page_title: National Pacification Army
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: National Pacification Army / Background
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Carte de la Chine de 1925 à 1926
context_page_description: The National Pacification Army, also known as the Anguojun or Ankuochun, was a warlord coalition led by Fengtian clique General Zhang Zuolin, and the military arm of the Beiyang government of the Republic of China.
  Formed in November 1926 after the Fengtian victory in the Anti-Fengtian War, the NPA was tasked with countering the advance of the Kuomintang-aligned National Revolutionary Army of Chiang Kai-shek, who had launched the Northern Expedition in June 1926. The NPA also included Zhili clique generals, such as Sun Chuanfang. The NPA suffered a series of serious military defeats inflicted by Chiang and his warlord allies, including Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Yan Xishan. On the southern front, the NPA was pushed back from Jiangsu and Henan after fierce fighting against the Guominjun and the NRA. On the western front, they fought Shanxi forces under Yan Xishan. Following these setbacks, a conference of NPA leaders in June 1927 established a military government and proclaimed Zhang Zuolin as Generalissimo, whereupon all military and civilian power was placed in his hands.
context_section_description: The 1910s saw China fragmented into various warlord states, as part of the tumultuous Warlord Era. Starting from the Xinhai Revolution, many provinces became autonomous under their ruling generals. Following the National Protection War against Beiyang Army general-turned-emperor Yuan Shikai, China became balkanised into a collection of regional power networks, the feud between different factions intensified, and warlordism was born.
  The Fengtian clique had been formed under Zhang Zuolin, who was the local hegemon in Manchuria. Along with local elites and other military figures in Manchuria, Zhang formed a mutually-beneficial alliance, forming the backbone of his warlord faction. In response to the growing dominance of China by the Anhui clique, an opposing warlord group consisting of the Fengtian and Wu Peifu-led Zhili cliques banded together. This coalition expelled the Anhui clique from Beijing in the Zhili–Anhui War, pushing them southwards and allowing the Fengtian and Zhili cliques to jointly control the capital. However, this order fell, with the Zhili and Fengtian cliques going to war in the First Zhili–Fengtian War. Zhili won, pushing Fengtian back to Manchuria.
  In 1924, Zhili-aligned Jiangsu governor Qi Xieyuan declared war on Fengtian-allied Zhejiang governor Lu Yongxiang, sparking a new conflict between the Fengtian and Zhili cliques, called the Second Zhili–Fengtian War. The decisive moment of the conflict came on 30 October 1924, when warlord Feng Yuxiang broke from the Zhili clique, declared the establishment of the independent Guominjun, and aligned with the Fengtian in his Beijing Coup. This led to an overwhelming Fengtian victory, the removal of the Zhili clique from the capital and Cao Kun from the presidency of the Republic of China, and placed Zhang Zuolin in control of the Beiyang government.
  Fengtian thus took control of Zhili and Shandong provinces, with the Zhili clique routed southwards, where warlord Sun Chuanfang established control of the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi. He formed the "United Army of the Five Provinces" out of the remnants of the Zhili clique forces and his own army. 
  The fragile peace following the Second Zhili–Fengtian War did not last long, as Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin quickly turned against each other. Both had been seeking an alliance with the Zhili clique, but Wu Peifu, in an attempt at revenge, sided with Zhang in the Anti-Fengtian War. In October 1925, Sun Chuanfang began the invasion of Jiangsu, and Feng began his invasion of Shandong, which was now under the control of Fengtian general Zhang Zongchang. In November 1925, general Guo Songling turned against Zhang Zuolin, siding with Feng. In January 1926, Zhang launched an offensive, ordering his troops in Fengtian and Shandong provinces to invade Beijing and Tianjin. In order to achieve peace, Feng expelled Duan Qirui from Beijing, reverting the political situation to what it was like before his coup, and was eventually forced to withdraw from area.
  By mid-1926, Zhang and his Fengtian clique held the dominant stake in the Beiyang government. At around the same time, in June 1926, the rival Kuomintang government, based in the southern city of Guangzhou, launched the Northern Expedition. This posed a serious threat to the northern cliques, and countering Kuomintang activities would serve as modus operandi of the formation of the National Pacification Army. With Zhang having pushed Feng away from Beijing, beyond the Nankou Pass, and with the collapse of Wu Peifu's army in the wake of the NRA advance in Hunan and Hubei provinces in late 1926, the Fengtian clique cemented its position both as leader of the Beiyang government and as the main military clique in northern China.
caption: China following the Second Zhili-Fengtian War
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