Zhang Zuolin

Zhang Zuolin as ruler of Manchuria

Zhang Zuolin ( Chinese  張作霖  /  张作霖 , Pinyin Zhāng Zuòlín , W.-G. Chang Tso-lin ; Zì 雨亭 , Yŭtíng , Yü-t'ing ; * probably March 19, 1875 in Haicheng , Liaoning ; †  June 4, 1928 in Shenyang , Liaoning), also known as the Old Marshal ( 大帥  /  大帅 , Dashuai , ta-shuai ), rain Marshal ( 雨帥  /  雨帅 , yŭshuài , yu-shuai ), or Mukden Tiger , was a Chinese general and later warlord . After the Xinhai Revolution and the ousting of the Qing Dynasty , he expanded his sphere of influence in northeast China with Japanese support. At times he controlled the entire area from Manchuria to Beijing . He exerted considerable influence on the late Beiyang government and, with his comparatively modern army, was considered the most powerful warlord in China. He was killed in a bomb attack on his train near Shenyang on June 4, 1928, often attributed to the Japanese Kwantung Army , with which he was allied. However, his official date of death is often given as June 21, 1928. After his death, his son Zhang Xueliang took control of his troops and his territory.

origin

Little is known about Zhang's origins. His parents were poor and probably couldn't afford a regular education for their son. He joined a group of bandits, whose leader he became in his late twenties. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05, the bandit squad was hired as mercenaries by the Japanese army . By the end of the Qing Dynasty , Zhang managed to get his men recognized as a regiment of the Chinese regular army. When fighting broke out in the Chinese heartland at the end of 1911, he occupied Fengtian , the political center of Manchuria, with 3,500 soldiers .

The government of the newly formed Republic of China installed a new military commander in Manchuria, but in practice the troops remained loyal to Zhang. In 1915, the central government wanted to replace the commander and ordered Zhang to transfer his soldiers to Hubei Province in northern China. Zhang refused. In April 1916, the newly appointed commander resigned and Zhang Zuolin became civil and military governor of Fengtian Province. In most other provinces it was common for two governors to share these responsibilities. Towards the end of the same year, the division stationed in the northernmost province of Manchuria, Heilongjiang , declared its loyalty to Zhang; In 1918 the same thing happened in Jilin Province , so that all of Manchuria was now under his control.

Manchuria fortress

In 1920 - he was in his late 40s - Zhang was considered the supreme ruler of Manchuria. The central government recognized this fact by appointing him governor general of the three eastern provinces . He began to live a life of luxury, built a castle near Shenyang and took at least five wives, the latter a common practice of powerful and rich men at the time. In 1925, his personal fortune was estimated at over 18 million yuan , which was about 9 million US dollars.

Zhang's rule relied on the Fengtian Army, which numbered about 100,000 men in 1922 and nearly three times that size by the end of the decade. It had acquired numerous weapons from the remains of the First World War , including naval units , an air force and its own arms industry. Zhang incorporated a large number of local militias into his army, preventing Manchuria from sinking into the same chaos that prevailed in heartland China at the time. Jilin Province was ruled by a military governor who was said to be Zhang's cousin. Heilongjiang was subject to its own warlord, who, however, showed no striving for power outside the province.

Although formally remained a part of the Republic of China, Manchuria formed a more or less independent empire, isolated from China by its geography and protected by the Fengtian Army. The only access at Shanhai Pass near Shanhaiguan , where the Great Wall meets the sea, could easily be closed. At a time when the central government was barely able to pay the salaries of its officials, no more tax revenue was sent to Beijing . In 1922, Zhang took control of the only rail link north of the Great Wall connecting Beijing with Shenyang, and also retained the revenue. Only mail and customs revenues continued to go to Beijing because they were pledged to foreign powers after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, whose intervention Zhang feared.

Japanese and Russian influences

Manchuria had a long border with Russia , which was weakened after the October Revolution . The Russian-controlled East China Railroad ran through northern Manchuria, and the terrain on either side of the railroad was considered Russian territory. During the Russian civil war between 1917 and 1924, however, the new communist government had difficulties establishing itself in Siberia, and it was often not clear who actually operated the railroad on the Russian side. Even so, Zhang avoided challenging the Russians, and after 1924 the Soviets managed to regain control of this railway line.

Just how unstable the situation was was shown in October 1920 by an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Hailar , a town at the western end of the East China Railway. Chinese troops were here in large numbers and turned the quarantine measures into a farce. The soldiers freed some of their comrades who had been arrested as contact persons and fled to the mining town of Dalainor on the Amur River, where a quarter of the population died. In the other direction, all locations along the East China Railway to Vladivostok were infected. A total of around 9,000 people died, on the other hand, only a few contacts managed to reach southern Manchuria.

The Japanese posed a bigger problem. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05, Japan was granted two important areas in southern Manchuria. The Kwantung lease comprised a 565 square kilometer peninsula in the extreme south of Manchuria. This included the ice-free port of Dairen , which was the most important connection to Japan. From here, the South Manchurian Railway ran via Shenyang to Changchun , where it met the East China Railway. The land on either side of the tracks remained extraterritorial and was now controlled by the Japanese Kwantung Army, which in Manchuria were under between 7,000 and 14,000 men. She avoided conflicts with the Fengtian Army, although Zhang consistently verbally attacked the Japanese, relying on anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese public.

State reform

At the beginning of the 1920s, Zhang transformed Manchuria from an insignificant border region into one of the economically most prosperous regions in China. He had taken over a financially weak provincial government. In 1917 alone ten foreign-controlled consortia and bank bonds were outstanding for over 12 million yuan. In order to put the finances of Fengtian Province in order, Zhang appointed Wang Yongjiang , who had previously headed a regional tax office, as director of the tax office.

In the province - as is common in China - a number of currencies circulated, with the paper money issued by the provincial government constantly losing value. Wang decided to switch to a silver standard, equating the initial value of the new silver yuan with the Japanese gold yen , which was accepted throughout Korea and Manchuria. Much to the surprise of the Chinese, the new currency actually appreciated against the yen, despite Japanese businessmen claiming that it was not supported by sufficient silver reserves. Wang took advantage of the newly acquired credibility to introduce yet another currency, the Fengtian dollar . This currency was not convertible to silver but was accepted for tax payments. The government sent such a clear message that it trusted its own currency.

Next, Wang turned to the chaotic tax collection system. Through his previous work he was familiar with the shortcomings of the system and implemented a number of controls. The provincial government had also participated in various companies, which were often poorly managed. Wang ordered a complete overhaul of these state-sponsored companies. From 1918 on, government revenues rose steadily, three years later all outstanding bonds had been repaid and there was even a budget surplus. Wang was rewarded for his accomplishments by being named civil governor of Fengtian Province in 1921 while retaining his post as head of the treasury; Zhang remained the military governor of Fengtian. More than two thirds of the budget was still reserved for the military.

War in northern China

In the summer of 1920, Zhang made a sortie to northern China on the other side of the Great Wall, where he tried to overthrow Duan Qirui , Beijing's chief warlord. To this end, he supported another warlord, Cao Kun , with troops, and together they drove Duan. As a reward, Zhang was given control of most of Inner Mongolia, which adjoins Manchuria in the west. Zhang had risen to become a figure of national importance, but he was now challenged by a division commander of the North China Zhili faction, Wu Peifu ( Zhili is the name of the Beijing area). In the spring of 1922, Zhang personally took over command of the Fengtian Army and marched into the Chinese heartland on April 19. Fighting in the First Zhili Fengtian War began three days later, and on May 4, his army suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Zhili Army. 3,000 soldiers were killed and another 7,000 wounded, so that Zhan's units had to retreat to Shanhaiguan Pass . Units of the Zhili Army controlled Beijing, Zhang's reputation as a national leader was shattered, and he in turn declared Manchuria independent in May 1922.

Civil Governor Wang left Shenyang on June 22nd and went to Japanese-controlled Dalian, allegedly to seek treatment for an eye infection. From there, he challenged Zhang by demanding limits on military spending and complete control over civil affairs. Zhang - one of China's most feared warlords - relented, overturned martial law and agreed to separate the military and civil administration in all three provinces. Wang returned on August 6, guaranteeing the continued stability of Manchuria.

Regional development

Wang implemented far-reaching plans over the next few years. He tried to add more workers to the burgeoning Manchurian economy. Most workers had come during the season by then and returned to their northern Chinese homeland in the winter. Now they have been encouraged by the Manchurian government to bring women and children with them and to settle permanently. They paid a reduced fare on Chinese-owned railway lines. They received money to build a hut for themselves, the ownership of which would pass to them after five years of uninterrupted living. Rent payments were suspended in the first few years. Most of the immigrants were sent to the interior of Manchuria, where they plowed new land or worked in forestry or mining. Between 1924 and 1929 the cultivated area increased from 20 to 35 million hectares .

The Manchurian economy grew while the rest of China was in chaos and uncertainty. A particularly ambitious project was to break the Japanese monopoly on cotton textiles by creating a large spinning and weaving mill , which was much to the chagrin of the Japanese. The government also invested in other companies, including a number of Sino-Japanese joint ventures. During this time, the Fengtian Army successfully kept the numerous Manchurian bandits at bay. Various railway lines were built, including the Shenyang to Hailong line , which opened in 1925. In 1924, Wang merged three regional banks into the Official Bank of the Three Eastern Provinces and personally appointed himself general manager. In this way he tried on the one hand to create a development bank and on the other hand to achieve control over military spending.

The beginning of the end

After the catastrophic defeat of 1922, Zhang rearranged the Fengtian Army, started a training program, and purchased new equipment such as radios and machine guns. In the fall of 1924, new fighting broke out in central China, and Zhang saw the opportunity to conquer northern China with Beijing and become head of the central government. While the armies of most of the warlords were fighting on the Yangtze , Zhang and his troops invaded northern China. The Second Zhili Fengtian War had begun. In a surprise coup, a Zhili commander, Feng Yuxiang , overthrew Wu Peifu and took control of Beijing. He shared power with Zhang and they both installed the Duan Qirui that Zhang had driven out in 1920. In August 1925, the Fengtian Army controlled four large provinces within the Great Wall (Zhili, where Beijing was, if not Beijing itself, Shandong , Jiangsu, and Anhui ). One unit even marched south as far as Shanghai . But the military situation was so unstable that the warlord Sun Chuanfang , whose sphere of influence stretched along the Yangtze, succeeded in pushing back the Fengtian army. In November, Zhang only held a small corner of northern China, including a corridor that connected Manchuria with Beijing. The attacks on Beijing continued into the spring of 1926.

Manchuria was restored to martial law while its economy crumbled under the weight of the insatiable war machine. Old taxes were raised and new taxes invented. Zhang requested that more paper money be printed that was no longer covered by silver reserves. A serious crisis erupted in November 1925 when a division commander revolted, ordered his troops to turn back and march on Shenyang. In response, the Japanese increased their troops to protect their interests in Manchuria, but Zhang managed to quell the December revolt. More seriously, Manchuria's top civilian official, Civil Governor Wang Yongjiang, realized that nine years of work had been in vain. He left Shenyang in February 1926 and submitted his resignation. This time, when Zhang asked him to return, he did not respond. Wang died of kidney failure on November 1, 1927.

The economic collapse

In March 1926 a new civil governor was appointed whose sole job was to meet the army's financial needs. He issued new provincial bonds and forced business people and municipalities to subscribe. In early 1927 he even got into the opium trade by distributing expensive licenses for the sale and consumption of opium. Bank reserves and railroad revenues were plundered and more paper money was issued at the same time. The best way to see the economic decline of Manchuria is the exchange rate of the Fengtian dollar (yuan), which was initially worth as much as a Japanese gold yen. In February 1928, the cost of one yen was 40 yuan. That winter, the Manchurian economy collapsed. Workers went on strike, and hungry immigrants flooded back to Shenyang because they couldn't find work.

In June 1926, Zhang had succeeded in conquering Beijing. A year later, he declared himself Grand Marshal of the Republic of China and ruled an entity that was still internationally recognized as China's legitimate government. But an alliance of warlords led by Chiang Kai-shek attacked his forces, and in May 1928, Zhang's Fengtian army had to withdraw from Beijing. In addition, Japan put pressure on Zhang to leave Beijing and retreat to Manchuria, increasing its troops in Tianjin . He left Beijing on June 3, 1928.

The next morning, his train reached the Shenyang suburbs. Here the line ran under the South Manchurian Railway, which was operated by Japan. An officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Colonel Kōmoto Daisaku , had planted a bomb here, which exploded when Zhang's train passed under the viaduct. Zhang's death was kept secret for two weeks while a power struggle raged. As a result, Zhang is said not to have officially died until June 21, 1928, as claimed in a communiqué by the Fengtian Army. Zhang was followed by his official wife's eldest son, Zhang Xueliang .

Web links

• Newspaper article about Zhang Zuolin in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carl F. Nathan : Plague prevention and politics in Manchuria. 1910-1931 (= Harvard East Asian Monographs. ) Vol. 23, ISSN  0073-0483 . Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1967, p. 66 f.

literature

• Gavan McCormack: Chang Tso-lin in Northeast China, 1911-1928. China, Japan and the Manchurian Idea . Dawson, Folkestone, Kent, England 1977, ISBN 0-7129-0803-X .
• Ronald Suleski: Civil Government in Warlord China. Tradition, Modernization and Manchuria ( Studies in modern Chinese History. Vol. 3). Peter Lang, New York NY et al. 2002, ISBN 0-8204-5278-5 .

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 7, 2006 .

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Zhang is the family name here, Zuolin is the first name.