Central Plains War

Compared to other senior party officials like Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei, the political status of Chiang Kai-shek in the Kuomintang (KMT) was lower in the beginning. Chiang began his rise to prominence in 1917 during the Constitutional Protection Movement and the formation of the Guangzhou government, where he displayed his military talent. The turning point came in 1923 when Chen Jiongming launched a rebellion against Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou. Chiang's role in helping Sun to retreat from Guangzhou ultimately helped him to become Sun's protégé.^[12]

After Sun's death in 1925, factions within the Kuomintang began to surface. A power struggle between Chiang and Wang Jingwei led to the split of the KMT. Chiang was able to use his influence as the commandant of the Whampoa Academy and eventually took over the leadership of the party, forcing Wang into exile overseas. In 1926, Chiang was ceremonially chosen as the commander of the newly formed National Revolutionary Army and launched the Northern Expedition. In the course of the expedition, Chiang had managed to form an alliance with warlord armies of Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan and Li Zongren.^[13]

 

 

 

The Northern Expedition ended with the reunification of China in 1928 under the Nanjing government, as Zhang Xueliang declared the allegiance of his Northeast Army to the Nationalist government in Nanjing, following the assassination of his father Zhang Zuolin by the Japanese Kwantung Army. While Chiang emerged as the paramount leader of the Republic of China, the reunification soon ran into issues as different factions in the Kuomintang disagreed over demilitarization at a military conference in 1929.^[14] The National Revolutionary Army was reorganized into four army groups after the Northern Expedition, incorporating armies from regional warlords. The First Army Group was formed by the Whampoa clique, alternatively known as the Central Army, which were directly led by Chiang himself. The Second Army Group consisted of elements from Guominjun led by Feng Yuxiang. The Third Army Group was led by Yan Xishan of the Shanxi clique, while the Fourth Army Group were led by Li Zongren of the New Guangxi clique.^[15]

On 1 January 1929, in Nanjing, the National Demilitarization Conference began. The leading figures including Chiang, Yan, Li and Feng gathered to discuss demobilization. Chiang was appointed as chairman, and though the conference did see some successes, it was overall a failure. A 2nd conference was held in August. This August conference divided China into 6 military regions roughly corresponding to the regions of the major warlords (and one for the minor warlords). The new national army was to have 65 divisions of 11,000 men or 715,000 soldiers (not including any personnel above divisional level); this was a large reduction of the 1,502,000 men currently under arms in China. Yan and Feng accused Chiang of attempting to centralise military power under his control and thus remove them from their positions of power.^[16]

Feng controlled the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi and Henan. His partial control of Shandong provided him with large amounts of revenue needed for his military; however this was greatly affected by the fact that there was a famine and rebellion in Gansu. Feng asked Chiang for this territory.^[21]

Hunan was controlled by the Guangxi clique (in addition to their other lands); this made the clique a threat to Chiang, who proceeded to appointed his own protege into power in Hunan. This angered the Guangxi clique, who ran Chiang's governor out of office. Chiang did not tolerate this action and prepared for war, while Feng was bribed with offers of large amounts of territory in Shandong for his neutrality. Other Northern Chinese leaders were also bribed for their neutrality so Chiang could focus entirely on the Wuhan armies.^[22]

Following the demilitarization conference in 1929, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong of the Guangxi clique broke off relations with Chiang in March 1929, which effectively started the confrontation between these commanders and the Nanjing government. In May, Feng Yuxiang of the Northwest Army also clashed with Chiang. In November, Li Zongren issued a declaration to form anti-Chiang coalition along with Wang Jingwei. In December, Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Fakui announced their support of the anti-Chiang coalition. The Nanjing government responded by expelling Wang Jingwei from the party for his participation in the anti-Chiang coalition. The coalition created a new KMT government in Beijing to show their defiance of the Nanjing government. In February 1930, Yan Xishan of the Shanxi clique demanded the resignation of Chiang from the KMT, which was refused. Later in the same month, Yan assumed the leadership position in the anti-Chiang coalition, with the assistance of Feng and Li while Zhang Xueliang chose to remain "loyal" to Chiang.^[23]

The Nanjing government enjoyed support from the Chinese Muslims of the Gansu province in Northwest China. While the region was originally under the sphere of influence of the Northwest Army, influential Muslim leaders including Ma Tingrang, Ma Zhongying and Ma Fuxiang broke off relations with Feng Yuxiang in 1928. Forces of the Chinese Muslims remained loyal to the Nanjing government through the war, diverting forces of Feng away from the Central Plains.^[24]

 

The anti-Chiang coalition planned their renewed attack on the Nationalist government in Nanjing through different routes. Li Zongren was expected to lead the Guangxi Army from Guangxi and toward Hunan to threaten the stronghold of Chiang in Wuhan. Feng Yuxiang would lead the Northwest Army and march from Henan to Shandong, attacking Xuzhou while also applying pressure on Wuhan. Yan Xishan would lead the Shanxi Army and coordinate with the Northwest Army to strike Xuzhou together, and march toward Nanjing after Xuzhou is captured by the coalition.

In response to the preparations, the Nationalists assigned Han Fuqu to set up defense in the southern bank of the Yellow River to counter the Shanxi Army. Main forces of the Nationalists would be stationed in Xuzhou to await for impending offensives.^[25]

 

On 11 May, the Central Army led by Chiang Kai-shek launched a series of general offensives against Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. Following the Longhai Railway, the Central Army marched westward from Xuzhou, reaching the outskirts of Kaifeng in the Henan province by 16 May. The Northwest Army, being the strongest in the anti-Chiang coalition, crushed the Central Army led by Chen Cheng in Gansu by the end of May, with Chiang having escaped from near capture.^[26] The Northwest Army could not capitalize on its victory, however, as the Shanxi Army was unable to arrive on time to deliver further damage to the Central Army. With the allies of Chiang in Gansu province, the Northwest Army turned to defense following the victory. In Kaifeng the Northwest Army repelled attacks by Chiang's forces, inflicting heavy casualties. The combined forces of Shanxi Army and the Northwest Army later engaged in the largest conflict of the war in their attack on Xuzhou, with both sides sustaining combined casualties exceeding 200,000. The Shanxi Army retreated from Jinan and took further losses while crossing the Yellow River. The lack of coordination between forces of the anti-Chiang coalition was the beginning of the tide turning for the Nanjing government.^[27]

In the southern battlefields the Guangxi Army led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi marched northwards and captured Yueyang, but Chiang's forces managed to cut them off from behind, eventually forcing them to withdraw to their home province. In Shandong the Shanxi Army captured Jinan on 25 June. After defeating the Guangxi Army in Hunan, the Nanjing government decided to launch a major counteroffensive against the Shanxi Army in Shandong. Marching from Qingdao, Chiang's forces retook Jinan on 15 August. The Central Army then amassed troops in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, launching their final offensive against the Northwest Army which lasted from the end of August to the beginning of September.^[27]

On 18 September Zhang Xueliang and the Northeast Army abandoned their neutrality and declared their support for Chiang. Several days later the Northeast Army entered the North China Plain through Shanhai Pass and captured Peking two days later. The Shanxi Army withdrew to the north of the Yellow River, while the Northwest Army collapsed as the morale of the anti-Chiang coalition no longer existed. On 4 November both Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang announced their resignations from all of their positions, which effectively ended the hostilities and brought an end to regional challenges against the Nanjing government.^[26]

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  The Northwest Army
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  The Shanxi Army
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  The Central Army

The Central Plains War was the largest armed conflict in China since the Northern Expedition ended in 1928. The conflicts spread across multiple provinces in China, involving different regional commanders with combined forces of more than one million. While the Nationalist government in Nanjing came out victorious, the conflict was financially costly which had a negative influence on the subsequent Encirclement Campaigns over the Chinese Communist Party.

After the entrance of the Northeast Army into central China, the defense of Manchuria was significantly weakened, which indirectly led to Japanese aggression in the Mukden Incident. While Chiang emerged from the war having consolidated his power as the supreme leader and established himself as an accomplished military commander, the regional factions in the Kuomintang and their rivalries remained unsolved, which led to various problems later in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.^[26]