Zhili clique

The Zhili clique was a dominant coalition of warlords and their armies in the Warlords period of Chinese history. In 1925, it controlled the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei (including Hankou), Hunan, Jiangsu (including Nanjing), and Jiangxi. It also held the city of Shanghai.

It was founded in 1919 by Beiyang warlords to counter Duan Qirui’s Anhui forces, who held power in China from 1916 to 1920. It was the Zhili clique that defeated Duan in the latter year, greatly diminishing its power and holdings. The Zhili clique seized Beijing and thus became the pre-eminent national power. Its capital was the city of Nanjing in Jiangsu, with the city of Wuchang in Hubei province serving as leader Wu Peifu's headquarters.

This clique's politics were defined by its opposition to foreigners, which is not to say that its leaders opposed external aid. Wu Peifu, Cao Kun, and Sun Chuanfang appreciated the support granted by Britain and the United States of America to make the Zhili clique the recognized representative of China. Armaments, so necessary in this period of sporadic violence, mostly came from Italy.

During the early 1920s, the Zhili were involved in numerous conflicts with the neighbouring Fengtian clique along the perennially contentious border areas marked by the Great Wall of China. The Zhili controlled several valuable northern provinces (Hebei, Henan, and Inner Mongolia), while the Fengtian were directly to the east, in control of Manchuria.

The First Fengtian-Zhili War broke out on 28 April, 1922, as a consequence of the Fengtian replacing Premier Jin Yupeng as head of state with Liang Shiyi, who was more sympathetic to the Fengtian's desire to control more of northern China.

Wu Peifu mustered a defensive force of 100,000 men to counter Zhang Zuolin and Duan Quirui's combined numbers of 120,000 men. Despite the disparity in numbers, Wu proved the more tactical general. He successfully used the terrain around the Great Wall to attack the Fengtian from the rear, cutting them off from their supply lines. The ceasefire treaty was signed on 17 June and Cao Kun became President of China.

Now seemingly entrenched as the enduring representatives of a stable future, the Zhili proceeded to implement plans to reunify China. The Fengtian clique allied with the Zhili's longtime enemy, the Anhui clique, and some European parties who were not so keen as Great Britain to witness a reunification of China while the divisions of the warlords created markets so dependent on external assistance.

On 15 September, 1924, the Fengtian-Anhui alliance attacked the Zhili at the Great Wall once again. Wu Peifu led 200,000 troops to an opposition of 250,000, but a repeat of his victory two years prior was foiled by the traitorous actions of his general Feng Yu Xiang. This man staged the Beijing Coup with Zhang Zuolin and Duan Quirui, bringing his loyal followers to form the Guominjun, a "National Army" contradicting by its very name the intentions of the Zhili clique. Wu Peifu and the surviving Zhili were ultimately forced to flee.

Although weakened, and despite the overthrow of Cao Kun, the Zhili clique retained its European allies and continued to control much of Central China, retaining a high degree of influence and power as the 1925 conference on reunification drew closer.