When China Was Ruled By Warlords - The Zhili–Anhui War (Documentary)

The first decades of the 20th century were a tumultuous time for China with carrying factions trying to control the vast country. These cliques were led by colorful warlords who even went to war with each other. The Zhili-, Anhui- and Fengtian Cliques are the most well known of this warlord era in Chinese history.

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» SOURCES
Dreyer, Edward L. China at War 1901-1949, (New York : Longman Publishing, 1995)

Gray, Jack, Rebellions and Revolutions: China from the 1800s to 2000, (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2002)

Jowett, Philip, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, (Oxford : Osprey Publishing, 2010)

Mackinnon, Stephen R. “The Peiyang Army, Yuan Shih-k`ai, and the Origins of Modern Chinese Warlordism” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3 (May, 1973)

McCord, Edward A. “Burn, Kill, Rape, and Rob: Military Atrocities, Warlordism, and Anti-Warlordism in Republican China” in Lary, Diana & MacKinnon, Stephen (eds.) Scars of War: The Impact of Warfare on Modern China, (Toronto : UBC Press, 2001)

McCord, Edward A. The Power of the Gun, The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism, (Berkeley : University of California Press)

Mühlhahn, Klaus, Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping, (Cambridge, MA : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019)

Sheridan, James E. The warlord era: politics and militarism under the Peking government, 1916-28 in Fairbank, John K. & Twitchett, Denis (eds.) The Cambridge History of China: Volume 12, Republican China 1912-1949, Part 1, (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005)

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»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Yves Thimian

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved - Real Time History GmbH 2021

[Pavlos_Charalambous]

"Someone ask me how many women I have
I don't know either
Last day a boy called me dad
I don't know who is his mother "
Untitled - general Zhang Zongchang

[GeneralLiuofBoston]

11:48
Model Governor - Yan Xishan
Christian General - Feng Yuxiang
Dogmeat General - Zhang Zongchang
Two Headed Snake - I am unsure
Rotten Pig - I am unsure
Defector General- Shi Yousan [A play on words of his name was Shi Sanfan - Shi turns his coat three times]

[atenachos]

The gentleman centered in the thumbnail has the proper aiming technique 👌 😆

[olegkazantsev]

Excuse me, where can I find a volume of Zhang Zongchang's poetry? This man has more punk energy than the entire current US punk scene combined.

[narutojames]

"China was in a period dominated by regional warlords."
"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?"

[korbell]

Peasant 1: "Who are you fighting for?"

Peasant 2: "I don't know. what day is it?"

[schnee]

My great great grandfather was a warlord in southern china during this period. In 1921, there was a betrayal in our family and my grandfather along with his older brother, older sister, and mother were kidnapped, taken into the mountains, and ransomed. The family paid the ransom and then immediately sent our militia in to wipe out the mountain bandit group that had carried out the kidnapping. Then my great uncle was given the duty of executing the traitorous family member since the rule in our family was "only family can kill family".

These were stories everyone in my family heard growing up from the family members it happened to, but we've always been looking for more information. The warlord's name was Chang Shi Liang (could be spelled a variety of ways) and he died sometime around 1921, but that's pretty much all we know. We've assumed he was one of the more minor warlords because we haven't been able to find anything about him when we've tried to look. If anyone has any info or recommendations of how to get more info, please let me know!

[climberly]

That Dogmeat general has got some real literary chops!

[GAndreC]

This is the top notch poetry we need more of!

[the_changerang]

Excellent coverage of a lesser-known conflict, thank you!

Just one thing of note, in Mandarin Chinese, the "Q" is often used to pronounce things with a "ch" sound. For example, the old romanization of "Qing" was "Ch'ing" rather than with the hard, K-sounding pronunciation. Just a small thing but I thought I'd mention it

[randomdds]

FWIW, my kung fu teacher's teacher was one of the students of "the Christian Warlord."

He had a few core values: no rape, pillaging, or drugs/alcohol. Everyone had to be trained in hand to hand combat and maintain proficiency, including all officers and doctors. Later, he joined forces with Sun Yat-sun.

famous

[mariopasc]

The only YouTube channel who ignores how much money, troops or concubines it has

[zzzgarage]

My great grandpa was one of the Sichuanese warlorad officers, he refers their troops as the "two rifles army"; where the soldiers would carry two rifles, one for shooting the enemies and another one for smoking opium.

[suddenuprising]

The last time I was this early Chang Kai-shek still lived in mainland China.

[GarrettFruge]

The Warlord Era of China is one of the most fascinating periods of history to me! My two favorite personalities during that time were Feng Yuxiang and Wu Peifu!

And, yeah, I got a kick out of the Dog Meat General's poem too! xD

[leogazebo]

I really love the Dogmeat General, I always find it funny how he doesn't know how many his troops are, how much money he has, and how many concubine he have.

[johnwalsh]

during the warlord era, the only stable and relaible job is soldiering for one of the warlord or political factions. many Chinese became soldiers to feed their families, in fact they were paid in various means like being paid bullets, food, useless script, or not at all. so many soldiers looted, did banditry extortion and other criminal activities on the side just to earn extra money

[meanmanturbo]

16:40 C96 "Broom handle" Mauser pistol were so popular because the arms embargos were for "military arms". The embargo was writen such that rifles were considrered military arms but pistols were not considered military arms. And a pistol with an attached buttstock like the C96 worked reasonably well a a rifle replacement.

[TNOBasedBatov]

HOI4 player be like: Hey if seen this one

[Dar_Skirata]

Excellent episode. I have always been intrigued by this era. Finally a comprehensive and well designed documentary on the warlords, an often overlooked part of Chinese history.