History UsefulNotes / NoMoreEmperors

* '''[[VideoGame/HeartsOfIron Darkest Hour]]''' campaing starts in 1933, so China is already in the middle of 4th Encirclement Campaign and after the 5th happens, the Long March will trigger. When playing as KMT, it is possible, if very hard, to hunt down the communists escaping through the rural hinterland, which will kickstart a significant alternative history outcome for the rest of the game.

!!!'''Comic Book''''

!!!'''Film''''

* The latter parts of ''Series/TowardsTheRepublic'' deal, as the title of the series implies, with the troubled establishment of the Republic of China.
* The second half of ''Literature/MomentInPeking'' takes place between the 1911 revolution and the beginning of the war.
* ''Film/PekingOperaBlues'' is about [[GambitPileup a whole slew of plots]] happening during Yuan Shikai's reign.

* ''Film/TheSandPebbles'' is about an American gunboat deployed in China at the height of the warlord period.
* ''Raise The Red Lantern'' by Creator/ZhangYimou is set in the 1920s.
* ''The Painted Veil'' is about an American couple who go to China for humanitarian field work in the 1920s.
* ''Shanghai Triad'' also by Creator/ZhangYimou is set in the 1930s.
* ''Pavilion of Women'' is a novel by Pearl Buck made into a movie in 2001, set in the period just before the beginning of the war.

* ''Film/TheBitterTeaOfGeneralYen'' by Frank Capra is about the love story between a warlord and a missionary.
* ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'s adventure ''The Blue Lotus'' depicts the Japanese encroachment on China in the 1930s and the opium trade.
* ''A Pinwheel Without Wind'' (starring Creator/ZhouXun) is set in the short lull between the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the resumption of the civil war in the late 1940s.
* So is the 1948 classic film ''Spring in a Small Town'' (小城之春) by Fei Mu, as well as its 2002 remake by Tian Zhuangzhuang.

* ''Literature/SuperpowerEmpireChina1912'' is an AlternateHistory work that looks at what might have happened if Yuan Shikai had died in 1912 instead of 1916.
* ''1911'', starring Creator/JackieChan as Huang Xing, Sun Yat-sen's NumberTwo.
* The opening scene of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheBlueSky'' takes place around 1935 Shanghai, where KMT starts to take over, with lingering warlords and mafias roam underground.

* Creator/JohnFord's final film ''7 Women''.
* ''Film/{{Shaolin}}'' takes place during this period. Creator/AndyLau & Nicholas Tse both play warlords, with Creator/JackieChan as a minor character.

* The first ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' game takes place in mainland China in 1914. Due to the AlternateTimeline the series is set on, events differs from their real life counterparts: Imperial Japan has been in control of Shanghai since at least 1900 as the backstory of the main antagonist of the first half involved him trying to summon a god to wipe out all the "foreign devils" in the city fifteen years prior to the events of the game only to be foiled at the last minute. Yuri and co. are trying to foil his second attempt while getting help from the Japanese army at the request of Lieutenant Colonel Kawashima who has taken great interest on the group.

->'''[[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong Mao]]''': ''[[UsefulNotes/JosephStalin Stalin's]] first major error was one as a result of which the Chinese Communist Party was left with one-tenth of the territory that it had. His second error was that, when China was ripe for revolution, he advised us not to rise in revolution and said that if we started a war with [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek Jiang Jieshi]] that might threaten the entire nation with destruction.''\\
'''[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]]''': ''Wrong. A nation cannot be destroyed''. \\
'''Mao''': ''But that is how [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin]]'s cable read.''

China remains a divided country to the present day. The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China continue to claim themselves as the only legitimate Chinese government. Thanks to UsefulNotes/ColdWar politics and Western backing, the [=RoC=] continued to claim the sole Chinese membership in the United Nations until 1971, when massive diplomatic ventures by the PRC shifted the world's sympathy, transferring the membership to it.[[note]]The PRC is ''huge''; in the 1970s, it had a population numbering more than 900 million people, compared to the [=RoC=]'s 14 million people. Politics aside, when it comes to "representing the majority of Chinese", the PRC wins hands down.[[/note]] As the PRC reasserted itself politically and [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious economically]], it began actively pursuing reunification, by force if must. Ever wondered why Taiwan is known more by that name instead of the "Republic of China"? That's because one of the PRC's {{Berserk Button}}s is anyone claiming that there is another Chinese government other than itself. In international organizations, the [=RoC=] goes by "Chinese Taipei", which of course doesn't make sense, because that's the point; it uses the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_of_deliberate_ambiguity policy of deliberate ambiguity]]" to avoid angering the PRC.

In response to these concessions, resentment grew towards the Qing Dynasty and its inability to ward off foreign powers from its soil. Chinese intellectuals and revolutionaries formed organizations which aimed to overthrow the weak Qing government and establish a new Chinese state that could defend itself against foreign intrusions. In 1905, several of these revolutionary groups merged to form the Tongmenghui, or United League. The organization was headed by Sun Yat-Sen[[note]]also known as Sun Yixian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen among other names,]] based on [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName the current Pinyin scheme of transcribing the Chinese language into the Latin alphabet]],[[/note]], an intellectual and doctor by trade, who believed that a new China must arise based on what he called the "Three Principles of the People": Nationalism, Democracy, and Socialism. These principles attracted wide support from nationalists, communists, and even some monarchists. Because of his broad appeal, Sun Yat-Sen has been regarded as the "father of modern China" in both Taiwan and the communist mainland.

[[caption-width-right:300: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.]]

The Qing Dynasty came to an end in 1911. Taking advantage of a series of local revolts, the Tongmenghui, under leadership of
Sun Yat-sen,[[note]]also known as Sun Yixian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen among other names,]] based on [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName the current Pinyin scheme of transcribing the Chinese language into the Latin alphabet]],[[/note]] the 'Father of the (Chinese) Nation', orchestrated a series of mutinies among the modernized New Armies, setting off a full-scale revolution. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai Yuan Shikai]] -- [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing a prominent courtier from the days of Cixi's tenure]] -- was called out of retirement in an effort to suppress the revolutionaries. After some dillydallying, Yuan was given command of the Beiyang Army ''and'' the office of prime minister. In short order, he not only controlled the single most powerful military force in the empire, but also wielded considerable influence over policymaking as well.

Taking advantage of the ensuing political turmoil, Yuan pressured what remained of the National Assembly into declaring him president, then ejected the KMT and its loyalists from government and dissolved the body. Yuan was more or less in complete control of China, but with that said, he was not a particularly popular leader. His popularity took a nosedive when he conceded to most of the '21 Demands' made by UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan, granting them economic and territorial concessions in Northern China/UsefulNotes/{{Manchuria}}. In an attempt to boost his shaky legitimacy, he ''tried to declare himself Emperor''. 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.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheBlueSky'' takes place around 1935 Shanghai, where KMT starts to take over, with lingering warlords and mafias roam underground.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheBlueSky'' takes place around 1935 Shanghai, where KMT starts to take order, with lingering warlords and mafias roam underground.

When Yuan died, the central government broke down. While it continued to function, 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. Then there was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Hongkui Ma Hongkui]], a Muslim warlord who controlled the western region of Ningxia. A member of the powerful Ma clique, he was a surprisingly able military leader with an insatiable taste for ice cream, so much so that he was afflicted with diabetes.

Despite initial successes, the Xinhai Revolution ran into a stalemate. The Qing had been fatally weakened, but the Tongmenghui could not secure sufficient support among the elite to supplant imperial rule. Thus entered Yuan Shikai, [[KingmakerScenario whose military and political clout made him indispensable]] to either side. Throwing his hat in with the revolutionaries, he arranged for the abdication of the child emperor Puyi, bringing the Qing Dynasty -- and with it, centuries upon centuries of imperial rule -- to a close. In return for this support, Sun surrendered his title as Provisional President of the Republic of China to Yuan, pending the outcome of the National Assembly elections, which were held several months after his appointment on 14 February 1912.

'''Xinhai Revolution'''

Despite initial successes, the Xinhai Revolution ran into a stalemate. The Qing had been fatally weakened, but the Tongmenghui could not secure sufficient support among the elite to supplant imperial rule. Thus entered Yuan Shikai, [[KingmakerScenario whose military and political clout made him indispensable]] to either side. Throwing his hat in with the revolutionaries, he arranged for the abdication of the child emperor Puyi, bringing the Qing Dynasty -- and with it, centuries upon centuries of imperial rule -- to a close. In return for this support, Sun surrendered his title as Provisional President of the Republic of China to Yuan, pending the outcome of the National Assembly elections, which were held a year after his appointment on 14 February 1912.

The first -- and only -- democratic elections in Chinese history, held between December 1912 and January 1913, led to a victory for the Kuomintang (KMT),[[note]][[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName also known as the Guomindang (GMD)]]; the latter is the pinyin romanization,[[/note]] a Nationalist political party formed out of a coalition between the Tongmenghui and other minor factions. Before they could take power, their leader Song Jiaoren -- Sun's co-revolutionary -- was assassinated. Yuan was almost certainly responsible for his death, but no evidence was forthcoming. After a second failed revolution, Sun Yat-sen fled to exile in Japan.

Sun Yat-sen, [[note]]also known as Sun Yixian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen among other names,]] based on [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName the current Pinyin scheme of transcribing the Chinese language into the Latin alphabet]],[[/note]] the 'Father of the (Chinese) Nation', orchestrated a series of mutinies among the modernized New Armies, setting off a full-scale revolution. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai Yuan Shikai]] -- [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing a prominent courtier from the days of Cixi's tenure]] -- was called out of retirement in an effort to suppress the revolutionaries. After some dillydallying, Yuan was given command of the Beiyang Army ''and'' the office of prime minister. In short order, he not only controlled the single most powerful military force in the empire, but also wielded considerable influence over policymaking as well.

[[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 [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing 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/UsefulNotes/{{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.

'''The founding of the KMT/10 Years of the "Golden Age" - 1927 to 1936'''

Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Yixian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Sun_Yat-sen among other names,]] based on [[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName 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 Kuomintang ([[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName KMT for Kuomintang or GMD for Guomindang]]; the latter is the pinyin romanization) or National(ist) Party in Guangzhou in 1919. The old 'Kuomintang' 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 UsefulNotes/SovietUnion in the form of advisers like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Borodin Borodin,]] at whose insistence socialists were also allowed into the KMT. In 1923, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek (or Jiang Jieshi, according to the pinyin romanization), by now, brother-in-law of Sun and likely successor became the director of Whampoa Military Academy, the core of Sun's vision for a China unified by force. Sun died in 1925.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheBlueSky'' takes place around 1935 Shanghai. where KMT starts to take order, with lingering warlords and mafias roam underground.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed: Templars'' has a story arc in 1927, where the Shanghai Rite of the Templar Order struggle to stop the warlords, Communists and the Kuomintang from attacking each other, plus keeping the Shanghai gangsters at bay. It reveals that Sun Yat-sen was Grand Master of the Chinese Templars, and his death was caused by Assassins. At one point, Darius Gift, a member of the British Rite, attempts to bribe Chiang into joining the Templars. Chiang accepts, but ultimately betrays the Templars by initiating the Shanghai massacre with Du Yuesheng's help, destroying the Templars' dreams of bringing order to and unifying China. Chiang's main reason is that he has no interest in working for anyone else anymore, and that he needs Templar money to continue ruling China, but only if the Templars in Shanghai accept his rule. They do, and Chiang spares them from the massacre.

In 1949, the Kuomintang was reduced to just Chinese Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Xinjiang}}, Qinghai, etc) and the islands of Hainan and Taiwan. Soon, Chiang - now PresidentForLife of the Republic of China - fled to Taiwan with his ministers, taking 200,000 NRA troops, countless national treasures and most of China's gold reserves with them, accompanied by two million refugees. The Communists began taking down the former KMT strongholds one by one throughout the following year, but their attempted invasion of Taiwan was thwarted by the Americans, who vehemently supported Taiwan. All in all, after 22 years, the civil war came to an end. Historians have estimated anywhere from 8 to 11 million people perished during the active phases of the KMT-CCP confrontations (from 1927-1936 and 1946 to 1949). It's very hard to separate it from casualties of the Second Sino-Japanese War -- which had a much higher estimated death toll of 20-25 million people -- because the wars ran parallel to each other, with some suggesting that there's no way to be sure other lumping them both as casualties of a single conflict.[[note]]It doesn't help that the PRC seems to have a policy of [[{{Unperson}} denying that the war ever happened]], therefore shifting the blame almost entirely on Japan, with which it is antagonistic to.[[/note]]

Since 1945, Chiang had been ruling Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) with an iron fist, turning the island into a police state, violently suppressing democratic voices and establishing martial law in a decades-long period known as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan) White Terror]]", where tens of thousands of Taiwanese-many who were completely innocent-were murdered or imprisoned for opposing KMT rule, including most of the Taiwanese intellectual elite, after anti-KMT demonstrations on February 1947. But seeing as the mainland was lost to them, the KMT realized that securing Taiwanese loyalty was important, and began a legacy of good governance, although the White Terror continued until 1987. Before his death in 1975, Chiang managed to create a well-disciplined and modern Chinese army, ended most of the corruption that had destroyed his government during the civil war, launched Taiwan into economic prosperity and centralized his power. The KMT also finally decided on a political alignment and remains a centre-right party to this day.\\\

In 1949, the Kuomintang was reduced to just Chinese Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Xinjiang}}, Qinghai, etc) and the islands of Hainan and Taiwan. Soon, Chiang - now PresidentForLife of the Republic of China - fled to Taiwan with his ministers, taking 200,000 NRA troops, countless national treasures and most of China's gold reserves with them, accompanied by two million refugees. The Communists began taking down the former KMT strongholds one by one throughout the following year, but their attempted invasion of Taiwan was thwarted by the Americans, who vehemently supported Taiwan. All in all, after 22 years, the civil war came to an end. Historians have estimated anywhere from 8 to 11 million people perished during the active phases of the KMT-CCP confrontations (from 1927-1936 and 1945 to 1949). It's very hard to separate it from casualties of the Second Sino-Japanese War -- which had a much higher estimated death toll of 20-25 million people -- because the wars ran parallel to each other, with some suggesting that there's no way to be sure other lumping them both as casualties of a single conflict.[[note]]It doesn't help that the PRC seems to have a policy of [[{{Unperson}} denying that the war ever happened]], therefore shifting the blame almost entirely on Japan, with which it is antagonistic to.[[/note]]

After his retreat, Chiang had ruled Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) with an iron fist, turning the island into a police state, violently suppressing democratic voices and establishing martial law in a decades-long period known as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan) White Terror]]", where tens of thousands of Taiwanese-many who were completely innocent-were murdered or imprisoned for opposing KMT rule, including most of the Taiwanese intellectual elite, after anti-KMT demonstrations on February 1947. But seeing as the mainland was lost to them, the KMT realized that securing Taiwanese loyalty was important, and began a legacy of good governance, although the White Terror continued until 1987. Before his death in 1975, Chiang managed to create a well-disciplined and modern Chinese army, ended most of the corruption that had destroyed his government during the civil war, launched Taiwan into economic prosperity and centralized his power. The KMT also finally decided on a political alignment and remains a centre-right party to this day.\\\

'''Mao''': ''But that is how Stalin's cable read.''

[[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.

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/Mikhail_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.

Incidentally, after the end of World War I, the KMT became very close to the Weimar Republic, who became a key source of both military and industrial support for its forces (known as NRA or National Revolutionary Army). German industrial and military equipment (or the license to produce them in China) were purchased in large quantities, in return for Chinese raw materials. Chinese students and military officers studied in Germany (including an adopted son of Chiang Kai-Shek, who participated as a tank man with the German Army in the ''Anschluss''). German military advisers, lead by Alexander von Falkenhausen, trained the best units of the NRA. This continued into the mid-1930s.

Due to their non-aligned stance, the KMT continued to maintain close relations with the Soviet Union--notwithstanding its looming conflict with the Chinese communists (see below). Among others, Chiang Kai-shek's eldest son, Chiang Ching-kuo (and his eventual successor) studied in Russia and married an Ukrainian lady. After the Germans reduced cooperation with KMT as Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated in the latter half of 1930s, Soviet equipment and advisers replaced the German in NRA (to be supplanted by the Americans, in turn, by the early 1940s). Russian general [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Chuikov Vasily Chuikov]] served as the chief Russian advisor to Chiang Kai-shek until 1942, when he was assigned to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII defend some place called Stalingrad]].

In 1921, a few dozen left-wing radicals and socialists formally founded a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai. Also attendant at the meeting was a nobody, a librarian from the Beijing University Library - [[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong 'Mao' something]]. At the Soviet Union's (covert) insistence, they joined the KMT and constituted a full third of the Kuomintang force that set off on the Northern Expedition of 1927 to unify the country.

In April 1927, Chiang ordered a series of purges of socialists in the towns and cities under not-communist Guomindang control, starting with Shanghai. The city had largely been abandoned to its own devices after the local warlord had fled the area, and in his wake an uneasy coalition of gangster syndicates and Communist cells took control (the latter led by, among others, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai Zhou Enlai]]).

When the KMT arrived, Chiang sensed that the lower Yangzi might be a strong enough power base to allow him to terminate his alliance with the Communists early, before they gained sufficient influence within the party to betray him. It was a now-or-never decision as well, as the Communist-Guomindang forces had managed to secure Wuhan on the mid-Yangzi, which would offer them a significant support base of their own if they were given time to consolidate their hold on it.

The KMT, on the other hand, set up an authoritarian government based out of Nanjing in the lower Yangzi delta (GMD-friendly and -'friendly' warlords remained in control of almost everything south, north, and west/upriver of the mid-Yangzi). Their new regime was marked by an unusually high degree of competence and efficiency (by the rather low standards of the Chinese governments of the time, and it was to be never seen again until the KMT established itself in Taiwan). As an administration, the Kuomintang was hampered at every turn by the need to sustain near-constant campaigning against rebels and rebellious 'allies'. This meant that the Kuomintang only had the budget to implement their own programs of rural reform (rent-reduction, limited land-redistribution from the corrupt and obscenely wealthy) in areas where the army was present, particularly during the Soviet-suppression campaigns.

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'' fans will recognise, as the SecretPolice of Ba Sing Se are {{named after|SomebodyFamous}} this guy).

The Civil War (temporarily) ended in December 1936 when the brilliant but embittered Manchurian warlord General Zhang Xueliang, son of the 'Old Marshal' warlord Zhang Zuolin[[note]]Who had, funnily enough, been assassinated by the Japanese intelligence services in 1928. This was because Japan was worried that (despite having fought them for control of Beijing) he would be friendly to the Kuomintang in future and use his clout with the Soviet Union and the Guomindang to counter Japanese economic and political influence in Manchuria. The move arguably backfired as it inclined his son and successor Zhang Xueliang to do exactly that (Zhang's initial efforts to manipulate the Soviets and the Kuomintang were clumsy and led to a brief Sino-Soviet War in 1929, but were more successful after that).[[/note]] and commander of the final Communist Extermination Campaign to destroy the Yan'an Soviet, rebelled.

However, Chiang's wife and brother-in-law [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Soong T.V. Soong]] checked Wang's attempts to take over and sabotage the negotiations (in the hopes of getting Chiang killed, making Wang ''de facto'' leader of the Kuomintang). Meanwhile, Chiang knew that Zhang was bluffing; if Zhang killed Chiang without Wang being firmly in control (and perhaps even if he was), China would disintegrate again. All the same Chiang agreed to Zhang's terms and, remarkably, kept his word - though he 'did' have Zhang imprisoned for life. The CCP was delighted.

Has [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar its own article.]] Also, it overlaps nicely with UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Interestingly, the CCP and the KMT continued to [[WeAreStrugglingTogether fight during the war]]. Nationalist China was officially one of the Allies, but the CCP was neglected by pretty much everybody, with America only launching diplomatic ventures to Yan'an in 1944. It's worth noting that the KMT's reputation as a corrupt, peasant-crushing administration was forged in the course of the war; with huge swathes of its territory occupied, the KMT had to turn to decentralising its administration (devolving power to the local and regional levels) as well as taxing and conscripting the peasantry to survive from about 1939 onwards (after two years of total war). The regime was tottering on the edge of total destruction at the end of 1941, but massive loans from the USA helped stave off the regime's immediate implosion for a time. The inevitable result of such a large cash infusion into the country was, however, inflation on a level that make the pre-existing inflation (courtesy of the KMT's desperate printing of money to avoid taxing its remaining territories into starvation and/or rebellion) several orders of magnitude worse.

After [=WW2=] was over, the CCP and the KMT turned on each other almost immediately. Chiang was torn between focusing on the anti-CCP campaign and overseeing a process of administrative reform and re-centralisation. Chiang's paranoia was his downfall in this regard, as he trusted too few people as a result of several decades' worth of coup and assassination attempts. Chiang's personal workload was too big for any one man to handle, and both the campaign and the reforms suffered as a result. Though he was the favourite of both Stalin and Roosevelt, and his forces managed to secure the CCP headquarters at Yan'an, his decision to send his best forces to secure Manchuria as the Soviet Union withdrew from the area was a grave mistake. The corruption had also frustrated Truman's government enough that the USA quickly withdrew both their Marines and all support for China, leaving the KMT without a major weapons source, while the CCP continued to receive small amounts of aid from the USSR.

The beaten Chiang Kai-shek retreated to the island of Taiwan - taking a few hundred thousand soldiers, a couple of million refugees, the central bank's gold and silver reserves, and much of the country's best government-owned artwork with him. With most of China (save USSR-influenced Xinjiang and semi-British Tibet, plus the island of Hainan which remained under KMT control for another year) under Communist control, the establishment of a People's Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1st, 1949.

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.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed: Templars'' has a story arc in 1927, where the Shanghai Rite of the Templar Order struggle to stop the warlords, Communists and the Kuomintang from attacking each other, plus keeping the Shanghai gangsters at bay. It reveals that Sun Yat-sen was Grand Master of the Chinese Templars, and his death was caused by Assassins. At one point, Darius Gift, a member of the British Rite, attempts to bribe Chiang into joining the Templars. Chiang accepts, but ultimately betrays the Templars by initiating the Shanghai massacre with Du Yuesheng's help, destroying the Templars' dreams of bringing order to and unifying China. Chiang's main reason is that he has no interest in working for anyone else anymore, and that he needs Templar money to continue ruling China, but only if the Templars in Shanghai accept his rule. They do, and Chiang spares them from the massacre.

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!!Tropes:

* AlwaysABiggerFish: Local warlord? 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.
* ArmiesAreEvil: Warlord armies were, as a rule, brutal and corrupt. Many often attacked villages for loot or just to get food.
* ArmsDealer: It could be said that every major country sold arms to the warlords. Everything from Japanese rifles, French tanks, Italian aircraft, German handguns and Czech machine guns were a part of at least one warlord's arsenal.
* 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 training... [[LifeWillKillYou out of starvation]]. And the training itself often lasted less than a week.
* AttackAttackAttack: One of the biggest problems of the KMT's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Revolutionary_Army National Revolutionary Army]]. Jiang Jieshi was adamant on constant offensives. While this worked against barely cohesive warlord armies, it was suicide to pull against Japanese, who had clear technological superiority, greater discipline and were far better-supplied. Those killed in the opening months were most of the KMT's best, German-trained divisions, wasted on unwinnable battles. It took another few months of constant defeats for Jiang to finally wise up a bit. But at that point, the NRA was a pale shadow of its former self, worsening an already dire situation from the first day of the war. However, it should be noted the fierce, almost fanatical defense forced the IJA to commit much more troops that they wanted or could supply in China. This helped the KMT to bargain for Allied support once [=WW2=] started and the Chinese interests of the UK and the USA were in danger.
* BadassOnPaper: After going through battle of Shanghai and then battle of Nankin, 87th and 88th Division of NRA, two of the eight "reorganised divisions" trained under Germans, were both reduced to less than one thousand men in total. Four months earlier, [[WarIsHell they've had 14 thousand soldiers each]], and only in Shanghai, 87th managed to lose [[UpToEleven over 16 thousand soldiers]]. The divisions never recovered from those losses fully, not to mention having inadequate equipment and being generally poorly trained after receiving reinforcements. However, they've kept their "elite" aura as two best divisions in entire army until at least 1942 and only stopped being treated as such once New 1st Army was created in India using American equipment.
* BalkanizeMe: During the Warlord Era, the collapse of the central government resulted in the warlords setting up their own petty states, usually based on geographical bounds.
* CallToAgriculture: For both propaganda purpose and out of genuine desire do help, Communist soldiers were participating as free hands during harvests, all while warlord armies were busy stealing grain and extorting villagers. This greatly boosted support for Communists.
* CrazyAwesome:
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Zongchang Zhang Zongchang]], the warlord that ruled Shandong, nicknamed '72-cannon-Chang', the 'Dogmeat General' and 'China's basest warlord' by Time. During his rule in Shandong, he finally learned to write and then proceed to produce gems like "let the cannon bombard YourMom" in his collection of abnormal poems. He also solved local drought by slapping the statue of the local rain god in front of everyone, and when the drought continued, Zhang ordered his men to pull cannons onto a hill and shell the sky to summon rain, ''which worked''. He had the nickname of the "Three Don't Knows," because he allegedly didn't know how many concubines he had, how much money, and how many soldiers he commanded. He is also one of the more successful warlords at the time, using armored trains and experienced White Russian mercenaries as his forces.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Peifu Wu Peifu]], 'the Philosopher General'. Known for regularly outflanking his enemies in battle and such an ardent nationalist that he ''refused'' to enter any foreign concessions on the principle of not working with foreigners, even when his clique fell to the Kuomintang army.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Xishan Yan Xishan]], who became known as 'Model Governor'. When he took over Shanxi during the republican revolution in 1911, it was the poorest province in China and he sincerely started an extensive series of reforms and programs - many of which were successful to a certain degree - aimed to improve "his" province. In the same time he played extensive political and diplomatic game, balancing every faction in the Chinese landscape. He even managed to get a Time cover during the Central Plains War, when for a while it seemed he might be able to create a new, stable government for all of China, unifying warlords under single banner. As far as warlord standards go, he did his very best to be a benovelent autocrat, rather than greedy looter.
* DarkHorseVictory: KMT and the Communists had it going for themselves. Nobody had any faith KMT will achieve anything with the Northern Expedition and the fact it won Central Plains War while attacked by all the disobeying warlords came as an even bigger surprise. Meanwhile, Communists went from RagtagBunchOfMisfits to one of the most organised forces in Chinese landscape, securing genuine popular support (which KMT and warlords never managed to achieve). Eventually they became the final victor of the power struggle, taking over all of mainland China, despite starting out as ''the'' weakest faction.
* EagleSquadron:
** The 1st American Volunteer Group, also known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers Flying Tigers]], under general Claire Chennault, is among the most famous examples in history. It turned out to be a highly efficient unit despite miniscule size. Ironically, while formed as a direct support for the Kuomintang, it gained massive propaganda value ''for the Americans'', as it became operational just a few days after Pearl Harbour, directly engaging and winning against the Japanese air force while American forces were losing ground all over the Pacific. Eventually the unit was reformed into an "official" US Army Air Force unit. Today, the Tigers are mostly well-known for the iconic shark-teeth nose paint on their P-40 Warhawk fighters.
** Earlier in the war, out of all people, ''the Soviets'' sent pilots, planes and personnel to help the Guomindang fighting the Japanese, lending in total over 800 planes and 250 pilots for them under Operation Zet, a secret delivery of equipment and advisers to the KMT. While ideologies clashed and the Soviet Union officially withdrew all support from the Nationalists all the way back in 1927 (due to the collapse of the shaky Nationalist-Communist alliance), the [[EnemyMine Empire of Japan and its ambitions were deemed much more dangerous]] than the Kuomintang could ever be. Even after withdrawal of Soviet pilots, most of their planes were left behind and created the backbone of the Chinese air forces until American planes arrived in greater numbers.
* EasyLogistics: Not so much averted, but nuked from the orbit. Due to great distances, non-existing infrastructure and having a ''single line'' of railway in all of China, the entire period saw a massive struggle to move just about any amount of resources or troops over even short distances. Then Japanese forces took over most of the communication lines and further escalated after they took over all ports ''and'' Burma, virtually cutting the KMT from outside support. On the other hand, this lack of infrastructure eventually bogged down the IJA to a halt.
* EmbarrassingNickname: As part of his slander toward Chiang Kai-Shek, General Joseph Stilwell coined "Peanut Head" and the famous "General Cash-My-Check" nicknames. Ironically, the actual costs of land lease for KMT ''were'' peanuts when compared with all other war efforts, but due to Stilwell's reports it still looked like a waste. What those reports kept ommiting was the fact KMT tied down a third of the entire Imperial Japanese Army in China, distracting them from further defending their islands.
* EnemyMine: The 'cooperation' between the Communists and the Nationalists was primarily over the threat of the Japanese. Consisted primarily of not shooting each other for the most part.
* ExactWords: "The Chinese Communist Party does not endorse the use of opium within its territory." This did not stop them growing it and selling it to people outside their soviets.
** At one point Zhang Zongchang claimed that he would either gain victory or return home in a coffin, he lost and was pushed back and true to his word he returned home in a coffin, though very much alive and he went on fighting for years after that.
* FascistButInefficient: Nationalist government was a combination of Byzantine schemes at the very top, lack of any control in the bottom and proverbial corruption in the middle, all run by moderately well-armed bullies who had hard time organising their armies beyond gang structure. The comparison between what was theoretically under KMT control vs. what they really controlled and could use as their own powerbase is laughable. Implementation of staunch nationalism was more problematic than helpful, considering all the different minorities living in China (not to mention one of the most powerful cliques in Chinese landscape was made out of Hui Muslims). And if extreme corruption itself wasn't problematic enough, there was also rather... peculiar stance toward tax collection and money printing. KMT-led government managed to debt itself into bankrupcy ''twice'' before the outbreak of the war with Japan and then fuelled hyperinflation with careless mismanagement, while stealing left and right public funds and taxes for private use.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Both the Communist party and Mao went this way
** The party initially had less than few dozens of members and that situation kept going for few initial years. With zero public support, badly organised, fully dependent on Soviet advisors and monetary support, and worst of them all, completely detatched ideologically from Chinese reality, the party was barely functional. Cue few years later being the main and almost obsessive target of Jiang Jieshi's expeditions and then anything after the Long March is pretty much a legend. Currently the Party is still rulling continental China and it will stay around for at least a while longer.
** Due to mentioned above early situation of the party, Mao was quite openly considering leaving it for good, as he didn't even show on the annual meeting. Then he was constantly side-tracked by each new leadership. By the time of the Long March, he was third-ranking member with barely any power. By the end of the March, he was the de facto leader of the party and nothing was going to change that. Few years later he became leader of entire China and not counting few [[TenMinuteRetirement periods of consolidation]], he stayed in this position until death, while his cult as the father of the nation still lives.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: The Mauser C96 was used a lot in the different wars during this era. It used to be a "bad guy gun" due to frequent use by warlords, but stopped after the Chinese started using it in wide quantities, most notably during the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War II as the main sidearm of many soldiers.
** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyang_88 Hanyang 88]] rifle was first used during the 1911 Revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, and was given to provincial troops by the Nationalists during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Similarly, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek_rifle Type 24]] rifle, a copy of the Mauser M1924 (itself the prototype for the Karabiner 98k) became the standard service rifle of the Nationalist Army in World War 2, and was later used by both sides in the Chinese Civil War.
** This gets an amusing inversion in case of Communist Chinese films of the 1950s-70s set during the Civil War. The heroes tend to be either Communists or at least neutral parties with good combat skills, occasionally becoming a BadassArmy in propaganda films. The bad guys tend to be Nationalists, occasionally using surplus German helmets, gear and weapons, playing the local equivalent of ThoseWackyNazis and behaving like aggressive thugs, as well as being depicted as a RedshirtArmy of 'reactionaries' despite their superior equipment.
* GodzillaThreshold: When it became apparent there is just no way to stop or even slow down Japanese advance toward Wuhan, then-emergency capital, Jiang ordered his troops to dig through Yellow River's dykes, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood creating the biggest articial flood]] in history. While the flood destoyed farmland in three provinces, killed in total well over 3 million poeple (most by a disastrous famine, caused by destruction of farmland) and ''shifted Huang He estuary south by 400 km'', [[AllForNothing IJA still managed to take over Wuhan and was barely halted]]. The flood also was a great boost to Communist popularity, as all they had to do was point finger at KMT and say "look what they did to you".
* 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 a keen reader of Literature/{{The Art of War|SunTzu}}, following certain tactics from it to the T.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: General Stilwell decided to use the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ichi-Go Operation Ichi-Go]] for his own advantage. With clear evidence of incompetence of Chinese forces outside his command, he masterminded a scheme that would put him in charge of all Chinese troops, then order them as seem fit and get all the glory for defeating Japanese he ever wanted. After eventually getting a positive reply from president Roosvelt, he smugly delivered the demands to Jiang the moment he read the letter, rather than let things settle down for few days and more diplomatic means being applied. Upon reading Roosvelt's message, Jiang consider the demands from it to be de facto subjugation of Republic of China and greatest humiliation imaginable. Instead, his reply asked for any given "capable general" to replace Stilwell, in return promising greater co-operation with Americans. Being sick of constant infights and issues created by Stilwell, Washington recalled him and send general Wedemeyer as a replacement.
* HyperCompetentSidekick: Zhang Zuolin was atrociously bad at governing Manchuria when it came to civilian stuff, ''but'' he had Wang Yongjiang on his side. Being barely a head of local tax office prior his appointment as the President of the Bureau of Finance, Wang turned out to be a more than "just" a brilliant accountant, but also a competent economist and a planner. With his guidance, Fengtian clique managed to not only solve its fiscal issues, but stabilise its currency ''and make it gain value'', all while rest of China was printing worthless banknotes. Then extensive program of rural settlement, land reclaimation, industry development and railway construction begun, all turning profit, too. However, progessively more erratic military spending and local wars going poorly made Wang more and more disillusioned, as all his hard work was often literally going up in the smoke. After nine years of hard work and loyal service he resigned in protest, cutting all ties with Fengtian government.
** Wang also had a slide of RecruitingTheCriminal - since he was previously working in a tax office, he knew all the tricks used to abused the system inside-out. By third fiscal year of him leading the Bureau of Finance, the system not only worked properly, but started to generate surplus.
* InherentInTheSystem: The complete collapse of the central government once Yuan Shikai died, along with emerging warlord states and their shaky alliances can be traced all the way back to times when Qing dynasty started slow and fragmented modernisation. While army was the main focus of the reforms since at least 1870s, administration was left almost intact in the ''model mastered by Tang dynasty in 8th century all the way till 1901'' and even after that, the implementation of modern administration varied from place to place, never truly covering all of China, not to mention creating integral bureacratic body. And while the army was using modern(ish) structure and equipment, it was still organised regionally and with felthy to its commander, rather than state. Thus without either republican government[[note]]Yuan disbanded it, re-establishing empire for final months of his life[[/note]] or Yuan's authority (he was a ''very'' charismatic man), all the different military commanders simply took what was "their".
** The endemic, structural corruption within both civilian government and military was also part of the "inheritance" from the imperial administration, where officials were not paid any wage and their only source of wealth was what they've managed to secure as bribes and simply steal. It was a literal tradition to do so, so not only nobody saw anything wrong with it (aside maybe the top of the system), but there was little will on lower levels to fight it.
* 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 caused 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 turned it into the enemy of the people it was officially "protecting" and made Communist field work all that easier.
** Just three words: Chinese Expeditionary Force. The idea was simple - send troops to Burma, help secure flow of supplies over the Burma Road and fight against Japanese. In reality, this greatly over-extended capabilies of the Nationalists, pitted Stilwell against wide array of Allied commanders (who considered him an incompetent buffoon) and lead to further erosion of manpower Kuomintang was slowly running out of. Oh, and the first expedition utterly failed, leading to closure of the Burma Road for next 3 years and requiring organisation of second one.
*** Then it escalated further into TooDumbToLive territory, when eventually [[EliteArmy the New 1st Army and the New 6th Army]], trained, equipped and accustomed into fighting in tropical jungle, ended up ''deployed in Manchuria'' in 1945. Surely, the best use of the high-quality troops requiring massive material support is to chase ghosts in a snowy steppe. Both armies were wiped out by attrition tactics employed by the Communists, marking the downfall of KMT in the civil war.
* JerkassHasAPoint: While General Joseph Stilwell was an aggressive jerk of such grand proportions he was making [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeSPatton Patton]] look like a nice and polite individual, he was also absolutely right when calling KMT's leadership bunch of thieves too busy filling their pockets to fight the war. All the land-lease delivered to China was divided roughtly into six parts: one sold directly on the black market, two sold by high-ranking officials, one stockpiled under Jiang's orders for the continuation of war against the communists and one really lost during transportation. Only the final, 6th part of all war material was delivered to troops in the field or in training. Stilwell also quickly realised the only force in China that has both any sort of organisation and popular support are Communists. He even actively lobbied for American warm-up toward Mao's government, something that Mao himself was very interested in, but Washington had none of it, especially after Truman became president and war was slowly wrapping up.
* JoinOrDie: Knowing how bad the morale of KMT forces were during the civil war, PLA commanders were often giving this choice to encircled KMT units. Unsuprisingly, most of GMD troops, especially those coming from former warlord armies, preferred to change side than get killed.
* KlingonPromotion: A common way for warlords to succeed their superior.
* LegacyCharacter: Countless divisions in NRA had either "New" or "Reorganised" (or ''both'') prefixes in their names, invoking either their origins or legacy of units wiped out in combat.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: The most efficient strategy used by Mao during the initial stages of Second Sino-Japanese War was watching from afar and observing how the Japanese and Nationalists/warlords bled each other out, occasionally performing isolated guerrilla battles against the IJA.
* NatureLover: With all his countless failings and infamous brutality, Ma Bufang, warlord of Qinghai, was also a nature conservationist, way ahead of his times. For very practical reasons (encroaching Gobi desert), he implemented an extensive re-forestation program, along with building irrigation system to sustain it and regular inspections to see the effects. Peasants were not only having a quota of trees to plant (saplings were provided by the government) and maintain, but [[FelonyMisdemeanor unauthorised cutting of a tree was punishable by death]] and ''strictly enforced''. Environmentalism became part of local education system, while special teams were travelling the countryside and teaching locals the techniques and importance of tree planting and soil preservation. For the time being, Gobi's advancement was considerably slowed down, if not outright stopped.
** AllForNothing: During the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward Great Leap Forward]] campaign, all of that effort was wasted, with Qinghai ecosystem destroyed due to almost complete deforestation and abysmal, outright stupid farming practices. In particulary ironic twist of fate, the trees planted under "reactionary" Ma clique were used to fuel the iconic, "progressive" backyard furnaces, producing nothing but slag and ashes.
* 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 ''without'' any side declaring him as a traitor.
** However, it did eventually backfired against him in the final months of the Civil War, when attempts to unite [[WeAreStrugglingTogether Jiang Jieshi and Li Zongren]] alienated Yan from both of them.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: The German-trained divisions of National Revolutionary Army. They were absolutely normal, contemporary infantry divisions with somewhat underpowered artillery support and their 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''.
* 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, which was most important for Chinese, provided machines and know-how for heavy 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.
* {{Plunder}}: After capturing Manchuria from Japanese, Red Army troops were busy dismantling in a systematic way everything that wasn't nailed to the ground and shipping it directly to war-torn Soviet Union. And when they were done with that, they've also dismantled sizable part of the railway lines Japanese build there since the proclaimation of Manchukuo.
* PresidentForLife: Yuan Shikai initial ambition. It quickly turned into styling himself as the new emperor.
* ProxyWar: Minor case when compared with incoming UsefulNotes/KoreanWar, but the reignited civil war saw massive Soviet support for the Communists, while the Nationalists were initially backed by the United States. In fact, the strong US involvement in Korea was in part caused by the failure to keep communism at bay in China, something they tried to atone for by supporting Chiang in Taiwan after the war.
* PuppetState: Japanese were setting those up in controlled territories to give a more friendly facade to their rule and then exploited them ruthlessly. The most prominent case was Manchukuo, established in 1932 with Puyi, the last Manchu emperor of China (deposed as a little boy), as its formal puppet ruler. There was also the Reorganized government lead by Wang Jingwei, with its own navy to boot (as the KMT's navy had been wiped out by the start of the war)
* ThePurge: Jiang Jieshi did it to the Communists (within the KMT) when he figured they were becoming dangerous. In 1927, he cooperated with local gangsters to massacre as much Communists as possible in Shanghai, leading to many fleeing into the countryside where they were tracked down and shot. He was right, actually; they were always planning to betray him, he just betrayed them first. Also, the Nationalists and Communists to themselves. Mao was not top dog by a long shot when he was carried by sedan chair on the Long March, for instance.
* TheQuisling: Wang Jingwei, once one of the most prominent people in the KMT, started a collaborationist government with Japanese soon after the war broke out. To this day, his name is synonymous with traitor in Chinese.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Being send to China was considered as a dead-end for military career in US Army. General Joseph Stilwell took it [[{{Understatement}} really, really bad]] when instead of commanding [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica North African campaign]], he was personally selected by Roosevelt to keep China fighting with Japan. It ended up with open and irrational disdain for Jiang Jieshi and Claire Lee Chennault (commander of the Flying Tigers and the USAAF in China), ''seriously'' hampering support for the KMT with slanderous reports sent back to the US.
* 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 hit 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.
* SlobsVersusSnobs: Part of the Communist appeal to the masses was how down to earth they were. Jiang Jieshi absolutely loved to parade in [[BlingOfWar the most outlandish uniforms possible]], to the point he looked like some sort of an alien to average Chinese in rural areas. Communists, with their drab clothes, simple manner and coming from the bottom of the society were much easier to digest and accept.
* AStormIsComing: The short period between Japanese surrender and the resumption of the civil war was relatively peaceful (at least when compared with the slaughter going for past 12 years), but everyone was aware it won't last for long. GMD used that time to desperately storage as much supplies and conscript as many people as they could, fully knowing they will have to abandon certain areas pretty soon. Meanwhile, Communists were forming entire divisions using Japanese hardware handed over by Soviets.
* 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 big enough to consider it a viable training option without endangering new soldiers ''too much''.
* TheUriahGambit: Used by Jiang all the time to get rid of or weaken troublesome elements within the army and party. Doing too well for yourself? Here, defend this town against the Japanese with a few divisions armed with small arms and mortars, while the IJA back up their assault with planes, poison gas and artillery. [[SarcasmMode Have fun!]]
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Due to the breakdown of organized government and the general corruption of institutions, criminal organizations were quite powerful throughout the period. The most powerful man in Shanghai, for example, was a triad boss named Du Yuesheng.
* UnderdogsNeverLose: Subverted. You'd expect Communist propaganda would embrace fully the early state of their own forces and have a run with this trope, given how they've scored a ''major'' DarkHorseVictory. You'd be wrong. For the most part of PRC existence, both propaganda and "official history" presented the Communists as dominant force that was always the top dog and thus was capable of uniting the nation. This has a lot to do with Chinese culture and simple historical precedence of establishing new dynasties - even if you scrapped your way from underdog position, admitting so is equal with admitting you usurped a higher power, which is a big no-no.
* VillainProtagonist: No matter what, no side in the conflict could be called "good". Both Nationalists and Communists commited absurd amount of atrocities, combined with wanton corruption and constant backstabbing in respective parties.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: General Joseph Stilwell, the main aide send by president Roosevelt, turned out to be this when most of the red tape was eventually removed from the archives. While Stilwell himself was not a bad general, his desire for glory and increasing hatred of Chiang corrupted him. During his entire tenure he made sure to paint Chiang Kai-Shek in the worst possible light in his reports, while greatly boosting his own image as the OnlySaneMan for the American public and top brass. In reality, during his time in China, Stilwell was petty and vindicative and by all accounts, was an extremely stubborn individual with a fierce fixation on "besting" Jiang, or the "peanut", and showing him his "right place". It reached levels of outright malice, as he intentionally didn't leave a single page of briefing for his replacement, General Wedemeyer, while getting rid of most of tactical and strategic data and never meeting the man in person. Although Wedemeyer did his best to improve the situation and even suggested shipping loads of surplus German ammunition and weapons to China, the damage was already done and the American government saw Chiang as a stubborn fool leading an astoundingly corrupt government that was constantly begging for handouts.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Arguably, this is what the Communists were like before taking over. [[UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution Afterwards]]...
* WeAREStrugglingTogether:
** The "alliance" of Guomindang, Communists and all remaining warlords is probably one of the most famous cases in real life. China itself during the Warlord Period can count too, since nominally it was still single, integral country.
** It was even worse within the Guomindang military command. Jiang Jieshi, Joseph Stilwell and Claire Chennault hated each other to the point where they were making tactical and strategical decisions entirely based on spiting their personal enemy. Jiang and Chennault resolved any issues pretty quick, with Chennault becoming a favored advisor to Jiang, but both had bitter and mutual hatred toward Stilwell, eventually getting him removed from command for his increasing attempts to piss off Chiang by withholding huge amounts of vital lend-lease supplies from many NRA divisions.
*** And let's not even start about [[DysfunctionJunction inter-KMT infights and schemes]]...
* WeHaveReserves: Reached astonishing levels when the civil war restarted. After proclaiming their land reform, Communist gained massive surge of manpower, further helped by over a decade of field work among peasants. They were thus perfectly capable of throwing million after million of people at KMT positions, lose them all... and still bring new divisions, while Nationalists were slowly, but steadily losing precious, well-trained veterans, with no means to replenish their ranks.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Mao eventual ascent as the leader of the Communists was achieved mostly due to the fact everyone else outranking him in the old Party structures or having bigger authority was killed or died during the Long March. The remaining big-wigs were [[AppealToForce quickly]] [[AppealToFear convinced]] by troops loyal to Mao to follow the new boss.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Zhang Zuolin's army failed to stop the Nationalists during the Northern Expedition, the Japanese decided to get rid of him by blowing up his train while he was returning to Manchuria.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Despite appearing on almost all photos as senile old men, Yuan Shikai was barely 53 when he took over and 57 when he died. This is especially jarring when compared with Jiang Jieshi, who was roughtly the same age during UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar.

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*** Then it escalated further into TooDumbToLive territory, when eventually [[EliteArmy the New 1st Army and the New 6th Army]], trained, equipped and accustomed into fighting in tropical jungle, ended up ''deployed in Manchuria'' in 1945. Surely, the best use of the high-quality troops requiring massive material support is to chase ghosts in a snowy steppe. Both armies were wiped out by attrition tactics employed by the Communists and market the downfall of KMT in the civil war.

** Just three words: Chinese Expeditionary Force. The idea was simple - send troops to Burma, help secure flow of supplies over the Burma Road and fight against Japanese. In reality, this greatly over-extended capabilies of the Nationalists, pitted Stilwell against wide array of Allied commanders (who considered him an incompetent buffoon) and lead to further erosion of manpower Kuomintang was slowly running out of. Oh, and the expedition utterly failed, leading to closure of the Burma Road for next 3 years.

* 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 caused 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 turned it into the enemy of the people it was officially "protecting" and made Communist field work all that easier.

* ''The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'' is about a British missionary in a remote corner of northern China in the 1930s.