First United Front
In 1927, after the dissolution of the First United Front between the Nationalists and the Communists, the ruling Kuomintang purged its leftist members and largely eliminated Soviet influence from its ranks, and General Chiang Kai-shek severed the ties with Russia. Chiang Kai-shek then turned to Germany, historically a great military power, for the reorganisation and modernisation of the National Revolutionary Army, and German advisors started to come in. The Nationalists hired many German military advisers to help them with their buildup of the mechanisation and training of the army.