New Guangxi clique
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The New Guangxi clique (
Lu Rongting and the Yue-Gui Wars
In 1920,
Aftermath of the Yue-Gui Wars
Lu Rongting could construct a political and military machine from the forces that composed the Self-government Armies, by calling on friendship, family, and Zhuang ethnicity, but the lack of such a leader led to a rapid collapse into localism, which occurred as the Guangdong forces withdrew. There was intense fighting to re-occupy territory or to attempt to strip the retreating forces of their supplies and munitions.
With the support of
In the southwest there were opium trails from Yunnan and Guizhou that ran through Baise and then down the river to Nanning. From these opium usually went out through Wuzhou, where the trade was financed. During the Yue-Gui wars, Huang Shaohong, then the commander of the Model Battalion of the 1st Guangxi Division, and Bai Chongxi his former deputy, attempted to stay neutral and relocated to Baise. Huang eventually got control of Baise, and the opium trade. Later he expanded his control to Wuzhou, thus controlling the routes through which opium both entered and left Guangxi. With his opium revenue Bai was able to build a well-equipped and trained force.
During the Yue-Gui Wars, Li Zongren had accompanied Lin Hu and Lu Rongting into
New Guangxi clique takes power
By the spring of 1924, Huang Shaohong, Bai Chongxi, and Li Zongren, formed the New Guangxi clique and had created the well equipped Guangxi Pacification Army. Li Zongren was the Commander in Chief, Huang Shaohong the deputy Commander, and Bai Chongxi the Chief-of-Staff. By August they had defeated and driven the former ruler Lu Rongting and other contenders out of the province. Li Zongren was military governor of Guangxi from 1924–25, and from 1925 to 1949.
The coalition's efforts brought Guangxi Province under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China. Li Zongren was military governor of Guangxi from 1924–25, Huang became the civil governor of Guangxi from 1924 to 1929, and Guangxi remained under Li Zongren's influence until 1949. The New Guangxi clique made attempts at modernising between 1926 and 1927, when the Guangxi clique controlled Guangxi and much of Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei. The New Guangxi clique was much more active in modernizing than Lu Rongting had been. They founded the University of Guangxi in Nanning, built over five thousand kilometers of roads and extended electrification of the area.
However, because the clique had to constantly be mobilized for war, first against the Guangdong warlords, then later against the Japanese, the tax burden which they levied was far heavier than that of Lu Rongting. The New Guangxi Clique also taxed the opium trade. As was later true for Chiang Kai-shek's government, the taxes were collected via opium suppression offices, ostensibly created to destroy the trade. In 1932 opium income amounted to fifty million dollars, the largest source of income in the provincial budget.
New Guangxi Clique and the Northern Expedition
During the
New Guangxi clique and Chiang Kai-shek
At the end of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek began to agitate to reorganize the army, the fact that it would alter the existing territorial influences among the Cliques in the party quickly aggravated the relationships between the central government and the regional powers. Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong of the Guangxi Clique were the first to break off relations with Chiang in March 1929, which started the confrontation that lead to the
See also
Sources
- Lary, Diana. (1974). Region and nation: the Kwangsi clique in Chinese politics, 1925-1937. London, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521202043.
- The Kwangsi Way in Kuomintang China, 1931-1939
- Mobilization and Reconstruction in Kwangsi Province, 1931-1939
- 陈贤庆(Chen Xianqing), 民国军阀派系谈 (The Republic of China warlord cliques discussed), 2007 revised edition