* PuttingOnTheReich: Chiang Wei Kuo, Chiang's son and Panzer Corps Lieutenant, and General von Falkenhausen, who continued to serve as a General in the NRA until he was recalled by the Wehrmacht under threat of harm to his family. Pulled off by the ''Nationalists'' at large, not that it had any bad connotations back then. There was a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-German_cooperation Sino-German alliance]] of sorts that only (in)formally ended in 1940 when the Axis was formed - the exchange of Chiang and von Falkenhausen, among others, was part of that informal alliance. The core of the NRA was equipped with surplus German equipment, including the famous grey ''Stahlhelm''s, the eponymous Karbiner 98k and Mauser C96 - which was produced as the standard NRA Officer Corps side-arm under licence. The NRA's fringe troops were generally equipped with variable (generally low) quality copycats of German weapons and equipment, though the more powerful warlords issued their troops with markedly different weapons produced from their own arsenals. Since the Germans also licensed the Japanese these helmets, and the strong influence of the Prussian military on the [[KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese]] one, China was the only front of World War II where ''both sides'' were PuttingOnTheReich. The resemblance faded as the new core of the NRA was issued American weapons and equipment, including the eponymous M1 helmet.

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* PuttingOnTheReich: Chiang Wei Kuo, Chiang's adopted son and a Panzer Corps Lieutenant, and General von Falkenhausen, who continued to serve as a General in the NRA until he was recalled by the Wehrmacht under threat of harm to his family. Pulled off by the ''Nationalists'' at large, not that it had any bad connotations back then. There was a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-German_cooperation Sino-German alliance]] of sorts that only (in)formally ended in 1940 when the Axis was formed - the exchange of Chiang and von Falkenhausen, among others, was part of that informal alliance. The core of the NRA was equipped with surplus German equipment, including the famous grey ''Stahlhelm''s, the eponymous Karbiner 98k and Mauser C96 - which was produced as the standard NRA Officer Corps side-arm under licence. The NRA's fringe troops were generally equipped with variable (generally low) quality copycats of German weapons and equipment, though the more powerful warlords issued their troops with markedly different weapons produced from their own arsenals. Since the Germans also licensed the Japanese these helmets, and the strong influence of the Prussian military on the [[KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese]] one, China was the only front of World War II where ''both sides'' were PuttingOnTheReich. The resemblance faded as the new core of the NRA was issued American weapons and equipment, including the eponymous M1 helmet.

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22nd May '13 2:53:25 PM Ellipse

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13th May '13 2:27:03 AM Librarian

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7th May '13 9:29:56 PM Serocco

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Ichigo was the last successful Japanese offensive. Even as it drew to a close, Japanese cities were being fire-bombed by the US Air Force. Even the lowest Japanese grunt knew the war was lost, but surrender was unthinkable. Three generals launched one last, desperate offensive into Sichuan, but were beaten back. The Allied leaders then issued a final ultimatum that demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan on threat of [[NukeEm "utter destruction"]]. Given the numbers of Japanese civilian dead and the way the Third Reich had just gone down, High Command didn't expect for a moment this would actually work and had been planning an amphibious invasion of the Japanese Home Islands - Operation Downfall - which was set to begin in October. Naturally, Japan refused to surrender. The USAF then dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Soviet Union entered the war on the same day, and sent the Red Army storming into Manchukuo. Meanwhile, the GMD had managed to take back Guangxi and were preparing for an all-out offensive to retake the rest of southern China... when to the astonishment of everyone, Japan surrendered.

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The Soviet Union entered the war [[NoKillLikeOverkill on the same day]], and sent the Red Army storming into Manchukuo. Meanwhile, the GMD had managed to take back Guangxi and were preparing for an all-out offensive to retake the rest of southern China... when to the astonishment of everyone, Japan surrendered.

28th Apr '13 1:42:52 PM MAI742

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However, Zhang Xueliang had an axe to grind. Manchuria and Japan's other client states in northern China had all been - and 'were' being - carved out of his own territory. Zhang Zuolin, Zhang's father, had once ruled all the territory between Beijing and Harbin; now, Xueliang clung to just a scrap of his father's old power-base, and it was only a matter of time before the Japanese or Chiang took it away from him too. Zhang tried unsuccessfully to convince Chiang to join forces with the DirtyCommies against Japan but the Generalissimo would have none of it, not least because Chiang believed (rightly) that the Japanese wanted to disengage from China given the threat from the Soviet Union. Chiang was also suspicious of Zhang's motivations, as the latter clearly had a personal stake in seeing Chiang's influence in the region curbed. Despite having sworn allegiance to Chiang, he eventually came to the conclusion that 'to keep China strong for the war with Japan' he had to get his troops to slaughter Chiang's guards, kidnap him, and force him to negotiate with the communists at gunpoint. The Chinese Communist Party was contacted in secret and asked for a delegation to decide on the next step. After some deliberation, the Chiang agreed to call off the offensive to crush the Yan'an Soviet and establish a 'united front' against Japan. Since Chiang was agreed to be the only man who could lead China in such a war, [[VetinariJobSecurity not at all coincidentally]], the man himself was released. As one would expect, Chiang immediately had Zhang (who had turned himself in to the police) shot and initiated the offensive anyway. The Soviet was crushed in just six months, and with it Chinese Communism. The country went on to become a centralised, authoritarian state that maintained close relations with Imperial Japan through the 1940s, the two uniting in common cause against the threat of the Soviet Union.

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Consequently, when Chiang turned up at Xi'an to oversee Zhang's offensive, Zhang got his troops to slaughter Chiang's guards, kidnap him, and force him to negotiate with the communists at gunpoint. The Chinese Communist Party was contacted in secret and asked for a delegation to decide on the next step. After some deliberation, Chiang agreed to call off the offensive to crush the Yan'an Soviet and to establish a 'united front' against Japan. Since Chiang was agreed to be the only man who could lead China in such a war, [[VetinariJobSecurity not at all coincidentally]], the man himself was released. As one would expect, Chiang immediately had Zhang (who had turned himself in to the police) shot and initiated the offensive anyway. The Soviet was crushed in just a few months, and with it Chinese Communism. China went on to become a centralised, authoritarian state under the Guomindang, one that maintained close relations with Imperial Japan through the 1940s - the two ideologically-similar regimes having united in common cause against the threat of the Soviet Union.

28th Apr '13 1:39:04 PM MAI742

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By 1936, [[ChiangKaiShek Chiang Kai-Shek]] (or Jiang Jieshi), leader of the Chinese nationalist party (Guomindang or GMD) which monopolised power in the Republic of China was determined to finish off the final communist soviet in the mountainous central-northern province of Yan'an. However, Zhang Xueliang, the anti-communist warlord of Xian, believed that the National Republican Army (essentially the army of the GMD) was not strong enough to destroy the communists in their stronghold and even if it was, the cost would be too great. He tried unsuccessfully to convince Chiang to join forces with the DirtyCommies but the Generalissimo would have none of it. Despite having sworn allegiance to Chiang, he eventually came to the conclusion that to keep China strong for the war with Japan he had to kidnap him and force him to negotiate with the communists. The Chinese Communist Party was contacted in secret and asked for a delegation to decide on the next step. After some deliberation, the GMD and CCP agreed to forge a united front against Japan. Since Chiang was agreed to be the only man who could lead China in such a war, the man himself was released. Zhang Xueliang, having done his work, turned over himself for arrest.

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By 1936, [[ChiangKaiShek Chiang Kai-Shek]] (aka [[TheReasonMaoChangedHisName Jiang Jieshi]]) leader of the Chinese Guomindang (GMD or 'National[ist] Party'), had (relatively) firml control over all the territory a hundred miles to either side of the Yangzi river. This was more (economically important) territory than any one Chinese warlord or government had controlled [[NoMoreEmperors since President-for-life Yuan Shikai died in 1916]].

In the years since the 'Northern March' of 1927, wherein the Guomindang had taken control of the mid-lower Yangzi (chiefly Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan) and established a base of power for itself, Chiang had done a lot to consolidate the party's hold on the country. He had managed this by fighting communism, 'fighting' communism, and fighting 'communism' - by taking over communist base areas in Jiangxi and Henan and Hunan provinces, by using the fight to unify the country and eliminate communism to smooth over political and ideological tensions within the party, and by using the pretext of eliminating communism to take over the rest of Hunan and Sichuan province. In 1936 Chiang was determined to eliminate the Communist Soviet in Yan'an province. Stationing so many troops in the area (for the offensive to crush the Soviet) meant he was able to find a use for and curb the influence of the wily and backstabbing Warlord Yan Xishan (who was based out of neighbouring Shanxi province) and the Warlord Zhang Xueliang, who controlled the area around Beijing. With troops in the backyard of both warlords, he was able to bully them into contributing to the campaign, and Zhang even agreed to 'lead' the campaign. Moreover, when the Guomindang won (as it almost certainly would, in retrospect), it would give Chiang a good position from which he could eliminate them both warlords in the (near) future.

Only, that didn't happen. Chiang kept his word and forged the United Front. Zhang Xueliang was gaoled for life of course, but he became a national hero almost overnight as the urban Chinese public[[hottip:*: Chiang insisted that there should be no talk of war with Japan, as he knew fine well that the Guomindang was too weak to take Japan on and win, and he didn't want to be the one who started it.]] was just ''itching'' for a war with Japan

14th Apr '13 9:39:37 AM Librarian

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