page_title: Yan Xishan
section_title: Involvement in the Northern Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Yan Xishan / Career in the early Republic / Involvement in the Northern Expedition
caption_attribution_description: Entitled Militarism in China. Here are specimens of the Soldiery who protect the people by dominating them, who protect property by looting it Liao Chow, Shansi, China [c1925] IE Oberholtzer (probable) [RESTORED] I did light scratch and spot repair, adjusted tone, contrast, added a sepia coloration, and cropped away the partial view of the individual on the far right edge. From a private collection discovered on Picassa Web Albums (Google's free picture gallery) as hosted by generous netizen Joe. He has a collection of images that (from what information I could gather on his gallery), seems to have been taken by one I.E. Oberholtzer in or around the Liao Chow area of Shansi, (I suspect this may be modern day Liaozhou, Shanxi Province, but I'm having a bit of difficulty getting cross referenced confirmation), China, during the 1920-1930s. Once again, it is due to the dedication of private citizens that images which would otherwise be lost to history, is instead seen by all. This validates and burnishes that part (in this case, of a part of China), and makes indelible an isolated stitch in the fabric of time. Woven together with the contributions of others, that fabric becomes a tapestry that testifies to our collective history in a vital visual record. We all hold a debt of gratitude to the generosity of such net contributors. Other pictures from this series and Joe's magnificent galleries can be seen here: picasaweb.google.com/LlamaLane Most people consider the China of today as a nation that has 5000 years of continuous unbroken history as one political entity; that is not so. As recent as a century ago, China was politically fractured akin to a nation say, like Pakistan, where the central government held political sway in name only. Genuine authority outside central urban areas resided in the hands of well financed individuals, called warlords, each armed with their own personal army. Warlords held their positions by strength of the sword, and areas under their control were effective fiefdoms that the Chinese central government had little or no control over. At times, even central government commerce movement needed to tender road tariffs to these local governments before being allowed passage. These regional governments functioned by their own rules, often created at the whim of their leader. They fought not only with the government but with each other. Between the years of 1912 and the second world war, most people understand and remember the national struggle between the communists and the nationalists in China. In fact, the nationalist government was only in nominal control, with the communists being but one external factor, along with a variety of warlord cliques and subordinate factions that competed for overall supremacy in 8 major geographic areas. Opportunistic coalitions often formed to work either against, or with the Nationalist government; though allegiances were well acknowledged to be something ephemeral as parties easily traded loyalties according to their individual needs of the moment. Regional armies with fidelity to a local leader instead of a national government wasn't an entirely new concept to the Chinese of the times. In fact this was business as usual as far as Chinese history was concerned. During the monarchy, Qing standing regional Bannermen armies could likewise have been a template for the Warlord phenomenon. Each Banner was separate and distinct from the others and only loyal to themselves, and not to any idea of national government, per se. They fought for the throne because they were paid to. Thus, they were similar to mercenary armies at the service of the government During this period of national crisis, Outer Mongolia, long a part of the Qing empire, (under strong Soviet influence) successfully broke free and became, de facto, independent from China in 1921 . The Chinese nationalists successfully kept Xinjiang and Xizang (aka Tibet) from breaking away, and were also successful in keeping most other nations from further colonizing what was essentially a broken and defenseless China. The Warlord private armies in essence were regionally raised militias that were privately trained. They were armed with a variety of western and traditional equipment and in one battle alone (Central Plains Battle of 1930, in which three warlords allied against the central Nationalist government), involved an estimated one million troops. These troops rode roughshod over the populace with impunity. They were notorious for robbing, raping, and pillaging everywhere they went. If they didn't have enough men to perform support functions (like build fortifications or carry away loot), they would gang impress local manpower as slave labor. They would often take whatever crops there were, and allowed the local population to subsist on starvation rations. As patronage mills, they allowed men of affluence to buy officer postings either for themselves or their sons, to serve as midlevel leaders within a warlord's army. The situation was so socially severe and dire that the populace hungered for relief and easily bought into the communist message of land ownership reform, equality of treatment, shared burden, and national defense. This helped set the stage for the mass support that Mao needed to overthrow the nationalists and take the country by force of arms.
context_page_description: Yan Xishan IPA; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960, 閻錫山) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. As the leader of a relatively small, poor, remote province, he survived the machinations of Yuan Shikai, the Warlord Era, the Nationalist Era, the Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent civil war, being forced from office only when the Nationalist armies with which he was aligned had completely lost control of the Chinese mainland, isolating Shanxi from any source of economic or military supply. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at the same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule.
context_section_description: In order to maintain Shanxi's neutrality and free it from serious military confrontations with rival warlords, Yan developed a strategy of shifting alliances between various warring cliques, inevitably joining only winning sides. Although he was weaker than many of the warlords that surrounded him, he often held the balance of power between neighboring rivals, and even those that he betrayed hesitated to retaliate against him in case they might need his support in the future. In order to resist the domination of Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin, Yan allied himself with the forces of Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, during the Nationalists' Northern Expedition. While aiding Chiang, Yan's occupation of Beijing in June 1928 brought the Northern Expedition to a successful conclusion.  Yan's assistance to Chiang was rewarded shortly afterwards by his being named Minister of the Interior and deputy commander-in-chief of all Kuomintang armies Yan's support for Chiang's military campaigns and his suppression of Communists influenced Chiang to recognize Yan as the governor of Shanxi, and to allow him to expand his influence into Hebei.
caption: Yan Xishan's soldiers in Liaozhou (now Zuoquan County) in 1925 during the war with Henan warlord Fan Zhongxiu.
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