直系
One of his subordinates, the semi-Zhili-affiliated Feng Yuxiang, became increasingly dissatisfied with Cao and Wu Peifu. His sympathies lay with Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang government in Guangzhou, and Japan had also supplied him with 1.5 million yen (via warlord Zhang Zuolin) in hopes he would agree to topple the Cao government. The Japanese wanted to remove the Zhili government due to its strong anti-Japanese policy. In the autumn of 1924 the Zhili clique went to war with Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War. With Wu at the helm of Zhili's armies, it was expected to be victorious. If the Fengtian clique was destroyed, the Zhili clique could finish off its few remaining rivals in the south with ease.