Zhili–Anhui War

Zhili-Anhui War
Part of The Warlord era of Republican China
Date July 14, 1920 - July 23, 1920 Location Hebei, China Result Zhili clique victory
Belligerents
Zhili clique and Fengtian clique	Anhui clique
Commanders
Wu Peifu, Cao Kun and Zhang Zuolin	Duan Qirui Qu Tongfeng 曲同丰 Xu Shuzheng
Strength
50,000+	42,000
Casualties and losses
Several thousand	35,500 killed or deserted 6,500 surrendered

The Zhili–Anhui War (Chinese: 直皖戰爭; pinyin: Zhíwǎn Zhànzhēng) was a 1920 conflict in the Republic of China's Warlord Era between the Zhili clique and Anhui cliques for control of the Beiyang government.

Prelude

Tensions between the two factions developed during the Constitutional Protection War in 1917. Duan Qirui, the leader of the Anhui clique, favored aggressive action against the South, and after becoming the premier of the state department (Guwuyuan Zongli, 国务总理), Duan Qirui advocated the military solution to rid of the warlords in the southwestern China, as well as the unification of China by force, while the Zhili clique favored negotiations. Duan also did not acknowledge Zhili's battlefield efforts and favored his own officers over others. He built a de facto private army from the Nishihara Loans and used it to occupy Outer Mongolia. This was seen as a threat to Manchuria's Fengtian clique, who was joined by Zhili clique, and both cliques allied themselves with warlords in southwestern China, and obtained British and American backing. The Zhili and Fengtian cliques managed to get President Xu Shichang to dismiss General Xu Shuzheng, the leader of the Mongolia expedition. General Xu and Duan denounced the dismissal and headed for war.

In November, 1919, Wu Peifu meet with representatives of Tang Jiyao and Lu Rongting at Hengyang, and signed a treaty titled “Rough Draft of the National Salvation Allied Army”(救国同盟军草约), forming the base of anti-Anhui clique alliance. In April, 1920, under the excuse of the memorial service at Baoding for deceased soldiers in Hunan, Cao Kun further organized the anti-Anhui clique alliance by adding more provinces, including Hubei, Henan, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Zhili. The conflict was in the open as both sides begin to deploy their troops for the upcoming battles.

Strategies

In early July, 1920, Anhui clique gathered 5 divisions and 4 combined brigades to form National Stabilization Army (定国军), with Duan Qirui as its commander-in-chief. The Anhui army was deployed in two fronts, with western front in the regions of Zhuozhou, Laishui (涞水), and Gu’an (固安), and eastern front in the regions of Liang (梁) Hamlet and North Pole Temple (Beijimiao, 北极庙), just to the west of the Poplar (杨) Hamlet.

Zhili clique gathered a division and nine combined brigades to form “Traitor Suppression Army” (讨逆军), with Wu Peifu as its frontline commander-in-chief. The Zhili army was also deployed in two fronts, with eastern front in the region of Poplar (杨) Hamlet, and western front in the region of Gaobei (高碑) Hotel. Meanwhile, Zhang Zuolin ordered a detachment of his force to enter Shanhaiguan, taking up position at Horse Factory (Machang, 马厂) and Military Grain City (Junliangcheng, 军粮城).

Battle

On July 14, 1920, the first shot of the war was fired as the Anhui army simultaneously attacked Zhili army on both fronts. Zhili force on the western front could not check Anhui army’s advance and was forced to abandon Gaobei (高碑) Hotel and retreated. Two days later, with the help from Japanese troops, Anhui army also succeeded in taking Poplar (杨) Hamlet from Zhili army on the eastern front on July 16, 1920, forcing the latter to form a second line of defense in the region of Northern Warehouse (Beicang, 北仓), where the Anhui army’s advance was finally checked.

On July 17, 1920, Wu Peifu led the Zhili army on the western front performed a daring maneuver to directly taking the Anhui army headquarter on the western front after first outflanking the enemy, and achieved a victory by capturing the Anhui army frontline commander-in-chief Qu Tongfeng (曲同丰) and many of his fellow officers, including the 1st Division commander of the Anhui army. After taking Zhuozhou, Wu continued to pursuit the retreating Anhui army toward Beijing. With the exception of the 15th Division, all of the rest of Anhui army on the western front was annihilated. On the same day, Fengtian army joined the attack on Anhui army on the eastern front under Zhang Zuolin’s order. The commander of Anhui army on the eastern front, its chief-of-staff Xu Shuzheng learned the news of the defeat of Anhui army in the west and faced the pressure of attacking Fengtian forces, lost the will to fight and abandoned his men by fled back to Beijing himself from Langfang, and his troops left behind surrendered to the advancing combined force of Fengtian and Zhili cliques.

On July 19, 1920, Duan Qiri realized everything was over and was forced to resign from his post. On July 23, 1920, the combined force of Fengtian and Zhili cliques entered Southern Garden (Nanyuan, 南苑) for the takeover and the war concluded with the defeat of Anhui clique.

Conclusion

Slightly more than a week of fighting led to the unexpected defeat of the Anhui clique and the permanent breakup of the Beiyang Army. Wu Peifu was credited as the strategist behind Zhili's victory. The Fengtian clique provided token support and were allowed to form a joint government with Zhili, an arrangement which would last until the First Zhili-Fengtian War in 1922.

See also

• List of battles of the Chinese Civil War
• National Revolutionary Army
• Chinese Civil War
• Warlord Era

References

• Ke-Wen Wang. Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Taylor & Francis, 1997. ISBN 978-0815307204; pp. 419–420
• Zhang, Tongxin History of Wars between Nationalist New Warlords, 1st Edition, published by Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House in Harbin & distributed by New China Bookstore Heilongjiang branch, 1982.