Zhili clique
With Japanese support and the suppression of the Manchu Restoration, it became the most powerful faction in China from 1916 to 1920. They had an uneasy co-existence with the Zhili clique and Fengtian clique in the Beiyang government. They advocated a hardline during the Constitutional Protection War. The May Fourth Movement weakened their influence and eventually led to the Zhili–Anhui War in 1920 which saw the surprise defeat of the Anhui clique. Duan resigned and the clique lacked national leadership for the next four years when all their provinces were eventually gobbled up by the Zhili clique by the summer of 1924. (Shandong was an anomaly, the Zhili clique appointed an Anhui general in 1923 there provided he remain neutral, see Shandong Problem. Zheng Shiqi ruled until 1925 when he transferred it to Fengtian's Zhang Zongchang per agreement with Duan.) After the Beijing Coup, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin picked Duan to lead a provisional government. Lacking any significant military power, he and his few remaining supporters played Feng and Zhang against each other. They removed him from power and his last followers joined the Fengtian clique.