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 Chang Tso-lin accepted the honours accorded by the Central Government, but his attitude from time to time depended on the nature of his personal relations with the military leaders who controlled the changing central authorities. He seems to have looked upon his relations with the Government in the sense of a personal alliance. In July 1922, when he failed to establish his authority south of the Great Wall and saw his rivals taking control of the Peking Government, he renounced allegiance to the Central Government and maintained complete independence of action in Manchuria until he extended his authority south of the Wall and became master of Peking as well. He expressed his willingness to respect foreign rights, and accepted the obligations of China, but he requested foreign Powers to negotiate henceforth directly with his administration in all matters concerning Manchuria.

Accordingly, he repudiated the Sino-Soviet Agreement of May 31st, 1921, though very advantageous to China, and persuaded the U.S.S.R. to conclude a separate agreement with him in September 1924. It was virtually identical with that of May 31st, 1924, with the Central Government. This fact emphasised Chang Tso-lin's insistence on the recognition of his complete independence of action, both in domestic and foreign policy.

In 1924, he invaded China again and was successful, because General (now Marshal) Feng Yu-hsiang abandoned his superior, General (now Marshal) Wu Pei-fu, at a critical moment in the campaign. The immediate result was the overthrow of the Central Government and the expansion of Marshal Chang's influence as far south as Shanghai.

In 1925, Marshal Chang had again to resort to arms, this time against his late ally, General Feng. In this campaign one of this commanders, Kuo Sung-lin, abandoned him at a most critical moment in favour of General Feng. The mutiny of Kuo Sung-lin in November 1925 was of more than passing interest, because it involved both the U.S.S.R. and Japan, the action of the former having been indirectly of advantage to General Feng and that of the latter to Marshal Chang. Kuo Sung-lin, though a subordinate of the Marshal, shared General Feng's views about social reform, and turned against his superior in the belief that his downfall was necessary to put an end to civil war. This defection put the Marshal in a most critical position. Kuo Sung-lin was in possession of the territory west of the railway and the Marshal was at Mukden with greatly reduced forces. At this moment, Japan, in her own interests in South Manchuria, declared a neutral zone of 20 li (7 miles) on each side of the South Manchuria Railway, across which she would allow no troops to pass. This prevented Kuo Sung-lin from advancing against the Marshal and allowed time for the reinforcements from Heilungkiang to reach him. They were delayed by the action of the Soviet railway authorities, who refused to allow them to travel over the railway without first paying their fares in cash, but they managed to travel by another route.

The arrival of these reinforcements and the more or less open help given by the Japanese settled the campaign in the Marshal's favour. Kuo Sung-lin was defeated and General Feng was forced to withdraw and to abandon Peking to Marshal Chang. Marshal Chang resented the action of the authorities of the Chinese Eastern Railway on this occasion and left no stone unturned to retaliate by continuous encroachments on the rights of this railways. The experience provided by this incident appears to have been an important factor in causing him to build an independent railway system connecting the three provincial capitals of Manchuria.

The independence declared by Marshal Chang Tso-lin at different times never meant that he or the people of Manchuria wished to be separated from China. His armies did not invade China as if it were a foreign country, but merely as participants in the civil war. Like the war lords of any other province, the Marshal alternately supported, attacked, or declared