3.138 Fall and Rise of China: How Zhang Xueliang lost Manchuria

Last time we spoke about the Mukden Incident. In the early 1930s, Ishiwara and Itagaki of the Kwantung Army believed Japan must seize Manchuria to secure its interests against China and the USSR. Frustrated by delays from Tokyo, they orchestrated a surprise attack, framing it as retaliation for the mysterious death of a fellow officer. On September 18, 1931, they bombed railway tracks, claiming a Chinese atrocity, and swiftly attacked, overwhelming Chinese forces despite being outnumbered. Their decisive actions sparked Japan's occupation of Manchuria, defying orders from high command. In a bid to expand Japan's influence, Ishiwara and Itagaki incited chaos in Manchuria, leading to the Mukden Incident. They manipulated local unrest to justify military action, swiftly capturing Kirin without resistance. Despite Tokyo's orders against expansion, they continued their aggressive tactics, pushing for Manchuria's independence. Ishiwara's defiance of command led to significant military successes but also sowed seeds of indiscipline within the army. Ultimately, their actions set Japan on a path toward conflict with China and the West, forever changing the region's fate.

 

#138 How Zhang Xueliang lost Manchuria

Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.

Little disclaimer this is not a quote en quote regular episode. In this one we are going to look more so into the reasons the Japanese had an easy time conquering Manchuria. Its honestly a very complicated subject involving numerous variables, but I thought it be important to talk about this before we get into the campaign itself. 

So last we left off are good friend Ishiwara Kanji had unleashed the Mukden Incident, initiating an unofficial war with China. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese executed a false flag operation by detonating explosives along the South Manchurian Railway near Mukden. This action was followed by an assault from 500 Kwantung soldiers on the Peitaying Barracks, which were defended by 7,000 troops under Zhang Xueliang. At the time, Zhang was in Beiping serving as the North China garrison commander. Those around him, including Chiang Kai-shek, urged him to instruct his men not to resist, to conceal their weapons, and to retreat westward if possible. Chiang Kai-shek recognized that the Japanese were attempting to provoke a full-scale war with China, a conflict they were not prepared to win at that moment. China needed additional time to organize and train its forces to confront such an adversary. Zhang Xueliang understood the weakness of his own forces and aimed to preserve a significant army, making these orders advantageous for him. Both men also believed that the League of Nations or the Wakatsuki cabinet might intervene to halt the illegal occupation. During the confrontation at the Peitaying Barracks, approximately 500 Chinese soldiers were killed, many surrendered, and others fled as the Japanese forces destroyed the barracks and the small air force stationed there.

Now what is known as the invasion of Manchuria, is actually an extremely complicated story. For those interested over on the Pacific War Channel I have a full documentary covering it with a lot of combat footage and Chinese Drama Series footage which is always absolutely hilarious. To overly summarize, the officials in charge of various regions of Manchuria did one or more of three options when faced with Japanese aggression. 1) Most defected in return for monetary gain and new positions under the emerging puppet government. 2) They attempted to sabotage and thwart the Japanese while portraying themselves to be complicit. And 3) they actively fought back. So before we begin this story lets talk about Manchuria during this time period.

After the death of his father Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Xueliang inherited an extremely chaotic Manchurian dynasty one could call it. The problems were political, social and economic and while the Young Marshal was tackling these issues, 3 years into his new reign, on September 18th of 1931 the Japanese commenced an invasion. The Japanese had been greatly concerned at Zhang Xueliang’ moves to assume control over the regional industries and railways, whose income was incredibly important to Japan after the Great Depression had hit in 1929. What ultimately happened to Zhang Xueliang echoed the fate of Yuan Shikai during his tenure of 1912-1916. Yuan Shikai had made moves to centralize China while simultaneously alienating its populace by abolishing its provincial assemblies and trying to make the militarists dissolve their armies. Both men faced enormous external threats while trying to transition their regimes. Nonetheless, Zhang Xueliang did oversee a lot of real change in manchuria in terms of political awareness, education, greater availability of foreign goods and increased the populations feeling they were part of China proper. This increased awareness alongside a sense of international crisis caused by the clashes with the USSR and Japan, spur a new sense of nationalism that would persist for the 15 year war. 

So lets talk about the regions of Manchuria shall we. There are 3 provinces in Manchuria, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, altogether they encompass 380,000 square miles. The central third of Manchuria consists of plains, with the Xing’an range extending around the border areas from the west to northeast and the Changbaishan mountains following the border from east to southeast. To the west of the Xing’an Mountains lies a region that is geographically part of Mongolia and is characterized by steppe terrain. The most fertile regions include the alluvial plain extending from the Gulf of Liaodong to Changchun, as well as the areas near the Sungari and Nonni Rivers in northern Jilin and Heilongjiang. This area experiences significant seasonal climate variations, with average temperatures in July reaching approximately 24 degrees Celsius, while winter averages drop to around –12 degrees Celsius in southern Manchuria and –24 degrees Celsius in the far north.

By 1931, there had been no official census conducted in the area, but the Research Bureau of the South Manchurian Railway estimated the population in 1930 to be approximately 34.4 million people. This included 15.2 million in Liaoning, 9.1 million in Jilin, and 5.3 million in Heilongjiang. Population density varied, with Liaoning having 212 people per square mile, Jilin with 89, and Heilongjiang with 23. By 1931, over 90 percent of the population was Han Chinese, while Manchus accounted for about 3 percent, Mongols around 6 percent, and the remaining population comprised Koreans, Russians, and Japanese.

During the Japanese occupation, the economy of Manchuria was primarily agricultural, with soybean products accounting for 60 percent of the region's total exports in 1930. In contrast, industrial development was limited in 1931, mainly concentrated in the Japanese-controlled cities of Dairen and Harbin, as well as in areas managed by the South Manchuria Railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway. However, since the early 1920s, a military-industrial complex had begun to emerge, driven by Zhang Zuolin's demand for modern weaponry. The Shenyang arsenal, established in 1919, manufactured rifles and ammunition, employing 20,000 skilled workers who operated at full capacity during the Zhili-Fengtian wars, producing up to 400,000 rounds daily at its peak in 1924-25.The population of Manchuria was overwhelmingly rural and the rivers and roads remained their principal means of transportation. The Amur, Nonni and Sungari rivers were the lifeline of trade, while the roads were in quite a terrible state of repair by 1931. There were 3 key groups of people who met the Japanese invasion, military power brokers, nationalists and civilians who were largely alienated from Zhang Xueliang’s regime. Amongst all of them was a large level of interprovincial rivalries. 

Local militarism in Manchuria was heavily factionalied with each clique retaining both civilian and military followers. The old comrades of Zhang Zuolin were categorized by the Japanese as “the old faction”, such men as Zhang Zuoxiang and Zhang Jinghui who had risen up alongside the Tiger of Manchuria during the 1920s. They had amassed large fortunes and although they had been subordinate to Zhang Zuolin, they were also power brokers in their own right with private armies and economic bases under their control. Some like Zhang Zuoxiang and Wan Fulin stayed loyal to the Young Marshal once he assumed power. They were often aided by the Japanese who were not keen at all with Zhang Xueliang’s enthusiasm for Chinese nationalism.

Zhang Zuoxiang would become one of Zhang Xueliangs most important associates. He was born in Jinzhou and at the age of 16 fled his village to escape a family feud and became a bricklayer in Shenyang. However in 1901 he got involved in an incident ending with him stabbing another man, prompting him to flee for Xinmin where he joined forces under Zhang Zuolin. He quickly rose within the military and attended the Fengtian Military Academy. During the 1920s he remained a close ally to Zhang Zuolin, serving as a military governor of Jilin. When Zhang Zuolin was assassinated, Zhang Zuoxiang used his authority to preserve power for Zhang Xueliang who was stationed outside Manchuria at the time and needed time to return to Manchuria. 

Wan Fulin would become Zhang Xueliang’s other second in command. He was born in 1880 in Changling county of Jilin. Born to a poor farming family, he joined a local militia of around 50 men. His militia was gradually incorporated into the local militarist Wu Junshengs troops in 1900 and from then on Wan rose through the ranks. After Zhang Zuolin’s death Wan Fulin was appointed as the military affairs supervisor or “duban” for HEilongjiang. He then took a newly created position of provincial chairman “Zhuxi” in 1929 and held said position during the Mukden Incident. 

Now after the Old Tiger had died, one of his old associates Zhang Zongchang, whom I think we all know very well, proved to Zhang Xueliang he could not rely on his fathers old guard. Zhang Zongchang and Chu Yupu tossed their lot in with the Japanese and attacked from Tangshan with 60,000 troops trying to overthrow the new KMT led government. That little venture only lasted from August 2-8th, ending in a hilarious defeat for the so called rebels, but the experience taught Zhang Xueliang that his Fengtian army needed to be reformed, even though it was against the wishes of many of its senior officers. 

The most significant opposition to Zhang Xuliang came from his fathers former chief of staff Yang Yuting and his associate Chang Yinhuai. Yang Yuting had been born in Hebei, but his family moved to Faku county in Fengtian when he was young. He was an adept student, rising through the system and by 1909 joined the Japanese military academy “Shikkan gakko”. During the republic days, he joined the Old Tiger and slowly became a trusted ally. In 1925 as General Guo Songling rebelled, in a large part because of Yang Yuting’s advocacy of continued militarism even after the failure of the Fengtian army during the second Fengtian-Zhili War. Yang Yuting was chosen by Zhang Zuolin to lead the unsuccessful counterebellion and then became his chief of staff. By 1927 Yang Yuting began negotiations with the Japanese, some of whom thought he would make a much better replacement to the Old Tiger. Yang Yuting saw Zhang Zuolins death as an opportunity to development himself, however in 1928 he began negotiations with Nanjing as well. This led him to change his mind about Japan and adopted unification measures with Nanjing. He hoped to snuggle up to Chiang Kai-Shek, but likewise retained close connections with the Japanese. Dishing out appointments was something Yang Yuting was quite keen upon. When Zhang Xueliang sought to appoint one of his supporters as the new governor of the Eastern Special Zone, this was an area around Harbin that had been made autonomous in its role as a hub for the Chinese Eastern Railway, well Yang Yuting made Zhang Jinghui the de facto governor instead.

Yet Yang Yuting’s spiderlike nature would become his downfall. One of his closest friends was Chang Yinhuai, who was appointed governor of Heilongjiang by Zhang Xueliang in 1928. Chang Yinhuai’s contempt for the Young Marshal became more and more open, until it reached the point where he would money to Yang Yuting for ordnance expenses but not the Young Marshal, oh and he was building his own private army. On the 10th of January of 1929 Chang and Yang went to meet Zhang Xueliang, demanding he create a new post of Northeastern Railway Supervisor for Chang. They both argued they wanted to take control over the Chinese Eastern Railway, currently under Soviet-Chinese dual control, but Zhang Xueliang dragged his feet during the meeting. When the two men left, Zhang Xueliang instructed his police chief Gao Jiyi to arrest and shoot them, which he did. M.S Myers, the American consul in Shenyang cabled his superiors about the execution, noting, “the elimination of the two most powerful and probably able members of the Fengtien Party[,]... although strengthening the position of the existing head of this territory for the time being, may later result in the breakup of that party through internal and external agencies.”

Well Mr. Myers was quite right. Although Zhang Xueliang’s actions had the effect of stopping Yang Yutings overreach, it ultimately was more of a sign of his weakness, rather than strength. Some like Zhang Jinghui were saved by the fact they were old associates with Zhang Zuolin and had built their own power bases. However other like Zang Shiyi for example, who were close associates of Yang Yuting had to wait for Zhang Xueliang to move to Beiping to take up his position as deputy commander of the Nationalist forces before gaining office as chairman of Liaoning. Zhao Xinbo only managed to grab the office of mayor over Shenyang after the Japanese took over. Overall Zhang Xueliang did not exercise strong enough control over his local militarists any more than his father did. When Guo Songling had rebelled in 1925, Zhang Zuolin’s support had bled considerably, it was only Japanese intervention that saved him. His son would find out his rule was more tolerated rather than supported.

There was also a lot of friction between those supporting the KMT vs those supporting the CCP in Manchuria. Qian Gonglai was a professor at the Shendao school in SHenyang and was arrested as a Bolshevist agitator in march of 1927. He had developed a large following amongst his students and the local intelligentsia. Qian had been involved with multiple organization such as the local YMCA and within the Shendao school, which were breeding grounds for young activities. These youthful types were inspired by the May Fourth and May Thirtieth movements, most being from Fengtian. Once Zhang Xueliang and his close followers set up a base of operations in Beiping after 1931, these types of intellectuals would become the founders and key movers of the Northeast National Salvation Society or “NNSS”, the most important propaganda organization to favor the military recapture of Manchuria in defiance of Chiang Kai-Shek's nonaggression strategy.

One of their members, Yan Baohang was born in a village within Haicheng county of Fengtian. He came from a poor family, but managed to attend the village school and performed well enough to encourage a local elite to pay for his primary schooling. He went on to study at the teacher training college in Shenyang where he came under the influence of Christianity, but also nationalist ideas promoted by the May fourth movement. He attended the Shenyang YMCA and went to college where he met other young activities such as Wang Zhuoran, Du Zhongyuan and Gao Chongmin. After graduating Yan attempted his new teaching methods at various Fengtian schools, before setting up a free school in Shenyang for poor children. This school was supported by the YMCA and funds from Guo Songling’s wife. The school was widely admired, and Zhang Xueliang gave it his full support. Yan became quite famous and was sent to Beijing for further training. By 1925 Yan received a scholarship to go to Edinburgh University where he earned a certificate in Social Studies. While in Europe he traveled widely, visiting places like Denmark and Moscow. He came back to Shenyang in 1929 and alongside Lu Guangji, Gao Chongmin, Wang Huayi and Che Xiangchen formed the Liaoning Provincial Nationalist Foreign Affairs association. This organization, whose core members formed the NNSS, was supported by Zhang Xueliang. Their aim was to seek China’s freedom and equal status, which obviously stood against the Japanese. By 1931 it had 46 branches and Yan also set up within the YMCA a Liaoning anti-opium association and a Liaoning Provincial Nationalist Education Advancement Association. By 1930 the Educational Advancement Association’s speakers went out on 14 occasions to talk about “exposing various crimes and secret plans the Japanese had for invading the Northeast”. Yan would become one of the heads of the NNSS’s propaganda section after 1931.

The adoption of the KMT in Manchuria post 1929 meant the nationalist activists all became party members. Yan Baohang and his friends Lu Guangji, Che Xiangchen, Du Zhongyuan,Wang Huayi, Zhao Yushi, and Wang Zhuoran were among thirteen delegates sent to Nanjing for the KMT national conference in May 1931. Lu Guanji had a similar career to that of Yan. Born in 1894 in Haicheng county, he came to Shenyang at the age of 15 and graduated from the teacher training college in 1918. He taught in a SMR-zone Chinese school. In 1922 he attended a national YMCA meeting in Shenyang and soon after was dismissed from teaching for supporting student protests. After this he went to Shenyang to see if his friend Yan Baohang could use his influence with Zhang Xueliang to obtain him a job as a schools inspector. By 1926 he left education for business, becoming a manager over a local printing firm. By 1929, he was elected deputy head of the Fengtian Chamber of Commerce where he frequently met with Zhang Xueliang who liked to make use of the chamber to organize anti-Japanese protests that would not be officially linked to himself. 

Chen Xianzhou was born in Huanren county to a family who were handicraft manufacturers, but they went bankrupt during the First Sino-Japanese War. Chen moved in with other relatives who paid for his education. He entered the Huanren Teacher training college in 1915, where he also learned Japanese. In 1919 he won a scholarship to Sendai Industrial College where he studied electrical engineering and became active in overseas chinese student groups protesting for the return of Port Arthur and Dairen. After graduating in 1924 he was employed by the Shenyang municipal administration to negotiate with the Japanese on the building of a new tram line. Through his efforts it was built in a year for less than 2 million yuan and for this in 1927, he was asked to do the same service for Harbin. Under Zhang Xueliang’s administration, Chen was given permission to restructure the Northeasts telecommunications and broadcasting network. He added 12 new transmitters linking Shenyang, Harbin, Qiqihar, Yingkou and Changchun. After the Mukden Incident, Chen became a committee member of the NNSS in Beiping, advising resistance armies on how to operate field radios. 

Du Zhongyuan was born in Huaide county, once located in Fengtian, now in Jilin. He came from a poor village family, but local elites helped pay for his education, allowing him to study at the Fengtian Provincial teacher training college. He also studied english and japanese. He first became a english teacher, but then developed an interest in the porcelain industry, which was heavily dominated by the Japanese in Manchuria. He thought he could break into their market, so he went to Tokyo Industrial college from 1917-1923, before returning to set up a porcelain manufacturing firm in Shenyang. In 1929, Zhang Xueliang authorized a 120,000 yuan loan to support his factory. Du rose into a prominent figure and was elected deputy chairmen of the Liaoning Chamber of Commerce in 1927, then chairman in 1929. His time in Japanese had been spent mostly as a student, but he was also an activist. He had led a group of 29 Chinese students to protest Zhang Zuolin’s government for continuing to allow the Japanese to control the Kwantung leased territory. He had a flair for publicity and found himself in a good position to head the NNSS. He befriended Yan Baohang and Lu Guangji along his journey.

Che Xiangchen was born in Faku county to a local elite family. He attended Beijing University extension school in 1918 and was quickly caught up in political activities, taking part in the May fourth movement. After graduating he studied at Zhangguo University then after that joined the Shenyang YMCA befriending Yan Baohang. Encouraged by Yan Baohang, he established schools for delinquent and disadvantaged children. The exact field I work in outside of Youtube and Podcasts. By July 1929 he sponsored 41 schools within ities and over 200 rural schools. Alongside Yan Baohang, and Zhang Xiluan he organized the Liaoning Associate for the Encouragement of Nationalist Education.

Wang Huayi was born in Liaozhong county to a poor farmer family. He managed to get funding for his education at the Fengtian Teacher training college in 1916. During his studies he befriend Yan Baohang who introduced him to the YMCA and involved him in its activities. He also became friendly with Zhang Xueliang and this paid off after 1928 when he was made deputy head of the Liaoning Education Department. Wang Zhuoran was born in Fushun county to a farmer family. He attended teacher colleges in Beijing and Shenyang where he befriended Yan, Du, Lu and Wang Huayi and other activists at the YMCA. From 1923-1928 he studied at Columbia University in New York and traveled to England often before returning to Shenyang in 1928. He became the tutor to Zhang Xueliang’s children and was active in the Northeastern Nationalist Foreign affairs association. All of these figures dominated Liaoning, specifically the area of Shenyang and this meant the core of nationalist activism was also found here. Here the Japanese would manage to co opt local elites, but many of said elites would fight to see Manchuria recaptured by China.

Now that covered the educated, nationalistic and politically aligned to Zhang Xueliang types, but the elites of Manchuria at the county level were anything but aligned with the Young Marshal. In fact most of the provincial elites were actually prejudiced against Zhang Xueliang. As a result of the Warlord Era wars, an enormous amount of Manchuria’s spending went to the military. To give a more specific idea. Between 1922 and 1924, Zhang participated in the Fengtian-Zhili Wars. Thanks to the careful financial management of his finance minister, Wang Yongjiang, the budget was able to accommodate these expenses even in 1923, despite approximately 50 percent of revenue being allocated to military spending. Fengtian's revenue amounted to 26.8 million yuan, with expenditures totaling 18.2 million yuan; of this, 13.9 million yuan—around 76 percent—was directed towards the military, while only 3 percent was spent on education. However, by 1925, Fengtian's income had decreased to 23 million yuan, while military expenditures surged to 51 million yuan. In an attempt to address this issue, Zhang Zuolin resorted to printing money, which led to rampant inflation. On March 1, 1927, the exchange rate was 6.71 Fengtian dollars for one Japanese gold yen, but by February 1928, it had plummeted to 40 dollars per yen. As Ronald Suleski observes, “Zhang Zuolin drained the provincial economy in order to pay his troops fighting in China proper.”

Local elites became very resentful of the increased military spending and rising inflation and this was furthermore met by Zhang Zuolin silencing their complaints by neutralizing their provincial assemblies. The military spending kept growing, alongside the inflation causing high unemployment. By February of 2918 the Shenyang Chamber of Commerce reported , “5,089 businesses were forced to close, among them 456 sundry goods shops, 416 restaurants, 165 factories, 157 machine shops, 142 rice shops, 116 foreign goods stores, and 83 general stores.”

When the Young Marshal assumed power he promised major changes including “the development of industry and commerce, the pursuit of education, and utmost efforts to maintain peace.” Yet his fathers pattern of spending did not change. In 1930, total regional expenditure reached 144.2 million yuan, with 98.6 million yuan allocated to the military (68.3%), compared to just 4.7 million yuan for education (3.26%) and 0.34 million yuan for construction projects (0.24%). Regional revenue from taxes and other government sources, including fines, amounted to 122 million yuan, resulting in a deficit of 22 million yuan. Of this revenue, only 8.3 million yuan (6.8%) came from direct taxation, primarily land tax, while the salt gabelle was the most profitable source, generating 45.9 million yuan (37.3%). Following their occupation, the Japanese observed that “if such a large sum were not spent on military purposes, the finances of the Three Eastern Provinces would show a significant surplus.” Many of the civilians who served in Zhang Zuolin’s government became quickly disillusioned with the rule of militarists and felt very uneasy about Zhang Xueliangs alliance with Nanjing, as to most in Manchuria, Chiang Kai-Shek was just another warlord. Many of the elites saw Japan as a more rational alternative for an alliance.

Yu Chonghan who had been the foreign minister to Zhang Zuolin until he resigned in 1927 had a long lasting relationship with the Japanese. During the Russo-Japanese War he had been a spy for Japan and always kept close contact with Tokyo. Chen Xinbo, the advisor to Yang Yuting was a former legal adviser to Zhang Zuolin. However he also had long standing connections to Japan, working as a school teacher in Dairen, before studying at Meiji University for law. Yuan Jinkai, the former minister of civil affairs for Zhang Zuolin was “a mentor figure to the civilian clique in the 1920s”. He was born in Liaoyang in the 1870s and was a scholar who became head of the conservative faction in the joint provincial assembly. But when Zhang Xueliang came to power, in the words of a Japanese reporter “demoted by the ‘new faction’ and completely lost his power. He was exalted to being a member of the Northeastern Governmental Affairs Committee [Dongbei zhengwu weiyuanhui: the highest political body in the Northeast after 1928] and a committee member in the Nanjing Government’s Control Yuan, but from the start he was treated as a relic of the past [kotto].” Understandably he became disillusioned with Zhang Xueliang. Yuan was just one of many prominent disenfranchised elites who sought an opportunity to regain what they had lost to the Young Marshal and the Japanese occupation proved a great opportunity. 

The South Manchurian Railway was a major factor that contributed to the co-option of the Chinese towards Japanese occupation. It ran 700 miles, over 5 lines and had land rights attached to it encompassing 105 cities, towns and villages. Not only did it provide railway services but also administration and social services. By 1924 the SMR had expanded its workforce to nearly 40,000 with ¾’s being local chinese. It provided expensive facilities, such as hospitals in Mukden, Tieling, Changchun and Dairen. The growth in Chinese nationalism against the Japanese grew amongst the intelligentsia, but the average blue collar types more or less enjoyed the benefits the Japanese were providing. Historian Chong-Sik Lee noted “The living conditions among the Chinese population in the Kwantung Leased Territory were much better than those in China proper, and this was true throughout the region”

A combination of improved conditions compared to those in intramural China and the appeal of Japanese-sponsored jobs in industry and mining, he argues, resulted in a significant influx of immigrants to the area. The Japanese capitalized on this newly available labor force by implementing a development strategy that necessitated the hiring of large numbers of unskilled Chinese workers, even with the use of modern equipment. This approach was largely motivated by a desire to avoid widespread unemployment, as these workers also served as consumers of Japanese products. Furthermore, although the working conditions for manual laborers employed by the Japanese were poor by contemporary standards, they were not necessarily worse—and may have even been better—than those faced by factory workers in Japan, such as women aged twelve to thirty-five employed in Nagano's silk factories, where the mortality rate due to lung disease was 23 per 1,000, compared to the typical rate of 7 per 1,000 for that age group.The Japanese had also set up the Manchurian Youth League “Manshu Seinen renmei” in 1928 to specifically deal with the threat of the growing Chinese nationalism, by advocating for a separate state in Manchuria. Both the Japanese army and civilian settlers aspired to set up a Japanese controlled Manchuria that could make use of the existing Chinese local government structures. 

There was also the issue of currency. Coins, ingots and notes were all in circulation, but their value differed from region to region. There were competing currencies, Chinese, Japanese and Soviet. Zhang Zuolin had set up three eastern provincial banks aiming to issue a unified currency to supersede the foreign currencies, backed by silver reserves, but it never worked out. Politically when Manchuria joined the new Nanjing system, it meant the KMT would begin a process of elections and appointments, but in the interim it fell upon Zhang Xueliang, who simply reverted to his fathers old way of relying on regional figureheads. Basically only Liaoning saw any real political reform. Militarily Zhang Xueliang inherited his fathers Fengtian military. He wished to reduce the spending of it, but found himself unable to deal with the high unemployment that would result from mass demobilization. Zhang Xueliang also feared reducing his military strength to the point he might become vulnerable to any of his given rivals. On the economic front, it was really Japan who benefited the most from Manchuria’s economic activities. 70% of Manchurian imports came from Japan as were 75% of its exports. Zhang Xueliang was determined to reverse the Japanese economic dominance, but the great depression greatly hampered any efforts. 

Ultimately, Zhang Xueliang had grand plans when he rose to power in 1928. He intended to align the Northeast with the Nanjing government and diminish Japanese influence in the region. Additionally, he sought to enhance local infrastructure in Manchuria and regain the trust of provincial elites who had been alienated by his father. Although some progress was made toward these objectives, the outcomes fell short of the efforts invested. His alliance with Chiang Kai-shek was marked by mutual suspicion. The economic depression devastated the agricultural exports that had fueled Manchuria's remarkable growth, undermining the financial resources needed for Zhang’s initiatives. Both civilian and military leaders in the area struggled to trust Zhang, as incidents like the assassination of Yang Yuting and the outbreak of civil war in 1930 led them to believe that, despite his claims, he was much like his father. Most importantly, the Japanese grew increasingly concerned about the possibility of a nationalist regime threatening their “special position.” By 1931, they recognized a risk to their dominance, while Zhang’s reforms remained incomplete and unpopular. Concurrently, the sentiment in Japan was shifting toward aggression against China, which was being partially blamed for exacerbating Japan’s economic difficulties. These combined factors led to the coup on September 18, 1931.

I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.

Zhang Xueliang sure inherited one hot potato so to say. Much could be blamed upon his father Zhang Zuolin, but likewise the Young Marshal failed to meet the demands of his new reign. Many Chinese would ultimately throw their lot in with the Japanese, rather than what appeared to be a failing warlord.