A report on Northern Expedition, Central Plains War, Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang

Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching north; an NRA artillery unit in combat; civilians showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteering to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack.

Map showing the province of Henan and two definitions of the Central Plain (中原) or Zhōngyuán

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the NRA, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of the KMT and China.

The flag of the Kuomintang and the flag of the Republic of China crested on a building in Harbin, Manchuria

Chiang Kai-shek prepares to leave Guangzhou. Those pictured include Mikhail Borodin, on the far left, Vasily Blyukher in military uniform on the right, and Chiang himself in uniform, to the right of Blyukher.

NRA Generals in Beijing after Northern Expedition

Sun Yat-sen and Chiang at the 1924 opening ceremonies for the Soviet-funded Whampoa Military Academy

Feng Yuxiang was in front of the iron armored vehicle captured by the Fengtian clique

Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-sek and Yan Xishan, 1928, erstwhile allies prior to the outbreak of the Central Plains War

NRA forces enter the British concession at Hankou, October 1926

Chiang (right) together with Wang Jingwei (left), 1926

Feng Yuxiang on the cover of Time, 2 July 1928

Map showing the situation of China during the Central Plains War in 1930

Feng Yuxiang on the cover of The Young Companion, December 1937.

Members of the National Pacification military government, from left to right: Pan Fu, Gungsangnorbu, Wu Junsheng, Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zuoxiang, and Zhang Zongchang

Chiang during a visit to an air force base in 1945

Tomb of Feng Yuxiang at the foot of Mount Tai in Shandong.

Mikhail Borodin making a speech in Wuhan, 1927

Chiang and Soong on the cover of Time magazine, 26 October 1931

Feng Yuxiang meets with Chiang Kai-shek in Xuzhou on 19 June 1927

Nationalist government of Nanking – nominally ruling over entire China in 1930s

Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan started to fight the NPA in October 1927, strengthening the KMT military position

After the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War, The Young Companion featured Chiang on its cover.

Beiyang warlord soldiers retreating by railway

Chiang with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Cairo, Egypt, November 1943

When Zhang Xueliang (right) decided to make peace with the nationalist government, his former subordinates Zhang Zongchang (middle) and Chu Yupu (left) unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow him.

Chiang and his wife Soong Mei-ling sharing a laugh with U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, Burma, April 1942

The leaders of the Northern Expedition gather on 6 July 1928 at Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum in the Temple of Azure Clouds, Beijing, to commemorate the completion of their mission.

Chiang with South Korean President Syngman Rhee in 1949

Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950)

Chiang with Japanese politician Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957

Chiang presiding over the 1966 Double Ten celebrations

Chiang with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1960

The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument, landmark, and tourist attraction in Taipei, Taiwan.

Chinese propaganda poster proclaiming "Long Live the President"

Chiang Kai-shek and Winston Churchill heads, with Nationalist China flag and Union Jack

Statue of Chiang Kai-shek in Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan

Chiang Kai-shek with the Muslim General Ma Fushou

Chiang Kai-shek as Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim

Mao Fumei (毛福梅, 1882–1939), who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment, is the mother of his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo

Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889–1972), who came to Taiwan and died in Taipei

Chen Jieru (陳潔如, "Jennie", 1906–1971), who lived in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong later and died there

Soong Mei-ling (宋美齡, 1898–2003), who moved to the United States after Chiang Kai-shek's death, is arguably his most famous wife even though they had no children together

The Central Plains War was a series of military campaigns in 1929 and 1930 that constituted a Chinese civil war between the Nationalist Kuomintang government in Nanjing led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and several regional military commanders and warlords that were former allies of Chiang.

- Central Plains War

After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge the legitimacy of the Nanjing government.

- Central Plains War

The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases.

- Northern Expedition

Commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (from which he came to be known as a Generalissimo), he led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, before defeating a coalition of warlords and nominally reunifying China under a new Nationalist government.

- Chiang Kai-shek

He joined the Nationalist Party (KMT), supported the Northern Expedition and became blood brothers with Chiang Kai-shek, but resisted Chiang's consolidation of power in the Central Plains War and broke with him again in resisting Japanese incursions in 1933.

- Feng Yuxiang

With the assistance of allied warlords including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, nationalist forces secured a series of decisive victories against the Beiyang Army.

- Northern Expedition

Beijing was taken in June 1928, from an alliance of the warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan.

- Chiang Kai-shek

This struggle for supremacy broke into armed conflict in the Central Plains War of 1929–30.

- Northern Expedition

4 related topics with Alpha

Kuomintang

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Major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Revolutionary Army attacking Nanjing in 1911

The KMT reveres its founder, Sun Yat-sen, as the "Father of the Nation"

Venue of the 1st National Congress of Kuomintang in 1924

Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang after Sun's death in 1925

KMT flag displayed in Lhasa, Tibet in 1938

The National Revolutionary Army soldiers marched into the British concessions in Hankou during the Northern Expedition

Nationalist soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War

The retrocession of Taiwan in Taipei on 25 October 1945

The former KMT headquarters in Taipei City (1949–2006), whose imposing structure, directly facing the Presidential Office Building, was seen as a symbol of the party's wealth and dominance

Pan-blue supporters at a rally during the 2004 presidential election

Kuomintang public service center in Shilin, Taipei

Lien Chan (middle) and Wu Po-hsiung (second left) and the KMT touring the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, People's Republic of China when the Pan-Blue coalition visited the mainland in 2005

KMT headquarters in Taipei City before the KMT Central Committee moved in June 2006 to a much more modest Bade building, having sold the original headquarters to private investors of the EVA Airways Corporation

KMT Kinmen headquarters office in Jincheng Township, Kinmen County

KMT Building in Vancouver's Chinatown, British Columbia, Canada

KMT branch office in Pingzhen District, Taoyuan City

The KMT maintains offices in some of the Chinatowns of the world and its United States party headquarters are located in San Francisco Chinatown, on Stockton Street directly across the Chinese Six Companies

KMT Eastern U.S. headquarters is in New York Chinatown

KMT office of Australasia in Sydney, Australia

From left to right, KMT members pay tribute to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Beijing in 1928 after the success of the Northern Expedition: Generals Cheng Jin, Zhang Zuobao, Chen Diaoyuan, Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Yan Xishan, General Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida and General Bai Chongxi

From 1926 to 1928, the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek successfully led the Northern Expedition against regional warlords and unified the fragmented nation.

The topic of reorganizing the army, brought up at a military conference in 1929, sparked the Central Plains War.

The KMT incited anti-Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among Chinese Muslims and Mongols, encouraging for them to topple their rule during the Central Plains War.

Yan Xishan

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Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China.

Yan Xishan in the early 1920s, shortly after taking power in Shanxi.

Yan Xishan's soldiers in Liaozhou (now Zuoquan County) in 1925 during the war with Henan warlord Fan Zhongxiu.

Chinese troops marching to defend the mountain pass at Xinkou.

During the siege of Taiyuan, Yan told foreign journalists that he and his followers would swallow cyanide pills before they let the PLA take Shanxi. Many of his followers committed suicide when Taiyuan fell.

Yan retired from public life in 1950. He spent much of his retirement writing, analyzing contemporary political issues and promoting Yan Xishan Thought.

Yan Xishan's tomb in Shilin District, Taipei.

In order to resist the domination of Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin, Yan allied himself with the forces of Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, during the Nationalists' Northern Expedition.

His allies included the northern warlord Feng Yuxiang, the Guangxi Clique led by Li Zongren, and the left-leaning Kuomintang faction led by Wang Jingwei.

During this "Central Plains War", the Kuomintang encouraged Muslims and Mongols to overthrow both Feng Yuxiang and Yan.

Republic of China (1912–1949)

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Commonly recognised as the official designation of China from 1912 to 1949, when it was a country in East Asia based in Mainland China, prior to the relocation of its central government to Taiwan as a result of the Chinese Civil War.

Land controlled by the Republic of China (1946) shown in dark green; land claimed but uncontrolled shown in light green.

Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China.

Yuan Shikai (left) and Sun Yat-sen (right) with flags representing the early republic

Major Chinese warlord coalitions during the "Nanjing Decade".

China had been at war with Japan since 1931.

Chinese Nationalist Army soldiers during the 1938 Yellow River flood

The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.

Nationalist government of Nanking – nominally ruling over entire China during 1930s

Boat traffic and development along Suzhou Creek, Shanghai, 1920

General Chiang Kai-shek, who became the Chairman of the Kuomintang after Sun's death and subsequent power struggle in 1925, began the Northern Expedition in 1926 to overthrow the Beiyang government.

These warlords would fight Chiang and his allies in the Central Plains War from 1929 to 1930, ultimately losing in the largest conflict of the Warlord Era.

Large areas of China proper remained under the semi-autonomous rule of local warlords such as Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, provincial military leaders, or warlord coalitions.

Li Zongren

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Former residence of Li Zongren in Nanjing.

Li Zongren posing after the successful defense of Tai'erzhuang.

Former residence of Li Zongren in Guilin.

Li Zongren and Mao Zedong on 1st of October, 1966 during the national day celebration

Li Zongren or Li Tsung-jen (13 August 1890 – 30 January 1969), courtesy name Telin (Te-lin; ), was a prominent Guangxi warlord and Kuomintang (KMT) military commander during the Northern Expedition, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War.

When Wang Jingwei installed a left-leaning KMT faction in Wuhan, Borodin attempted to recruit Li to join the Communists, but Li was loyal to Chiang Kai-shek and refused.

In 1929 he supported Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan in his attempt to form an alternative central government based in Beijing, leading to the Central Plains War.

Li led troops to reconquer Hunan as far north as Yueyang, before Chiang's decisive defeat of Yan and his ally, Feng Yuxiang, forced Li to withdraw back to Guangxi.