First United Front
The war of 1924 was more destructive than previous warlord turmoil and bankrupted the Beijing government. As more Chinese looked to the KMT and Communist parties for leadership, they began to disparage and delegitimize the northern leaders by calling them "junfa" (warlords). At this time the KMT and Communists were allied in the First United Front, which controlled Guangdong Province, and were backed by the Soviets. The weakness of the warlord administration and the victory of the pro-Japanese Zhang Zuolin was one of a multitude of threads that led to a nationalistic backlash called the May Thirtieth Movement.