Lesson 15: The Northern Expedition War

The Realization of the Nationalist-Communist Cooperation

In June 1923, the Chinese Communist Party held its Third National Congress and formally decided to cooperate with the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen to establish a revolutionary united front. Communists joined the Kuomintang as individuals and reorganized it into a revolutionary alliance of workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie. After many failed struggles against the Northern Warlords, Sun Yat-sen felt deeply the need to reorganize the Kuomintang and inject fresh blood into it.

In January 1924, the first national congress of the Chinese Kuomintang was held in Guangzhou under the auspices of Sun Yat-sen. Li Dazhao, Lin Boqu, Mao Zedong, Qu Qubai and other communists took part in the leadership and organization of the congress. The manifesto adopted by the congress gave a new interpretation of the Three People's Principles, developed the old Three People's Principles into the new Three People's Principles, and established in practice the three major policies of alliance with Russia, alliance with the Communists, and support for peasants and workers. The convening of the First National Congress of the Chinese Kuomintang marked the formal establishment of the cooperation between the two parties.

In May 1924, with the help of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, Sun Yat-sen founded the Chinese Nationalist Army Officers' School in Huangpu, Guangzhou, known as the Whampoa Military Academy. Sun Yat-sen was also the premier of the school, Chiang Kai-shek was the president, and Zhou Enlai soon afterwards became the director of the political department. In just a few years, the Whampoa Military Academy enrolled more than 10,000 students and trained a large number of military and political talents to prepare for the establishment of the National Revolutionary Army and the subsequent Northern Expeditionary War.

The victorious march of the Northern Expedition

In July, 100,000 men of the National Revolutionary Army vowed to march to the Northern Expedition, with Chiang Kai-shek as the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Hunan and Hubei were the main battlefields at the beginning of the Northern Expeditionary War. Wu Peifu deployed 100,000 troops here. After the successful capture of Changsha, the Northern Expeditionary Army encountered Wu Peifu's heavy resistance at Tingsi Bridge and He Sheng Bridge on the Yue Han Railway in Hubei. Ye Ting led the vanguard of the Northern Expeditionary Army, the Fourth Army Independent Regiment, after a bloody battle, finally defeated the enemy forces, and conquered the Tingsi Bridge and Hesheng Bridge, and put the flag of the National Revolutionary Army on the city of Wuchang with a flourish. Wu Peifu's main force was basically destroyed.

After defeating Wu Peifu's main force, the Northern Expeditionary Army annihilated Sun Chuanfang's main force in Jiangxi. Then, one way went east along the Yangtze River and captured Nanjing. The other way was from Fujian into Zhejiang and Shanghai. The Northern Expeditionary Army fought from the Pearl River basin to the Yangtze River basin and shook the whole country.

With the victorious march of the Northern Expedition, the revolutionary movement of workers and peasants flourished everywhere. The rural areas through which the Northern Expeditionary Army passed erupted into a stormy peasant movement, giving great support to the Northern Expeditionary Army. By the end of November 1926, 54 counties in Hunan had established peasant associations with 1.07 million members; by January 1927, the membership had increased to 2 million. In Hubei, the membership of peasant associations in the province was more than 30,000 in July 1926 and increased to about 200,000 by November. Urban trade union organizations and workers' movements also developed greatly. Shanghai workers, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, launched three armed uprisings and eventually won, welcoming the Northern Expeditionary Army into Shanghai, writing a glorious page in the history of the Chinese workers' movement.

The right wing of the Kuomintang defected from the revolution and the establishment of the Nanjing National Government

The soaring revolutionary movement of workers and peasants touched the fundamental interests of the big landlords and bourgeoisie. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei, with the support of imperialist forces, betrayed the revolution one after another, and in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek staged the "April 12 counter-revolutionary coup" in Shanghai, which shocked China and abroad, and established the "National Government" in Nanjing. Wang Jingwei convened the "Conference on the Division of the Communist Party" in Wuhan. They openly called for "killing a thousand people in vain, but not letting a single one escape" and massacred the Communists and the workers and peasants. The National Revolution, which was a great success, failed.

After the establishment of the Nanjing government, it continued the Northern Expedition while "dividing the Communist Party and purging the Party" and suppressing the workers' and peasants' movements. In June 1928, the Northern Expeditionary Army advanced to Beijing and Tianjin. Zhang Zuolin, a warlord of the Feng Dynasty, was killed by the Japanese when he was on his way to the border.

At the end of 1928, Zhang Zuolin's son Zhang Xueliang issued a circular announcing that he would "obey the National Government and change his flag". At this point, the Nanjing government nominally unified the country. （867words）