Chinese reunification (1928) in the context of "Zhang Xueliang"

The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, which had become fragmented in the aftermath of the 1911 Revolution. The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases. The first phase ended in a 1927 political split between two factions of the KMT: the right-leaning Nanjing faction, led by Chiang, and the left-leaning faction in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. The split was partially motivated by Chiang's Shanghai Massacre of Communists within the KMT, which marked the end of the First United Front. In an effort to mend this schism, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down as the commander of the NRA in August 1927, and went into exile in Japan.

The second phase of the Expedition began in January 1928, when Chiang resumed command. By April 1928, the nationalist forces had advanced to the Yellow River. With the assistance of allied warlords, including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, the nationalist forces secured a series of decisive victories against the Beiyang Army. As they approached Beijing, Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Manchuria-based Fengtian clique, was forced to flee and was later assassinated shortly thereafter by the Japanese. His son, Zhang Xueliang, took over as the leader of the Fengtian clique, and in December 1928, announced that Manchuria would accept the authority of the nationalist government in Nanjing. With the final piece of China under KMT control, the Northern Expedition concluded successfully and China was reunified, heralding the start of the Nanjing decade.

The Nationalist government, Nationalist regime and Nationalist China, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refer to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) under Chiang Kai-shek.

Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected to be China's provisional president and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefs and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 under the Nanjing-based government led by Chiang Kai-shek, which after the Northern Expedition initially governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China, with Chiang as a de facto leader of the country under a military dictatorship. The Nationalist government would then experience many further challenges such as the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1947.

The Fengtian Government (Chinese: 奉系军阀; pinyin: Fèngxì Jūnfá; Wade–Giles: Feng-hsi Chün-fa) was the faction that supported warlord Zhang Zuolin during China's Warlord Era. It took its name from Fengtian Province, which served as its original base of support. However, the clique quickly came to control all of the Three Northeastern Provinces. The clique received support from Japan in exchange for protecting Japanese military and economic interests in Manchuria. The Fengtian Army frequently intervened in many of the conflicts of the Warlord Era.

Following the Zhili–Anhui War of 1920 and 1921, the Fengtian and Zhili cliques exercised joint control of Beijing and the Beiyang Government. Tensions soon began building between the two, resulting in clashes for control of Beijing known as the First Zhili–Fengtian War (1922). The Second (1924) Zhili–Fengtian War started later over the Zhili invasion of the remnants of the Anhui clique, which had become allies of the Fengtian Clique, which resulted in a Fengtian victory, with the Zhili clique retreating as far south as Henan. The power of the Fengtian Clique began to decrease in the midst of the Kuomintang's Northern Expedition. In 1928, while he was retreating North, Zhang Zuolin's Japanese sponsors blew up his train, killing him. After Zhang's assassination, his son, Zhang Xueliang, took over the leadership of the clique. He preferred to work with the Kuomintang rather than the Japanese and symbolically pledged allegiance to the Nationalist Government in Nanjing. In practice, the Fengtian clique continued to independently govern Manchuria until the Japanese invasion in 1931.

The Nationalist government, Nationalist regime and Nationalist China, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refer to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 7 December 1949, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) under Chiang Kai-shek.

Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected to be China's provisional president and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefs and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 under the Nanjing-based government led by Chiang Kai-shek, which after the Northern Expedition initially governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China, with Chiang as a de facto leader of the country under a military dictatorship. The Nationalist government would then experience many further challenges such as the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1947; though this government retreated to Taiwan near the end of 1949.