Stalemate between China and Xinjiang clique
142-1021: [REDACTED] Jin Shuren [REDACTED] Zhang Peiyuan † [REDACTED] Sheng Shicai [REDACTED] Khoja Niyas (After July 1933) [REDACTED] Ma Shaowu (anti-Russian) [REDACTED] Pavel Pappengut [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Joseph Stalin [REDACTED] Muhammad Amin Bughra [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Khoja Niyas [REDACTED] Osman Batur [REDACTED] Abdullah Bughra † [REDACTED] Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra † [REDACTED] Timur Beg † [REDACTED] Osman Ali [REDACTED] Tawfiq Bey [REDACTED] Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Mustafa Ali Bay First Sino-Uyghur Conflicts Warlords Wars Second Sino-Uyghur Conflicts Sino-Soviet Conflict in Xinjiang The Kumul Rebellion ( Chinese : 哈密暴動 ; pinyin : Hāmì bàodòng ; lit. ' Hami Uprising')
284-742: A puppet state in Xinjiang with the Ottoman Prince as Sultan. Mustafa Ali was the Turkish advisor to the Uyghurs in the First East Turkestan Republic . Muhsin Çapanoğlu was also an advisor, and they both had Pan- Turanist views. Mahmud Nedim Bey, another of their colleagues, was also an advisor to the Uyghur separatists. The Turkish government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reacted angrily at this plot and
426-425: A "Citizen's Punitive Army" to rid China of all the warlords. Good iron does not make nails, good men do not make soldiers. —Chinese proverb Many of the common soldiers in warlord armies were also bandits who took up service for a campaign and then reverted to banditry when the campaign was over. One politician remarked that when the warlords went to war with each other, the bandits become soldiers and when
568-544: A Bolshevik plan to destroy religion. A minor battle on February-may , 1933, in which Chinese Muslim troops were expelled from the Aksu oases of Xinjiang by Uighurs led by Ismail Beg kilometres (40 miles) north of the mountains. On 25 February rebel forces entered Aksu Old City, shot all the Chinese residents and seized their property. when they rose up in revolt. Uighur and Kirghiz Turkic fighters broke their agreement not to attack
710-726: A Russian? You know how the Tungans hate the Russians", Vasel told him to pretend to be German. The Chinese Muslim forces retreating from the north linked up with Ma Zhancang 's forces in Kashgar , allied themselves with the Kuomintang in Nanjing and attacked the TIRET, forcing Niyaz, Sabit Damolla and the rest of the government to flee on February 6, 1934, to Yengi Hissar , south of the city. The Hui army crushed
852-791: A Soviet armored car column at the Battle of Dawan Cheng . Western traveler Peter Fleming speculated that the Soviet Union was not in Xinjiang to keep out the Japanese but to create their own sphere of influence. Unfortunately for the White Russian emigres, the Soviet Red Army stationed NKVD units to purge the White Russians on the basis that they might be threats to Sheng Shicai. Ma's retreating forces began advancing down to southern Xinjiang to destroy
994-513: A White Sun banners in his army and Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun armbands. He himself wore a Kuomintang armband and a New 36th Division uniform to show that he was the legitimate representative of the Chinese government. Due to his severe abuse and brutality, both the Turkic (Uyghurs) and Han Chinese hated the Hui officer who was in charge of Barkul, Ma Ying-piao, whom Ma Zhongying appointed. Kumul
1136-470: A bandit gang, be hired by the Japanese to attack the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–05 and become the warlord of Manchuria by 1916. He worked openly for the Japanese in ruling Manchuria. Zhang controlled only 3% of China's population but 90% of its heavy industry. The wealth of Manchuria, the support of the Japanese, and Zhang's hard-hitting, swift-moving cavalry made him the most powerful of
1278-684: A bid for international recognition, they also declared war against the Central Powers but failed to garner any recognition. In July 1918 southern militarists thought Sun was given too much power and forced him to join a governing committee. Continual interference forced Sun into self-imposed exile. While away, he recreated the Chinese Nationalist Party , or Kuomintang. With the help of KMT Gen. Chen Jiongming, committee members Gen. Cen Chunxuan , Adm. Lin Baoyi and Gen. Lu Rongting were expelled in
1420-495: A column of retreating Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim soldiers from Yarkand New City. The Turkic Muslim fighters massacred 800 Chinese Muslims and Chinese civilians. A minor battle in which Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang attacked and defeated Uighur and Kirghiz armies at Sekes Tesh. About 200 Uighur and Kirghiz were killed. Uighur and Kirghiz forces, led by the Bughra brothers and Tawfiq Bay , attempted to take
1562-695: A constitution and universal suffrage was established, and several levels of council were elected by popular vote. These experiments with partial democracy were not long-lasting. Few of the warlords had any sort of ideology. Yan Xishan , the "Model Governor" of Shanxi , professed a syncretic creed that merged elements of democracy , militarism , individualism , capitalism , socialism , communism , imperialism , universalism , anarchism , and Confucian paternalism into one. A friend described Yan as "a dark-skinned, mustached man of medium height who rarely laughed and maintained an attitude of great reserve; Yan never showed his inner feelings." He kept Shanxi on
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#17328416617411704-464: A different railroad gauge from the rest of China to make it difficult to invade his province, though that tactic also hindered the export of coal and iron, the main source of Shanxi's wealth. Feng Yuxiang , the "Christian General", promoted Methodism together with a vague sort of left-leaning Chinese nationalism , which led the Soviets to support him for a time. He banned alcohol, lived simply and wore
1846-733: A few hundred by 1927 and the remaining Russian survivors fought in armored trains. During the Northern Expedition Chinese Nationalist forces captured an armoured train of Russian mercenaries serving Zhang Zongchang and brutalized the Russian prisoners by piercing their noses with rope and marching them in public through the streets in Shandong in 1928, described as "stout rope pierced through their noses". White Russian mercenaries defeated Muslim Uighurs in melee fighting when Uighurs tried to take Ürümqi on 21 February 1933 in
1988-634: A government in Guangzhou to resist the rule of the Beiyang warlords, and the Guangzhou government came to be known as part of the Constitutional Protection War . In September Sun was named generalissimo of the military government with the purpose of protecting the provisional constitution of 1912 . The southern warlords assisted his regime solely to legitimize their fiefdoms and challenge Beijing. In
2130-450: A half-decade was characterized by strife caused by corruption, suppression and disruption. Conflicts intensified and resulted in numerous riots against his regime and his eventual downfall. Jin confiscated local lands for redistribution, but he gave these lands to his personal associates. In April 1933 Jin's White Russian troops (naturalized army, 归化军) changed allegiance, encouraged revolt in Xinjiang, ended his reign and forced him to flee to
2272-517: A marketplace in Mukden . After Feng betrayed his ally Wu to seize Beijing for himself, Wu complained that China was "a country without a system; anarchy and treason prevail everywhere. Betraying one's leader has become as natural as eating one's breakfast". "Alignment politics" prevented any one warlord from dominating the system. When one warlord started to become too powerful, the rest would ally to stop him, then turn on each other. The level of violence in
2414-449: A native of Kumul and a "Pacification Commissioner" from the Kuomintang government, soon arrived in Urumqi on an ostensible peace mission. Sheng Shicai suspected him of conspiring with some of his opponents to overthrow him. He turned out to be correct, since the Kuomintang secretly ordered Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan to attack Sheng's regime in Urumqi. As a result, he executed three leaders of
2556-438: A neutral choice. In addition, instead of "President" Duan was now called the "Chief Executive", implying that the position was temporary and therefore politically weak. Duan called on Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang in the south to restart negotiations towards reunification. Sun demanded that the "unequal treaties" with foreign powers be repudiated and that a new national assembly be assembled. Bowing to public pressure, Duan promised
2698-514: A new governor, but under new terminology, he was recognised as Provincial Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, unlike his predecessor Yang who held the titles of Provincial Governor and Military Governor. Immediately after taking power, Jin took steps to strengthen his power by increasing the secret police, doubling the salaries of the army and police and introducing new uniforms. The army was later expanded and new weapons were acquired. The administrative system remained almost unchanged, while Jin employed
2840-497: A new national assembly in three months; however he could not unilaterally discard the "unequal treaties", since the foreign powers had made official recognition of Duan's regime contingent upon respecting these very treaties. Sun died on 12 March 1925 and the negotiations fell apart. With his clique's military power in a shambles, Duan's government was hopelessly dependent on Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin. Knowing that those two did not get along, he secretly tried to play one side against
2982-793: A physique second to none, and an iron constitution". However, such units were the exception rather than the rule. In 1916 there were about a half-million soldiers in China. By 1922 the numbers had tripled, then tripled again by 1924; more than the warlords could support. For example, Marshal Zhang, the ruler of industrialized Manchuria, took in $ 23 million in tax revenues in 1925 while spending some $ 51 million. Warlords in other provinces were even more hard-pressed. One way of raising funds were taxes called lijin that were often confiscatory and inflicted much economic harm. For example, in Sichuan province there were 27 different taxes on salt, and one shipload of paper that
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#17328416617413124-417: A portrait of his hero George Washington in the background to reflect the supposed democratic militarism he was attempting to bring to China. Wu was famous for his capacity to absorb vast quantities of alcohol and still keep drinking. When he sent Feng a bottle of brandy, Feng replied by sending him a bottle of water, a message that Wu failed to take in. An intense Chinese nationalist, Wu Peifu refused to enter
3266-841: A religious procession were attacked by Muslim Uyghurs. In 1896 two Uyghur Turkis attacked a Hindu merchant and the British consul Macartney demanded the Uyghurs be punished by flogging. Antagonism against the Hindus ran high among the Muslim Turkic Uyghur rebels in Xinjiang's southern area. Muslims plundered the possessions in Karghalik of Rai Sahib Dip Chand, who was the aksakal of Britain, and his fellow Hindus on March 24, 1933, and in Keryia they slaughtered Indian Hindus. These Hindu diaspora communities originated from Sindh's Shikarpur district. The slaughter of
3408-726: A secret treaty with the Soviet Union in October 1931 that quickly led to suppression of the Kumul Rebellion and the deblockading of Kumul by provincial troops on November 30, 1931. Jin Shuren received large gold credits from the Soviet government for acquiring arms and weapons from the Soviet army and opening Soviet trade agencies in eight provincial towns: Ghulja , Chuguchak , Altai , Urumqi , Karashahr , Kucha , Aksu , Kashgar , Yarkand , Khotan . The Kuomintang wanted Jin removed since he had signed
3550-505: A separate rebellion for independence in collusion with Kirghiz rebels. The various groups of rebels were not united (some even fought each other). The main part of the war was waged by Ma Zhongying against the Xinjiang government. He was supported by Chiang Kai-shek , the Premier of China, who secretly agreed to let Ma seize Xinjiang. Governor Jin Shuren (Chin Shu-jen) came to power shortly after
3692-493: A short distance of railways. Armoured trains , full of machine guns and artillery, offered fire support for troops going into battle. In 1925–1927, the largest detachment of armored trains, numbering 7 units, was in the service of Marshal Zhang Zongchang. The armored trains were built according to the World War I model by Russian designers who arrived from Harbin to Jinan, where they had railway workshops. The constant fighting around
3834-484: A silver reserve of 1.5 million Chinese dollars during the same year. The illiterate Marshal Zhang Zuolin , who engaged in reckless printing of Chinese dollars, did not understand it was him who was causing the inflation in Manchuria, and his remedy was simply to summon the leading merchants of Mukden, accuse them of greed because they were always raising their prices, had five of them selected at random publicly shot and told
3976-732: A treaty with the Soviet Union without central government approval. A separate Uyghur uprising emerged in Khotan , located in Southern Xinjiang . It has been suggested that the United Kingdom may have supported this rebellion as a means to counter Soviet Union influence. Unlike the Kumul Uyghurs, whose primary goal was the restoration of the Kumul Khanate and the removal of Jin Shuren ,
4118-502: The Battle of Tutung . Kamal Kaya Efendi , a former Ottoman Turkish military officer who was Ma Zhongying's chief of staff, was captured by Soviet agents in Kumul in 1934, but instead of being executed he was made Commissar for Road Construction in Xinjiang, possibly because he was a Soviet agent himself. In January 1934 Soviet troops crossed the border and attacked rebel positions in the Ili area in
4260-629: The Battle of Urga , the army of Gen. Xu Shuzheng , which had seized Outer Mongolia , was attacked by a Russian-Mongol army under the command of Gen. Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg . The Chinese might have stopped Ungern had they been capable of firing their machine guns properly, to adjust for the inevitable upward jerk caused by the firing; they did not, and this caused the bullets to overshoot their targets. The inability to use their machine guns properly proved costly: after taking Urga in February 1921, Ungern had his Cossacks and Mongol cavalry hunt down
4402-514: The Battle of Ürümqi (1933) . Wu Aitchen mentioned that 600 Uyghurs were slaughtered in a battle by White Russian mercenaries in the service of the Xinjiang clique warlord Jin Shuren . Jin Shuren would take Russian women as hostages to force their husbands to serve as his mercenaries. Hui Muslims fought brutal battles against White Russians and Soviet Red Army Russians at the Battle of Tutung and Battle of Dawan Cheng inflicting heavy losses on
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4544-803: The Beiyang Army and other regional factions. It began after the death of Yuan Shikai , the de facto dictator of China after the Xinhai Revolution had overthrown the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China in 1912. Yuan's death on 6 June 1916 created a power vacuum which was filled by military strongmen and widespread violence, chaos, and oppression. The Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government of Sun Yat-sen , based in Guangzhou , began to contest Yuan's Beiyang government based in Beijing for recognition as
4686-685: The Beiyang government led to provinces around the country refusing to declare their allegiance. The debate between the President and the Premier on whether or not China should participate in the First World War was followed by political unrest in Beijing. Both Li and Duan asked Beiyang general Zhang Xun , stationed in Anhui, to militarily intervene in Beijing. As Zhang marched into Beijing on 1 July, he quickly dissolved
4828-643: The First Zhili–Fengtian War in 1922. Cao became president until 1924, when during the Second Zhili–Fengtian War he was betrayed by his subordinate Feng Yuxiang , who joined with Zhang to stage a coup against Cao. They shared power and brought back Duan to serve as president before Zhang removed them both in 1926; Zhang then led the Beiyang government until 1928. The warlords of southern China, who had cooperated against Yuan's dictatorship and then Duan's attempt to extend Beiyang control to
4970-463: The Kumul Khanate , a small semi-autonomous state lying within the borders of Xinjiang. The Kumul Khans were Chagataids, and hence the last ruling descendants of Genghis Khan. According to British missionaries Mildred Cable and Francesca French , who knew the last Khan Maqsud Shah, the existence of the Khanate of Kumul was important to the Uyghurs, who tolerated Chinese rule so long as their own government
5112-752: The Ma clique in Gansu , Ningxia , and Qinghai ; Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui in Sichuan ; Long Yun in Yunnan ; Zhang Jingyao in Hunan ; Zhang Zongchang and Han Fuju in Shandong ; and Sheng Shicai in Xinjiang . During the New Culture Movement , Chen Duxiu introduced the term Junfa ( 軍閥 ), taken from the Japanese gunbatsu . It was not widely used until the 1920s, when it
5254-517: The Second Battle of Urumqi (1933–34) . Zhang seized the road between Tacheng and the capital. Sheng Shicai commanded Manchurian and White Russian troops commanded by Colonel Pappengut. Ma and Zhang's Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim forces were on the verge of defeating Sheng when he requested help from the Soviet Union. This led to the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang and Ma Zhongying 's retreat after
5396-637: The Second Zhili–Fengtian War , Feng Yuxiang changed his support from Zhili to Fengtian and forced the Beijing Coup which resulted in Cao Kun being imprisoned. Feng soon broke off from the Zhili clique again and formed Guominjun and allied himself with Duan Qirui . In 1926, Wu Peifu from the Zhili clique launched the Anti-Fengtian War . Zhang Zuolin took advantage of the situation, and entered Shanhai Pass from
5538-449: The Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang . Zhang Peiyuan's forces were defeated and he committed suicide. Despite valiant resistance, Ma Zhongying's troops were forced to retreat from the Soviet military machine's aerial bombing and were pushed back from Urumqi during the Battle of Tutung . Soviet assistance resulted in a rare White Russian and Soviet temporary military alliance against Ma. Ma wiped out
5680-801: The USSR . He was succeeded by Sheng Shicai . Jin incurred the wrath of the Kuomintang (KMT) when, without approval, he signed an arms treaty with the Soviet Union . The Tungan Hui General Ma Zhongying allied himself with the KMT and his troops became the 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Ma was ordered to overthrow Jin. Jin, however, was overthrown after the First Battle of Urumqi (1933) by White Russian troops under Colonel Pavel Pappengut . When he returned to China in October 1933 he
5822-601: The Uyghurs in Khotan sought complete independence and harbored strong opposition toward both the Han Chinese and Dungan people populations. They were led by Muhammad Amin Bughra and his brothers Abdullah Bughra and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra . Their leader, Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki , called for the expulsion of the Dungans in a proclamation: The Dungans, more than Han, are the enemy of our people. Today our people are already free from
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5964-577: The Wuchang Uprising in October 1911, where soldiers began to mutiny and defect to a political opposition. These revolutionary forces established a provisional government in Nanjing the following year under Sun Yat-sen , who had returned from his long exile to lead the revolution. It became clear that the revolutionaries were not strong enough to defeat the Beiyang army and continued fighting would almost certainly lead to defeat. Instead, Sun negotiated with Beiyang commander Yuan Shikai to bring an end to
6106-585: The "Dogmeat General", ate his meals off a 40-piece Belgian dinner service, and an American journalist described dinner with him: "He gave a dinner for me where sinful quantities of costly foods were served in a starving country. There was French champagne and sound brandy". The warlords bought machine guns and artillery from abroad, but their uneducated and illiterate soldiers could not operate or service them. A British mercenary complained in 1923 that Wu Peifu had about 45 European artillery pieces that were inoperable because they had not been properly maintained. At
6248-473: The 18 March Massacre. The next month Feng Yuxiang again revolted, this time against the Fengtian clique, and deposed Duan, who was forced to flee to Zhang for protection. Zhang, tired of his double dealings, refused to restore him after re-capturing Beijing. Most of the Anhui clique had already sided with Zhang. Duan Qirui exiled himself to Tianjin and later moved to Shanghai where he died on 2 November 1936. During
6390-542: The 1920 Guangdong–Guangxi War . In May 1921 Sun was elected "extraordinary president" by a rump parliament despite protests by Chen and Tang Shaoyi , who complained of its unconstitutionality . Tang left while Chen plotted with the Zhili clique to overthrow Sun in June 1922 in return for recognition of his governorship over Guangdong. After Chen was driven out of Guangzhou, Sun returned again to assume leadership in March 1923. The party
6532-409: The 1920s went on, with the object being to damage the enemy and improve one's bargaining power within the "alignment politics". As the infrastructure in China was very poor, control of the railway lines and rolling stock were crucial in maintaining a sphere of influence . Railroads were the fastest and cheapest way of moving large number of troops, and most battles during this era were fought within
6674-426: The 1930s and 1940s, resulting in events such as the Central Plains War of 1929–1930, in which the former warlords Yan Xishan , Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren rebelled against Chiang. Continued regional control by former warlords was problematic for the Nanjing government during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War , and contributed to the Communists' final victory in 1949. Other major warlords included
6816-401: The British interceded to free Khan, he was instead forced to leave his land and in November 1933 he came to Peshawar. The Swedish Mission Society had previously run a printing operation. The Bughra-led government then used the Swedish Mission Press to print and distribute media from Life of East Turkestan , the state-run media of the rebels. The forced removal of the Swedes was accompanied by
6958-411: The East Turkestan Republic. Sheng Shicai and the Soviet Union accused Ma Zhongying, a Muslim and ardently anti-Soviet, of being used by the Japanese to set up a puppet regime in Xinjiang, as they had done with Manchukuo . Sheng claimed that he captured two Japanese officers on Ma's staff. However, not a single claim of Sheng's could be proven, and he did not provide any evidence for his allegations that Ma
7100-422: The First East Turkestan Republic. He sent out an advance guard under Ma Fuyuan to attack the Khotanlik Uyghurs and Kirghiz at Kashgar. At this point Chiang Kai-shek was ready to send Huang Shaohong and his expeditionary force of 15,000 troops to assist Ma Zhongying against Sheng, but when Chiang heard about the Soviet invasion he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged
7242-520: The Indian Hindus became known as the "Karghalik Outrage", in which Muslims killed nine of them. The killing of two Hindus at the hands of Uighurs took place in Shamba Bazaar. The Uighurs plundered the valuables of slaughtered Indian Hindus in Posgam on March 25 as on the previous day in Karghalik. Killings of Hindus also took place in Khotan at the hands of the Bughra Amirs. The Japanese invited an Ottoman prince, Abdulkerim , and several anti-Atatürk Young Turk exiles from Turkey to assist them in setting up
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#17328416617417384-445: The Iron Gate Society or the Flower Basket Society. The former would dress entirely in white (the color of death in China) and waved fans that they believed would deflect gunfire, while the latter fought with a sword and a magical basket to catch their opponents' bullets. Disappointed with the Republic of China and despairing due to the warlords deprivations, many peasant secret societies adopted millenarian beliefs, and advocated
7526-416: The Kuomintang government of China. The Turkic populace called Ma Hushan their padishah (king). Meanwhile, in nearby Kashgar, the representatives of Sheng Shicai including Chinese nationalist Christian Liu Bin and Turfan merchant Mahmud Shizhang took over control. Sheng had the Xinjiang provincial official previously in charge, Ma Shaowu, summoned to Urumqi. When Ma Shaowu, sensing a trap, refused to go, he
7668-399: The NRA ( National Revolutionary Army ) Chiang Kai-Shek began a purge of leftists and communists in what is known as the Shanghai massacre . As a result of the massacre the Wuhan government chose to split from Chiang which resulted in him forming a new nationalist government in Nanjing . Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the protégé of Sun Yat-sen following the Zhongshan Warship Incident . In
7810-435: The NRA. In 1926, he launched the Northern Expedition , which destroyed the troops of the Zhili and Anhui cliques. Fengtian clique leader Zhang Xueliang retreated from Beijing, and on 29 December 1928 accepted the leadership of Chiang's Nationalist government, thus reunifying China and beginning the Nanjing decade . Despite the official end of the era in 1928, several warlords continued to maintain their influence throughout
7952-650: The New City of Kashgar from Chinese Muslim troops under General Ma Zhancang . They were defeated. Tawfiq Bey, a Syrian Arab traveler who held the title Sayyid (descendant of prophet Muhammed ) and arrived at Kashgar on August 26, 1933, was shot in the stomach by Chinese Muslim troops in September. Previously Ma Zhancang arranged to have the Uighur leader Timur Beg killed and beheaded on August 9, 1933, displaying his head outside of Id Kah Mosque . Jin Shuren Jin Shuren ( traditional Chinese : 金樹仁 ; simplified Chinese : 金树仁 ; pinyin : Jīn Shùrén ; Wade–Giles : Chin Shu-jen ; c. 1883–1941)
8094-486: The Northeast and captured Beijing. The Fengtian clique remained in control of the capital until the Northern Expedition led by Chiang Kai-shek 's National Revolutionary Army forced Zhang out of power in June 1928. The southern provinces of China were notably against the Beiyang government in the north, having resisted the restoration of monarchy by Yuan Shikai and the subsequent government in Peking after his death. Sun Yat-sen along with other southern leaders had formed
8236-519: The Qing and reunify China. In return, Sun would hand over his presidency and recommend Yuan to be the president of the new republic. Yuan refused to move to Nanjing and insisted on maintaining the capital in Beijing , where his power base was secure. Reacting to Yuan's growing authoritarianism , the southern provinces rebelled in 1913 but were effectively crushed by Beiyang forces. Civil governors were replaced by military ones . In December 1915, Yuan stated his intention to become emperor of China at
8378-532: The Qing dynasty was forced to allow provincial governors to raise their own armies, the Yong Ying , to fight against the Taiping rebels; many of these provincial forces were not disbanded after the Taiping rebellion was over, like Li Hongzhang 's Huai Army . Strong bonds, family ties, and respectful treatment of troops were emphasized. The officers were never rotated, and the soldiers were hand-picked by their commanders, and commanders by their generals, so personal bonds of loyalty formed between local officers and
8520-488: The Russian forces. Chinese forces killed many White Russian soldiers and Soviet soldiers in 1944–1946 when the White Russians of Ili and Soviet Red Army served in the Second East Turkestan Republic Ili national army during the Ili Rebellion . To defend themselves from the attacks of the warlord factions and armies, peasants organized themselves into militant secret societies and village associations which served as self-defense militias as well as vigilante groups. As
8662-450: The Soviets. Georg Vasel, a German hired by the Central Government to build airstrips along the former Silk Road, recounted the massacres of the war. On one occasion, the road between Hami and Urumqi he was driving on was so strewn with corpses that he could not avoid them without causing the truck to overturn, and he had to drive directly over the corpses. When his White Russian driver, when meeting Ma Zhongying, asked "Must I tell him that I am
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#17328416617418804-589: The Turkish embassy in Japan denounced the Japanese plan to create a puppet state, labeling it a "Muslim Manchukuo ". TASS claimed the Uyghur Sabit Damulla invited "Turkish emigrants in India and Japan, with their anti-Kemalist organizations, to organize his military forces." Mass defections occurred on all three sides during the rebellion. Ma Zhancang and his Chinese Muslim army were originally allied to Timur Beg and his Uyghur army while marching on Kashgar. Zhancang and his army, however, defected to Muslim commander Ma Shaowu and his Han army and fought against Timur Beg and
8946-400: The Uighur and Kirghiz armies of the East Turkestan Republic at the Battle of Kashgar (1934) , Battle of Yarkand and Battle of Yangi Hissar . In the aftermath of the Islamic Republic, the Hui Chinese Muslims under Ma Zhongying's brother-in-law General Ma Hushan governed southern Xinjiang as an autonomous satrapy over the Turkic-speaking Muslims, sometimes called Tunganistan , in the name of
9088-480: The Uyghurs. The Kyrgyz levies under Osman Ali were originally allied to Chinese Muslim commander Ma Shaowu and his Han army, but they defected to Timur Beg's Uyghurs at the same time Ma Zhancang defected to Ma Shaowu. Han General Zhang Peiyuan and his Han Chinese Ili army originally fought for the provincial government under Jin Shuren against Ma Zhongying. However, Zhang Peiyuan and his Han army defected to Ma Zhongying and his Muslim army in 1933 and joined him in fighting
9230-402: The Xinjiang Muslims to fight Jin alone. The Kumul Uyghur commanders Yulbars and Khoja Niyaz had also been gaining aid from the Outer Mongolian Mongolian People's Republic , who themselves broke from China a few years prior with Soviet assistance. Ma Zhongying had a secret agreement with the Kuomintang, China's central government: if he won Xinjiang, he would be recognized by the Kuomintang. Ma
9372-405: The Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao helped Sun regain power in 1923. To resolve the problem of being dependent on warlords, Sun accepted Soviet assistance in building a party and military infrastructure of his own, creating the Whampoa Military Academy and the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). After Sun died in 1925, the head of the Whampoa Academy, Chiang Kai-shek , emerged as the military leader of
9514-450: The assassination of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) Governor Yang Zengxin (Yang Tseng-sin) in 1928. Jin was notoriously intolerant of Turkic peoples and openly antagonized them. Such acts of discrimination included restrictions on travel, increased taxation, seizure of property without due process and frequent executions for suspected espionage or disloyalty. Jin had also Chinese (Hui) Muslims in his provincial army like Ma Shaowu . In 1930 Jin annexed
9656-453: The city of Changchun. When importing weapons became impractical, warlord armies either used locally-made copies of Western firearms (including ones in uncommon use such as the Franz Stock Pistol ) or indigenous designs. Because their soldiers were not able to use or take proper care of modern weapons, the warlords often hired foreign mercenaries , who were effective but always open to other offers. Russian émigrés who fled to China after
9798-413: The city. The Kirghiz were not amused at how their rebellion was crushed the previous year by Ma Shaowu, and now he wanted them to defend the city. They defected en masse to the enemy. However, Ma Zhancang also entered into secret negotiations with Ma Shaowu; he and his troops soon defected to the Han Chinese garrison in the city. During the Battle of Kashgar (1933) the city changed hands multiple times as
9940-517: The common uniform of an infantryman to show his concern for his men. Wu Peifu , the "Philosopher General", was a mandarin who passed the Imperial Civil Service exam , billing himself as the protector of Confucian values , usually appearing in photographs with the scholar's brush in his hand (the scholar's brush is a symbol of Confucian culture). Doubters noted, however, that the quality of Wu's calligraphy markedly declined when his secretary died. Wu liked to appear in photos taken in his office with
10082-650: The confused factions battled each other. The Kirghiz began to murder any Han Chinese and Chinese Muslim they could get their hands on, and fighting broke out in the streets. Timur Beg became sympathetic to the pro-independence rebels of Muhammad Amin Bughra and Sabit Damulla Abdulbaki , while Ma Zhancang proclaimed his allegiance to the Chinese Kuomintang government and notified everyone that all former Chinese officials would keep their posts. Ma Zhancang arranged for Timur Beg to be killed and beheaded on August 9, 1933, displaying his head outside of Id Kah Mosque . Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah provided weapons and support to
10224-424: The constitutional government that existed prior to Zhang Xun's coup. Cao bought the presidency in 1923 despite opposition by the KMT, Fengtian, Anhui remnants, some of his lieutenants and the public. In the autumn of 1924 the Zhili appeared to be on the verge of complete victory in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War until Feng Yuxiang betrayed the clique, seized Beijing and imprisoned Cao. Zhili forces were routed from
10366-469: The countryside, gunning down everyone they met and taking everything moveable. The rampage was stopped only when the peasants pulled up the train tracks, which led Nechaev to sack the nearest town. Nechaev suffered a huge defeat at the hands of Chinese, when he and one armoured train under his command were trapped near Suichzhou in 1925. Their Chinese adversaries had pulled up the rail, and took this opportunity to massacre almost all Russian mercenaries on board
10508-448: The critical Zhili–Anhui War in July 1920. After the death of Feng Guozhang in 1919, the Zhili clique was led by Cao Kun . The alliance with the Fengtian was only one of convenience and war broke out in 1922 (the First Zhili–Fengtian War ), with Zhili driving Fengtian forces back to Manchuria . Next, they wanted to bolster their legitimacy and reunify the country by returning Li Yuanhong to
10650-577: The crossing of the Russian-Chinese border in November 1922 and the disarmament, the Chinese authorities of Marshal Zhang Zuolin bought or received for free almost all the weapons of the Russian White Army, which left Vladivostok. In the border city of Kirin, the Chinese received a large number of the rifles, the machine guns, the cartridges and the grenades, the artillery pieces were sent immediately to
10792-414: The entire Warlord Era. Yuan Shikai cut back on many government institutions in the beginning of 1914 by suspending parliament, followed by the provincial assemblies. His cabinet soon resigned, effectively making Yuan dictator of China. After Yuan Shikai curtailed many basic freedoms, the country quickly spiraled into chaos and entered a period of warlordism. "Warlordism did not substitute military force for
10934-593: The first years was restrained, as no leader wanted to engage in too much serious fighting. War brought the risk of damage to one's own forces. For example, when Wu Peifu defeated the army of Zhang Zuolin, he provided two trains to take his defeated enemies home, knowing that if in the future Zhang were to defeat him, he could count on the same courtesy. Furthermore, warlords did not have the economic or logistical capabilities required to achieve decisive victories, and were generally concerned instead with taking over smaller pieces of territory. The violence increased in intense as
11076-689: The foreign concessions in China, a stance that was to cost him his life when he refused to go to the International Settlement or the French Concession in Shanghai for medical treatment. More typical was Marshal Zhang Zuolin , a "graduate of the University of the Green Forest" (i.e., a bandit), an illiterate who had a forceful, ambitious personality that allowed him to rise up from the leader of
11218-576: The general Zhang Xun forced Li to resign and made a brief attempt to restore the Qing dynasty , which was quashed by Duan's troops. Feng became the acting president, but was forced to step down by Duan in late 1918 and was replaced by Xu Shichang . In mid-1920, the new Zhili clique leaders, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu , defeated Duan in the Zhili–Anhui War in an alliance with Zhang. A power struggle broke out between Cao and Zhang, which ended with Cao's victory in
11360-1276: The general population. In 1921, the North China Daily News reported that in Shaanxi , robbery and violent crimes were prevalent and frightened the farmers. Wu Peifu of the Zhili clique was known for suppressing strikes by railroad workers by terrorizing them with execution. A British diplomat in Sichuan witnessed two mutineers being publicly hacked to death with their hearts and livers hung out; another two being publicly burned to death; while others had slits cut into their bodies into which were inserted burning candles before they were hacked to pieces. Warlords placed great stress on personal loyalty, yet subordinate officers often betrayed their commanders in exchange for bribes known as "silver bullets", and warlords often betrayed allies. Promotion had little to do with competence, and instead warlords attempted to create an interlocking network of familial, institutional, regional, and master-pupil relationships together with membership in sworn brotherhoods and secret societies. Subordinates who betrayed their commanders could suffer harshly. In November 1925, Guo Songling ,
11502-593: The hands of the Amir's followers. Several hundred Uighur Muslims had converted to Christianity due to the missionary work of the Swedes, many of whom would suffer imprisonment and execution. For instance, after refusing to give up his Christian religion, the convert Uighur Habil was executed in 1933. The East Turkestan Republic also subjected former Muslim Christian converts like Joseph Johannes Khan to jail, torture and abuse after he refused to give up Christianity in favor of Islam. After
11644-492: The head of a new dynasty . The southern provinces rebelled again in the National Protection War ; but this time the situation was far more serious because most Beiyang commanders refused to recognize the monarchy. Yuan renounced his plans for restoring the monarchy to woo back his lieutenants; however, by the time of his death in June 1916, China had fractured politically. The North-South split would persist throughout
11786-569: The late Qing's lack of a unified military force, exacerbated by the rise of provincialism during the revolution, was also a strong factor behind the proliferation of warlords. Apart from administrative and financial obstacles, the late Qing government seemed to have relied on this divided military structure to maintain political control. The rising necessity of military professionalism, with scholars becoming heavily militarized, led to many officers from non-scholarly backgrounds rising to high command and even high office in civil bureaucracy. At this time,
11928-423: The leading general loyal to Marshal Zhang Zuolin —the "Old Marshal" of Manchuria—made a deal with Feng Yuxiang to revolt, which nearly toppled the "Old Marshal", who had to promise his rebel soldiers a pay increase; that, together with signs that the Japanese still supported Zhang, caused them to go back on their loyalty to him. Guo and his wife were both publicly shot and their bodies left to hang for three days in
12070-613: The legitimate government of China. The most powerful cliques were the Zhili clique led by Feng Guozhang , who controlled several northern provinces; the Anhui clique led by Duan Qirui , based in several southeastern provinces; and the Fengtian clique led by Zhang Zuolin , based in Manchuria . The three cliques often engaged in conflict for territory and hegemony. In mid-1917, after Yuan's successor Li Yuanhong attempted to remove Duan as premier,
12212-553: The local population. The uprising threatened to spread throughout the entire province. Yulbars Khan , advisor at the Kumul court, appealed for help to Ma Zhongying, a Hui Muslim warlord in Kansu , to overthrow Jin and restore the Khanate. Some scholars describe a Han officer forcing a Uyghur woman to submit to marrying him as the event that triggered the rebellion. Ma's troops marched to Kumul and laid siege to government forces there. Although he
12354-517: The military upstaged the civil service . The influence of German and Japanese ideas of military predominance over the nation, coupled with the absence of national unity amongst the various cliques in the officer class, led to the fragmentation of power. The most powerful regional army was the northern-based Beiyang Army under Yuan Shikai , which received the best in training and modern weaponry. The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 brought widespread mutiny across southern China. The revolution began with
12496-403: The north but kept the center. Feng Yuxiang's defection resulted in the defeat of Wu Peifu and the Zhili clique and forced them to withdraw to the south. The victorious Zhang Zuolin unpredictably named Duan Qirui as the new Chief Executive of the nation on 24 November 1924. Duan's new government was grudgingly accepted by the Zhili clique because, without an army of his own, Duan was now considered
12638-478: The numbers. Other notable information on some of the above-mentioned major warlords: The great ideological flexibility of warlords and politicians during this era can be well exemplified in the activities of Bai Lang , an important bandit leader. Even though he initially fought in support of the Qing dynasty with ultraconservative monarchists as well as warlords, Bai Lang later formed an alliance with republicans, declared himself loyal to Sun Yat-sen and formed
12780-520: The oppression of the Han, but still continue live under Dungan subjugation. We must still fear the Han, but cannot not fear the Dungans also. The reason, we must be careful to guard against the Dungans, we must intensively oppose them, cannot afford to be polite, since the Dungans have compelled us to follow this way. Yellow Han people have not the slightest thing to do with Eastern Turkestan. Black Dungans also do not have this connection. Eastern Turkestan belongs to
12922-500: The other elements of government; it merely balanced them differently. This shift in balance came partly from the disintegration of the sanctions and values of China's traditional civil government." During this period, there was a general shift from a state-dominated civil bureaucracy held by a central authority to a military-dominated culture held by many groups, with power shifting from warlord to warlord. A theme identified by C. Martin Wilbur
13064-507: The other. On 18 March 1926, a protest march was held against continued foreign infringement on Chinese sovereignty and a recent incident in Tianjin involving a Japanese warship. Duan dispatched military police to disperse the protesters, and in the resulting melee 47 protesters were killed and over 200 injured, including Li Dazhao, co-founder of the Communist Party. The event came to be known as
13206-431: The parliament and proclaimed a Manchu Restoration . The new government quickly fell to Duan after he returned to Beijing with reinforcements from Tianjin. As another government formed in Beijing, Duan's fundamental disagreements over national issues with the new President Feng Guozhang led to Duan's resignation in 1918. The Zhili clique forged an alliance with the Fengtian clique , led by Zhang Zuolin , and defeated Duan in
13348-558: The peasants ranged from rather simple ones, such as swallowing charms, to much more elaborate practices. For example, elements of the Red Spear Society performed secret ceremonies to confer invulnerability from bullets to channel the power of Qi and went into battle naked with supposedly bulletproof red clay smeared over their bodies. The Mourning Clothes Society would perform three kowtows and weep loudly before each battle. There were also all-female self-defense groups, such as
13490-465: The peasants usually had neither money for guns nor military training, these secret societies relied on martial arts, self-made weapons such as swords and spears, as well as the staunch belief in protective magic. The latter was especially important, as the conviction of invulnerability was "a powerful weapon for bolstering the resolve of people who possessed few alternative resources with which to defend their meager holdings". Magical rituals practiced by
13632-452: The people of Eastern Turkestan. There is no need for foreigners to come be our fathers and mothers...From now on we do not need to use foreigner's language or their names, their customs, habits, attitudes, written languages, etc. We must also overthrow and drive foreigners from our boundaries forever. The colours yellow and black are foul...They have dirtied our Land for too long. So now it's absolutely necessary to clean out this filth. Take down
13774-584: The practice of his predecessor of appointing relatives and fellow provincials. Subsequently, former Yunnan officials, both Han and Hui were replaced by Han from Gansu, especially from the region of Hezhou, the hometown of Jin. He appointed his brother Jin Shuhsin as Provincial Commissioner for Military Affairs. Another brother Jin Shuchih was given a senior military post in Kashgar . Jin expanded Yang's system of internal surveillance and censorship. Besides increasing
13916-475: The presidency and restoring the National Assembly . They proposed that Xu Shichang and Sun Yat-sen resign their rival presidencies simultaneously in favour of Li. When Sun issued strict stipulations that the Zhili could not stomach, they caused the defection of KMT Gen. Chen Jiongming by recognizing him as governor of Guangdong . With Sun driven out of Guangzhou , the Zhili clique superficially restored
14058-493: The provincial government under Sheng Shicai and the Soviets and White Russians. Khoja Niyaz and his Kumulik Uyghur army defected from Ma Zhongying's side to the provincial government and the Soviets and received weapons from the Soviets. Ma Zhongying returned to Xinjiang in 1933 to continue the war. Ma Zhongying had an ambition to create an empire covering the whole of Soviet and Chinese Central Asia. Ma used Kuomintang Blue Sky with
14200-462: The provincial government, accusing them of plotting his overthrow with Huang. At the same time Sheng Shicai also forced Huang to wire Nanjing with a recommendation that he be recognized as the official Tupan of Xinjiang. Chiang Kai-shek sent Luo Wen'gan to Xinjiang, and Luo met with Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan, urging them to destroy Sheng. Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan then began a joint attack on Sheng's Manchurian and White Russian force during
14342-465: The railroads caused much economic harm. In 1925, at least 50% of the locomotives being used on the line connecting Nanjing and Shanghai had been destroyed, with the soldiers of one warlord using 300 freight cars as sleeping quarters, all inconveniently parked directly on the rail line. To hinder pursuit, defeated troops tore up the railroads as they retreated; in 1924, damages amounted to 100 million Mexican silver dollars (the main currency used in China at
14484-692: The rebels included Tevfik Pasha, a Pan-Islamist former Minister of the Saudi King Ibn Saud and formed cooperative ties with the Japanese ambassador to Afghanistan Kitada Masamoto, who was also closely monitoring the rebellion. This rebellion became entangled with the Kumul rebellion, when a Chinese Muslim and Uyghur army under Ma Zhancang and Timur Beg marched on Kashgar against the Chinese Muslim Daotai Ma Shaowu and his garrison of Han Chinese troops. Ma Shaowu began to panic and started raising Kirghiz levies under Osman Ali to defend
14626-428: The region now ardently hoped for Ma's expulsion by Sheng Shicai and an end to the seesaw military campaigns by both sides. Ma also forcibly conscripted Uyghurs into his army, turning them into infantry while only Chinese Muslims were allowed to be officers. This led to outrage among the Uyghurs at Kumul. Meanwhile, the Han Chinese commander of Ili , Zhang Peiyuan , entered into secret negotiations with Ma Zhongying, and
14768-623: The remnants of Xu's troops as they attempted to flee south on the road back to China. Chinese forces slaughtered most of a 350 strong White Russian forces in June 1921 under Colonel Kazagrandi in the Gobi desert, with only two batches of 42 men and 35 men surrendering separately as Chinese were wiping out White Russian remnants following the Soviet Red army defeat of Ungern Sternberg, and other Buryat and White Russian remnants of Ungern-Sternberg's army were massacred by Soviet Red Army and Mongol forces. During
14910-450: The rest to behave better. Despite their constant need for money, the warlords lived in luxury. Marshal Zhang owned the world's biggest pearl, while Gen. Wu owned the world's biggest diamond. Marshal Zhang, the "Old Marshal", lived in a lavish palace in Mukden with his five wives, old Confucian texts and a cellar full of fine French wines , and needed 70 cooks in his kitchen to make enough food for him, his wives and his guests. Gen. Zhang,
15052-469: The restoration of the monarchy, led by the old Ming dynasty . The past was widely romanticized, and many believed that a Ming emperor would bring a "reign of happiness and justice for all". The death of Yuan Shikai split the Beiyang Army into two main factions. The Zhili and Fengtian clique were in alliance with one another, while the Anhui clique formed their own faction. International recognition
15194-429: The size of his penis , which became part of his legend. He was widely believed to be the most well endowed man in China, nicknamed "General Eighty-Six" as his penis when erect was said to measure up to a pile of 86 Mexican silver dollars (25.8 cm or 10.16 in). His harem consisted of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian and two French women. He gave them numbers, as he could not remember their names, and then usually forgot
15336-955: The slaughter of Hindus in Khotan by the Islamic Turkic rebels. The Emirs of Khotan killed the Hindus while they forced the Swedes out and declared Shariah in Khotan on March 16, 1933. Hostility towards Hindus predated the establishment of the Islamic republic. Han Chinese men, Hindu men, Armenian men, Jewish men and Russian men married Uyghur Muslim women who could not find husbands . Uyghur merchants would harass Hindu money lenders by shouting at them if they ate beef or hanging cow skins on their quarters. Uyghur men also rioted and attacked Hindus for marrying Uyghur women in 1907 in Poskam and Yarkand like Ditta Ram calling for their beheading and stoning as they engaged in anti-Hindu violence. Hindu Indian money lenders engaging in
15478-461: The soldiers were illiterate . In 1926 U.S. Army officer Joseph Stilwell inspected a warlord unit and observed that 20% were less than 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m) tall, the average age was 14 and most walked barefoot. Stilwell wrote that this "scarecrow company" was worthless as a military unit. A British army visitor commented that, provided they had proper leadership, the men of northern China were "the finest Oriental raw material with
15620-555: The south , were divided between the Yunnan , Guangxi , Guizhou , and Sichuan cliques. Sun Yat-sen created an alternative government based in Guangzhou to oppose the Beiyang warlords, but Lu Rongting 's Guangxi clique rivaled him for control, leading Sun to abandon it in 1918. In 1920, the warlord Chen Jiongming invaded Guangdong and ended Lu's control in the Guangdong–Guangxi War , after which Sun returned. Chen soon turned on Sun over disagreements on strategy, after which
15762-520: The strength of both secret and ordinary police, he introduced internal passports which gave him greater control over internal travels thus tightening internal security, as well as giving additional source of revenue for his administration. Traveling outside the province became almost impossible. In 1932, the French Yellow Expedition passed through Xinjiang. Jin's provincial authorities hindered their advance. Jin's rule of Xinjiang for about
15904-595: The summer of 1926, Chiang and the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) began the Northern Expedition with the hopes to reunify China. Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang of the Zhili clique were subsequently defeated in central and eastern China. In response to the situation, the Guominjun and Yan Xishan of Shanxi formed an alliance with Chiang to attack the Fengtian clique together. In 1927, Chiang initiated
16046-588: The support of the Japanese army, Marshal Zhang had to raise land taxes by 12% between 1922 and 1928 to pay for his wars. The warlords demanded loans from the banks. The other major revenue source besides taxes, loans and looting was the selling of opium , with the warlords selling the rights to grow and sell opium within their provinces to consortia of gangsters. Despite his ostensible anti-opium stance, Gen. Feng Yuxiang , "the Christian General", took in some $ 20 million per annum from opium sales. Inflation
16188-515: The temperament of a tiger". Writer Lin Yutang called Zhang "the most colorful, legendary, medieval, and unashamed ruler of modern China". Former Emperor Puyi remembered Zhang as "a universally detested monster" whose ugly, bloated face was "tinged with the livid hue induced by heavy opium smoking". A brutal man, Zhang was notorious for his hobby of smashing in the heads of prisoners with his sword, which he called "smashing melons". He loved to boast about
16330-469: The time). Between 1925 and 1927, fighting in eastern and southern China caused non-military railroad traffic to decline by 25%, raising the prices of goods and causing inventory to build up at warehouses. China's disunity during this period resulted in varied political experiments in different regions. Some regions experimented with aspects of democracy, including different mechanisms for election of city and provincial council elections. In Hunan, for example,
16472-481: The train. Nechaev managed to survive this incident, but lost a part of his leg during the bitter fighting. In October 1926, Nechaev had 6 good armored trains, representing a significant military force. In 1926 Chinese warlord Sun Chuanfang inflicted bloody death tolls upon the White Russian mercenaries under Nechaev's brigade in the 65th division serving Zhang Zongchang, reducing the Russian numbers from 3,000 to only
16614-400: The troops, unlike Green Standard and Banner forces . The late Qing reforms did not establish a national army; instead, they mobilized regional armies and militias that had neither standardization nor consistency. Officers were loyal to their immediate superiors and formed cliques based upon their place of origins and background. Units were composed of men from the same province. This policy
16756-499: The two joined their armies together against Jin Shuren and the Russians. At this point in April 1933, Jin Shuren's White Russian Cossack troops in Urumqi mutinied and overthrew him, installing his subordinate Sheng Shicai to take his place. Under Soviet and Han Chinese communist advice, Sheng implemented a system of ethnocultural autonomy, including appointing the former Kumul rebel Khoja Niyaz as deputy governor of Xinjiang. Huang Mu-sung ,
16898-584: The victory of the Bolsheviks were widely employed. One of the Russian mercenaries claimed that they went through Chinese troops like a knife through butter during one battle. The most highly paid of the Russian units was led by Gen. Konstantin Nechaev , who fought for Zhang Zongchang , the "Dogmeat General" who ruled Shandong province. Zhang Zongchang had Russian women as concubines. Nechaev and his men were much feared. In 1926 they drove three armoured trains through
17040-400: The war ended, the soldiers became bandits. Warlord armies commonly raped or took many women into sexual slavery . The system of looting was institutionalized, as many warlords lacked the money to pay their troops. Some took to kidnapping, and might send a hostage's severed fingers along with the ransom demand as a way of encouraging prompt payment. Besides bandits, the rank-and-file of
17182-419: The warlord armies tended to be village conscripts . They might take service in one army, get captured, then join the army of their captors before being captured yet again. Warlords usually incorporated their prisoners into their armies; at least 200,000 men who were serving in the army of Gen. Wu were prisoners he had incorporated into his own army. A survey of one warlord garrison in 1924 revealed that 90% of
17324-406: The warlords. His Japanese patrons insisted that he ensure a stable economic climate to facilitate Japanese investment, making him one of the few warlords who sought to pursue economic growth instead of just plundering. Zhang Zongchang , known as the "Dogmeat General" because of his love for the gambling game of that name, was described as having "the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and
17466-644: The withdrawal of the Swedish missionaries came with the enactment of Shariah on March 16, 1933. In the name of Islam, Uyghur leader Amir Abdullah Bughra violently assaulted the Yarkand-based Swedish missionaries and sought to execute them; however, they were ultimately banished due to the British who interceded in their favor. The East Turkestan Republic, having banished the Swedish missionaries, tortured and jailed Christian converts, mainly Kirghiz and Uighurs. Muslims who had converted to Christianity were beheaded at
17608-460: The yellow and black barbarians! Live long Eastern Turkestan! The Khotanlik Uyghurs and Kirghiz formed an independent regime. On February 20, 1933, the Committee for National Revolution set up a provisional Khotan government with Sabit as prime minister and Muhammad Amin Bughra as head of the armed forces. It favored the establishment of an Islamic theocracy. Foreign volunteers who arrived to help
17750-544: Was "that a great majority of regional militarists were 'static', that is to say that their principal aim was to secure and maintain control of a particular tract of territory." Warlords, in the words of American political scientist Lucian Pye , were "instinctively suspicious, quick to suspect that their interests might be threatened, hard-headed, devoted to the short run and impervious to idealistic abstractions". Warlords usually came from strict military background, and were brutal in their treatment toward both their soldiers and
17892-623: Was a Chinese Xinjiang clique warlord who served as Governor of Xinjiang between 1928 and 1933. Jin Shuren was born in Yongjing , Hezhou , Gansu . He graduated at the Gansu provincial academy and then served as the Principal at the provincial normal school. He entered the Imperial Civil Service, where he got the attention of Yang Zengxin , at the time District Magistrate of Hezhou . When Yang
18034-563: Was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim General Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren , governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul Khanate and wanted to restore the heir to the Khanate and overthrow Jin. The Kuomintang wanted Jin removed because of his ties to the Soviet Union, so it approved of the operation while pretending to acknowledge Jin as governor. The rebellion then catapulted into large-scale fighting as Khotanlik Uyghur rebels in southern Xinjiang started
18176-408: Was another means of paying for their soldiers. Some warlords simply ran the money printing presses, and some resorted to duplicating machines to issue new Chinese dollars. The warlord who ruled Hunan province printed 22 million Chinese dollars on a silver reserve worth only one million Chinese dollars in the course of a single year, while Zhang in Shandong province printed 55 million Chinese dollars on
18318-525: Was appointed Governor of Xinjiang in 1908, Jin followed him as a county/district magistrate. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Jin rose through the ranks during Yang's absolute rule over Xinjiang. In 1927 he was named Provincial Commissioner for Civil Affairs in Ürümqi , a post which he held until Yang's assassination in July 1928. After taking Yang's post, Jin sent a telegram to Nanking asking for Kuomintang 's recognition of his new post. Kuomintang had no other choice but to recognise Jin as
18460-460: Was arrested by the KMT, brought to trial in March 1935 and sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment. However, the KMT pardoned him on 10 October 1935, and he was released from prison the next day. Warlord Era The Warlord Era was the period in the history of the Republic of China between 1916 and 1928, when control of the country was divided between former military cliques of
18602-434: Was based on the presence in Beijing, and every Beiyang clique tried to assert their dominance over the capital to claim legitimacy. While Li Yuanhong replaced Yuan Shikai as the President after his death, the political power was in the hands of Premier Duan Qirui . The government worked closely with the Zhili clique, led by Vice President Feng Guozhang, to maintain stability in the capital. Continuing military influence over
18744-519: Was colluding with the Japanese. Ma Zhongying publicly declared his allegiance to the Kuomintang at Nanjing. Ma himself was given permission by the Kuomintang to invade Xinjiang. The explicitly Islamic East Turkestan Republic forcibly ejected the Swedish missionaries and was openly hostile to Christianity while espousing a Muslim Turkic ideology. The Bughras implemented Shariah law and ejected the Khotan-based Swedish missionaries . Their demand for
18886-479: Was easily taken, as were other towns en route to the provincial capital. Sheng Shicai's forces retreated to Urumqi. Ground was alternately gained and lost by both sides. During this time Ma's forces became notorious for their cruelty to both Turkic and Chinese inhabitants, destroying the economy and engaging in wholesale looting and burning of villages. Once seen as a liberator by the Turkic population, which had suffered greatly under Jin Shuren, many Turkic inhabitants of
19028-518: Was established at Hami under the proud title of King of the Gobi. Jin Shuren, pressed for funding and swamped with Han refugees fleeing the warlordism elsewhere , decided to annex the Khanate to seize its revenues and use its lands to take in refugees. The newly subjected Kumulliks' land was expropriated by the Provincial government and given to Han Chinese settlers. As a result, rebellion broke out on February 20, 1931, and many Han Chinese were massacred by
19170-431: Was meant to reduce dialectal miscommunication, but had the side effect of encouraging regionalist tendencies. Although the post–Taiping Rebellion governors are generally not recognized as the direct predecessors of the warlords, their combined military-civil authority and somewhat greater powers as compared to earlier governors provided a model for Republic-era provincial leaders. The fragmentation of military power due to
19312-570: Was officially appointed commanding officer of the New 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army by the Kuomintang government in Nanjing. Asked to intervene against Jin on behalf of the Turkic population, Ma readily agreed. Jin bought two biplanes from the Soviet Union in September 1931 at 40,000 Mexican silver dollars each. They were equipped with machine guns and bombs and flown by Russian pilots. He signed
19454-549: Was reorganized along Leninist democratic centralism , and the alliance with the Chinese Communist Party came to be known as First United Front . The Guangzhou government focused on training new officers through the newly created Whampoa Military Academy . In 1924, the Zhilii clique fell out of power, and Sun travelled to Beiping to negotiate terms of reunification with leaders from Guominjun , Fengtian and Anhui clique. He
19596-460: Was sent down the Yangtze River to Shanghai was taxed 11 different times by various warlords to the sum total of 160% of its value. One warlord imposed a tax of 100% on railroad freight, including food, even though there was a famine in his province. Taxes owed to the central government in Beijing on stamp and salt were usually taken by regional authorities. Despite all of the wealth of Manchuria and
19738-555: Was subject to an assassination attempt which forced him to seek medical care in the Soviet Union. Conflict began brewing when Liu Bin, unaware of Muslim sensitivities, put up a picture of republican China's founder Sun Yat-sen in the Id-gar mosque of Old Kashgar, while pro-Soviet Kyrgyz under Uyghur communist Qadir Beg took over local policing. They implemented a reformed education curriculum based on importing teachers from Soviet Central Asia. Local Uyghurs began disenchanted, seeing these moves as
19880-486: Was taken up by left-wing groups to excoriate local militarists. Previously, these militarist leaders were known as a Tuchun ( 督軍 ), or provincial military governor, owing to the system Yuan Shikai introduced after his centralization of power. The origins of the armies and leaders which dominated politics after 1912 lay in the military reforms of the late Qing dynasty . During the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864),
20022-478: Was unable to secure the terms as he died in March 1925 from illness. Power struggles within the KMT ensued after the death of Sun. The Yunnan–Guangxi War broke out as Tang Jiyao tried to claim party leadership. In the north, there were struggles led by Guominjun against Fengtian-Zhili alliance from November 1925 to April 1926. The defeat of Guominjun ended their reign in Beiping. In April 1927, Commander-in-Chief of
20164-649: Was victorious elsewhere in the area, Ma was unable to capture the city. After being wounded that October in a battle in which Jin's force included 250 White Russian troops whom he had recruited from the Ili valley (where they had settled after the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War ), Ma withdrew his forces to Gansu (where he was nursed by Mildred Cable and the sisters Francesca and Eva French , whom he kept captive until he had recovered). This would temporarily leave
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