Northeastern Army

The Northeastern Army, also known as the Fengtian Army (see terminology), was a Chinese army that existed from 1911 to 1937. It was created by General Zhang Zuolin and his "Fengtian Clique", who controlled Northeast China (aka Manchuria) during China's Warlord Era. The Northeastern Army participated in many of the Warlord Era's conflicts and by the mid-1920s had become the dominant force in north China. However, the Kuomintang defeated the Northeastern Army and Zhang's allies during the Northern Expedition. In 1928, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated and succeeded by his son Zhang Xueliang. Xueliang pledged loyalty to the Kuomintang, bringing almost all of China under the same national government for the first time since 1917. After Chinese reunification, the Northeastern Army became part of the National Revolutionary Army and was officially rechristened the "Northeastern Border Defense Force". Nonetheless, its real loyalty was still to Zhang Xueliang and not the central government. Zhang used his command of the army to exercise considerable political influence during the tumultuous early years of the Nanjing Decade. However, the army was forced to abandon its home base in 1931 when the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of Manchuria. Defeated and politically discredited, Zhang was (briefly) removed from command after the army was unable to prevent further Japanese annexations of Chinese territory. In 1935, the army was reassigned to the Gansu-Ningxia border in an attempt to encircle the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s base there. Both Zhang and his soldiers resented fighting fellow Chinese while Manchuria was under occupation. They negotiated a covert ceasefire with the CCP and hoped to convince Chiang Kai-shek to endorse a united front against Japan. After Chiang refused, the Northeastern Army kidnapped him and forced him to negotiate with the Communists. Although Chiang eventually agreed to end the civil war and work with the Communists against Japan, Zhang was placed under house arrest and the Northeastern Army was divided and reassigned to other commands.