At the beginning of the warlord melee, Yuan Shikai was the most powerful. He owns a large number of Beiyang new army, cavalry, infantry and other arms, and nearly three-quarters of the country's sphere of influence is owned by him.
After Yuan Shikai's death, the northern warlords split into five factions: Anhui, Feng, Zhi, Jin-Sui and Northwest. As far as personal strength and fame are concerned, Zhang, the leader of these factions, not only owns the most advanced weapons, but also owns an arsenal, and also appeared on the cover of Time magazine in the United States.
So how powerful was Zhang in his heyday, so that he ranked first in the list of warlords in the Republic of China?
First, the military industry is the strongest.
At that time, China experienced a weak Qing Dynasty, its military industry was quite backward, and its basic weapons and equipment were imported from foreign powers. However, the northeast military industry under the leadership of Zhang is very mature and developed.
Zhang, born in the grass, grows in the green forest. Although he studied less, he knew more about the significance of developing his military industry than other warlords who only spent money on weapons at the same time.
As early as 19 16, he founded the Fengtian Gun Factory. With the development and expansion, it was eventually upgraded to an arsenal in three northeastern provinces. After ten years of painstaking efforts, this self-made ordnance enterprise has finally become the largest weapon manufacturing base in Asia, covering an area of more than 3,300 mu, with tens of thousands of processing equipment and more than 50,000 workers, with an annual consumption of 24.2 million silver dollars.
In addition, Zhang also introduced British professional technology and founded Fengtian Mortar Factory. By 1929, it has more than 400 workers/kloc-0, which is unique among similar artillery factories in China.
Although the industrial base of the whole country was still quite weak at that time, Zhang's arsenals were not good-looking empty shelves. Take the arsenals of the three northeastern provinces as an example. It not only invests a huge amount of money every year, but also has the first-class production management level in Asia and all-round advanced technology from Japanese artillery to German explosives.
The production capacity of the arsenal is also very strong, with an astonishing output of 400,000 rounds of ammunition per day, 150 guns, more than 60,000 rifles and 1000 machine guns per year. After a few days' visit, I called it "the first in the East".
Second, it is the strongest.
Zhang took refuge in Yuan Shikai in 19 12, and by the time he became the governor and governor of Fengtian in 19 16, there were already three divisions and a warlord group was initially formed. By September of 19 18, he was appointed as the governor of the three northeastern provinces and took control of the military and political power in the northeast. In addition to five mixed brigades of four divisions in Fengtian, his troops also have 10 mixed brigades in Jilin and Heilongjiang.
1920, Zhang participated in the direct Anhui War, helped directly defeat the Anhui Army, and then added prisoners of war to two mixed brigades. Since then, he began to form the Feng Air Force, which was the first among all warlords at that time.
192 1 year, Zhang also served as an envoy to Mongolia and Xinjiang, and took the opportunity to recruit 8 Huncheng brigades in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. At this time, Feng Jun's total strength has reached 5 divisions, 23 HunChengLv, 3 cavalry brigade, more than 200000 people.
After the defeat of the first direct service war, Zhang reorganized the army, strengthened the military training of officers and men, strictly enforced military discipline, opened the army martial arts school, and reformed the way of selecting officials, so that a group of promising young people with both ability and political integrity stood out.
On the basis of the small achievements of the air force under the jurisdiction of three aviation units, he also set up a navy, an aviation police school, and a northeast coastal defense fleet, equipped with four warships, and became one of the rare northeast kings with complete armed forces in China.
Third, the region is the widest.
In the second direct service war, the powerful military department defeated the direct service. Since then, Zhang Daju entered the customs, opened up the road to the Central Plains, attacked Jehol and Kizilsu, seized Shandong, and took Nanjing ... from north to south. By June 1925, 1, even Shanghai, an international metropolis, was in Zhang's pocket.
After Zhang occupied Jiangsu and Anhui, his sphere of influence reached its peak. At that time, he controlled eight provinces and three cities, and even Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were under his control.
In terms of land area, Zhang's sphere of influence at that time was larger than that of the Roman Empire in medieval Europe, and wider than that of eight European countries such as Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France and Austria.
After years of fighting, Zhang had 370,000 elite soldiers, excellent weapons and strong fighting capacity, which was unmatched by the army at that time. If the Japanese hadn't assassinated him, this powerful warlord wouldn't give in to the national interests, and it would surely become the biggest stumbling block for the Japanese to invade China.