First of all, we must make it clear that Zhang's ability to lead his so-called brother from a small Northeast horse and take charge of a generation of Northeast Kings depends not only on his cunning and resourceful mind and personal ability, but also on the support from Japanese forces. When he annexed his former brother Feng's 28th Division and took control of Fengtian, he gradually moved closer to the Japanese for better development. After he became the governor of the three northeastern provinces, he was even more ambitious and wanted to actually control the whole northeast. After the May Fourth Movement, the Japanese Kuanchengzi incident drove away Meng Enyuan, the overseer of Jilin, and Zhang defeated the enemy without fighting, easily seized the Jilin regime, and then controlled Heilongjiang and became the actual head of the Northeast.
It is only a few short years from Zhang becoming the division commander of the 27th Division to actually controlling the Northeast. Without the strong support of Japanese forces, how could there be a later Northeast King Zhang? But now everyone seems to say that Zhang "fooled" the Japanese army and cheated the Japanese by breaking his word. It's really hard for me to convey this view. Although Zhang was born as a rogue, when he really sat in the position of the king of the Northeast, not only his brothers, but also countless think tanks around him, such as the great warlord who coveted the Northeast for a long time and planned the Japanese cabinet for decades. The cooperation between them is more about the balance of interests, and there is no question of who is playing with whom. This is not playing house, but the interests accumulated over the years, which is the life of many people.
Therefore, between Japan and Zhang, there is more mutual use. The Japanese support Zhang, while Zhang allows the Japanese to seek benefits in the Northeast. The northeast under the Zhang era was rapidly infiltrated by the Japanese army, and Zhang was killed in Huanggutun, which reflected the depth of Japanese infiltration in the northeast. Japan coveted the Northeast for decades. A de facto ruler of the Northeast, a king of the Northeast with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, hesitated in Beiping for three days and secretly rebelled, but they could not escape the precise murder of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
After Zhang completely mastered the Northeast, he was eager to enter the Central Plains, so there was the first direct war. As a result, we all know that the well-equipped Northeast Army was defeated by Wu Xiucai. If it weren't for the great victory of Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling in Shanhaiguan, it is a question whether Zhang Zuo Lin can return to Fengtian smoothly. After this war, Zhang Northeast was declared autonomous.
But he Lao Zhang, which have such a simple silence. Since the Northeast declared its autonomy, Zhang has been accumulating strength and developing the economy. Under the wonderful hand of Wang Yongjiang, the God of Wealth in Northeast China, the economy in Northeast China has developed rapidly. In fact, Guo Songling, a senior general of the Northeast Army at that time, and Wang Yong, the finance minister of Fengtian, both strongly opposed the war. They all want to build the northeast well. However, both he and Zhang were ambitious, so the second direct war began. Different from the first direct service war, the second direct service war won a great victory, which was also the most brilliant moment in history, and Zhang occupied half of the country.
Guo Songling's defection can be said to have shaken the foundation of Zhang's rule in the northeast and even broken the balance of Zhang's tightrope walking in the northeast. Guo Songling's eighty thousand troops are the most elite troops in the whole army. At that time, Zhang seemed to be outnumbered, but in fact he was limited to fighting. In this way, Zhang was beaten out of the water by Guo Songling, and finally he had to rely on the Japanese Kwantung Army to sign a secret agreement to lose the sovereignty of the Northeast, in exchange for the Japanese army to quell the rebellion in Guo Songling.