Pax's Alternate History Snippet repository.

[Imperator Pax]

April 1922
The telegram circular was a formal denouncement, a ritual that had to be observed it seemed. Maybe it was a chance to still see things headed off, maybe it was a warning shot... maybe it had just become habit at this point. He would have truthfully, much more preferred to be discussing scoping infantry rifles for scouts, and field reviews.

Even the machine gun field review would have been better than all of this... but he was in command, and the noise in Peking had to be seen to. "What do we know?"

"It started with an argument over money. So far as we can tell from there it turned into a spat over the cabinet appointments , and devolved from there." Waite replied.

"What's the recommendation?" He wasn't asking Waite his attention turned to Shansi's governor.

Yan nodded, "We should call up the reserves, if for nothing else but as an abundance of caution in the event that there is some repeat of the Restoration Crisis." Ponytail's attempt to restore the Manchu, the Qing dynasty to power. There were rumors going around Zhang Xun, and Zhang Tsolin had been making common cause, and both had had their power bases and their commands based in the maritime provinces.

There were a handful of nods from the short committee. Bill was absent, being down in southern Qinghai on an engineering project, and could be spared. Eighth division was absent, watching the border. Lee was absent for the same reason Shang was, also on border duty. "The Aircraft mission has approval as well?"

"Yes they can leave for England," Talk to De haviliand about his proposed improved racing plane, and its wooden frame with its new construction technique with balsa wood and the like, "I know Powell has a thing for that," That the balsa plywood manufacture "That its something readily available to the MAK." Waite declared, "cultivation will be a problem," He meant here in china, "but I admit that aluminum stamping while probably the future in the long run is not there yet. We would need very heavy pressing machines, and I don't expect a sufficiently great prototype inside of five years... and even if the stampings were there, we need more robust engines, and we are certainly not there in terms of a design, never mind in producing such an engine so I would call it ten years, maybe fifteen."

Thus, the argument was that a wooden composite frame like the racing design seemed the best option... and that was mirrored in land transportation. The suspension system for their trucks, and cars originated from a racing car from the Austrian in charge of the laboratory and workshop. Even more similar were the insistence of armament, it was just a rehash of talks before the telegrams had gone out, "The rapid firing cannon, we will have to replace the pom poms." They had done their job, but the experience showed that while they had worked they were now long quite long in the tooth and needed to be succeeded by flatter shooting longer range cannon rounds, which had been said a week earlier "1st​ Division and 3rd​don't have their full complement of combat cars," He noted, "if we call the reserves it will tie up the lines and slow the transfer of machines."

Yan paused to consider that, and with the preface of the concerning disruption of the capital still warranted being at a state of readiness overall and that those battalions of the 1st​ and 3rd​ Divisions still awaiting their allotments should be kept at home. The conflict, if it did turn into a repeat of the attempted restoration would be different because of the increased numbers. The difference though was that they held Zhengzhou properly. There was no, had been no attempt to contest their control of the city, or its rail line. The regulars stationed at their garrison in the city were in place, and unassaulted... this was not the manchu restoration where they had had to scramble... but it was also much earlier in the year, and that boded ill potentially. "If cautionary words will not be heeded,"

"Then the troops will be mobilized for war." Waite agreed. "Allen?"

"Will you be heading back to Taiyuan?"

"Yes," Yan replied, "I will prepare the Guard division, and insure we have our patrols increased and that we are at readiness."

Waite nodded, "I've the brigade here, and Dawes will bring up 1st​ and 2nd ​Brigades."

That would leave him with the mobilized portion of the 1st​ division, and the 5th​ and 6th​ Brigades and the generals commanding them. That was the problem with their war planning, and expectations... they had talked about months earlier that Sun was acting squirrely, and the likelihood the southern doctor was going to act a fool.

Yet the war plan remained the same having been uncorrected or unaltered. 5th​ and 6th​brigades were intended to support the Szechwanese front by supporting3rd​ and 8th​ divisions. Those divisions would remain on the border, and the hunanese were supposed to be watched...instead they were looking at pivoting towards Zhili and Honan... and they still weren't clear exactly what in the hell was going on between the Fengtien and Zhili in all of this.

A few hours later he was making the final adjustments to the table of orders.

Percy had wasted no time in searching him out, but this was not the manchu restoration for all comparisons that might have been drawn to it. The crisis in and around the capital was a hot mess, there was no denying that, but things were very differentthan they had been a few years earlier.

"Xian operates on three lines," He told the englishman who had grandly stated he was an observer as if this were a war from before the guns of august had opened. He hoped Percy had just been making light of the situation or that it was just Percy talking. Allen did not like the possibility that Percy's observer status might hold official endorsement from King George's government and this might well be Curzon looking at the provinces in the west as separate from the beiyang authorities, "The regular army, the reserves, and the National Guard." Xian maintained a national guard bureau with each of the provinces maintaining their own guard units for emergencies that could be federalized much as with home.

"Yes, like the states."

The model yes, now that they were acting on this scale, but also because of the promulgation of the provincial constitutions which had established executive and legislature formally in 1920... the judicial bench was proving harder to establish but they would get there. "The regular army has its active units,"

"Those men of the first line,"

True. In the old system there had been two lines, the army and its reserves. "1st​ is presently being reinforced, by brigades, they'll watch the flanks, and pin the enemy in place." It was not 1917, he had vastly more officers to distribute the weight to, men to bear the load of operational weight, "I've read Iseburo's report, and we've substantiated it."

"The numbers?"

"Yeah," Allen replied, "Zhang, and Wu," Fengtien and Zhili more broadly, since it was not just their personal commands involved, it was more than that, "Have been recruiting."

"I understand your man Powell has been hiring laborers to migrate to the Americas, and there is talk of an Africa railway." Percy remarked. "I imagine the lucky ones will get on the ships... Zhang has a lot of modern artillery, John Allen... its going to be bad. You'll be going to the front then?"

An Englishman's talent for understatement Allen mused, then replied with the short answer, "With 1st​." He replied.

"I've instructions to serve as observer," Percy, nor the Legation in Tietsin ever formally stated exactly to whom in Beijing they had informed that they were sending observers... though it wouldn't been out of character for the British Legation to have informed both sides of the fractured Beiyang that they were doing so. In April 1922 as the crisis erupted into serious fighting no one thought to ask, nor was it really that important, only that it was a return to the oddities as they would be thought of by future generations of the long 19th century. "if I can be of use I'll be along with you then."

 

[ATP]

So,civil war would happen here,too.

 

[Imperator Pax]

April 1922
The rain was holding off, but it was relatively crisp this morning being in the low fifties and breezy. The army was used to digging though. Field entrenchments were emphasized, and had been emphasized even before the Europeans had gone to war. Allen's attention was on the opposite side of the river... farther south, far further than he could see and really it was the map of china he was visualizing.

This was a mess... for reasons not related to field conditions. It was the political realm not so much the physical one where the problem lay. The cadre had been hoping that in the fall the beiyang wings would all consent to holding elections and electing new members to the national assembly... and here they were half way through April and the Zhili clique was shooting at the Manchurian wing of the government.

His field headquarters was dominated by information carried by papers and telegrams that were in some cases months old. The circulars that Zhang had issued denouncing Wu, and Cao Kun were just one stack. Then there had been Wu denouncing the background chatter of the Chinese portion of the mission to Washington. The movements of the southern doctor. Tan Yankai, and Zhang Xun's movements were both being watched. The latter had met with Duan in Tietsin back in March, though they hadn't considered that terribly important at the time... not with Tankai's movements in Hunan which had largely had its beiyang aligned troops pulled out.

"Japan has no intention of moving one way or another."


Which was a small god damned mercy, and it was meant as an optimistic statement "Yes." He replied to Percy's statement. The brigadier commanding 6th​ Brigade and his chief of staff appeared behind the Englishman. Both men saluted crisply, "Hunanese report?" He asked thinking of Tan Yankai, and what his clique must have been up to given the much more active fracas down south and along the coast that likely had him much busier... or at least a different sort of busy

"The southern rebels are not doing well," The little bird replied quite smug at his statement. "I would be very surprised if they progress much further..." The brigaider general had been promoted up from 2nd​ Battalion of 1st​ Division, and his Chief of Staff had been also at Zhengzhou in 1917.

Hunan didn't have great roads to begin with, it never had, but there was a reputation among the people for a martial character, such that the Hunan militias had bragged about it to the British during the taiping rebellion, "What do we know about the present fighting colonel?"

"Current traffic suggests in addition to cantonese encouragement for Hunan's local commanders to resist the guomindang," There was no secret amongst the men that Sun had been brought up to be fond of the Taiping... there was plenty of American literature who'd fancied the southern rebel cause then, and lambasted British assistance to the Manchu as interfering in the natural course of history... but it was provincial ism at play. The men were quick to tar the southerners as rebs, and the papers decried the southern provinces as a haven of banditry in nearly every issue, "that the 1st​ naval squadron has also failed to come to the doctor's aid. If current chatter is accurate then the squadron may actually turn against them."

"Really?" Well that was interesting news, it would bear looking into. "Anything else on the naval front?" Allen questioned; the second naval squadron was further north... not that that would meaningfully effect Xian. Even if their river boats could get up the river, and get to here...there was unlikely any threat to their defensive position. The reinforcing of the defenses here meant they could prevent the aged boats from forcing further inland.

All of this had started with complaints about Liang's government, which had fallen in January, but the problems had all been more than this. All those stacks of telegrams in his field headquarters were built on grievances that had been building up. It was why he continued to watch the south. It was why3rd​ and 8th​ Divisions under Lee and Shang were kept in their existing deployments as 2nd​ and 4th​divisions were mobilized.

"Current intercepts suggest they also intend to remain uninvolved."

That was reassuring... mostly because this was a whole mess as it was. "They supported Wu in Hupeh last year," When the squadron had sallied up the river to fight in Hupei, which had lead to more comparisons of the Taping rebellion, even if it hadn't been nearly as bloody. The colonel took the invitation to expound, well prepared to review the conditions of the previous summer campaigning and the various connections officers of note held across the beiyang ranks and what had resulted in Duan Qirui's ousting from power.

"Zhang has criticized Wu for being too close to the Legation in tiestin," It was a wonder the Englishman hadn't said 'our legation' just now but Percy had had a point... Zhang [Tsolin] had called Wu a lot of things though the likes of puppet, doll, toy soldier were probably the harshest things he'd said in a circular that had reached public consumption. "Which is of course poppy cock, I should say." He added. "I really think its about money."

That was itself quite likely... though Allen also wouldn't have been surprised if Cao Kun wasn't in talks with the British about the loans. The financial situation wasn't amazing, and the former premier and the Communications clique had been fighting until Liang had replaced Jin as premier. Liang, of the communications clique, had been denounced shortly after that had happened... but rather curiously ... well the truth was Wu seemed to have elicited some personal spite from Zhang Tso-lin that made this conflict within the Beiyang seem ... seem petty save that both sides had massed a hundred thousand soldiers.

For all the complaints of the need for fiscal responsibility this would waste vast sums of money in the fighting between Fengtien and Zhili, and it would also reduce revenues as the fighting scared the peasantry, and townsfolk.

"In the interest of levity Mr Graves Zhang is much closer to the legation than Wu is," The lieutenant colonel observed, "That does not of course preclude this from being a matter of money,"

Percy before the war probably wouldn't have appreciated the glib comment, but the little bird had been with he assaulting force in 1917 then just a lieutenant, "Yes, that is true... and the Legation has other concerns."

"Alston, not about this I take it?"

"No, we would very much like this to be calm. There is a conference in Italy... it started about the same time all of this mess began," Not really, not by how John Allen would have reckoned counting this starting, but troops had been emplacing on the 10th​, the same day as the conference of Genoa had officially opened. "The Germans and Soviets formed a treaty of mutual recognition."

Allen bit down the expletive, but he would have sorely liked to curse. "I must imagine the Frogs aren't happy?"

"No," Apparently the new leadership of the French had already been grating on the Foreign Office , their government had likewise been upset right before the conference had opened and undergone a change in leadership, which had caught the brits off guard... and from the sound of it though he didn't mention it as such Lloyd George had gone and pulled a Wilson by deciding to handle the conference himself with inadequate support.
--
Notes: And of course its this kind of intervention which is what serious starts depleting Zhang's treasury, Zhang's insistence on expeditionary and often ill thought haying off ambitions disrupts his otherwise exemplary economy. Manchuria was doing very well under his governance but not so well as to support him being able to excercise power unilaterally. The end result of this becomes mass inflation because of reckless expenditures over the next several years.

 

[Imperator Pax]

April 1922

It was no secret that Zhang Tsolin had liberally helped himself to the large quantities of military stores which the French had abandoned in the aftermath of their terminating their presence in the, then still, Russian Far East.... not that their presence had been all that large. The French intention, as ever, had been to simply place their officers in command of local units, and Allen suspected to haphazardly or recklessly charge forward with thoughts of Elan vitale, in hopes of winning victory for France with the weight of non French bodies. The French having bought and paid for the equipment with loans from wall street that it was now clear they likely had never had any intention of ever paying back, had been left north of the great wall. That had included machine guns, cannons to which Zhang had a great affinity for, and armored cars, and indeed tanks.

Zhang was in the process of bringing at least part of that equipment south. It was that movement to which fighting in the north was favorable. The North was much more effectively railed. The Zhili, and Fengtien cliques, the broader beiyang umbrella all emphasized the rail network allowed the movement of supplies fast. It had been the railway that had been the lifeblood of Yuan Shikai, and then duan Qirui's offensives into the south with the aim of keeping China united.

Those failed offensives had been wastes of money, and men. For Xian, there were memories still that Zhang Tsolin had formed his consortium with Zhang Xun. Xun had attempted the Manchu Restoration almost five years earlier, that time frame meant that sergeants and junior officers were now much senior as combat tested troops cadred out to the much expanded Army that had grown up. None of his staff officers particularly cared that Zhang Tsolin had been opposed to Xun's putsch in 1917.

The gathering force from the interior provinces were deployed from their own railway strong points were now looking across the front. Word from the stations, the chains of telegraph and telephones which had demonstrated their value in 1917to pass word. "there are certainly similarities," He informed the staff officers gathered, "But those are factors determined by geography." Cao Kun had moved to establish his headquarters at Baoding placing himself north of Shijiazhuang's rail junction where the cadre's northern force lay gathered. Not that Cao Kun's trust was misplaced if he had been the one to direct Wu's position of those troops, but if Cao Kun had not made the offer than Wu who was not especially popular with Xian's general staff was taking a gamble on the Cadre's good will towards the old 3rd​ Division of the Beiyang Army of Yuan Shikai.

That was a gamble because as this very conflict, and the previous Zhili-Anhui conflict within the Beiyang demonstrated those fraternal ties often espoused by beiyangconfederate papers in the vicinity of the capital to be confucianwere breaking down. Duan Qirui had emphasized himself as Yuan Shikai's legitimate successor within the Beiyang, Zhang Xun had been a long time supporter of Yuan, Zhang Tsolin and Cao Kun were tied together by marriage of junior relatives, just as Cao's family was linked to the Ma's... and so on. Cao Kun had made political statements thus far Wu had not outlined exactly what his war aims were.

From a look at the map, the fighting between the two cliques within the Beiyang would be fought largely on the railways that passed through Peking, and Tietsin. It would be divided thusly on a western front, and eastern front much as the fighting in summer of 1920.

It was however obvious that neither force, either Fengtien or Zhili intended to attempt a Manchu Restoration. The absence of a statement of denunciation, formal tradition by this point by Wu Peifu perhaps indicated that Wu had not the full support of Zhili. The veterans of 1917 comprising the staff meeting outlined the planned deployment of their battalions. This time pushing south of the river and establishing a field works position. 1st​ Division's mechanization required additional logistics, reduced the fighting strength of its rifle squads from 13 to 11, and were emphasizing a rapid advance made by the force of both local mortars rained down, to the torrential force of battalion artillery and those still heavier guns of divisional command.

There was from the officers still the lingering expectation that the anti-Wu Pei Fu clique assembled would not reach this far. Sun Yat-sen was bogged down that was confirmed not with the cantonese warlord having urged opposition to Sun's attempted march. Zhang Xun likewise had pitiable popular support and showed no signs of a breakthrough. Duan Qirui had no forces available to him that they could establish as extant.

"Wu will not ask for our assistance," The commander of the 5th​ Brigade told him earnestly. "He is able to rest comfortably knowing that as northern Chinese," An important distinction, in the coming years, "that our martial vigor is tempered by virtue. We have no territorial ambitions." Which was true, but there was equally no indication that Zhang Tsolin had any personal territorial ambitions as such, but at the same time...

"The conspiracy with the southern doctor says otherwise," the chief of staff for the sixth said speaking up, which was the underlying problem to the responsibilities of the professional officer corp. He still didn't believe that the expedition treading water in hunan was likely to reach their positions it didn't change their responsibilities. "Anhui, and Fengtien's behavior at Tietsin must be considered." and the staff was hardly going to overlook the participation of Zhang Xun, regardless of his impotence. Xian's officer corp, and its wider political lineage traced back to memories, an emerging national identity, to Sun's attempt at the second revolution and the war against Bai Lang... and then there was the manchu crisis in 1917.

The outlined strategy was to deny a movement of any forces that might try to make their way from Hankou to the capital. "Have we adequately explained that conspiracy?" Since last he had checked Cullen's Gendarmes did not have an adequate answer on how on god's green earth Zhang Xun, and Sun Yat-sen had made common cause with one another. Admittedly that was to his mind the biggest anomaly of this whole business, but Duan Qirui and Zhang Tsolin, and Zhang Xun and Duan were weren't exactly who expected to make a coalition. "Can one of you answer me that?"

Generals, and colonels and majors paused around their papers in the broad almost wing shaped hall. The advantage of holding Zhengzhou was that the army's presence was well established. There were barracks, and schools here. Zhengzhou was part of western Zhili regardless of how much the gentry of Honan so nearby might have protested.

There was nothing.

"Would anyone here care to speculate?" He asked opening the floor for a debate, which promised to take a while.

Apparently in 1915 Chen Qimei, a southern rebel, had attempted to seize a gunboat on the Yangtze. The native of Zhejiang had died soon after of his wounds but some of his men had succeeded. Allen didn't immediately see where this was going but allowed the officer who brought it up to continue. Qimei somehow or another had been a sworn brother of Zhang Xun... which baffled him as to how that could have happened, but enough that Zhang Xun had supported Chen's brothers, and their sons. There was yet another Zhang involved and apparently Zhang Xun had taken his specie from the bank, or at least some other money he had accrued, and placed it in the prosperous Stock and Commodity Exchange in Shanghai since he had retired.

Zhang Xun, and apparently Zhang Renjie, along with Sun being the money behind things.... wasn't per se news. Zhang Xun was wealthy, Liang was from the Communications clique so had banks too, and Sun brought in money from fund raising over seas and that was how it had always been. That there was some tie there that now allowed an arrangement between the royalist Xun, and the revolutionary Sun was baffling but he assumed whatever agreement on the spoils in the coalition must have been sufficient to bridge that gap.

He didn't have to like the politicking of it though, and the papers were having a field day with speculation on the devils bargain it must have entailed. The papers were also handwringing about how it was only April and already there was this much fighting... but in a sense that was a sign of the increase in modernity, as one of the many papers to be found in Shanghai noted, in that the railways allowed such an early start to the campaign season.

 

[ATP]

So...everything is on schedule,and notching changed in chineese civil war?

 

[Imperator Pax]

So...everything is on schedule,and notching changed in chineese civil war?

Click to shrink...

even in geo political terms a fair amount has changed the divergence here is while the beiyang fracturing was arguably inevitable the Nanking era wasn't suns northern expedition in 22 failed because unlike chiang he failed to successfully coopt local warlords and here the driving result is unlike historically further regional hegemonization in the north and the direct result of that stronger regional centralization is that among other things the communist and left wing kmt are confined politically in the south and for the communists means no long march into the interior

 

[ATP]

even in geo political terms a fair amount has changed the divergence here is while the beiyang fracturing was arguably inevitable the Nanking era wasn't suns northern expedition in 22 failed because unlike chiang he failed to successfully coopt local warlords and here the driving result is unlike historically further regional hegemonization in the north and the direct result of that stronger regional centralization is that among other things the communist and left wing kmt are confined politically in the south and for the communists means no long march into the interior

Click to shrink...

Thanks! and,Japan could not take Manchuria here easily,like in OTL.To be honest,there should be no war in China here at all.