Jul 29, 2024
Last time we spoke about the Anti-Fengtian War. The Anti-FengtianWar included two major theaters, the Zhejiang-Fengtian War and theGuominjun-Fengtian War. Within China’s north, Feng Yuxiang brokeredmany sneaky deals with other warlords, trying to bring down ZhangZuolin. One of these warlords was the disgruntled Guo Songling wholed a brave or some would say idiotic rebellion, striking at theheart of the Fengtian empire. Feng Yuxiang failed to really exploitGuo Songling’s actions, and Wu Peifu ended up joining Zhang Zuolin,simply out of spite for Feng Yuxiang. The war between the Guominjunand Fengtian soon fell apart for Feng Yuxiang as his forces weregradually dislodged from the Beijing area into northwest China. Inan ironic case of deja vu, Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu foundthemselves again working together in Beijing. Little did they know,while they had been fighting in the north, it was the south wherereal danger lay.
#110 The Northern Expedition Part 1: Invading Hunan
Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutifulhost Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind youthis podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings andGenerals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about thehistory of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodeson history of asia and much more so go give them a look overon Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over atYoutube and to continue helping us produce this content pleasecheck out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungryfor some more history related content, over on my channel, thePacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japanfrom the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.
So we have now come to a point where the warlord era takes a sharpturn. While we have been talking about countless wars betweennumerous factions, this is basically the end game as they say. Ihave no idea how many episodes it will take, so I apologize inadvance, but we are going to be covering the Northern Expedition.I’ve probably mentioned it a hundred times by this point, thenorthern expedition. Dr Sun Yat-Sens brainchild, put simply buildan army and march north to reunify China. Sounds kind of insanegiven the disparity in strength between whose in the north andsouth eh?
Facing what can only be described as staggering odds, theKuomintang over in their separate government based out of Guangzhousuddenly began the most incredible military expedition of thewarlord era. On the verge of disintegration with inadequatematerials, most of which were coming from the Soviets, the militarycampaign was a gamble to say the least. Chiang Kai-Shek wasultimately counting on the weakness of his enemies rather than hisown NRA forces. His Soviet advisors all told him not to do it, thatit would be a terrible blunder. Now if you open up text books, readcontemporary buzzfeed like artiles or watch youtube shorts, theywould have you believe the northern expedition was this easy sweepnorthward led by a vanguard of Communist propagandist forces. Inreality it was a series of hard fought battles where either sidecould have knocked out the other completely.
Now for most of its life, this Guangzhou based cabal that the KMTwere in control of, had always been on the defensive. For the mostpart their secure powerbase was Guangdong and from there they wouldgradually conquer region after region, one by one. Something thatcan truly be said about the KMT, unlike the other factions, takethe Fengtian or Zhili for example was its strong sense of having anideology and its charismatic strong man at the head of its army.There was of course personal armies within the NRA, they were moreor less a confederation, but the ideology of the KMT glued them alltogether. The other factions, perhaps excluding the Guominjun,simply did not have this. There was a shared concern that thepolitical make up of China needed to be democratic and not devolveinto the traditional or imperial autocracies that had plagued Chinafor so long.
The first region Chiang Kai-Shek would target would be the richmiddle Yangtze provinces of Hubei and Hunan, both of which hadrecently come back under the dominion of the Jade Marshal Wu Peifu.The route the NRA would take would be through Hunan and Hubei, downthe Yangtze and up into the North China plain before finallymarching upon Beijing. Ironically it was an identical path, oneHong Xiuquan once took when he rallied the Taiping against the QingDynasty. To first invade Hunan, Chiang Kai-Shek faced a ratherdaunting task. He did not have the military power to simply defeatthe warlords of the province. He needed to exploit the politicalscene within it.
Prior to the northern expedition, Hunan was dominated by northernwarlords who were alien to the southern province. This of courseantagonized the local populations creating an unstable politicalenvironment. This was something the KMT could manipulate. The KMT’snationalistic ideology was something that could potentially winover allies or weaken petty warlords rule. The KMT could exploitlocal interests and provincialism, self rule movements and such.When the KMT looked at Hunan they could see an ongoing powerstruggle. The Hunanese gentry class was being kept alive purelyupon a desire for provincial autonomy. The governor Chao Hengti, aHunanese native was subordinate to Wu Peifu, a Shandong native. By1926 a conflict had emerged between 4 Hunanese divisionalcommanders. Chao Hengti favored Yue Kaixin the strongest of themcontrolling the Hunanese 3rd division. Chao Hengti sought to weakenthe rest and used Yue to weaken the second largest 4th division ledby Tang Shengchih.Tang Shengchih dominated southwestern Hunan andwent on the defensive when he figured out the Governor and Yue wereafter him. The KMT noticed this over in Guangdong.
Now political intervention in Hunan required personal connections.Within the KMT party membership were Hunanese civilians andmilitary officials. This was one of the great strengths of the KMTas a clique, how their political membership transcended provincialor regional bases. Similar to the CCP, who had those like MaoZedong working with the rural masses in Hunan, the KMT had ties tothose at some of the top echelons of the province's powerstructure. One leading KMT figure who pushed for the northernexpedition was Tan Yenkai who also had been the governor of Hunanafter the 1911 revolution. He had always maintained an interest inHunan and while in Guangdong had rallied a 15,000 men strong forceof Hunanese troops, now renamed the 2nd army of the NRA. Prior to1926 Tan Yenkai had already led one military campaign to retakeHunan for Dr Sun Yat-Sen. Back in 1924, when Sun Yat-Sen was tryingto form a coalition with northern powers, Tan Yenkai launched arather ill-conceived and short lived campaign, trying to bolsterSun’s position in Beijing. Another commander in Jiangxi had pushedTan Yenkai’s force back into Guangdong and the failure providedquite the lesson, that one should also exploit the political realmalongside the military.
By spring of 1926 Chiang Kai-Shek and his top subordinates beganplanning an invasion of Hunan. Aside for the ex-governor TanYenkai, the KMT also had ties to Tang Shengchih. Liu Wentao andChen Mingshu had been classmates of Tang Shengchih back at theBaoting Military academy in 1912. In 1925 they began reconnectingwith the man, arranging a propaganda tour of the province. LiuWentao, then a professor of political science, began touring China,lecturing all on the Three People’s Principles of the KMT. TangShenchich went to one of these speeches and many of his men aswell. There was also Pai Chungxi, another schoolmate of TangShenchih, the leader of the 7th Jiangxi Army of the NRA. The KMTalso had loose connections with the hunan divisional commander HoYaotsu who was friends with Cheng Chien, a hunanese native and thecommander of the 6th NRA army, primarily consisting of Hunanesetroops.
Now Chiang Kai-Shek began courting Governor Chao Hengti in June of1926. He approached the man as a fellow member of the olderKuomintang party, pleading in a telegram that they should reuniteinto a new national movement. Obviously Chiang Kai-shek was makinga powerplay to try and win over Hunan without shedding blood, hedid not stop sending messages to the man even a week before theshells would fly. In southern Hunan at this time, Tang Shengchihwas dominating the Hsiang valley with his 9000 man strong division.Tang Shengchih was a pretty intelligent player. He had numerousconnections from his Baoting academy days and he managed to expandhis domain to include 27 of Hunans 75 tax-collection districts.However by early 1926 Governor Chao had ordered all 4 Hunandivisional commanders to remit the local taxes they gathered to theprovincial capital of Changsha. Obviously this was to centralizethe power, and such revenue losses would strangle Tang Shengchih’spower.
So Tang Shengchih began talks with the KMT as early as february of1926. It was a dangerous play, many had seen the numerous caseswhere inviting allies from another province only brought unwelcomeguests. Perhaps Tang Shengchih believed by gaining some KMTsupport, he might be able to overpower Chao Hengti. But he was noidiot, he asked for KMT assurance he would fill the role ofgovernorship and not someone like Tan Yenkai who indeed was lurkingin the shadows. Tang Shengchih was given said assurance and signedan alliance treaty on February 24th. When Tang Shengchih unleashedhis forces against Governor Chao Hengtai the same month, it wasperfect timing. Wu Peifu was preoccupied in north China fightingFeng Yuxiang, thus the governor had no reinforcements. Threatened,Chao Hengti immediately fled Changsha, heading north. While thiswas occurring, Tang Shengchih labeled the governor nothing but anorthern puppet of Wu Peifu.
From February to March of 1926 Chiang Kai-Shek was still strugglingfor authority over the KMT to launch the Northern Expedition. ThusTang Shengchih’s rebellion had preceded it, and was done withoutKMT resources. Still feeling confident Tang Shengchih beganmarching into northern Hunan. Back over in Guangzhou, the KMTcommissioner of foreign affairs notified everyone that Tang wasdoing this all on his own, none of their resources had reached himyet. When Tang Shengchih secured Changsha in mid march, a lot ofthe hunanese gentry began supporting his cause to be governor. TangShengchih’s forces then overran Yochou along Hunan’s northernborder. Tang Shengchih had not yet accepted the governorshipposition, in march he was still looking to see how the KMT alliancewould pan out. Yet in March tensions emerged within the KMT overthe northern expedition
The March 20th coup certainly expedited aid to Tang Shengchih. 5Days after, Tang Shengchih accepted governorship and with his newposition he proceeded to purge his political enemies from theprovinces administration while installing his friends. By lateMarch 1926, Wu Peifu finally responded to the threat to hishegemony over Hunan. He began threatening to return south with hisHonanese troops. Now Wu Peifu’s armies were still facing FengYuxiang at this time, but the KMT aid also had not come yet so TangShengchih paused. Tang Shengchih began playing down his ties to theKMT in responding to Wu Peifu, posing as a mere neutral. In earlyapril of 1926, Feng Yuxiang had been cast out of the North Chinaplain and now Wu Peifu had a free hand to play against therebellion in Hunan. Tang Shengchih now under real threat, beganrecalling his regiments from northern Hunan and evacuated hisforces from Changsha as he built a defense in his homevalley.
To deal with the menace, Wu Peifu looked to find a Hunanese localto manage the province for him. Wu Peifu turned to the Hunanese 3rddivision commander, Yue Kaixin, to make him military governor andcommander of the 1st division, with Ho Yaotsu to be civil governor.However the Hunanese gentry cried out immediately at this, statingthey would not allow him to overturn their authority. Thwarted, WuPeifu reverted to violence to pacify the troublesome province. InMay, Tang Shengchih suffered a major defeat and was forced to fallback on the defense as Wu Peifu’s Hunanese allies were batteringhim. Until NRA forces advanced into the province, there was littlehope for Tang Shengchih and his crumbling defenses within the Xiangvalley. Thousands of men from the NRA’s 4th and 7th armies began toarrive in late May, but even so they were outnumbered in southernHunan.
It was not until June 2nd, when Tang Shengchih finally caved andaccepted the offer from Chiang Kai-Shek to be the commander of the8th NRA army. Thus Tang Shengchih went from leading a division toan army and his regimental commanders became division commanders.It was also of course a substantial pay raise. This was the type ofmodel the NRA would adopt throughout the Northern Expedition. Ifyou can't beat them, buy them. Just a few days later, the NRAforces within Hunan accepted Tang Shengchih as their front linecommander. Tang Shengchih then proclaimed he would head aprovisional Hunan government as its governor in the name of the KMTgovernment.
The KMT had done a lot to win over the Hunanese people. TheHunanese people wanted autonomy, so the KMT flouted notions ofprovincial autonomy with a federal system. It was a marriage ofconvenience. Another major carrot was promising to end the tyrannyof the northern warlords and the exploitation of the foreignimperialists. Some began to refer to the Northern Expedition as the“anti-north campaign” and clearly the first target would be thewarlord controlling Hunan, Hubei and Honan, the Jade Marshal. InJuly the 4th army divisions led by Chang Fangkuei and Chen Mingshuarrived at the front, thus the defense changed to offense. At thispoint Wu Peifu’s armies were still too far in North China and hisHunan allies were now becoming overwhelmed by the NRA swarming outof Guangdong. Under these dire circ*mstance, Wu Peifu’s appointedgovernor, Chao Hengti made a stand along the north banks of theXiang, the Lien and Lu rivers. From late June to early July the NRAprepared to ford the Lien river sitting west of the Xiang and theLu river to its east. Down the Xiang was Changsha. Facing the Luriver were two 4th army divisions and Yue Tings independentregiment and another Hunanese regiment. Over at the Lien river wereJiangxi troops of the 7th army alongside the remainder of TangShengchihs 8th army.
As the first major offensive kicked out, Tang Shengchih was at thefront raising morale for the Hunanese, which was very important, asdo remember, all these forces coming out of Guangdong were alienCantonese to them. A breakthrough emerged along the two-river lineswith the 7th and 8th NRA armies over on the left wing on the 5th ofJuly. By the 10th the 4th NRA Army engaged the enemy towardsChangsha. Over in the east where Hunan bordered Jiangxi, asubordinate of Sun Chuanfang who controlled the lower Yangtzeregion was completely undisturbed by the NRA forces. ChiangKai-Shek and his subordinates had given specific orders not tomolest Sun Chuanfang, trying to avoid bringing him into the fightto join Wu Peifu. The NRA also profited off a recent flood of theYangtze that had backed water up the streams of northern Hunan,hindering enemy communications. Wu Peifu was awaited reinforcementsover at his HQ in Wuhan while his generals in Hunan faced the realthreat of being encircled and annihilated. To Wu Peifu’s westernflank, two Guizhou warlords were watching the tide of battle. WuPeifu was very aware of this and it threatened his westerndefensives. The season had also been a poor harvest, reducing foodstuff for Hunan, a province that was already quite dependent onexports north in places like Wuhan. Even with his riverine navy, WuPeifu could not hope to move enough foodstuff to his southernfront. Another issue he faced was the passive resistance of Hunan’speasantry class who began hiding their produce from suppliers. Theloss of the Lien-Lu River line left Changsha completelydefenseless, so on July 11th the defenders simply withdraw furthernorth of the city.
With the Guangdong and Juangxi forces entering Hunan, the NRA hadgained enough manpower to begin advancing north. From July 11thafter taking Changsha until mid August the front moved north only50 miles. Delays occurred because reinforcements and war materialsfor the NRA could only be moved halfway up from Guangzhou by rail.Afterwards they had to travel over back-breaking terrain by foot.Soldiers and their hired coolies had to hand carry supplies andarms and this in turn limited the largest weaponry they could move,such as small field cannons which took entire teams of carriers.For those of you who don’t know, I specialize in the Pacific Warand I can certainly say, the Japanese forces in isolated islands,take Guadalcanal for example, saw this exact type of situation.Japanese artillery teams would have to disassemble artillery piecesand carry them by hand through rough jungles, often understarvation conditions. Not fun. The NRA during these circ*mstance,much like the Japanese in the 1940’s in jungle terrain islandswould suffer from terrible ailments, not malaria like the Japanese,but cholera. Cholera was taking a toll on the overheated andexhausted soldiers and civilian coolies. One Chen Kungpo wrote inhis memoirs “thathundreds died daily in one mountain town on the route goingnorth”.
By August, both sides were gathering in strength along a new front,established near the Milo River. A military advisor wrote“Sometimesthere are no provisions, my colleagues tear off some sort of grass,chew it and are full.”However the northern forces could not launch counterattacks withoutthe full support of the Jade Marshall’s main army who were stillstuck in North China aiding Zhang Zuolin against the treacherousFeng Yuxiang. To remedy the two front situation, Wu Piefu tried butfailed to secure loans and aid from his former protege, SunChuanfang, who honestly was more foe than friend now. Sun Chuanfanghad basically taken the mantle as the strong Zhili leader andcertainly did not want to share any of his newfound limelight.Alongside this the British turned a cold shoulder to Wu Peifu andthe Japanese never liked him to begin with.
Despite some local floods and the cholera outbreak, Chiang Kai-Shekwas able to arrive to Hengyang with over 100,000 NRA troops. Thesenumbers had been recently bolstered by Guizhou warlords such asPeng Hanchang and Wang Tienpei who had watched eagerly the battlesof the Lien-Lu line before tossing their lot in with the NRA. TheGuizhou forces had marched into western Hunan clearing out pocketsof resistance as they did. During the northern expedition, smallerwarlords tended to simply defect or join the NRA when the NRA waswinning. The NRA now prepared an offensive to break the Milo riverline, also emboldened by the peasantry class who were very willingto work. The local floods in northern Hunan, combined with thedroughts in southern Hunan had destroyed the peasants' fields, thusthey needed to make money. The NRA exploited this to recruitsoldiers and coolies en masse and this greatly improved theirmobility.
By contrast, Wu Peifu’s forces were low on ammunition, rations werealso beginning to dwindle and the majority of the soldiers had notbeen paid in quite some time. In the NRA controlled areas, theHunanese peasants were selling what produce they could spare, butthe NRA were also being supplemented by rice carried fromGuangdong. The NRA also made sure to pay coolies properly insteadof Shanghai’ing them and did not plunder peasants' foodstuffs. Thisof course led to wide scale cooperation from the local population,something quite rare for the warlord era. A final conference washeld at Changsha on August 12th between Chiang Kai-Shek, the topNRA commanders and Soviet advisors. By the 15th orders weredispatched for a general offensive against the Moli line with theobjective of reaching Hubei. The NRA right wing also prepared todefend the army in cause Sun Chuanfang finally extended help to WuPeifu from Guanxi. Chiang Kai-Shek was filled with excitement, forif successful, the NRA offensive would capture Wuhan and herincredible Hanyang Arsenal. Chiang Kai-Shek dispatched word to hisgenerals before the battle. “Theimportance of this fight is not only in that it will decide thefate of the warlords. But, whether or not the Chinese nation andrace can restore their freedom and independence hangs in thebalance. In other words, it is a struggle between the nation andthe warlords, between the revolution and the anti-revolutionaries,between the Three People’s Principles and imperialism. All are tobe decided now in this time of battle … so as to restoreindependence and freedom to our Chinese race”.
The general plan of attack was to breach the Milo river line andquickly capture Wuhan. Speed and timing were critical factors. Itwas all basically a huge gamle. The NRA needed to secure Wuhanbefore Wu Peifu or Sun Chuanfang entered the war, thus preventingthe NRA incursion into the Yangtze Valley. At the moment the NRAand their immeidate adversary in northern Hunan were around equalnumber, but if Sun Chuanfang entered the mix he had nearly doublewhat Chiang Kai-Shek had. The 4th and 6th NRA armies made theircrossing over the Milo on August 17th, successfully outflanking theenemy line and easing the way for the left wing of the 7th and 8thNRA armies to advance. By the 19th, Wu Peifu’s troops were forcedout of their trenches and only provided sporadic resistance as theywithdrew into southern Hubei. During the two day retreat thenorthern forces had divided in two with the western flank takingrefuse in Wu Peifu’s naval stronghold of Yuehzhou. Its port washeavily fortified, however the recent floods had caused water fromDongting lake and the Yangtze to meet, ruining many of thefortifications.
The NRA cut across Yuehzhou’s railway link to Wuhan and surroundedit. Wu Peifu had frantically orders troops to hold the naval base,until he could detach himself from the Hobei operations to takepersonal command of the sh*t storm in Hunan. However during ameeting with Zhang Zuolin at Baoding, Wu Peifu received word hissubordinates had simply taken all the naval vessels, riverinevessels and even sampans to head downstream for Wuhan. Yuehzhoufell with ease by the 22nd and Hunan was practically cleared of WuPeifu’s regular forces. Wu Peifu’s navy contuined to fight theenemy, but all they could really do is harass NRA units along thbaks of Dongting lake or the Yangtze. In response the NRA simplytosses fire rafts at them, a classic and age oldtactic.
As the NRA chased the enemy, the local railway workers on linesheading into Hubei cooperated. The workers began cutting railwaylines and telegraph lines to obstruct the enemy retreating fromYuehzhou. Entire trainloads of troops and war materials felldirectly into the hands of the NRA. The end of August saw ChiangKai-Shek’s gamble pay off. Although Sun Chuanfang could pounce atany moment from Juangxi, the NRA had succesfully given a bloodynose to one warlord. The victory of the NRA over Hunan did not gounnoticed by the surrounding provinces warlords. Guizhou generalsbegan joining the KMT as the war raged and the Milo river linefight influenced some generals under Sun Chuanfang to reconsidertheir loyalites. It was quite remarkable that Sun Chuanfangsdecision to stay out of the immediate fight lost him the easiestchance of ending the NRA altogether. If Sun Chuanfang hadintervened in the Hunan war, almost 100% he would have defeatedChiang Kai-Shek and easily march upon Guangzhou to end the firstUnited Front. Losing Guangdong the KMT would have withered away,perhaps the CCP, would cower into the shadows awaited the rightmoment to pounce. Chiang Kai-Shek would not have withstood such adefeat, his leadership role would have been shattered. But such wasnot the case, Chiang Kai-Shek took Hunan and proved himself a newformidable player on the board. The Hunan campaign cost the NRA,but now they had the perfect base of operations and springboard forfurther offensives. By the end of August the NRA’s intelligencereported Wu Peifu was advancing south to reinforce Wuhan, thusChiang Kai-Shek tossed the dice of fate again.
Advancing north against the three-city stronghold, was regiments ofChen Mingshu and Chang Fakuei’s 4th Army. The withdrawal from theMilo river line had allowed Wu Peifu’s Hubei forces to form a newline. The Guangzhou-Hankou railway followed a narrow land routebetween the Yangtze and highland ranges, crossing over multipleflooded bridgeheads. To further hinder the NRA’s advance, theHunanese had breached nearby dikes of the Yangtze. Then theyheavily fortified the Tingszu Brigde with barbed wire and machinegun nests over its northern riverbank. The NRA vanguard attackedthe stronghold on August 26th, coming to a abrupt halt. The NRA’ssuperior mobility, aided by local boatsmen allowing the NRA rightwing to head upstream and get around the enemy’s flank. Likewisethe NRA 4th army threatened the railway to Wuhan, making Wu Peifu’sforces more vulnerable. The forces defending Wuhan were mainly thesame troops who had fled Hunan, exhausted and demoralized. When thefirst attacks came upon the bridgehead, joined by flank attacks,the defensive line collapsed. During the night of the 26th the NRAstormed several strongpoints and outposts. Here again Wu Peifu’sforces jumped onto any vessel they could get away with, or fledaboard the last trains heading north.
The Tingszu bridge was captured, but at a bloody cost that wouldlimit the NRA’s ability to pursue the fleeing enemy. Once again thefloods slowed the advance, alongside Wu Peifu’s riverine vesselsthat continued to fire upon any NRA troops that ventured too closeto waterways. Yet Wu Peifu’s troops were running low on food whilethe NRA were accumulating more of it. As the NRA soldiers marchedacross the Tingszu bridge, locals flocked over to sell themfoodstuff as by this time word had spread far about how the NRApaid for what they needed. On August 28th the NRA forces capturedXienning, but further north came across the Hesheng bridge. Thebridge was heavily fortified and defended by forces under thepersonal command of Wu Peifu.
Back on August the 25th and Hankou, Wu Peifu received word thatTingszu bridge had fallen, thus he quickened his advance to thefront. He was shocked by the fall of the bridge and blamed hissubordinates, labeling them cowards. When he arrived at Hesheng, WuPeifu gathered his officers as he executed the commanders who lostthe Tingszu bridge. He had with him mercenaries of the Big SwordsCorps functioning as the executioners. On August 29th, Wu Peifuthen went on the offensive and attacked the NRA vanguard, elementsof Li Tsungjen’s 7th Army just a bit due south of the HeshengBridge. His attack devastated the vanguard until the main bulk ofthe 7th and 4th armies arrived. Just before dawn on the 30th, WuPeifu attacked the NRA’s line of defense south of the bridge,probing for a weak point. He hit the 4th and 7th armies sectors,but was gradually met by artillery and rifle fire that took a heavytoll. Wu Peifu then had the Big Swords executioners clip moreofficers of their heads to boost morale. However as Wu Peifucontinued to press his offensive his men eventually routed underpressure. His troops fled right over the Hesheng bridge allowingthe 7th army to flank them further upstream where they took anothersmaller bridge and threatened his lifeline, the railway line toWuhan.
By noon on the 30th, Wu Peifu’s Hunanese and Hubei forces were in ageneral retreat heading north. Wu Peifu had just lost southernHubei in what was an absolute clumsy miscalculation. During theretreat the NRA flank attack against his railway line saw themcapture 3 trains full loaded with troops and arms. Over the courseof the past weeks he had lost two bridgeheads seeing 1000 deaths,2000 wounded and 5000 captured alongside all their weaponry. Afterthe entire debacle, Wu Peifu began frantically pleading with SunChuanfang to come down the Yangtze to help him. But Sun Chuanfangmade ambiguous responses and dragged his feet. As he did so the NRAfortified their defenses facing Juangxi.
In full retreat Wu Peifu began breaching dikes behind his forces toslow down the NRA as they approached Wuchang, the capital of Hubei.He left a force of 10,000 men to defend the city behind its sturdywalls as he ferried the rest of his men to Hankou. Once his forceslanded on the other side of the Yangtze he had half of them take uppositions to defend the Hanyang Arsenal, while the others defendedHankou, which served as his new HQ. By September his forces fromHonan began to arrive. On August 31st, Chen Mingshu’s 4tharmy was in hot pursuit of the enemy. His vanguard took a vantagepoint near Wuchang as reconnaissance investigated the city. OnSeptember 2nd, the NRA unleashed frontal assaults to probe itsdefenses, but they lacked any heavy artillery to actually back up areal attack. As a result the NRA suffered heavy casualties beforepulling back to establish a proper siege. Meanwhile by september5th, Hanyang was also surrounded.
Defending Hanyang was a Hubei division led by Liu Tsolung whoplaced artillery on some fortified high points. When the NRA wasjust about to launch an assault, suddenly Liu Tsolung, overseeingthe majority of Hanyangs defenses defected and helped capture thecity and its arsenal. It was a tremendous blow to Wu Peifu as theNRA vanguard was now bypassing Hanyang to threaten his railway linkto Honan. Wu Peifu tried to salvage the units he had left to mounta last ditch defensive line over the border hills between Hubei andHonan. Wu Peifu had now withdrawn to the Wushen pass lying on theborder, hoping to hold out as more of his Honanese forces advancedsouth. Yet once again the NRA’s superior mobility deprived Wu Peifuof enough time to dig into the pass. After a few assaults, Wu Peifulost the pass and was driven further back into Honan.
The walled city of Wuchang could not be taken as easily as Hanyangor Hankou. Wu Peifu and his men would defend it for well over amonth. The NRA did not have proper siege weapons, and the threat ofSun Chuanfang loomed over them.Yet Wu Peifu had not expected Hunanand Hubei to fall so quickly and had not prepared his capital for along siege. He had 10,000 soldiers, hundreds of thousands ofcivilians locked within its walls. There were also foreignerswithin the city and foreign gunboats. The threat of internationalintervention loomed upon the actions of the NRA. Chiang Kai-Shektelegrammed his foreign minister that a communique should be sentout to inform the world powers “…on the matter of protecting foreign nationals, I have alreadyinformed the armies to observe my prohibition against the militaryoccupying or obstructing affairs in foreign-established churches,schools, and the like….”Chiang Kai-Shek personally overlooked the siege to make sure noforeigners were molested.
Just to clear up something that might be confusing some of you,Wuchang refers to one of the 13 urban districts of the capital ofHubei, Wuhan. Now back in mid August, Chiang Kai-Shek called forthe capture of Wuhan at Changsha and he had made secretnegotiations with Sun Chuanfang to get him to sit out the war. SunChuanfang had been quite ambiguous about what he would do, but itwas known to NRA intelligence he was massing troops along theborders of Jiangxi and Fujian. Sun Chuanfang made up the excuse hewas simply defending his territory from NRA aggression. ApparentlyChiang Kai-Shek offered a nonaggression pact and an open invitationto join the KMT, but Sun Chuanfang did not want to give up his newfound control over the 5 southeastern provinces for what wasperceived to be a lesser role in the KMT. Sun Chuanfang thenprepared a two pronged offensive to relieve Wuchang by driving westinto KMT territory. Sun Chuanfang was sitting on 200,000 troops andChiang Kai-Shek was well aware of the threat he posed. Thus ChiangKai-Shek would go for broke, casting the dice of fate oncemore.
I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcastis only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generalsover at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over atYoutube and to continue helping us produce this content pleasecheck out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals.If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a lookover at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot tome.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek rolled the dice of fate when heunleashed an offensive against Wu Peifu’s holdings in Hunan andHubei. The gambles paid off big time as the NRA swarmed theirenemy, taking prisoners and war materials. However Sun Chuanfangwas now entering the fray, a real fight would soonunfold.
