After the end of the Northern Expedition, the Kuomintang established a firm rule in the south, while the north was still dominated by two groups, Zhang Zuolin and Sun Chuanfang. Faced with this situation, the people did not actively promote the offensive against the old warlords in the north, but launched a fierce power struggle internally.
This process led to a confrontation between the two camps of Nanjing and Wuhan, with both sides claiming to be orthodox and hoping to monopolize the leadership of the people. Because the abbreviation of Nanjing is"Ning", and the abbreviation of Wuhan is"Han", so this confrontation is called"Ninghan is opposed"or"Ninghan**"。
Subsequently, the resulting civil war within the Kuomintang was called"Ninghan War"。In the end, the Nanjing Nationalists won the victory, which allowed the Kuomintang to be unified internally, which had a huge impact on the later national unification.
Tang Shengzhi, a native of Dong'an, Hunan, graduated from the Baoding Army Military Academy, and once stood out in the National Defense Movement and the ** Movement, and became the leader of the Hunan Army. In the 20s, Tang Shengzhi became a subordinate of Zhao Hengxi, the governor of Hunan Province, but during this period, he got in touch with the Guangzhou Revolution ** and decided to oppose Zhao Hengxi.
However, Zhao Hengxi discovered Tang Shengzhi's plan and mobilized troops to besiege him, but it was unsuccessful, Tang Shengzhi managed to get rid of Zhao Hengxi's control, and then grew in power, replacing Zhao Hengxi as the governor of Hunan Province.
After that, Tang Shengzhi integrated into the system of the Guangzhou Revolution and held important positions. As his lust for power grew, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition and the Western Route Army, commanding the forces of the four armies and embezzling part of the Guizhou army, which led to the rapid expansion of his army.
After the counter-revolutionary coup d'état of April 12, Tang Shengzhi succeeded Chiang Kai-shek as the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army and continued to preside over the Northern Expedition.
Tang Shengzhi: The focus of the contradiction between the Nanjing Nationals ** and the Wuhan Nationals ** was Chiang Kai-shek, and the Wuhan side resolutely opposed Chiang. With the support of the forces of the new Gui faction, the two sides jointly exerted pressure, and Chiang was forced to announce his resignation.
After Jiang went into the wilderness, the two sides lost the goal of struggle and should have cooperated. However, the real power faction in Wuhan National**, led by Tang Shengzhi and Cheng Qian, pointed the spearhead of the struggle at the Chinese National *** Special Committee composed of Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and other Xingui warlords.
The two sides were on the verge of merging because of Chiang's disagreement, but in the establishment of the special commission, Li Zongren and others excluded Wang Jingwei's position in the center of power, which caused discontent on the Wuhan side.
Wang Jingwei did not sit idle after leaving the wilderness, but actively encouraged Tang Shengzhi and others to fight against the Xingui faction and set up their own doors in Guangzhou.
After the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei parted ways because of leadership issues. Even Tang Shengzhi and Li Zongren also went to different camps. Sun Chuanfang prepared to march into Nanjing, and Tang Shengzhi took this opportunity to occupy Anhui.
Li Zongren went to negotiate with Tang Shengzhi on behalf of the Xingui faction, asking him to stop the march. Tang Shengzhi didn't intend to agree, he even wanted to conspire with Sun Chuanfang to attack Nanjing.
It was only because of Sun Chuanfang's rapid defeat that Tang Shengzhi's attempt to annex Nanjing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu was aborted.
In order to solve the threat of Wuhan to Nanjing, the Xingui faction sent representatives to conduct peace talks with Wang Jingwei and Tang Shengzhi, but Tang Shengzhi resolutely refused to give up Anhui, and the differences between the two sides gradually escalated, which eventually led to an armed confrontation between the two sides.
Nanjing's national** controlled Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Liangguang, while Wuhan controlled Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi.
Nanjing National**, with Cheng Qian as the commander-in-chief and Li Zongren as the deputy commander-in-chief, organized the Western Expeditionary Army to meet Tang Shengzhi. Cheng Qian's Sixth Army was the first to engage in contact with Tang Shengzhi's army and launched an attack on Liu Xing's 36th Army, and the war broke out.
Subsequently, Li Zongren's troops also joined the battle and attacked He Jian's 35th Army. In order to prevent his own troops from being divided, Tang Shengzhi ordered the 35th Army and the 36th Army to quickly retreat, and directly abandoned Anqing and Wuhu.
Tang Shengzhi suffered successive defeats in the battles after the Ninghan War, the army retreated step by step, the Hunan defense line was broken through, and important military cities such as Yueyang, Changsha, and Hengyang were lost one after another.
Subsequently, his subordinates He Jian, Liu Xing and others defected one after another. Tang Shengzhi went into the wilderness due to excessive fatigue and chose to go into exile in Japan after the situation deteriorated.
The reason why the Xingui system was able to win in the Ninghan War was, on the one hand, because the people of Nanjing had greater political and economic advantages, and the rich Jiangsu and other regions fell into the hands of Nanjing, and Nanjing also imposed an economic blockade on the two lakes, making it difficult for Tang Shengzhi to obtain material support.
On the other hand, although Tang Shengzhi had 150,000 troops, he could not command most of the army, which is why his generals defected one after another. The Ninghan War finally ended with the victory of the Nanjing Nationals, and the Xingui became the biggest winner, and its sphere of influence expanded to the Lianghu region, with more than 200,000 troops under its direct control.
This is the biggest victory that the new Gui line has achieved since its establishment. However, the rapid rise of the Xingui faction has aroused the vigilance of other forces.
At the end of 1927, Chiang Kai-shek actively contacted Wang Jingwei, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan and others to plot against the Xingui faction.
He instigated Zhang Fakui, who had been in Guangzhou, to set up another ** in Guangzhou and seize the Liangguang region. At that time, the Xingui family was busy with the Ninghan War and had no time to look south. As a result, Zhang Fakui, Huang Qixiang and others staged a coup d'état, disarmed all the troops of the Xingui faction in Guangzhou, and bought off part of the troops of Li Jishen, an ally of the Xingui faction in Guangdong.
Zhang Fakui appointed himself chairman of the Guangzhou Military Commission, and then installed Wang Jingwei's faction in important posts in Guangdong Province. The new Gui department can only have a war of words with Zhang Fakui on **, ** in an uproar.
The Kuomintang wanted to convene the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee, and the Xingui faction joined forces with Li Jishen to demand that the Zhang Huang incident be dealt with first, and then the Fourth Central Committee meeting would be convened. However, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly stood up and said that the Zhang Huang incident could be postponed, or a meeting should be held first.
Wang Ching-wei duly demanded that Chiang Kai-shek be reinstated. Because the internal contradictions of the Kuomintang at this time mainly revolved around the new Gui system, all forces did not want to see the new Gui system over-expand, so they moderated their attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek, and finally all forces accepted Wang Jingwei's proposal to ask Chiang Kai-shek to come back.
Thus, with the help of the Zhang Huang incident, Chiang Kai-shek regained control of the Kuomintang party and government a few months after he left the field. However, because he was jealous of the Gui faction for coercing him before, he made himself go into the wilderness, and he wanted to limit the power of the new Gui faction, so he immediately began to liquidate the new Gui faction, which once again triggered a civil war within the Kuomintang.
This time, Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the winner.
After the outbreak of the Chiang-Gui War, the Kuomintang ** took control of the south, and the endless struggle between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei led to the fact that both the Kuomintang *** considered themselves legitimate** and were full of hostility towards each other.
With the intensification of the political struggle, the anti-Chiang faction gradually formed within the Kuomintang. In the face of political pressure, Chiang Kai-shek chose to go into the opposition, but this move did not completely resolve the contradictions within the party.
As a result, the Nanjing people ** occupied a dominant position, especially the new Gui faction composed of Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and others, which gradually became the real power faction. The expansion of the Xingui faction caused the Kuomintang to **, and all parties began to form an alliance against the Xingui faction.
Tang Shengzhi was a representative of the Gui faction, and he used his military strength to launch a war against the Xingui faction in an attempt to control Jiangnan. However, although Tang Shengzhi's army was relatively large, its overall strength was not enough to compete, and the local economy of the Lianghu region could not compete with that of the Jiangnan region.
In the end, Tang Shengzhi was defeated, and the strength of the Xingui clan was thus stronger, but it also brought them greater hostility. The forces of all parties united and forced the Xingui faction to give up the leadership, and the Xingui faction could only retreat to Guangxi after the defeat and became a local powerful faction.