Part One: The First Republic—The Republic of China

Chapter 1. 1911: How the Last Dynasty Crumbled and Warlords Took Over
Rebellion in Wuchang City
A long line of imperial dynasties had held sway over all (or parts) of China from 2100 BCE to 1911. China was a world unto itself for much of these 4,000 years, but history went off its tracks when the British came in. Smoking opium had been a serious crime in China, but for the British opium was big business. And they made it far bigger by slaughtering and pillaging, overwhelming the Chinese by 1842 and forcing them to open up their nation to foreign trade. Soon, British merchants flooded the market with opium grown in India, and millions, perhaps more than 10 million, Chinese were hopelessly addicted. China was reeling and the Qing Dynasty was on the ropes.
The Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) had been established by the Manchus, people that had originated in northeastern China (Manchuria). Although some of their ancestors had periodically been in power in ancient times, it was the Han people that were (and are now) the largest ethnic group in China. The Han could not bear the oppression of these Manchus, whose officials, the Mandarins, were increasingly corrupt. As the Qing Dynasty sank into misery, the Han rose up in a series of rebellions hoping to overthrow the rulers and regain the imperial throne. In an era when some of the ambitious young elite were already studying abroad and learning modern ways, the imperial leaders still maintained a traditional army using ancient weaponry including lances and spears. So the overthrow was easy enough—but what next? Read on, and we’ll see.

Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) was a revolutionary vanguard and he organized the National Party for the purpose of revitalizing the nation. After a few uprisings were brutally put down, the last successful rebellion broke out in Wuchang City of Sichuan Province, westward along the Yangtze River, upstream from Shanghai. In May of 1911, the Qing government had nationalized or appropriated two railways that were private Chinese companies, without giving the owners any compensation, and then sold them to foreigners. Needless to say, the local people wanted to defend their rights. The most violent reactions took place in Sichuan Province. The Qing government did have a New Army too (trained in the use of guns and cannons), and they sent them in. But in this division, many soldiers and even officers were actually members of the revolutionaries. So some leaders of the National Party planned a rebellion in the army.
A regiment was camped at the north gate of Wuchang City. Around 6 o’clock, on the 10th of October, many rebellious soldiers marched toward the armory in the city with the intention of seizing it. At that time, in the camp a platoon leader was making his rounds to check on the soldiers and he found that many were absent. He also saw the squad leader was lying on his bed, so he yelled at him, “What are you doing? You want to rebel?” (That’s a Chinese way of putting down one’s subordinates.) The squad leader never had thought much of his platoon leader, so he replied insolently, “You said I’d rebel. Now I’m rebelling.” A soldier standing nearby simply shot the platoon leader dead.
Now the battalion leader came in and he was shot dead, too. Seizing this opportunity, the National Party’s point man in the new army, who was the leader of another squad, declared a rebellion and called for his men to take up their arms right then and there.
Soldiers from many different camps came to their aid, the number reaching more than 3,000. They controlled a cannon field and attacked the governor’s residence under the command of Wu Zhaoling, an officer in the eighth battalion. They called themselves the Revolutionary Army. The governor escaped to a warship on the river. The Revolutionary Army occupied the city.
Revolutionaries in Hanyang and Hankou cities also raised the banner of rebellion. On the 11th of October, the Revolutionary Army took over Hanyang City and on the 12th day, they occupied Hankou City. Three cities in a row.

The Establishment of the Republic of China.
Then the Revolutionary Army founded the military government and asked Li Yuanhong (1864–1928) to be the governor, and they declared the new state to be the Republic of China. At the beginning of November, at the proposal of Song Jiaoren (1882–1913) and some others, a constitution was drafted and called “The Temporary Constitution of Republic of China.” It had seven chapters and sixty articles. The government consisted of the governor, the congress and the court. People were granted democratic rights, the right to own private property, and the right to do business. The government decided that the 10th of October should be the national day for the Republic of China.
From the 18th of October to the 27th of November, the Revolutionary Army put up strong resistance against the army of the Qing government, which was massive. During those 41 days, most of the provinces declared their independence; only four provinces close to Peking, the capital (now called Beijing), still supported the Qing Dynasty. The governors of the independent provinces controlled the local army and became warlords.
All the independent provinces formed their own military governments. On the 1st of November, the Qing government appointed Yuan Shikai (1859–1916) premier. On the 1st of December, the Revolutionary Army and Yuan signed a truce. On the 2nd of December, the united army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces occupied Nanking. On the 12th of December, representatives from all 14 independent provinces gathered in Nanking for a meeting. On the 17th of December, the representatives elected Li Yuanhong as the General Marshal and Huang Xing (1874–1916) as the Vice General Marshal.
On the 1st of January, 1912, the temporary government of the Republic of China established Nanking as its capital, breaking away from the Qing power base in Peking, and elected Sun Yat-sen as the temporary president.

On the 12th of February, 1912, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, Fu Yi (1906–1967, his English name: Henry) abdicated and the last dynasty ended, and with it ended the entire imperial system which had begun long ago and had lasted in much the same form for 2,000 years. But the imperial family still lived in the Forbidden City inside Peking.
The new republic had its national flag with five colors signifying the unity of five major tribes in China. They were the Han tribe, the Mandarin tribe, the Mongolian tribe, the Muslin tribe, and the Tibetan tribe, represented by horizontal bars of red, yellow, blue, white and black.
But the designs of the national flag for the Republic of China changed a few times, until the design was chosen which eventually became the national flag, now still used in Taiwan: red background with a blue rectangle in the upper left corner, inside of which there is a 12-cornered white star.
With the establishment of the Republic of China, men cut off their queues, or braided pigtails, and wore short hair, more Western style. This style of shaving the front of the head and wearing the hair in a braid was originally imposed as a sign of submission demanded by the first Manchu Emperor. When they invaded the southern territories and occupied the lands of the Han tribe, they forced them to comply, too. If anyone refused to shave his front hair, he would be beheaded. The famous slogan was “Your hair or your head.” For that reason, there had been a slaughter in Yangzhou city at that time, lasting for 10 days. Since the Revolution was victorious, now the pigtail had to go.

At the same time, women were freed of the custom of binding their feet; in fact, a major campaign was waged to discourage it. That custom had originated more than 1,000 years ago and affected all but the lowest workers, who could hardly afford to cripple themselves. (The Manchu Emperor had tried to ban it in 1664 but few paid any heed, as beauty, after all, comes at a price.) Now the revolution redefined some of the ideals of femininity and definitively freed women from the agony of crushing their feet.
The Qing Dynasty had persisted for almost 300 years. Why didn’t it last longer? It was certainly not the fault of the last emperor, who was only three years old when he was put on the throne. The Qing Dynasty had degenerated over time, as most of them do, and corruption had grown worse and worse in the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), his flamboyant grandmother, the subject of my earlier book Empress Dowager Cixi (Algora, 2002).
In the long history of China, two different women had managed to rule the country for tens of years. The first one was Empress Wu the Great, during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907). She read a great deal and trained herself as a politician and ruler. She ruled the country well (Empress Wu the Great, Algora, 2008). But Empress Dowager Cixi was no diplomat, no politician, and no wise ruler. She adopted wrong-headed policies. She came into power because of her status as the empress dowager. In her hands, the mansion of the great empire crumbled just like a house whose wooden beams and pillars are eaten through by white ants. The last emperor would not have been able to support it any more, no matter what.

The Ambition of Yuan Shikai
How Yuan became president of the Republic of China
When the Republic of China set its capital in Nanking on the 1st of January, 1912, Sun Yat-sen was elected temporary president and Li Yuanhong was elected vice president. At that time, the Emperor had not abdicated yet. The battle between the Revolutionary Army and the Qing army was still going on. The new army of the Qing government was organized and trained by Yuan Shikai (1859–1916), its commander. Yuan had a scheme of his own and began seeking a truce with the Revolutionary Army. Then he set his sights on the position of the President of the republic and forced the Emperor to abdicate.
Sun Yat-sen had no army that he himself had organized to support him. He had been elected temporary president owing to his reputation as a firm revolutionary against the Qing Dynasty. The Revolutionary Army was controlled by the governors (warlords) of the separate provinces; they signed an agreement with Yuan and refused to fight Yuan for Sun Yat-sen. Therefore, Sun Yat-sen had to give in. He resigned, and he nominated Yuan for president on the 15th of February. Accordingly, Yuan was named temporary president of the republic. As a rule, the president ought to live in the capital, which was Nanking, not Peking where Yuan lived. Yuan refused to come south because he could not bring his army south and would instead be controlled by the Revolutionary Army. After negotiations, the Revolutionary Army had to give in and let Yuan take office in Peking. But the congress was still in Nanking, controlled by the national Party.

In February 1913, the congress elected Song Jiaoren to be the Premier of the cabinet. At that time, Yuan had Zhao Binjun as his premier. However, on the 20th of March, Song was assassinated at the railway station in Shanghai. When the assassin was caught, evidence on his person linked him to Zhao—actual letters between Zhao and the assassin, no less. So the national Party drew the conclusion that Yuan was behind it. Zhao resigned under pressure from the press. Duan Qirui (1865–1936) was appointed to take over the office of the premier.
After the assassination, Sun Yat-sen, who was at the time on a visit in Japan, came back to Shanghai and summoned a meeting of the national Party. He suggested avenging Yuan with armed force, though some other leaders like Huang Xing tended to appeal to less violent conduct.
On the 26th of April, Yuan asked for a syndicate loan of 25 million British pounds from the lending consortium in China consisting of England, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. The national Party thought that the loan request was illegal, as it would require approval by the congress first. In May, Li Liejun, the governor of Jiangxi province, Hu Hanming, the governor of Guangdong province, and Bo Wenwei, the governor of Anhui province, declared their opposition to the loan. The three governors were all members of the national Party. In June, Yuan gave orders to remove the three from their positions as governors. On the 3rd of July, Yuan sent the sixth division of his new army to Jiangxi province.

Under instructions from Sun Yat-sen, Li Liejun declared the independence of Jiangxi province on the 12th of the same month, and formed a separate headquarters from which to oppose Yuan. On the 15th, Huang Xing reached Nanking and declared the independence of Jiangsu province. Quite a few provinces followed suit.
On the 22nd of July, the national Army from Jiangsu province fought a battle with Yuan’s army at Xuzhou of Shandong province and was defeated. The national Army was conquered in some other places, too. Then all the independent provinces had to rescind their declarations of independence. Yuan issued orders to arrest Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing, who had already escaped to Japan. This event was called the Second Revolution, but it ended in failure.
On the 6th of October, the congress held a session in Peking and the congressmen were forced to elect Yuan Shikai as president and Li Yuanhong as vice president of the republic. Yuan took the official oath on the 10th of October.

Yuan wanted to be the new emperor
On the 4th of November, Yuan gave an order to disband the national Party, using their rebellion as a pretext. Simultaneously, he drove all the members of the national Party out of the congress. On the 10th of January, 1914, Yuan dismissed the congress entirely and formed his own council of state, which meant that all the members were his men. He was still dissatisfied with being president. He wanted to be emperor.
To attain his goal, he first had to get international support. In January of 1915, Japan secretly gave Yuan a document containing 21 articles in 5 chapters, through which China should cede to Japan a variety of economic and commercial rights and benefits, such as options on railroads and other profitable fields in Manchuria, and in Shandong province, and also the extension of Japan’s occupation of Luushun and Dalian (two harbor cities) to 99 years, etc. But two articles in particular were unacceptable. One was to employ Japanese advisors in the Chinese central government, in the financial and military fields. The other was to employ Japanese advisors in local police departments. The negotiations ran from the 2nd of February to the 7th of May.
Yuan accepted most of the articles in order to secure Japan’s support for his ambition to be emperor. But such a big secret could not be kept for long and soon the public heard that he was selling them out. Yuan was severely criticized, but to no avail.
Then Yuan’s supporters began to circulate their theory that the republican form of government was not suitable to China. They formed a committee on the political future of China and sent out their men to all the provinces to persuade officials and officers and businessmen to support Yuan as emperor, promising all of them personal benefits. Then such supporters were summoned to the capital as “people’s representatives.” Those representatives formed groups and on the 1st of September handed a petition to the Council of State organized by Yuan) to ask Yuan to be the emperor.

In a traditional show of modesty, Yuan initially refused their petition. On the 19th, they organized the “National Petition Committee” to turn in a second petition, this time requesting that the 1993 people’s representatives should hold a conference to decide the future of the nation. Accordingly, the conference was in session at 9 o’clock in the morning on December 11. The representatives were to cast votes. All the representatives voted for imperial system. Yuan graciously accepted the result as the supposed will of the people, and decided that the next year (1916) would be the first year of his Empire of China.

In December, just after Yuan accepted the petition, Cai E, the governor of YunNan province, was the first to object. He announced the independence of YunNan, followed by many provinces. Even Yuan’s former subordinates, Feng Guozhang (1859–1916), governor of Jiangsu province, Li Chun, governor of Jiangxi province, Zhu Rui, governor of Zhejiang province, Jin Yunpeng, governor of Shandong province, and Tang Xiangming, governor of Hunan province, all sent telegrams asking Yuan to rescind the empire.

如此大的题目， 写十几卷都不为过。这里区区几段，看不出端倪。你应该重点介绍你的构思，你关于这个题目的独创之处，而不是仅仅把写出来的东西放出来。

sorry, no time to write what you want. anyway the editor of the American publisher didn't have that request before he published it. So contented with what i have.

Seeing that even his former subordinates had betrayed him, Yuan had to declare openly that he was rescinding the empire and restoring the presidency on the 22nd of March, 1916. He had been Emperor only for 83 days. Once a high military official of the Qing Dynasty, he had turned against the empire, and then he was subverted in turn. He contracted a fatal disease and died on the 6th of June.
If he had not been so ambitious and had contented himself with the presidency, Yuan would have been spared the hatred of almost all the people in China. He would not have been betrayed by his closest generals, who commanded part of his new army. But he went against the historical tide, against the will of people. He wanted to turn back time to the imperial age. As a president, his subordinates only had to stand up before him and salute him, whereas during his heady days as emperor, his subordinates had to kneel before him and kowtow to him. Any man who has had a chance to stand up never wants to bend his knees again. Sense of dignity.
There would have to be a public funeral for Yuan. According to the law, when the president died, the vice president would succeed him. So Li Yuanhong became the president. Also, as a rule, the public funeral for a deceased president should be led by the succeeding president. But Li had a little problem with Yuan, for Yuan had imprisoned Li. That made it rather hard for Li to feign any esteem of Yuan. So on the day of the funeral, he just went there to bow once and left, back to his office. As etiquette required, he should have bowed at least three times. Then the Premier Duan Qirui took over the role.

Restoration of the abdicated emperor
Li and Duan had also clashed. Their opinions and political attitudes were different. As Li had no supporters in the government, Duan had no respect for him. Duan also had command of part of the new army. So Li sought support outside the capital.
         In May of 1917, during the First World War, there was a dispute about whether China would join in the war or not. Duan, supported by Japan, was in favor of joining the war, while Li and most of the congressmen thought it better not to join the war. On the 23rd of May, Li issued an order to remove Duan from the office of premier. Duan went to Tianjin City and instigated all the governors to declare independence. So Li summoned General Zhang Xun (1854–1923) to the capital to mediate.
         Zhang Xun was still loyal to the Qing Dynasty and the soldiers in his army still maintained their queues. So his army was called the pigtail army. He thought that this was a great opportunity and took five thousand soldiers with him. On the 14th of June, he entered Peking. On the night of the 30th of June, he sent his soldiers to occupy strategic points like the railway station and telegraph office. He went to see Li and tried to persuade him to return the political power to the abdicated emperor Fu Yi, by now using the Western name of Henry, but got a flat refusal.
On the 1st of July, 1917, Zhang Xun let the abdicated emperor sit on the throne again and issue a few orders, such as to change the national flag from the five-colored flag (the symbol of Republic of China) to dragon flag (the symbol of the Qing Dynasty).

On the 2nd of July, Li went to the Japanese embassy for protection while issuing two orders: appointing Feng Guozhang as the deputy president and restored Duan to the office of the premier. So on the 3rd of July, Duan gathered his army, and on the 14th day, he defeated Zhang Xun’s pigtail army. Zhang Xun escaped to the Dutch embassy, then went to live in Tianjin City. The Emperor abdicated once more. And Duan went to the Japanese embassy to welcome Li back to his presidency. On the 28th of August, Li went to Tianjin City after resigning.
Thus, in the early history of the Republic of China, there were two restorations. One was under Yuan Shikai, who wanted to be emperor himself and founded the Empire of China. The other was Zhang Xun, who put the abdicated emperor on the throne again. But both quickly ended in failure. The chariot of history always runs forward and no one can pull it back. People won’t go back to the old life style once they start to enjoy a new one, especially one that offers more freedom and dignity.
           As Li Yuanhong resigned from the presidency, the deputy president Feng Guozhang became the president. Feng was the governor of Jiangsu province and lived in Nanking. Now he was the president and had to take up office in Peking. That left the position of governor of Jiangsu province vacant. Duan wanted to appoint Duan Zhigui as the governor there, but Feng wanted to appoint Li Chun, the present governor of Jiangxi province as the governor of Jiangsu province. He promoted Chen Guangyuan, who was the commander of the twelfth division, to be the governor of Jiangxi province. Both were supporters of Feng. Before he left for Peking, he divided his army into two divisions. The sixteenth division would stay in Jiangsu province. He brought his fifteenth division to Peking as his bodyguard so that he wouldn’t be controlled by Duan.
Duan dismissed the old congress because most of the congressmen had opposed him on the question of joining in the First World War. Since there was no more congress, the Duan government declared war against Germany and Austria.

May 4 student movement

                On the 23rd of August, 1914, Japan declared war against Germany and took over Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong province, formerly occupied by Germany. They fought for 70 days. Then in January 1915, Japan had put the 21 articles to Yuan, who accepted most of them. These were considered a national insult, which caused great dissatisfaction with the government among Chinese intellectuals, including university students.
                China declared war against Germany on the 14th of August, 1917, actually at the end of the First World War, so that China was one of the victorious countries. But at the Paris Peace Conference, which produced the Versailles Treaty, Japan was allowed to continue its occupation of Jiaozhou Bay, which should have been returned to China since it was in the territory of China and formerly was occupied by Germany.
        The public called upon the Chinese representative at the conference to refuse to sign on the treaty, but the government secretly instructed the representative to go ahead and sign it. When the news became openly known, the students at Peking University held an emergency meeting on the 1st of May. On the night of the 3rd day, students from other universities joined in the action. They decided to hold a demonstration on TianAnMen Square on the 4th of May, which was Sunday. Thus began the May 4 movement.
        At one o’clock in the afternoon, the students marched towards the neighborhood where all the embassies were and distributed copies of a memorandum, which was refused by all the embassies except the American one. Then they went to the residence of Cao Rulin, minister of transportation (to complain about the railway problem with Japan), where they saw Zhang Zongxiang, the Chinese ambassador to Japan. The students gave both a good beating and set fire to the residence. For that, 32 students were arrested.
        To rescue the students, the professors called on the public to declare a strike of all students, teachers, workers, and shop-owners. The government forbade it and arrested more people. The chaos lasted into June; people answered the call of the professors and the movement spread to many cities. Even railway workers started to strike. On the 11th of June, Professor Chen Duxiu (1879–1942) and others distributed pamphlets in public, and Chen was arrested. The chaos worsened. Under such pressure, the government had to give in. It dismissed Cao and Zhang from office and released those in jail. On the 28th of June, the representative attending the Paris Peace Conference did not sign the treaty.
This movement was influential not only in politics, but also in culture. Many changes were introduced. Professor Hu Shih proposed that language as spoken should be used in writing instead of the classical language. Hence, the language style in use was changed, even in newspapers. So the May 4 movement is also called the new cultural movement.

Battles in the southwestern provinces

Chinese historians define the men who command independent armies as warlords. In many periods this included the governors of provinces, and even premiers like Duan, who had his own army. The local warlords often disobeyed the central government. If the central government wanted any governor to obey its orders, it had to send an army to defeat him. And the provincial governors often fought one another to increase their power base. As a result, many periods of history were fraught with turmoil.
Although Yuan Shikai died, his former supporters controlled most provinces. Only five provinces in southwestern China were under the influence of the national Party. They were Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.
In Sichuan province there were three armies. One came from Yunnan province. One came from Guizhou province. And the third one was formed of local soldiers. Each of them wanted to take control of Sichuan province and they fought one another from time to time. Premier Duan of the central government wanted to control this province, too. So he sent a detachment of his army to Sichuan province. Then, the three local armies united to fight against Duan’s army, which had to retreat.
After the failure of the second revolution, Sun Yat-sen endeavored to make another attempt. He gained the support of the Navy’s First Fleet. In 1917, the governor of Guangdong province proposed to Sun that he could use this province as his headquarters against the warlord government in Peking. On the 10th of July, Sun took two warships to Shantou Town and sent Zhang Binglin to Guangdong province as his representative. The situation in that province was complicated, though. On the 17th, when Sun arrived in Canton on board a warship, he was welcomed. On the 22nd day, the commander of the First Fleet brought his fleet to Guangdong province, too. They announced that since the dismissal of the Congress, any orders from the Peking government were unlawful.

When Duan learned the news, he promoted the commander of the Second Fleet to be the commander of the navy and appointed another admiral as commander of the First Fleet, which was not under his control any more. On the 25th day Duan ordered to remove the governor of Guangdong province from office, but the governor refused to recognize the order.
Sun Yat-sen invited the congressmen to come south. In mid-August, more than 130 congressmen arrived in Canton. On the 18th, at a welcome party, all the attendees agreed to organize a new military government, which was founded on the 10th of September. When Duan heard of this, he issued a “wanted” bulletin for Sun Yat-sen, and the military government also issued a “wanted” bulletin for Duan. The five provinces in the southeastern China supported the military government against Duan, who sent his army into Hunan province in hopes of defeating the army of the military government.
On the 6th of October, two armies engaged in battle near Xiangtan Town. Contrary to Duan’s hopes, his army was forced to withdraw. It looked bad for him, and many provinces announced their support for the military government. Duan had to resign as premier.
President Feng called upon both sides to stop fighting. Duan had always been a threat to the independent governors in the southeastern region, and now they felt that the sword of Damocles had been removed, so they agreed to the truce. But on the 2nd of December, 1917, Duan instigated ten northern governors to take action against the southeastern provinces. On the 6th, they pressed President Feng to issue orders to continue the war. Meanwhile, Zhang Zuolin, the warlord in the northeastern China, led his army into Peking. Under such pressure, Feng had to ask Duan to resume the office of premier.

Duan re-organized his army to attack the army of the military government, which now lost the support of the other governors and had to fight alone. It was soon defeated. But Wu Peifu (1874–1939), the commander of Duan’s army, ceased his assault and made a truce with the military government, ignoring Duan’s command. As Feng and Duan always had conflicts of opinion, or in reality, of personal interests, both agreed to resign at the same time. That was on the 4th of September, 1918.
Sun Yat-sen’s goal was to let his National Party unite the whole of China under the rule of his party. But this ran counter to the interests of the warlords. So he lost most of his supporters and only a few were left. On the 21st of May, 1918, he left Canton for Shanghai, where he met Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975). The military government was controlled by the armies of Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.
As Sun resigned and left Canton, his army (under the command of Chen Jiongming) went to Fujian province, and together with the army under the command of Chiang Kai-shek they defeated Duan’s army there. That happened in June of 1918.
Although Duan was not in the cabinet, he still had his army. So Zhang Zuoling (1875–1928) and Wu Peifu allied to fight him. On the 14th of July, 1920, Duan’s army was overcome. Then Xu Shichang, who had nothing under his control, was selected (not elected, as there was no more congress) by the warlords to be a puppet president.
In August 1920, the army stationed in Fujian province marched back to Guangdong province to assail the Guangxi province army there. On the 28th of October, the military government was back under the control of Sun’s army. So on the 28th of November, Sun returned to Canton.
On the 12th of January, 1921, a special congress was organized and on the 2nd of April, the congress held a session to annul the military government and resume the name of the Republic of China. On the 7th day, Sun was elected President and took an oath at a ceremony on the 5th of May.

Sun Yat-sen went north, looking to overthrow the Peking government

Sun Yat-sen still persisted in marching north to overthrow the Peking government. He thought of it as a warlord government, not a revolutionary government. He wanted to found a revolutionary government for the people. Anyway, the governors of all the provinces and even Chen Jiongming (1878–1933), the commander of his army (actually another warlord), did not see things that way. Those men only wanted to have a federal government of warlords.
On the 26th of March, 1922, Sun Yat-sen held a meeting and decided to go north to take down the Peking government. On the 9th of April, when the Revolutionary Army reached the Meng River, it was blockaded by Chen Jiongming’s army which was encamped there. Sun gave orders that if Chen’s army did not make way for him, he would launch an attack. When Sun reached Wuzhou Town, he summoned Chen to meet him, but Chen refused to go there. Sun removed him from the position of commander. Chen wanted his army to prepare for a war against Sun, but the army in Canton refused to carry out his order. There was nothing he could do but go back to his old home in Huizhou Town. However, part of his army was still loyal to him.
In early April 1922, Wu Peifu sent an emissary to contact Chen and asked him to prevent Sun Yat-sen by force from going north. Meantime, Duan and Zhang Zuolin wanted to ally with Sun to vanquish Wu. The situation got complicated. Everyone was putting his own interests first and relationships between friends and enemies often changed.

On the 23rd of April, Sun Yat-sen gathered his generals for a meeting in his presidential residence to decide what to do next. There were two options. One was to first annihilate Chen’s army so that he could not give the Revolutionary Army a stab from behind. Chiang Kai-shek held this opinion. The other was to immediately march north, while doing their best to avoid any conflict with Chen’s army. Sun tended toward the second opinion, as he thought that Chen had not really betrayed him, at least not yet. He had no reason to attack Chen. Chiang Kai-shek thought that Chen would at long last betray Sun. Since Sun did not believe him, he left Guangdong province, while writing a letter to Chen advising him not to betray Sun.
When Sun Yat-sen came back to Canton, he still allowed Chen to be the commander of the first army. But Chen refused to take the appointment. On the 28th of April, Zhang Zuolin, Duan Qirui and Sun Yat-sen formed an alliance to fight Wu Peifu. Sun thought that this created an opportunity for him to go north.
On the 4th of May, Zhang’s army was beaten by Wu’s, and Zhang had to retreat back to where he had come from, northeastern China. Wu took control in Peking. Wu had a secret agreement with Chen Jiongming that he would drive away the current president, Xu Shichang, and Chen would drive away Sun Yat-sen. Then the first step was to let Li Yuanhong back into the presidency and get him to wipe out all the warlords everywhere, except of course the two of them. If Li failed to do so, he would be the scapegoat. If he succeeded, Wu and Chen would use the congress to have themselves elected as the president and the vice president.
So they announced that the current president Xu was illegal. Xu resigned on the 2nd of June. Once back in the presidency, Li denounced that warrant that was out for Sun Yat-sen and invited him to Peking to discuss national affairs. He also appointed many warlords in the south, but none of them accepted his appointments. Afterwards, as Wu and Chen saw that Li could do nothing for them, they forced Li to quit the presidency again. Li went back to Tianjin City.
On the 9th of May, Sun issued an order for a general attack, and on the 13th of June, the Revolutionary Army put Wu’s army to rout in Jiangxi province. Wu sent his man to Chen and asked him to take action as soon as possible.

Chen Jiongming Turns Traitor in Canton

When Chen went back to his hometown, he took with him a lot of guns and ammunition, enough to arm 40 battalions. On the 20th of May, Chen’s subordinate, Ye Ju, led his troops into Canton and started a treasonous action. By the 1st of June, the situation had become acute. Liao Zhongkai, a faithful follower of Sun, sent a telegram to Sun Yat-sen asking him to come back to Canton. When Sun was back in Canton, he summoned Chen, but Chen refused to come.
On the 12th of June, Sun Yat-sen ordered Ye Ju out of Canton. Next day, Chen and Ye secretly met at Shilong. They knew that, to prevent Sun from going north to fight Wu, they would have to cut off his access to financing. Liao was the person who provided Sun with everything. So they decided to kidnap Liao. On the 14th day, Chen sent a telegram to Liao to invite him to his hometown for some important business. On the fifth day, Liao went there and was detained. Then Ye Ju maneuvered his troops and planned to attack Sun’s residence with cannons. On the 16th day, Sun was informed of this and took refuge on a warship.
On the 19th, Sun Yat-sen sent a telegram to the Revolutionary Army at the frontier to come back to Guangdong province. On the 2nd of July, the Revolutionary Army started to assail Chen’s army in Guangdong province, and beat the betraying army. Chen sent a telegram to Wu seeking assistance. Wu sent some troops to Guangdong province. On the 26th of July, the Revolutionary Army was chasing after Chen’s retreating army but met with the reinforcements sent by Wu. Therefore, the Revolutionary Army had to withdraw. When Sun Yat-sen learned this, he had to leave Guangdong province and go to Shanghai. Liao was released and left Canton. When Chen attempted to assassinate him afterwards, he was already gone.

On the 16th of August, 1922, Sun Yat-sen made a statement accusing Chen of betrayal. To annihilate the treacherous army, Sun determined to ally with Duan. In October, he appointed Xu Chongzhi as the commander-in-chief and Chiang Kai-shek as the chief of staff. On one side, the Revolutionary Army together with Duan’s army vanquished Wu’s army. On the other, the armies of Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, who supported Sun, defeated Chen’s army. On the 14th of January, 1923, troops in Guangdong province turned over to Sun and attacked Chen, who escaped to his hometown, Huizhou.
On the 15th of February, Sun Yat-sen returned to Canton. In April, Chen Hongying, a warlord in Guangxi province, accepted the appointment of the Peking government to be the governor of Guangdong province, and came to attack Canton, but was soon subdued. He escaped to Hong Kong.
At the end of 1924, Sun went to Peking to discuss national affairs, but he was fatally ill. In February the Revolutionary Army, now under the full command of Chiang Kai-shek, marched east to wipe out the warlords there. Sun died on the 12th of March, 1925. He famously wrote, in his will, “The revolution is not successful yet; comrades must still make efforts.” That June, Chen Jiongming betrayed the cause again, but he was soon wiped out by Chiang Kai-shek.

Early History of the Communist Party of China (CPC)

The organization of the Communist Party of China

In April 1920, the Communist International sent Grigori Voitinsky to China. In May, he found Chen Duxiu, 42 at the time, and sought to contact some revolutionary young men in other cities to establish the Communist Party of China, the CPC. Chen was the professor who had been arrested in the May 4 student movement in 1919. In August 1920, under instructions of the Soviet Communist Party, the Communist Party of China was established in Shanghai. At that time, it was called Communist Group with Chen Duxiu as the general secretary.
But after the Communisst Party took over the reign of the mainland, public data they issued state that the first meeting of the Communist Party was held about a year later, in Shanghai, on the 1st of July, 1921. Why was the earlier date concealed from the public? There might be two reasons. One was that they wanted to cover up the fact that the Communist International had had a hand in it. The other is that Mao attended the meeting in Shanghai, so by emphasizing that meeting they could say that Mao was one of the founders, enhancing his image. But the meeting was in 1920, not in 1921 in Shanghai.
Fifteen people attended the meeting on the 23rd of July, 1921, at 106 Wangzhi Road (presently 76 Xingye Road) in Shanghai. These included Mao Zedong (1893–1976); Dong Biwu (1886–1975, later the vice chairman of the People’s Republic of China); Zhang Guotao (1897–1979, later commander of the Red 4th Army in the Long March); Chen Gongbo (1890–1946); and Zhou Fohai (1897–1948). The last two later defected to Japanese invaders in Sino–Japanese War (1937—1945). Also present were Malin and Nico Chhabra (representatives from the Communist International).

Soon some suspicious men were found lurking outside the house. The meeting broke up and everyone discretely slipped away. And the next day, they met on a boat on the South Lake in Jiaxing Town, casually playing mahjong while in fact continuing their meeting. Thus the Communist Party of China was established. At that time it had only 50 members.
On the 23rd of December, 1921, accompanied by an interpreter, Malin went to see Sun Yat-sen in Guilin City of Guangxi province. He stayed there for nine days and concluded that Communist Party members could join the National Party while still maintaining their status in the Communist Party. This would help the Communist Party to develop. But his idea was strongly opposed by some party members, especially Chen Duxiu who was then the leader of the party. So on the 23rd of April, 1922, Malin left Shanghai for Holland, by sea, and then, through Berlin, made it to Moscow. He reported his work in China to the Soviet Communist Party, which consented to his idea. On the 27th of July, the Soviet Union sent a representative to China, together with Malin, with instructions. Malin typed the instructions on the shirt he wore. In Shanghai, Malin met Chen Duxiu and gave him his shirt.
Chen Duxiu had to obey the decision of the Communist International because at the second meeting of the Communist Party, held from July 16–23, 1922, at 625 South Chengdu Road in Shanghai, they had decided to join the Communist International. Chen Duxiu and Zhang Guotao attended the meeting with ten other representatives. Then the Communist Party of China got financial aid from the Communist International.
On the 29th and 30th of August, 1922, the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a central meeting on the West Lake in Hangzhou City and decided to found the First United Front, an alliance between the National Party and the Communist Party.

In June 1923, the Communist Party had its third meeting in Canton, and 40 representatives, representing 420 party members, discussed the issue of the First United Front. They elected Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao (1889–1927), Mao Zedong, and Xiang Ying (1898–1941, who later became commander of the New 4th Army in the Sino–Japanese War), and five others, as members of the Central Committee.
It was said that after the meeting, at the urging of the Communist Party, Sun Yat-sen proposed his three great policies: Alliance with Russia, Co-operation with the Communist Party, and Assistance to Peasants and Workers. But as a matter of fact, Sun never identified with such policies. This was just invented by Mikhail Markovich Borodin, a Russian counselor to the Communist Party of China, to make them look good. Then the Communist Party used this invention as a fact for its own purposes.
Why did Sun agree to the United Front notion? It was because Sun always held to his ideal of Three Principles for the People: the Principle of Nationalism, the Principle of Democracy, and the Principle of People’s Livelihood. Ironically, this party, which was also called Kuomintang by the pronunciations of the Chinese characters “National Party,” evolved into a highly centralized, hierarchical, and authoritarian party. Sun thought that the ideal of communism was closest to his three principles and so he wanted to unite with the Communist Party against their common enemies—warlords who were still taking advantage of the power void left when the imperial order crumbled.
From the 20th to the 30th of January, 1924, the 196 representatives of the National Party held their first conference in Canton (now Guangzhou). Sun was the chairman and the Russian counselor Borodin was in attendance. Some Communist Party members were elected into the executive committee of the National Party. Li Dazhao and a few others were members and Mao Zedong, Zhang Guotao were alternate members.

In the autumn of 1924, General Feng Yuxiang (1882–1948) launched a coup d’état and took control of the Peking government. He invited Sun Yat-sen to Peking to discuss national affairs. In the morning of November 5, Feng sent his troops to surround the Forbidden City and ordered the abdicated emperor to move out. So Henry gathered his precious belongings and moved to Tianjin City with his family. A few faithful old courtiers followed him there.
On November 13, 1924, Sun Yat-sen started from Canton and arrived in Peking on the 31st of December. It was soon found that he was suffering from liver cancer and he died on March 12, 1925. Sun had been in Peking three times. First, in 1894, he went to Peking with the intention of advising the Qing officials on how it might reform the government. But when he saw how serious the corruption was, he realized that no reform could be enough to save China. So he decided to make a revolution. His second visit was in 1912 when the Republic of China was founded. He went to Peking to advise Yuan Shikai that if Yuan could carry on the revolution, he would resign from the temporary presidency. This was his third time.
On the 15th of September, Zhang Zuolin came with his forces from the northeastern provinces towards Peking and allied with Feng Yuxiang. Then a battle broke out between Zhang, Feng and Wu Peifu. Wu’s army was put to rout and Wu escaped south to Hunan and Hubei provinces. Thereafter, Peking fell under the control of Zhang Zuolin, who was always backed by Japan.

Whampoa military academy

The Whampoa Military Academy was founded on the 16th of June, 1924, on the instruction of Sun Yat-sen, to train officers for the Revolutionary Army. It was situated on Changzhou Island in the Whampoa District of Canton. Afterwards, branches were founded in Wuhan, Changsha, Chaoshan, and Nanning cities. In preparation for the establishment of this academy, Sun had sent Chiang Kai-shek to the Soviet Union in September of 1923 to learn from their experience. So the academy was modeled after those in the Soviet Union. And Chiang Kai-shek was appointed President of the academy. Quite a few Communist Party (CPC) members were appointed leaders of departments, such as Ye Jianying (1897–1986), deputy director of the training department, and Zhou Enlai (1898–1976), deputy director of the political department.
In May of 1924, the academy began to take in students. Out of 1200 applicants, 350 students were enrolled and 120 were accepted as alternate students for the first term. In 1927, the academy was relocated in Nanking and renamed the Central Army Officer Academy. Later, in 1949, it moved to Taiwan, for reasons that will become apparent later. From 1924 to 1949, there were 23 terms, and including the terms held in Taiwan, the academy was functioning for 78 terms. The academy graduated 41,386 students, including many famous generals.

The Break-Up of the National Party and the Communist Party
After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek took the full command of the Revolutionary Army. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek had no confidence in the CPC, especially after their fourth conference.
That fourth conference of the Communist Party was held from the 11th to the 22nd of January, 1925, with 20 representatives gathered in Shanghai. Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao, Zhou Enlai, and Xiang Ying, and many others attended. Chen was the chairman. During the conference, Chen was elected the general secretary of the central bureau, consisting of five persons. They decided that the Communist Party had to take charge of the revolution, and that laid the ground for major disruptions.
On the 20th of March, 1926, the warship Yat-sen planned an artillery attack on the Whanpoa Military Academy to drive away Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang gave orders to arrest the captain, Li Zhilong, a member of the Communist Party. Then Chiang ordered Zhou Enlai and all their party members to get out of the academy. The students now faced a problem as to which party they would follow. One student quit the National Party and 39 students quit the Communist Party. The others remained in the academy.
Meanwhile within the National Party, Wang Jingwei (1883–1944, who later treacherously went over to the Japanese during the Sino–Japanese War) wanted to take over the leadership of the National Party. He organized another government in Wuhan City, close to Wuchang City, the cradle of the 1911 revolution, and held the third conference of the National Party without the attendance of Chiang. This was called Wuhan government.
At that time Chiang only had command of the Revolution Army and held no position in the government. The Wuhan government wanted Chiang to continue to the north to wipe out the warlords there. But Chiang planned to go east to occupy the eastern provinces first, including Shanghai, because those eastern provinces were also under the control of warlords.
During those years, the land problem was serious. Peasants wanted to have their own land so that they would not be exploited by landowners. When peasants worked land owned by those in the ownership class, they had to give part of the harvest to the landowners, as in any feudal system. As the imperial system had been demolished, they wanted land reforms too. Under instigation by the Communist Party, they began to demand this more and more aggressively.

Stalin, head of the Soviet Union, asked the Communist Party of China in October of 1926 to curb the action of peasants, to reduce the violence. In March of 1927, the Communist Party established legal penalties for landowners. Any landowners who resisted the revolution would be put to death.
On the 2nd of April, 1927, the Central Committee of the National Party held a meeting in Wuhan, inviting two members of the Communist Party, one of whom was Mao Zedong. They were considering a bill about the land problem. The government would confiscate the land of “reactionaries” (those who preferred the old ways as opposed to the revolution) such as property owners, officials who had a stake in the old system, and warlords. The definition of reactionary landowners was to be based on the amount of land they owned, measured by the mu (about 0.165 acres). Anyone who had more than 30 mus, about 5 acres, was dubbed a reactionary. All landowners would be classified into rich peasants, small and middle landowners, and large landowners, according to the amount of terrain they possessed. This standard was still used in the land reform when the Communist Party later established their republic.
On the 22nd of April, when this bill was under discussion, the National Party and the CPC had different opinions. That was one of the reasons for their falling out, because many members of the National Party came from families who owned land. Then on the 26th of April, Chen Duxiu and Zhang Guotao were invited to attend the meeting, and also Borodin, the Russian counselor. On the 6th of May, the bill was at last passed. Only the large landowners would see their land confiscated. The land belonging to small landowners and families of revolutionary officials would remain the same. However, once the peasants had been instigated, it was hard to check their zeal to take possession of the land.

Victory of the Revolutionary Army and the final break between the two parties

In July of 1926, the National Party decided that the Revolutionary Army should head north to annihilate the warlords there. As Chiang was the commander-in-chief, he led the army north, fighting all the way along the route. The plan was for the Revolutionary Army to attack Wu Peifu first, and then Sun Chuanfang, occupying Jiangxi, Fujian, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, five provinces. Finally the Revolutionary Army would attack Zhang Zuolin in Peking.
In August of 1926, the Revolutionary Army assaulted the main force of Wu Peifu and wiped it out; they took over Wuchang city on the 10th of September. In November, the Revolutionary Army annihilated the main force of Sun Chuanfang, another warlord, and occupied Jiujiang and Nanchang cities. At the same time, Feng Yuxiang gained control of the northwestern region of China. A warlord, Yan Xishan (1883–1960), ruled Shanxi province. Observing the rapid advance of the Revolutionary Army, both Feng and Yan joined it. Now only the warlord Zhang from the northeastern provinces remained in Peking.
In October, the Communist Party organized workers in Shanghai to rise to arms against the warlord government 675 miles north in Peking, but they failed. In November, the Revolutionary Army took control of the area of the Yangtze River. So the national Government decided to establish its capital in Wuhan City, but Chiang wanted the capital in Nanchang, which was then under his control. Anyway, on the 9th of December, the national Government moved to Wuhan City.
On the 21st of February, 1927, the Central Committee of the National Party held a meeting of the 80 members, one third belonged to the Communist Party and one third were communist-leaning. Among the leaders of all the departments of the National Party, half of them were members of the Communist Party. This meant that the CPC controlled the national Party. And the Communist Party was organizing its own army.
Chiang Kai-shek decided he had to found another government. He had many supporters, like the brothers Chen Guofu (1892–1951) and Chen Lifu (1900–2001) and others in his army. All were young men.
On the 19th of February, General Bai Chongxi (1893–1966) took over Hangzhou city as he marched east with his detachment of the Revolutionary Army. On the 22nd, the Communist Party fomented a second riot in Shanghai but failed once more. On the 10th of March, the Central Committee of the National Party had another meeting to openly declare their break with Chiang, and he cut off all relations with the Communist Party.

Then Wang Jingwei came back from France, where he attended classes in the University of Lyon and reorganized the National Party by expelling the Russian counselor and members of the Communist Party. He also suggested that the national government and the headquarters of the National Party be moved to Nanking.
On the 22nd of March, the east detachment of the Revolutionary Army under Bai Chongxi entered Shanghai. On the 24th, the middle detachment occupied Nanking. A few members of the Communist Party instigated the soldiers of the Revolutionary Army to rob and kill foreigners in order to incite foreign governments to take action against the national government. But the consuls of England, the United States and Japan had evidence that the Communist Party was responsible for the trouble.
On the fifth of April, the Central Committee of the National Party divided the Revolutionary Army into two military blocs. Chiang was re-appointed the commander-in-chief of the first military bloc and Feng Yuxiang was the commander-in-chief of the second. On the same day, Chiang contacted the heads of certain mafias in Shanghai and asked them to organize a Shanghai business guild to oppose the Shanghai workers’ general union, an armed group which was controlled by the Communist Party.

Meantime, Borodin secretly urged General Guo Songling under the warlord government to fight Zhang Zuolin, who had secret contacts with Chiang. On the 6th of April, Zhang suddenly attacked the embassy of the Soviet Union in Peking to arrest 58 members of the Communist Party hiding there, including Li Dazhao, one of the main founders of the Communist Party. They found secret documents which proved that the Soviet Union instructed the Communist Party to overthrow the Chinese government. On the 12th of April, Chiang sent the national 26th army to the Shanghai workers’ general union to order them to surrender their weapons. But they refused, and many people were killed in the conflict, which became known as the 4/12 event. Then Chiang ordered all the organizations controlled by the Communist Party to disband.
On the 17th of April, Chiang and other members of the Central Committee of the National Party met in Nanking to issue warrant for the arrest of 197 leading members of the Communist Party, including Borodin, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969), Zhang Guotao, Deng Yingchao (1904–1992, wife of Zhou Enlai), and others. On the 28th, Li Dazhao and others were hanged in Peking, accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
On the 20th of April, the Communist Party issued a statement saying that Chiang was the open foe of the revolutionary people and called upon the people to overthrow him. On the 22nd day, Wang Jingwei and other members of the National Party who supported the Communist Party, together with Mao Zedong and some Communist Party members, openly blamed Chiang for the disruption. Chiang founded the national government in Nanking in opposition to the government in Wuhan City.
On the fifth of June when Indian revolutionary M.N. Roy, a representative of the Communist International, asked Wang Jingwei to allow the Communist Party to control the Wuhan government, Wang began to disband the Communist Party. Therefore, on the 1st of August, the Communist Party called for riots in Nanchang. That marked the final rupture between the National Party and the Communist Party.

Chapter 2. The First Civil War Between The National Party and the Communist Party

Communist Party Riots

The Riot in Nanchang City

Wang Jingwei learned that the Soviet Union was planning to help the Communist Party of China to take over power from Wuhan government in July 1927. He expelled all the members of the Communist Party that were in the National Party and the Wuhan government. This led the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Jiujiang City (Jiangxi province) to forment a riot in Nanchang City, where they controlled some of the army. On the 26th of July, Zhou Enlai was sent to organize the riot. Several hours after Zhou left, they got a telegram from the Communist International, instructing them not to start it if there was no chance of winning. So Zhang Guotao was sent after Zhou. When Zhang reached Nanchang, all the preparations were already in place, and besides, most of the representatives refused to take these orders. The 11th army and the 20th army under the command of He Long (1896–1969) had already come to Nanchang from Jiujiang City, and were welcomed by Zhu De (1886–1976), commander of the 9th army and head of the city police.
At two o’clock in the morning of August 1, 1927, the rebels began to attack the National Revolutionary Army guarding the city. After fighting for four hours, they occupied the city. But the national government gathered more troops to surround Nanchang. The rebellious army had to beat a retreat from the city and went south. On the way, Zhou Enlai, He Long and other leaders deserted their troops and escaped to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Only Zhu De led the rest of the army to Guangdong province. They had to adopt the stratagems of guerrilla warfare. In January of 1928, Zhu De started another riot and led his army to Mt. JingGang in Jiangxi province, where he met Mao Zedong. Their troops formed the Red 4th Army.

Mao Zedong resorts to rebellion

As Wang Jingwei expelled the members of the Communist Party from the National Party and the Wuhan government, Mao Zedong went to Changsha City on the 12th of August to arm peasants and mine workers in that area in preparation for a riot. He had an army of 8,000 soldiers. On the 9th of September, they started their rebellion and set out to attack Changsha City. There were many Communist Party members in the city, scheming to let the attackers in by making a sudden assault on the national government army guarding the city. But their plan was leaked by insiders and became known to the national government. The traitors had to escape or they would be arrested and killed. Mao had to change his plan of attack and marched towards Mt JingGang, where his forces united with Zhu De’s army.
On the 4th of June in 1928, Zhang was forced to withdraw from Peking to go back to his original location. As he could not always accomplish what Japan demanded, Japan was not satisfied with him. On the fifth day, when Zhang was on board a train and passed through the railway station at Huanggutun, his train was exploded with gunpowder set there by the Japanese. He was severely injured and died when he reached Shenyang City. His son Zhang Xueliang (1901–2001) succeeded him in his position.
He declared he was joining the Revolutionary Army on the 29th of December, 1928. There were no more warlords, and China was thus united.

Chiang Kai-Shek Besieges The Red Army Five Times

The first siege

Since Chiang Kai-shek had cleared all the warlords from China, he began to deal with the Communist Party and the Red Army in October of 1930. Chiang sent his army, 300,000 strong, against the Red Army (the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army), 40,000 soldiers. If Chiang could surround the Red Army, he could easily wipe it out. But Mao’s strategy was wiser than Chiang’s. On November 1, Mao faked some maneuvers so that the Chinese Red Army seemed to be advancing in different directions, leading Chiang’s commander-in-chief to think that the Red Army would escape. Therefore, the National Army split up in order to chase down the enemies in different directions. Then the Red Army gathered together again and annihilated a small national division of 9,000 soldiers that had been cut off from the main force on December 30, 1930. And the other divisions had to fall back. Thus ended the first siege.

The second siege

On the 1st of April, 1931, the second siege began. Considering the failure of the first siege due to the failed tactic of attempting to surround the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek decided instead to move slowly with all the troops keeping close. On the 13th of May, the 28th division of the fifth army of the national forces left Futian and marched eastward. On the fifth day, Zhu De and Mao directed their 3rd military bloc and the 35th Red Army to form a left wing, and the 3rd Red Army to head up the middle, while the 4th Red Army and 12th Red Army made up the right wing, to surround the fifth national army. The commander of this army committed the same mistake. He should not have marched separately from others. Zhu De and Mao ordered their 7th Red division and 35th Red division to block the advance of the reinforcements from the 19th national army. As a result, on the 16th day, the 28th division of the national army was annihilated by the overwhelming number of enemy forces. On the 19th day, the 12th Red army attacked the 54th national division, which escaped. The 19th national army had no information about what was happening to the other armies and had to retreat. Thus ended the second siege.

The third siege

On the 21st of June, 1931, after the two failed sieges, Chiang Kai-shek formed two military blocs 300,000 strong for the third siege. On the July 10, the Communist Party also made all possible preparations for battle. The National Army had started to march on July 1, but could not ascertain the location of the Red Army. Towards the end of the month, the main forces of the Red Army were found taking a back route to a place called XingGuo. From the enemy’s location, Chiang Kai-shek judged that the Red Army planned to go west to cross the Gan River. He wanted to wipe it out on the east bank of the river. Mao and Zhu’s original plan was to ignore the main forces of the National Army, and use the Red Army to break through the encirclement at Futian to assail the detachment remaining in the rear; but this plan was detected. The 11th and the 14th divisions of the National Army marched faster to occupy Futian to block the Red Army’s escape route. This time, it looked good for Chiang. But Mao changed to a bold plan. He ordered the 35th Red Army to disguise itself as the main force, and to cross the Gan River to distract the National Army. On the 4th of August, his main forces stole through the gap between the two military blocs of the National Army before they closed like a vise. (That gap is said to have been 40 li wide. The li, or “Chinese mile,” creates some difficulties as this traditional unit of distance was only recently standardized. It now means half a kilometer or about a third of a mile.) This strategy was successful and the Red Army arrived at a safe place and annihilated a brigade of the National Army there on August 7. Then the Red Army moved to Huangpo and wiped out four national regiments on the 11th.
Then Chiang Kai-shek found out that what he was pursuing was not the main force of the Red Army. When the national troops turned back to march north, the fatigued army was like an arrow at the end of its flight. On the 18th of September, the 9/18 event happened, so Chiang had to go back to Nanking to take charge of the situation. Thus ended the third siege.
The strategies Mao used in the previous three battles would be seen repeated and repeated. Chiang was defeated three times by the same stratagem. Chiang Kai-shek never learned from his failures and made little improvement. It could be said that he deserved to be driven away from the mainland to Taiwan, after all.

The establishment of the red government in Ruijin

After a few victories, the Communist Party founded their Red government in Ruijin City of Jiangxi province. It was located in a basin with mountains on three sides. Nanchang City, the capital of the province, under the national government, was 300 li (just over 90 miles) away.
On the 7th of November, 1931, they celebrated the founding of the Red government. Mao was the Chairman of the government and Zhu De was the Commander of the army. In the area of the Red government, almost everyone was in an organization of some sort. The organization for six-year-olds and up was called the “children’s league.” That of the youngsters of fifteen-year-old and up was called young pioneers. Young adults joined the “Red Guard Army.” They printed their own paper money and used terrorist methods to control people. Even their own comrades were killed. Li Wenlin, also a leader in the party, was murdered. Peasants in that area did not have to give part of their harvest to any landowners, but they did have to support the Red government in order to support the Red Army.
No one could leave the area without a pass. There were sentinels everywhere, 24 hours a day. Whoever was caught leaving secretly would be executed. War time or not, under such drastic terrorism even the intimate subordinate Yang Yuebin deserted Mao and went to the national government to give away Mao’s location. Airplanes were sent to bombard the place and Mao had to move.

The fourth siege

After the 9/18 and 12/8 events (detailed in Chapter 3) were over, with the signing of the Songhu armistice agreement in May of 1932, Chiang Kai-shek planned for the fourth siege. This time he attacked the district of Hubei, Hunan and Anhui provinces where the Red Army was weak and was soon vanquished. Then in February of 1933, Chiang concentrated his forces to push forwards to where the main forces of the Red Army camped. The leadership of the Red Army had been changed at the meeting in Ningdu Town in October of 1932. Mao Zedong was dismissed from the commanding position. The leader was Bogu, who came from Shanghai on the 7th of January, 1933, but the actual commanders of the Red Army were Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai (1898–1974).
They used the same ruse Mao had used. They ordered the 11th Red army to disguise themselves as the main forces to attract and lead off the middle, second and third columns of the National Army to Lichuan area, while their actual main forces rested at Guangchang. Then they laid ambushes by the 1st Red military bloc and 3rd Red military bloc and 21st Red army to attack the 52nd national army, while the 5th Red military bloc and 22nd Red army would attack the 59th national army. On March 1, both national armies were annihilated and the commanders were captured. So the National Army was forced to withdraw. Thus ended the fourth siege.

The fifth siege
In May of 1933, Chiang Kai-shek set up his headquarters in Nanchang City and assumed the responsibility of commander-in-chief himself for the fifth siege of the Red Army. Since the last siege, the Red Army had grown considerably. Chiang Kai-shek therefore gathered an army a million strong, including the 300,000 soldiers of Chen Jitang in Guangdong province. Chen had been a warlord there, and then had subordinated himself to the national government when he saw all the other warlords had been wiped out.
The siege began on September 25, 1933, and ended on October 14, 1934, lasting for 385 days. Chiang Kai-shek used artillery and airplanes. On the 25th day, the National Army attacked Lichuan Town. After three days, they took the town. On the 9th of October, the 24th Red division went to attack Xiaoshi, but the National Army had a strong defense there with fortresses and trenches. For several days, the Red Army could not take the town, and suffered heavy casualties. That was the first stage.
In November, there was a coup d’état in Fujian province against Chiang Kai-shek. The leaders of this coup founded another government, but they had little support. Even the Communist Party declared this new government unlawful. So the coup ended in failure.
On the 11th of December, the National Army in town changed from defense to counterattack. The Red Army fought back under the command of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, regardless of the fact that the National Army was far better equipped. The Red Army was conquered and retreated. That was the second stage.
On April 10, 1934, Chiang Kai-shek sent 11 divisions divided into two columns marching towards Guangchang. The Communist Party used 9 divisions to prevent the National Army from attacking the town. Battles broke out in many other places, too. The Red Army lost in those places and had to withdraw to Guangchang. On the 27th of April, the National Army attacked the town and occupied it in the evening. The Red Army had to escape, leaving 5,500 casualties. That was the third stage.
In June of 1934, the Communist Party made up its mind to resist the National Army assault to the last man. Even so, on August 5, nine divisions of the National Army, with air support, defeated the Red Army. The remnants of the Red Army had to escape and began the famous Long March. That was the final stage of the fifth siege.
The Red Army failed because the commanders changed from the right strategy to a wrong one. During this period Mao Zedong was not in the Red Army. He had been sent somewhere else. The failure drove home the obvious point that strategy is more important than many other factors; strategy can be decisive; and especially in politics and war, strategy is everything.

The Famous Long March

The central Red Army, 86,000 in all, began marching on the 21st of October, 1934. This wound up being a 2,500-li march, that is, some 775 miles. They were headed to the western Hunan province where the 2nd and 6th Red military blocs encamped. Chiang Kai-shek deduced what route they were likely to take and laid four blockade lines to stop them. Zhou Enlai and Zhu De went to have a talk with Chen Jitang, a former warlord, and bribed him to let them go through his blockade line. So there was no fighting at the first three lines, as the Red Army never went there. However, they had to fight the National Army when they attempted to break through the fourth line. They made a heavy sacrifice after the rest of the Red Army fought through the fourth lines. Only 30,000 were left out of the 86,000.
The Long March could be divided in four stages. Firstly, the escaped Red Army wanted to go to a place at the border of Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou provinces, where the geographic features were easy to defend and hard to attack. In these areas there were still some local small warlords that they could mingle amongst them for safety and the central national government would not easily reach them. In early December, they climbed over some mountains and occupied Liping town in Guizhou province on the 14th of December, 1934.
Secondly, at a meeting in Liping on the 28th of December, Mao Zedong strongly opposed the plan to unite with the 2nd and 6th Red military blocs, and proposed to go to the border of Sichuan and Guizhou provinces to occupy the area round Zunyi town as a new military base. His proposition was accepted by the Central Committee, because from their present location, it was difficult to communicate with the two Red blocs. On the 7th of January, 1935, they took Zunyi town.
Here they held the famous Zunyi meeting, in which Mao was appointed to the command of the Red Army again.

Thirdly, though they wanted to establish a new military base in the vicinity of Zunyi town, the National Army continued to harass them. They had to escape to the northern Sichuan province, where Zhang Guotao, in command of the 4th Red military bloc, already set up a base. But that was far away, and they would have to cross various streams. From January to May of 1935, they ran here and there to avoid being destroyed by the National Army. They failed three times in crossing the Chishui Stream. Once they were forced to go back to Zunyi town. On the fourth try, they stole across the stream, then crossed Jinsha Stream and Dadu Stream. They met Zhang Guotao on the 16th of June. Then Mao suggested that they should march towards the northern Gansu province so that they might escape into the Soviet Union when necessary. But Zhang Guotao had three plans. The first plan was that they should go to create a base in northern Sichuan province, southern Gansu province and Xikang province. The second plan was that they should go to the northern Shaanxi province. The third plan was to go west into Xinjiang province.

Fourthly, the two blocs (the central Red Army, renamed as the 1st red military bloc) went together north from the 12th of June to the 7th of July. Then as both Mao and Zhang were in disagreement as to the future plan, each went his own way. Zhang, after marching through the grasslands, refused to keep going north but went back through the grasslands again to Xikang province and wanted to establish his base there. And Mao Zedong, together with Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao (1907–1971), and Ye Jianying (1897–1986), went to southwestern Gansu province. In October 1935, Mao and his men, only about 3,000 left, surmounted the Liupan Mountain and reached the northern part of Shaanxi province. To their surprise, Liu Zhidan was there with his 7,000 men. So they settled there.
As for Zhang Guotao, who had started with 80,000 men, he wanted to found a new Central Committee of the Communist Party and to be the chairman himself. But most of his men had died through the Long March. He had no hope for his personal ambitions. So he turned himself in to the National Party. The Communist Party called him a traitor.
It happened like this: on April 4, 1938, leaders of both the National Party and the Communist Party were to go to worship at the mausoleum of Emperor Huang, a legendary hero recorded in Chinese history books, supposed to have lived five thousand years ago. Zhang went there as the chairman of the Communist Party and met Jiang Dingwen, a leader of the National Party. After the rites were concluded, Zhang told his attendants to go back first as he had something else to deal with. But he jumped into a car the National Party provided for him. And he was gone. He was no longer a member of the Communist Party. At the end of 1948, he arrived in Taiwan in poverty. He seemed to be a forgotten man. In the winter of 1949, he went to Hong Kong with his wife and three sons. In 1958, he went to Canada where his eldest son lived. In 1976 he had a stroke and was paralyzed on the right side. He died on December 2, 1979, at the age of 82.
An interesting note from recent times: People doubted the actual distance the Red Army covered. Therefore, on November 3, 2003, two young Englishmen started on their way to retrace the route the Red Army had covered. They spent 384 days and covered 13,000 li, not 25,000 li.

The military coup d’état in XiAn City

As Japan invaded northeastern China (details in Chapter 3), the Communist Party seized this opportunity to demand that the Communist Party and the National Party unify against Japan in January, 1936. And as Japan occupied the northeastern China, Zhang Xueliang was driven out. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang to besiege the Communist Party in northern Shaanxi province on the 20th of September, 1935. But on the 1st of October, in the battle at Mt. Lao, the Red Army annihilated two regiments of Zhang’s army. On the 29th, in another battle, the 107th division and the 619th regiment of Zhang’s army were wiped out, too. On the 22nd of November, his 109th division went alone towards Wuqi Town and camped on the way at Zhilu Town for the night. The division commander thought that the Red Army was far away and could not attack him, and so he let down his vigilance. However, the Red Army took a quick march all night long and surrounded the division. In the morning, the Red Army put the division to rout.
After these defeats, Zhang Xueliang made secret contact with the Communist Party seeking a truce. On the 9th of April, 1936, Zhang went to YanAn city to talk with Zhou Enlai, the representative of the Communist Party. Zhang Xueliang accepted the Communist Party’s demand to unite against Japan. Zhang Xueliang even put in a request to join the Communist Party. Nevertheless, his request was not granted because his father, Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in the northeastern China, had killed some Communist Party members. Anyway, when Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), an important leader of the Communist Party, was dangerously ill, Zhang procured medication for him and saved his life.
Chiang Kai-shek heard about the situation and was upset with Zhang Xueliang. But at the time, an event happened in Canton, on the 1st of June, 1936, called the 6/1 event. Chen Jitang in Guangdong province and Li Zongren (1891–1969) in Guangxi province wanted to be independent from the central national government, and on that day they sent a telegram from Canton to the central government asking permission to go north to fight Japan. But their real aim was to overthrow the central government.

Chiang Kai-shek sent his army to conquer Chen in Guangdong province and simultaneously brought over Chen’s subordinates. In July, the commander of Chen’s air force betrayed him and turned over to Chiang Kai-shek by flying 70 airplanes under his command to Nanking. Then the commander of his 1st army declared his loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek. So on the 18th of July, Chen Jitang escaped to Hong Kong. Then Li Zongren in Guangxi province had to announce his obedience to the central government.
On the 22nd of October, Chiang Kai-shek flew from Nanking to XiAn city to urge Zhang to continue the attack of the Red Army, but Zhang raised objections. They had a quarrel and Chiang went to Luoyang City. On the 29th day, Zhang went to Luoyang for the celebration of Chiang Kai-shek’s birthday. He wanted to persuade Chiang to unite with the Communist Party against Japan, but Chiang refused. On the 27th of November, Zhang asked to go and fight Japan, but was rejected by Chiang. On the 2nd of December, Zhang flew to Luoyang to inform Chiang that his army might riot and asked Chiang to go to XiAn to talk to his soldiers. This was really a trick to lure Chiang there for a certain purpose. Chiang Kai-shek, unwise as ever, agreed and flew to XiAn with Zhang on the 4th of December. He lodged at Huaqing Pool on Lishan Mountain. Huaqing Pool was a resort built around a bathing pool with hot spring water. Actually the bathing pool was also inside a room. It was built in Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907) for the famous Yang, imperial concubine of Emperor Xuanzong (AD 685–762).
On December 9, the Communist Party organized a demonstration with crowds. A boy was said to be injured by the police, which incited the wrath of the mob. Zhang went to see Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted Zhang to stop the demonstration, but Zhang did not follow Chiang’s instruction. On December 11, at night, Zhang summoned his generals and asked them to make preparations for a military coup the next day. Accordingly, in the morning of December 12, Zhang went to see Chiang Kai-shek with soldiers and took him into custody.

That evening, Mailing Soong, Chiang Kai-shek’s wife, was told of the event and immediately thought of Donald William Henry (1875–1946, died in Shanghai), an Australian reporter, who was a friend of both Chiang and Zhang. Soong and Henry immediately took the train to Nanking. At 8 o’clock in the morning on December 13, Soong sent Zhang a telegram and Henry did, too, saying that they would be flying to XiAn City. On December 16, the national government ordered Zhang to release Chiang at once, but Zhang declined. So the government gathered, intending to attack XiAn, and prepared to send bombers. The Communist Party suggested killing Chiang. But on the 17th, Stalin wrote to the Communist Party saying that he was opposed to killing Chiang, who, in his opinion, would be a qualified leader in resisting Japan. He demanded that Chiang Kai-shek be released. So the Communist Party agreed.
When Soong and Henry arrived in XiAn, they went to see Chiang Kai-shek at once. Soong persuaded Chiang to go along with the plan, saying that it would be better to act against Japan than to be killed by the Communist Party. As a player in the anti-Japan resistance, he would be a hero. Killed by the Communist Party, he would be nothing. So Chiang Kai-shek accepted the agreement on the 24th day about the unity with the Communist Party to fight Japan, etc. But he did not sign on the agreement. Some of Zhang’s subordinates were not satisfied. Zhang said that if Chiang wanted to go back from the agreement once he was released, he would do that even if he signed the agreement. If Chiang kept his promise, what did it matter that he signed it or not.
Chiang Kai-shek was let go in the afternoon of December 25, and Zhang accompanied him back to Nanking. He was kept in secret confinement till Chiang Kai-shek died on April 5, 1975. Then he was restored to freedom and died on October 15, 2001, in Hawaii. This event ended the war between the Communist Party and the National Party and began the Sino–Japanese war all over China.

Chapter 3. The Japanese Invasion of China
Events Leading Up to the Sino–Japanese War in 1937

The 9/18 event
The Japanese army had begun entering China even during the latter stages of the Qing Dynasty. Around the beginning of the 20th century. Russia had built a railroad in northeastern China. In 1905, Russia and Japan had had a war there, on the territory of China, and Japan took control of the part of the railroad from Changchun City south, called the South Manchuria Railway.
A legend about the origin of the Japanese says that 2,000 years ago, when the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was on the throne, his next ambition was to live eternally. He sent a man by name of Xu Fu to go east in ships together with 100 boys and 100 girls. It was said that there were islands in the eastern seas on which dwelt immortals. The errand of Xu Fu was to find these immortals and ask for an elixir. Once he got it, he was to bring it back to the emperor. Xu Fu reached the Japanese islands and lived there with boys and girls, never returning to China. Those were said to be the earliest inhabitants and the earliest ancestors of the Japanese.
About 10:22PM on September 18, 1931, some Japanese soldiers laid gunpowder under the rails of the South Manchuria railway for blew it up. This part of the line went by the Liutiao Lake, a bit north of Shenyang City. Then they left three Chinese corpses in the uniform of Chinese soldiers as evidence that it was Chinese soldiers who had blown up the rails. On this excuse, the Japanese army attacked the Chinese army in Shenyang City. The Chinese army was ordered not to cause trouble with the Japanese army; so two of the three Chinese regiments guarding the city withdrew. But the third 620th regiment did not receive the order, and of course, resisted the attack. The next afternoon, Japanese reinforcements came and the Japanese army entered the city. They encountered resistance and fought street by street till all the regiment fled the city. This was called the Liutiao Lake Incident (or Mukden Incident, by foreigners), and was the beginning of the whole 9/18 event. But this was not really counted as the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War as the Chinese central government did not declare war against Japan yet.
On September 19, Japanese army attacked and conquered 18 towns along the South Manchuria Railway. The defensive Chinese army in Changchun City also counterattacked the Japanese army, but on the next day, the city fell into Japanese hands. On September 21, Xie, chief-of-staff of the headquarters of the Chinese army in Jilin province, changed sides and went over to Japan. So the Japanese army took Jilin. On October 1, Zhang Haipeng, guarding Tiaoliao Town, changed sides, and under instruction from the Japanese sent three regiments of his army to assault Qiqihar City, but on October 16, they were defeated by the Chinese defenders. By the 26th of October, the Japanese army had occupied the chief towns along the Sitiao Railroad. From November 4 to 18, the Chinese army in Heilongjiang province fought the Japanese army. Then they had to retreat from Qiqihar after leaving heavy casualties, and the next day, the Japanese army entered it.
At the start of the 9/18 event, Zhang Xueliang, who was responsible for all the northeastern provinces, left Shenyang for Jinzhou. On the 8th of October, the Japanese army sent 12 bombers to raid Jinzhou. On the 15th of December, after occupying the important towns of Heilongjiang province, the Japanese army began to attack Jinzhou. On the 17th, reinforcement came directly from Japan. On December 28, the 2nd division of the Japanese army crossed Liao River to attack Jinzhou. On January 3, 1932, the Japanese army took Jinzhou. On February 5, the Japanese army occupied Harbin City. These battles were still not written in Chinese history as the outbreak of Sino-Japanese War.
The army in the northeastern provinces under the command of Zhang Xueliang had 18 brigades of foot soldiers, five independent brigades of cavalry, and four regiments and a battalion of artillery, plus 262 airplanes and fleets. They could have fought off the Japanese invaders, but they simply abandoned the northeastern provinces. A shameful strategy.

The 1/28 event

After Japan occupied northeastern China, it took aim at southeastern China.
Shanghai was an ideal place for Japan. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon on January 18, 1932, five Japanese monks were instructed by the traitor Kawashima Yoshiko, formerly the Last Princess of Manchuria and now a Japanese spy using a Japanese name, to throw stones at workers at a Chinese factory. This caused a fight to break out. But some thugs were sent by the Japanese, and they beat one of the five monks to death and severely injured another. Then 50 Japanese young men went to the factory at midnight on January 19 and burned the factory down and murdered three policemen.
On January 20, around a thousand overseas Japanese in Shanghai held a demonstration to demand the Japanese consulate and the Japanese Mariner headquarters take revenge on the Chinese. But on the way there, they began to riot and smashed Chinese shops.
On January 21, the Japanese general consul demanded the Mayor of Shanghai to apologize, punish the murderers, make compensation for the losses, and disband all the anti-Japanese organizations. Although the mayor accepted all of these demands, the consul further ordered that the Chinese army back away from Zhabei district on the pretext that they posed a threat to the overseas Japanese. He added that if Chinese army did not leave before 6:00PM on January 28, they would attack. On January 24, more Japanese mariners came to Shanghai. At 11:30 at night on January 28, Japanese mariners attacked the Zhabei district in Shanghai, which was in the control of the 19th army of the national government. The 19th army fearlessly resisted the Japanese attack with the support of the people of Shanghai, which forced the Japanese to accept the mediation of England and America for a truce. But on February 3, the fight started anew. On the 23rd, a fierce battle took place and 3,000 Japanese mariners and 2,000 Chinese soldiers were killed. On February 24, two more divisions from Japan arrived in Shanghai as reinforcements. Only the 5th army of the national government came to the aid. On March 3, with the mediation of England and America, the Songhu armistice was signed. The Chinese army were to be stationed in the region from Shanghai to Suzhou City. But Japan could still have their army in Shanghai.
One episode during all this took place on April 29 when Japan held a military parade in Hongkou Park to celebrate the birthday of the Japanese emperor, or “Sumera mikoto,” and their victory. A Korean hero, disguised as a Japanese man, entered the park with a grenade in the shape of a water flask. When the Japanese were singing their anthem, he flung the grenade onto the platform, where it exploded. The chairman of the committee for the Japanese in Shanghai died on the spot. The commander of the Japanese army in Shanghai for the event was severely injured and died in the hospital. A regiment commander and the Japanese envoy for China each broke a leg. And one eye of the commander of the 3rd fleet was blinded. The Korean hero was caught and sentenced to death; he was sent to Japan and executed at a Japanese army base. After World War II, his remains were taken back to Korea and a monument was erected in his honor in Hongkou Park in Shanghai.

The establishment of Manchukuo

        Afraid of international interference, Japan desired to establish a puppet government in northeastern China, and they thought of the abdicated emperor Henry. He was 18 years old when he was driven out of the Forbidden City on November 5, 1924; he escaped to the Japanese embassy and traveled to Tianjin City, and lived under the protection of Japan ever since. So he was their first choice for the puppet government.
                Therefore, Henry was escorted from Tianjin City on the 10th of November, 1931, to Changchun City, where Manchukuo (meaning the state of Manchuria) was established on March 1, 1932, with Changchun as its capital and Henry as the head of Manchukuo.

On the 15th of September, 1932, the Japan–Manchukuo Protocol was signed, in which Manchukuo asked that Japan station its army on its territory. On September 23, 1932, the Soviet Union consented to allow Manchukuo to set up consulates in Moscow and New Siberia. But the League of Nations reproved Japan for this and disavowed Manchukuo as an illegal entity. On February 24, 1933, the League of Nations declared that Manchuria belonged to the Republic of China, as the establishment of Manchukuo had not been decided by popular vote but by the government of Japan. The League of Nations adopted the “Stimson Doctrine” specifying that new states created by force of arms would not gain international recognition. Japan protested and withdrew from the League. Of course, the national government in Nanking also refused to recognize it.
On March 1, 1934, the designation Manchukuo was changed to Manchu Empire, and Henry got to be Emperor once again. On May 24, 1934, El Salvador recognized the Manchu Empire. On April 6, 1935, Emperor Henry visited Tokyo, Japan, for the first time and the Sumera mikoto came to welcome him at the railway station. On November 28, 1936, Italy signed a protocol with Japan recognizing the Manchu Empire. On February 20, 1937, Germany recognized it and signed a treaty in Berlin on the 12th of May. In August of 1940, Denmark recognized the Manchu Empire. A handful of other nations also recognized it.