The end of the Northern Expedition marked the reunification of China under a single, stable regime for the first time since the Qing conquest some 300 years prior. With this new unity, China would have to begin rebuilding herself into a respectable power of the orient once more if Wang’s regime was to stand any chance of surviving, and even reach the point where it could thrive.
However, Wang found that he faced numerous challenges to his reign as Grand President from everything from cliques of generals and warlords to the Communists and even the gangs of Shanghai. In order to reforge the nation to his own image, Wang would have to first cement his legitimacy as sole successor to Sun and shun any thoughts of betrayal and disloyalty from his lessers.
In accordance with the
Three Stages of Revolution and the policy of
Dang Guo proposed by Sun Yetsen at the dawn of the
Northern Expedition, Wang’s regime was to carry out three tasks. The first task was
military unification, completed successfully by the National Revolutionary Army. The second was "political tutelage" in the form of a government led by the KMT to educate the populace on the
Three Principles of the People, while the third and final stage was a constitutional government.
Wang declared that the Kuomintang was presently at the 2nd Stage, and therefore had the duty of rebuilding the nation and removing “unsavory elements” that stood in the way of a national revival.
In 1932, the
Anti-Radicalist campaign would begin. Despite Wang having shifted constantly towards the right since his break with the Communist Party, the campaign had a distinct lack of ideological fervor throughout its execution due to Wang being somewhat of a Centrist in Party Politics. Nevertheless, by forging an alliance with
Yan Xishan of the
Jin Clique and
Du Yuesheng of the Shanghai
Green Gang, Wang Jingwei would “complete the National Revolution” throughout the span of the
Wuhan Decade by systematically removing members from the CC Clique, Northeastern Army and CCP sympathizers from positions of power.
The might of the NRA would too be redirected against Wang’s enemies. From 1932 to 1937, a total of 4 campaigns would be launched in China’s Southwest against the Communists of the region, all of them unsuccessful in crushing the Red Army, but enough to alienate the Communists from the Nationalist cause, thus beginning the first full-on confrontation between the two parties.
However, economic growth would continue unabated despite the turmoil, with China industrializing the coal-rich regions of the Northeast and Shanxi greatly, as well as limited land-reform to improve agricultural efficiency in liberal provinces. The government heavily encouraged private investment in various fields as well as opening numerous state-run factories that strengthened the heavy industry of the nation in the aforementioned industrial provinces as well as the nation’s center, concentrated around the Republic’s booming capital of Wuhan.
No more would this be more successful than in Shanxi. Local warlord and
President of the
National Yuan Yan Xishan, having always been an ardent supporter of economic and social reform gained free reign to industrialize his home province with as much government funding from outside Shanxi that he could make the
National Yuan give—much of it used as a payment of sorts to keep Yan loyal to the Kuomintang.
And so Shanxi, a backwater province lacking in anything interesting since the days of the Tang Dynasty leapt forward to become one of China’s most valuable provinces. Under Yan Xishan’s governorship, a growing amount of industrial equipment—and most importantly for China of the time, military equipment streamed out of Shanxi.
Of all the reforms Yan pushed forward, social reforms would lag behind. Fearful of accusations of Communism or Radicalism, Yan abandoned his most radical ideas of top-down land reform, a Neo-Confucian state, complete gender equality or all-female schools.
The
Wuhan Decade also saw the revival of Yan Xishan’s militarist opinions. In Yan’s view, now that his most radical ideas on a Confucian revival were thrown out of the window by Wang, only the “quick and dirty” path to Chinese prosperity remained—that being militarism.
By merging the state, society and the military in the form of a civilian reserve, the state could more easily indoctrinate the populace to good morals as well as increase the efficiency of governance. Titled the “
Army of the People”, the army would too serve as a labor force during peacetime and work to improve Shanxi's infrastructure and industry by building roads and factories. They would also receive an education at the cost of the province treasury where they would be subjected to a rigorous, Japanese-style training regimen and to indoctrinate them in Yan Xishan’s philosophy.
As for foreign policy, already having had close ties with the Weimar Republic, Wang’s increasing rightism gave him greatly increased support from Germany following the
National Revolution and Adolf Hitler’s ascension to both the German presidency and Chancellorship. However, Wang continued to protect the progressive nature of his government by making Yan Xishan his Prime Minister and maintained liberal policies, which gave Wang continued sympathy from the United States.
As the
Anti-Radicalism Campaign’s political bulldozer rolled on, even the higher ups began to feel a growing pressure from Wang’s consolidation of power. In 1938, Chiang Kaishek was dismissed from his position as
Premier, and reduced to a lowly rank of governor of Zhejiang. Fearful that the next step would be at best, expulsion from the party; and at worst, assassination, Chiang would silently make his own plans for what was to come.
This vacuum in power proved an excellent oppurtunity for Japan. As the Depression of 1933 struck, Japan had scrambled to face the problem, eventually ending in a military coup as well as the institution of Keynesian Economic principles geared towards military production. As militarism rose to the fore of Japanese politics, the Japan soon desired more resources to fuel its resource-hungry economy. And the answer to that lay just across the Korean border.
On 4th November of 1941, a Japanese delegation in Shanghai was killed by an ethnic Chinese assassin, giving Japan its
casus belli for the war it needed, kicking off the Second Sino-Japanese War that everyone in Asia had been waiting for.
Alerted of the Japanese declaration late at night on the 7th of November, Wang Jingwei announced China’s “war of resistance” against Japan on radio and ordered armies across the nation to resist Japan’s invasion and marshal their forces for a long war. However, in Shenyang, very different orders were being given out. At midnight, soldiers of the Northeastern Army attacked NRA positions across Manchuria, clearing the provinces for the Japanese Armies that would pass through the very next day.
The very next day, Japanese armies passed into China, taking full advantage of Manchuria’s well-maintained railway system to strike quick and deep into China’s core. In an instant, what China had intended to be her first line of defense had fallen without a shot. Before the NRA could even properly mobilize, the IJA were at the gates of Beiping, which they captured with very little resistance.
When the initial shock finally sank properly in,
Wang Jingwei realized that he had misstepped badly in his
Anti-Radicalist Campaign. Quickly, Wang sent feelers to
Chiang Kaishek and reinstated him as Premier of China, while too keeping a close eye on the CC Clique lest they betray him just as
Zhang Xueliang had.
Yet the shock that Zhang’s betrayal had inflicted on China could not be understated. Much of Chinas defenses to the North had been concentrated on fighting for every inch of Manchuria and making Japan pay for it in blood. Instead, Manchuria now fed Japan’s military machine. Even as the IJA sliced through the unprepared Beiping garrison, Wang Jingwei faced threats to his rule.
Yan Xishan, once his ally now questioned Wang’s ability as a wartime leader given his inadequate military ability that had been displayed in fulll by his campaigns against the Communists of the Southwest and Zhang a decade earlier. Yan had in one fell swoop gained the fealty of much of China’s warlords north of the Yellow River who realized that now, more than ever, they needed a military man as their leader.
A pragmatist, Yan made no attempt to retake Beiping, and instead focused his efforts on the creation of a fall-back line. By mobilizing the peasantry, as he had in Shanxi, the
Yan Xishan line, as hastily pieced together as it was, was constructed was put in place to contain the Japanese advance.
Further Southwards, attacks began on Shanghai as well. Despite the German-trained
19th Route Army’s best efforts, they held out for 3 months only—it was good, but not enough. In the following months, Wang Jingwei found that he was not the military strategist that Yan or Chiang were. Failing to contain the Japanese foothold on the Eastern coast, Wang offered Chiang command of the NRA forces of the region, but was turned down by his age-old rival.
By April 1942, Yan had contained the Northern front, and, with the help of local Communist guerilla forces, had slowed down an offensive in Shandong. Eastern China, however was hopelessly spiraling out of control. Chinese forces had resorted to the massed attacks of nigh-unarmed hordes that the NRA had faced in the
Northern Expedition—a tactic that the NRA themselves had proved to be useless before a well-disciplined, highly-motivated force. The IJA now began snaking along the Yangtze towards the ultimate prize—Wuhan in an attempt to decapitate the Chinese government and put an end to the war. The voices for Wang’s disposal grew ever-louder, as it now appeared that Wang was to be the sole one responsible for China’s humiliating defeat before Japan.
In May 1943, Chiang Kaishek resigned from his post as Premier, defecting to Japan mere days later and was appointed President of the
Provisional Republic of China, claiming that Wang had betrayed the
Three Principles of the People and lead China down a path of national oblivion. On the very same day, news broke that Soong Meiling, wife to Chiang Kaishek had committed suicide at the news of Chiang’s defection, further impacting Chinese morale.
Just as all signs pointed towards China’s eventual, crippling defeat, the American intervention came. In absolute fear of a strong oriental power that could potentially challenge America’s undisputed dominance over the Pacific, America had been preparing for an attack on Japan for months, and had prepared the Philippines as a staging point for the destruction of the IJN to begin.
Yet moving fleets of ships as well as the materials, facilities and personnel required for said fleet was not an easy thing to hide, and American counter-intelligence would fail miserably in this department. Mere hours after the American declaration of war, the IJN descended upon Manila and began the Pacific War with a thunderous defeat for the overconfident Americans.
At the same time, China’s internal politics were now in a state of flux. With so many prominent generals in the Japanese camp and NRA forces under Wang’s direction showing how absolutely incompetent the NRA was in relation to the world,
Yan Xishan realized that if China, and thus, in turn
he was to survive, action was required of him. On 14th September 1943, Yan Xishan launched the Mid-Autumn Coup and placed Wang under house arrest, where he was forced to accept the new state of affairs as a President with no power and no control over the nation’s armies—a president that was a puppet like the boy-emperors of dynasties past.
The same year, Marshal Zhang Zuolin would pass away in Shenyang—an increasingly Japanese-dominated city. Already, sporadic street fights would begin between men of the Northeast Army—many of them already rebellious and dissatisfied with Zhang—and the Japanese forces of the region. While Zhang Xueliang was, quite naturally, named the new Marshal, he realized that Manchuria had slowly, steadily been slipping out the hand of the Zhang clan. If the Fengtian Clique was to continue holding its place, the Young Marshal would have to take action.
The Fengtian Rebellion broke out across Manchuria as men of the Northeastern Army attacked Japanese armies in the region and wrested control of both Harbin and Shenyang from Japan. It threw Japan off its balance in a flurry of confusion as the command post from which the entire North China front was directed fell apart.
Despite its wild success, the coup’s only flaw would be that it was overly optimistic in its planning. Underestimating Japan’s ability to react to threats quickly and overestimating its own strength, the Northeastern Army was soon crushed by redeployed Japanese reserves. Facing overwhelming numbers and unable to coordinate his increasingly disloyal officers, Zhang Xueliang would only retreat to Northwestern Manchuria and wage guerilla warfare across the region by destroying infrastructures, factories and mines wherever possible and hindering Japan’s war effort in hopes that it would buy enough time for Yan’s armies to save him.
Finally, with Japan’s Shanxi front in disarray and American forces massing and starting to give Japan a run for their money, the tide began to turn.
