Feng Yuxiang - Rise

Rise

In the early 1920s, Feng rose to prominence in the Zhili clique of warlords, named so because their base of power was centred around Zhili. This Zhili Clique defeated the Fengtian clique, headed by Zhang Zuolin, father of Zhang Xueliang, in the First Zhili-Fengtian War in 1922. It was at this time that Feng also began to move closer to the Soviet Union.

Within the Zhili clique, Feng was demoted by Wu Peifu and sent to guard the southern suburbs of Beijing. In 1923 Feng was inspired by Sun Yat-sen and secretly plotted with Hu Jingyi and Xue Yue to overthrow Wu Peifu and Cao Kun who controlled the Beiyang Government. When the Second Zhili-Fengtian War began in 1924, Feng was in charge of defending Rehe from the Fengtian clique. He switched sides, seized the capital in the Beijing Coup on October 23, 1924. This turnabout prompted Shandong warlord Zhang Zongchang to join Fengtian in decisively defeating Zhili forces. Feng's coup brought far-reaching political changes in China. Feng imprisoned Zhili-leader and president Cao Kun, installed the more liberal Huang Fu, evicted the Last Emperor from the Forbidden City, and invited Sun Yat-sen to Beijing to resurrect the Republican government and reunify the country. Sun came to Beijing, despite illness and died there in April 1925.

Feng renamed his army the Guominjun or the National People's Army. To counter pressure from the Zhili and Fengtian factions, he invited Duan Qirui to take on the presidency, but was still defeated by a Zhili-Fengtian alliance in the Anti-Fengtian War in January 1926. He lost control of Beijing, and retreated to Zhangjiakou where his army became known as the Northwest Army. In August, he went to the Soviet Union and returned in September, whereupon, on the advice of Wang Chen Ting, he joined the Nationalist Party. Feng threw his support behind the Nationalists in the Northern Expedition and merged his Guominjun with the National Revolutionary Army.

In April 1926, Sun Yat-sen's successor, Chiang Kai-shek, launched the Northern Expedition from Guangzhou against the northern warlords. The Nationalists vanquished the Zhili faction in the south and Feng asserted control over much of north-central China. Zhang Zuolin was forced to withdraw Fengtian forces back to Manchuria.

In October 1928, Feng Yuxiang was apppointed as Vice President of the Executive Yuan and War Minister of the Republic of China by President Chiang Kai-shek.

By early 1929, Feng grew dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's KMT regime in Nanjing. He joined Yan Xishan and Li Zongren to challenge Chiang's supremacy. He was defeated by Chiang in the Central Plains War.

The Kuomintang incited anti Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among Chinese Muslims and Mongols, encouraging for them to topple their rule.