Page:Stanley Kuhl Hornbeck - The Situation in China (1927).djvu/6

 after there existed no "central government." Finally a number of experienced officials and military leaders, constituted themselves, with the assent of four northern "war lords," an acting government, with the designation "Regency Cabinet."

There were at that time upon the stage four outstanding military leaders. Each had his own army, each his own principality. In Manchuria, with seat of government at Mukden, Marshal Chang Tso-lin. Chang's power extended into the metropolitan Province of Chihli and into Shantung, and he had a substantial measure of authority, but not control, in Peking. In central China, with base on the Peking-Hankow Railway, Wu Pei-fu. Wu was in command of a coalition of military forces no unit of which was absolutely his own. Chang Tso-lin and Wu Pei-fu had cooperated in driving the "People's National Army" of Feng Yu-hsiang from Peking. Wu thus shared with Chang an influence at Peking. West of Kalgan, Feng Yu-hsiang was in control of an indefinite area spoken of as the "Northwest." In central eastern China, north and south of the Yangtze River, Sun Chuang-fang had effected a coalition of military forces which gave him supreme command but by no means unassailable authority in five rich provinces. In the South, that is Kwangtung and its hinterland, Chiang Kai-shek, commanding the armies of the Kuo Min Tang ("Nationalist Party") had consolidated his power, with the aid of Russian advisers and officers (of Soviet persuasion), and was preparing for a campaign northwards.