History UsefulNotes / NoMoreEmperors

* GeneralFailure: ZigZagged with Jiang Jieshi. By all accounts, he wasn't good or even decent commander, but in the same time he was far from bad or incompetent. And his Northern Expeditions proved quite successful after all. On the other hand, his increasing paranoia, all the infighting within armed forces ''and'' the party, the constantly shifting alliances and most importantly - his staunch desire to personally control ''everything'' eventually led to his undoing, as there was just too much for a single mastermind to handle, which Chiang Kai-Shek was far from.

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai Yuan Shikai]], called out of retirement to lead the Beiyang Army against the forces of the Revolutionaries in 1911, turned on the Emperor and used his clout as a military leader to declare an end to the Manchu Empire of the Qing. He went on to use his influence to secure his appointment to the Presidency of the Republic of China. Yuan was, though more popular than the Manchu, still not a particularly popular leader as he conceded most of the '21 Demands' made by UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan upon threat of war (which asked for economic concessions in North China/Manchuria) and later ''tried to declare himself Emperor''. Both moves were to be expected - in Chinese history, those who overthrew the previous dynasty often started their own. However, most of the country's middle classes wanted a Republic, and a democratic one at that. Yuan was forced to resign as Emperor in 1916, and died soon after. His rule undid many of the successes of the 1911 Revolution, most notably all hope of a central and stable government, let alone a democratic one. Under his rule the different regions of China slowly drifted apart, and upon his death the country fragmented.

When Yuan died, the central government broke down entirely. Yuan's 'military governors', recognised as such for their power-bases in their locales, went their own way and effectively carved out their own states. Some Warlords, like Zhang Zuolin of Manchuria (a godawful governor himself, but he had some very able administrators whom he largely left alone and trusted to run things for him as long as they gave him enough money for his armies) were effective rulers, but most... not so much. Warlord rule was characterized by extremely high and largely arbitrary taxes (some collected years in advance), arbitrary conscription into their personal armies and a lack of economic development in those areas governed by the worst warlords. Many Warlords would even force their peasants to produce opium (and heroin) to support them and their drug monopolies. It's important to note, though, that warlords' attitudes and temperaments varied wildly. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Yuxiang Feng Yuxiang]] (warlord of Anhui province and the lower Yangzi) acquired the moniker 'The Backstabbing General' from his own troops and was a devout Christian who took to baptising his soldiers before battles (reputedly ''with a firehose''). [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Zongchang Zhang Zongchang]] (warlord of Shandong province) was dubbed by ''Time'' magazine 'China's basest warlord' and was known throughout China as 'The Three Don't Knows' because he reputedly had ''no idea'' how much money[[note]]He had several prominent merchants ''shot'' for "refusing" to control the inflation he was causing by printing money to pay his troops[[/note]], how many concubines[[note]]He gave them numbers, because he couldn't remember their names or even speak their languages (which included Japanese, French, and Russian)[[/note]], or how many soldiers[[note]]'Somewhere in the vicinity of 40-50 000'[[/note]] he had.

Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Yixian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen among other names]], based on the current Pinyin scheme of transcribing the Chinese language into the Latin alphabet) failed (1911-)revolutionary and 'Father of the (Chinese) Nation', set up the Chinese Guomindang ([[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName GMD for Guomindang or KMT for Kuomintang]]) or National(ist) Party in Guangzhou in 1919. The old 'Guomindang' still existed, but the Warlords had made it irrelevant in most of China. This new KMT was more of a coalition, with various wings possessing different ideas on how a Chinese republic should be run. Political leanings ranged from liberal to staunchly conservative, while other wings focused on styles of government, ranging from authoritarian to democratic. As Sun and Chiang took advice from ''all'' the different wings at certain points, the KMT was effectively centrist as a political party for many decades. Sun Yat-sen had been elected President of the Republic in 1917, but the post had become meaningless by that point. The Kuomintang accepted foreign aid, mostly from the USSR in the form of advisers like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Borodin Borodin]], at whose insistence socialists were also allowed into the KMT. In 1923, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek, by now, brother-in-law of Sun and likely successor (also known as Jiang Jieshi) became the director of Whampoa Military Academy, the core of Sun's vision for a China unified by force. Sun died in 1925.

With the lower Yangzi cleared of warlords and the borders of Kuomintang territory secured, Chiang took the opportunity to consolidate his hold over the region by leading a series of campaigns to destroy the Soviets in the region. Several Soviets were destroyed in just this way, but the Jiangxi Soviet continued to hold out thanks to KMT supply problems, bad terrain, a rebellion in Fujian province, and yet another backstab-invasion of Kuomintang territory by Chiang's 'allies'. The 1930 'Central Plains' War' saw a grand alliance of warlords, made up of Feng Yuxiang of Anhui, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Xishan Yan Xishan]] of Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the powerful [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guangxi_clique New Guangxi Clique]] (including [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zongren Li Zongren]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bai_Chongxi Bai Chongxi]], who would later be among the KMT's most able commanders) to take Chiang down once and for all. Neither [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Yun Long Yun]] of Yunnan nor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xueliang Zhang Xueliang ]] of Manchuria rallied to Chiang's defence, and as the Kuomintang teetered on the edge of bankruptcy ''Time Magazine'' proclaimed that Yan Xishan would in all probability soon become the next president of China. However, the Kuomintang managed to pull through and defeat the numerically-superior forces of each of its enemies in turn, quickly moving to crush Feng's forces and annex his territories before throwing back the armies of Yan and the Guangxi Clique. When Zhang Xueliang moved troops up to his border with Yan, the latter sued for peace with Chiang. Though the war had been a desperate attempt to check his power, Chiang and the Kuomintang ultimately emerged from the conflict strong enough to quite literally take on all the Chinese regimes at once and win. However, seeing how the expense of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Plains_War Central Plains War]] had pretty much broken the proverbial bank, direct annexation of the rest of China was ruled out.

As unimportant and ignominious it seemed at the time, the '[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March Long March]]' has since been called a pivotal moment in Chinese history. 100,000 soldiers broke out of the Jiangxi Soviet, but less than 20,000 soldiers (half of those 20,000 were survivors from the other mid-lower Yangzi Soviets) made it to the Soviet in Yan'an province. They fled a total of 9,000 kilometres, taking a long route through the Himalayan foothills to avoid Chiang, who used chasing them by his men and his air force as a pretext for a 'Communist Suppression Campaign' which allowed him to effectively seize control of the mid-upper Yangzi. Mao led the main band of Communist soldiers, which finally numbered around 8,000 people. Other groups took different routes, and many were caught and killed to a man, but most ultimately met up at Yan'an.

It had been Zhang who had lost out when elements of Japan's Kwantung army had struck out and established an 'independent' Manchuria in 1931, leaving him only a scrap of his former power-base in the area around Beijing. The remnants of his territory had since been encroached upon as the Japanese Army gave its backing to and carved more 'client states' out of north-eastern China through the 1930s. Knowing that Chiang's campaign had a reasonable chance of success, he betrayed Chiang. Slaughtering Chiang's guards and holding him hostage, Zhang urged him - at gunpoint - to call off the campaign and form a United Front with the Communists (against Japan). It's been argued that Zhang's real hope was that the left-leaning [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Jingwei Wang Jingwei]] would be able to step into the void left by Chiang - Wang was still a powerful figure in the KMT as Chiang had kept him close, as per the old saying[[note]] 'keep your friends close, and your (worst) enemies closer[[/note]]. Wang was widely regarded as a credible alternative to Chiang for the party's leadership, and unlike Chiang he would have had the support of moderates and socialists, something that would've defused or ensured a quick end to the Civil War.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Feng Yuxiang, one of the warlords that ruled the northwest China, and the aforementioned Christian General (yes, that's one of his nicknames). He backstabbed too many times, to the point where his men started calling him Betrayal General. Before he died in a shipwreck he finally stuck with the pro-socialist side of GMD. On the other hand, pretty much all of the warlord did so during the time.

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Most of warlord armies, especially in early 20s, could be best described as really large gangs or bandit groups. Some weren't even wearing uniforms of any kind. The fact most of "conscripts" joined ranks with a gun barrel to their head and there was general lack of any training or discipline only made it worse. KMT wasn't much better in this regard, as all the way until the "80 Division Plan" begin slow implementation, roughtly sixth of all new conscripts were dying during traning... [[LifeWillKillYou out of starvation]]. And the training itself often lasted less than a week.

As far as the peasantry was concerned, the KMT was good news as it meant an end to the constant warfare of the warlord era and a drop in their tax-burden (the KMT only collected taxes from the towns and cities under its direct control, which is to say most of those in the provinces along the mid-to-lower Yangzi). Much of this need for constant campaigning was because Chiang and the KMT had become the most powerful force in the country, the natural inclinations of Chiang's warlord 'allies' being to unite ''against'' him to take him down - which they tried, several times, with little success. Chiang attempted to harness the power of 'blueshirts', paramilitary strongmen hired by the Guomindang in its capacity as a political party, to 'influence' public opinion in conjunction with a new secret police force under the secretive and sadistic head, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Li Dai Li]] (a name that ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' will recognise, as the SecretPolice of Ba Sing Se are {{named after|SomebodyFamous}} this guy).

* HitAndRunTactics: Preferred tactics of Communists ever since the Long March. And one of the main reasons why they've won in the end. Mao was apparently a keen reader of Literature/TheArtOfWar, following certain tactics from it to the T.

'''[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khruschev]]''': ''Wrong. A nation cannot be destroyed''. \\

As far as the peasantry was concerned, the KMT was good news as it meant an end to the constant warfare of the warlord era and a drop in their tax-burden (the KMT only collected taxes from the towns and cities under its direct control, which is to say most of those in the provinces along the mid-to-lower Yangzi). Much of this need for constant campaigning was because Chiang and the KMT had become the most powerful force in the country, the natural inclinations of Chiang's warlord 'allies' being to unite ''against'' him to take him down - which they tried, several times, with little success. Chiang attempted to harness the power of 'blueshirts', paramilitary strongmen hired by the Guomindang in its capacity as a political party, to 'influence' public opinion in conjunction with a new secret police force under the secretive and sadistic head, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Li Dai Li]] (a name that ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' will recognise: the SecretPolice of Ba Sing Se are {{named after|SomebodyFamous}} this guy).

As far as the peasantry was concerned, the KMT was good news as it meant an end to the constant warfare of the warlord era and a drop in their tax-burden (the KMT only collected taxes from the towns and cities under its direct control, which is to say most of those in the provinces along the mid-to-lower Yangzi). Much of this need for constant campaigning was because Chiang and the KMT had become the most powerful force in the country, the natural inclinations of Chiang's warlord 'allies' being to unite ''against'' him to take him down - which they tried, several times, with little success. Chiang attempted to harness the power of 'blueshirts', paramilitary strongmen hired by the Guomindang in its capacity as a political party, to 'influence' public opinion in conjunction with a new secret police force under the secretive and sadistic head, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Li Dai Li]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Yuan_Shikai_2_1745.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Yuan Shikai [[Franchise/StarWars became president, manipulated a rubberstamp assembly into giving him full powers, and then declared himself emperor]]. It didn't work out.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Aside war material handled over as land-lease, Americans also provided emergency loans. Not only those didn't help with anything and were more or less useless in the first place (plus almost half of the money was pocketed on different levels of administration), but throwing so much cash on the market led to hyperinflation, completely collapsing what was still left out of Nationalist economy and making KMT situation even more dire.

* AlwaysABiggerFish: Local warlord being an EvilOverlord? Well, there are always the Nationalists. Inefficient KMT control? Wait for the Imperial Japanese Army. And let's not forget about the Americans supporting the KMT to keep the bulk of the IJA tied down in China (which they did admirably, despite being poorly supplied and relatively outgunned by the Japanese). KMT now ruling over most of China? It seems that the Soviets have just dumped half of their captured Japanese equipment onto the newly-formed PLA, who will proceed to win the next civil war using those.

** AllForNothing: During the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward Great Leap Forward]] campaign, all of that effort was wasted, with Qinghai ecosystem completely destroyed due to almost complete deforestation and abysmal, outright stupid farming practices. In particulary ironic twist of fate, the trees planted under Ma clique were used to fuel the iconic backyard furnaces, producing nothing but slag and ashes.

* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: Printing money and collecting taxes ahead of time were desperate moves KMT started to implement as more and more ground was taken over by Japanese. Eventually, its territories were completely cut out from outside world, making the situation even more dire. Hyperinflation combined by never slowing printing, combined with robbing people blind, absurd conscription demands ''and'' increasingly more and more punishing requisitions of food for army provisions quickly burned through all the goodwill that was still left toward the government. While those steps were the only way for KMT to survive at all, it made it enemy of the were people it was officially "protecting" and made Communist field work all that easier.

* TaughtByExperience: After battle of Wuhan the frontlines became static and Japanese didn't perform any major offensive for next few years. What they did was throwing NewMeat into small skirmishes against Chinese, thus providing them with live combat experience, [[TrainingFromHell as a form of training]]. The disparity of organisation, equipment and morale was enough to consider it a viable training option without endangering new soldiers ''too much''.

* NoPointsForNeutrality: Famously averted by Yan Xishan, warlord of Shanxi province. He stayed there in power from the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 till... 1949, almost always keeping outside of the on-going conflicts and balancing between all factions emerging during those 38 years. He was so good at staying neutral he managed to play Kuomintang, Communists, other warlords and even Japanese, always staying on top of everyone, and, most importantly, ''without'' any side declaring him as a traitor.

* OutsideContextProblem: The KMT's "alliance" with the German government, especially after the Nazis took over. Both sides did it for purely practical and trade-related reasons: German industry needed cheap resources China could provide, while the KMT needed decent weapons and military instructors. The Germans introduced good tactics, gave China blueprints for German equipment, helped bring in some artillery and most importantly, provided machines and know-how for industry. The deal quickly became problematic after Japan declared war on China and was officially cancelled in 1938. Even if so, Communists used this fact extensively in their propaganda.

* OutsideContextProblem: The KMT's "alliance" with the German government, especially after the Nazis took over. Both sides did it for purely practical and trade-related reasons: German industry needed cheap resources China could provide, while the KMT needed decent weapons and military instructors. The Germans introduced good tactics, gave China blueprints for German equipment and helped bring in some artillery. The deal quickly became problematic after Japan declared war on China and was officially cancelled in 1938. Even if so, Communists used this fact extensively in their propaganda.

* NormalFishInATinyPond: The German-trained divisions of National Revolutionary Army. They were absolutely normal, contemporary infantry divisions with somewhat underpowered artillery support and its equipment was bog-standard mid-30s weaponry. But for Chinese standards those eight divisions were EliteArmy, worth more than ''the rest of NRA put together''.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The KMT could probably fight for another decade, if not even get another cease-fire, but then the [[DisasterDominoes Liaoshen Campaign happened]]. The entire North collapsed, taken over by Communists, in the process wiping out the GMD's American-trained [[BadassArmy New 1st Army]]. It hitted morale so bad, the biggest enemy of KMT became widespread desertion. Entire brigades were either outright disappearing or, which was far worse, switching sides and joining the PLA, thus providing Communists with well-trained soldiers, capable of using tanks and heavy ordnance.