cao Kun. Wu’s position against the Fengtian-Anhui alliance was compromised, and he had no choice but to retreat and leave much of his weapons and equipment behind. As Zhang and Feng dished out the spoils of war and redistributed the Zhili provinces, the Soviet Union now began to pay attention to the Christian Warlord on their border. Despite their socialist atheism, they saw Feng as a useful tool against the seemingly pro-Japanese Zhang. Moscow sent support and weapons, which allowed Feng to become a full-fledged warlord and create his own faction, the Guominjun. Many saw Zhang was seen as an illegitimate ruler, while Feng’s betrayal had earned him a new nickname - ‘The Treacherous General’. Public attitude was turning decisively against the warlord system, as the Guowen Weekly reported in May 1925: “[If] Zhang and Feng can abandon military build-up and concentrate on civilian endeavours... Meanwhile in the south, former president Sun Yat-sen hoped to use anti-warlord public feelings to unite the fractured country. In 1919, Sun re-established the nationalist Kuomintang Party in the French Shanghai concession, and by the early 1920s he positioned the KMT as a viable alternative to the warlord system. Neither of these efforts bore fruit. Militarily speaking, the southern provinces were outnumbered and outgunned. In 1924, the KMT’s National Revolutionary Army had only 65,000 rifles for 100,000 men, and 20 percent of these were obsolete, there were even a few matchlocks. The KMT also relied on the military support of neighbouring warlords from the Yunnan and Guangxi cliques, who were less keen to risk their positions. By instilling his forces with nationalist revolutionary fervor, he hoped any Northern Expedition would win hearts and minds and become an unstoppable force. To achieve this he established a Military Academy to train a new breed of revolutionary officers less susceptible to the betrayal so common in warlord conflicts. CCP co-founder Chen Duxiu didn’t mince words: “In the West, men are lazy and profit-seeking while women are extravagant and licentious. Wars, strikes and all sorts of lamentable unrest, which of these is not caused by the moral decay of the system of private property?” (Ch’en 510) In exchange for Soviet advisors and arms, the KMT and CCP cooperated in an uneasy ‘United Front’ in which they remained separate organizations. To protect the welfare of the people we must overthrow all warlords and wipe out reactionary power so that we may… complete the National Revolution.” (Jordan 73/74) So by July 1926, Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang movement was now ready to launch a campaign against the northern warlords – but the Fengtian Clique was stronger than ever after defeating the Guominjun. Speed was key for the NRA. Wu’s army was facing north against Guominjun, but his ally Sun Chuanfang was a threat from Jiangsu province. Chiang hoped to capture Wu’s capital city of Wuhan before either could react. The first clashes favoured the NRA. Many of Wu’s outnumbered and poorly motivated troops defected, and the NRA moved north along the railway. Wu was desperate, and begged his ally Sun Chuanfang for help. But Sun’s troops only began to move in late August, a delay which allowed the NRA to reorganize and prepare. Chiang actually launched his attack first, but Sun recovered and fighting raged back and forth across Jiangsu province, and the capital of Nanchang changed hands several times. The local government of Chekiang province rose up against Sun and pledged its support to the Northern Expedition. Sun quickly crushed the uprising, but the diversion of troops allowed the NRA to push him across the Yangtze and take Nanchang and Fujian. Wu was now isolated and had lost most of his territory, so Sun was forced to ask the Fengtian Clique for assistance. But for Sun, all this came too late, and in February 1927 the NRA moved on Shanghai and Najing. Both these cities had large foreign communities, and now the world powers took notice of the conflict. The Japanese, British and Americans sent troops to the cities to protect their citizens and interests – among the Americans was famous Marine Smedley Butler. We request that consuls inform your nationals to carry on your activities as usual and order the marines not to misunderstand our motives and not to carry out means to obstruct our revolutionary cause.” (Jordan 133) So by early 1927, Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army had gained some important victories in the Northern Expedition. and Japanese fears. Communist activity in Wuhan and attacks against foreigners there, plus labor unrest back in Canton now threatened to derail the entire Northern Expedition in spite of its military progress. The situation was no better for the KMT in the countryside, where long-suffering peasants flocked to the CCP for help against the landowners and warlords – and the CCP grew to 50,000 members. We told them to wait for orders from the headquarters of the KMT. But to wait was as endless as that for the waters of the Yellow River to become clear.” (Ch’en 523) In March 1927, the CCP nullified Chiang’s authority over its units and it wasn’t long before attacks in the media, and between rival labor unions began. The KMT-CCP split came at a difficult time for the Northern Expedition. It was losing momentum, and the National Pacification Army pushed it back to the Yangtze. Chiang and the Communists managed to avoid a total break and turned their attention back to the warlords – for now. Communist and NRA forces renewed their attacks to the north, and both tried to convince northern warlord Feng Yuxiang to join them. ” (Kwong 124) By July, Zhang had used his heavy railway artillery to push south through Shandong province. To make matters worse for the KMT, Communist uprisings in several cities tied up valuable troops behind the lines. To try to heal the split, Chiang resigned his command, but open fighting broke out between the KMT and CCP. The NRA’s advances brought them dangerously close to Japanese-controlled Qingdao. In response, the Japanese sent 4000 troops to reinforce their small Kwangtung Army in April, and moved their forces further inland. Even Zhang complained, since he now wanted to shake off his pro-Japanese reputation, but to many Chinese he remained a “Japanese running dog. ” (Jordan 182) In the end, Japan’s intervention was not militarily decisive but it did weaken Zhang politically. Chiang ordered his forces to avoid conflict with the Japanese and continued his drive on Beijing, which Zhang abandoned without a fight on June 1. Japan now turned on its former client, and Zhang was killed two days later when a Japanese bomb exploded under the train taking him back to Manchuria. On December 29, 1928, KMT troops hoisted their flag over the arsenal at Mukden. Chiang’s gamble had paid off, and the Northern Expedition was over. The end of the Northern Expedition is generally considered the end of the warlord period in China, even though many of the warlords had simply joined the Northern Expedition rather than fight it. The Chinese Warlord Era is a fascinating topic and one of the most important periods for understanding Chinese history.