The Central Plains War
China has been ‘evangelized’ early, Nestorian Christians reaching the country in the first centuries, coming from India and Central Asia. Conversion was slow at first, and Christianity remained a small minority until the late days of the Tang dynasty, where massive persecutions towards Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Taoist and Christian minorities happened. Taoism and Buddhism were never eradicated but Christianity, too far from other communities faded away in the late 9th century.
During the Age of Sail, Portugal sent missions all over Asia so as to bring new converts and to conquer new markets but their efforts in China bore few fruits. Wary of the Portuguese and Jesuit missions that could create tensions between Christians and non-Christians in a country where the overlords were already hated, the Qing forbade the worship of Catholicism in China, going so far that unrepenting converts were sent in Xinjiang to become slaves to the local Uighurs and Huis. Qing China’s tradition of persecution towards Christianity remained, and when Protestant missionaries arrived in Southern China, they suffered the same fate as their Catholic counterparts. They did manage to open a handful missions, partly on leased territory, but never as much as they had hoped. The Taiping revolts - or revolution, depending on the one characterizing it - were based on a broad syncretism with ties to the few Protestant missionaries that had been allowed to live in China. After the end of the gruesome repression, missions were even more closely observed, and were accused of working for foreign powers - which they were - so as to weaken China. Pamphlets linking them to opium traders were also widespread, originating from both anti-Manchu and Imperial circles.
However, among the growing overseas Chinese communities, Christianity - mostly Protestant churches as emigration was directed towards California and Malaysia - began to take a larger and larger role. Sun Yat-Sen himself was a Christian, and many of the leading figures of the May Fourth Movement had ties with a Church, as modernization, westernization and christianity were linked in the mind of many Chinese reformists. The Chinese Revolution led to the end of persecutions, and to a surge of interest for christian missions, with notably the example of Feng Yuxiang, Chairman of the Qinmindang, who forced his troops to convert. But Catholicism remained extremely marginal in China. Until the pontificate of Pius XII, at least.
The main issue the Catholic Church was facing in China were the ‘Chinese Rites’, a syncretic way the first Jesuit missionaries had devised to make conversions easier, allowing converts to honour their ancestors, as per Chinese tradition. It had long been considered as a form of polytheism by the Catholic hierarchy, but the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, at the request of the Pope himself, declared in early 1928 that it was merely a respectful way of esteeming one’s relatives, and perfectly compatible with the Catholic teachings. This adoption of a Confucian rite sped up the conversion process, as many Chinese were able to combine respect for their forefathers to their growing interest for the teachings of the missionaries. Pius XI was a reformist, aware of the threats Soviet atheism and growing secularization posed. Instead of the old confrontational doctrine that the Church had used for decades when dealing with states, his encyclicals Quas Primas - professing international brotherhood within the Church and opposing nationalisms - and Quadragesimo Anno - confirming the social doctrine of the Church, partly to dismiss the claims of a conservative alliance between repressive regimes and the Church - were a way for him to show the ground-breaking aspect of the message he wanted to spread. His assumed objective was to get rid of the old, conservative, euro-centrist vision of the Church to spread the Word further. It was thus no surprise that he’d want to send missions to China.
Chinese converts.
In Northern China, torn apart by war and still ruled by the Qing who hadn’t given their stance on religious tolerance and proselytism yet, no new missions were sent. But the Nationalists had always been lenient towards Christians - even if the conservative factions opposed what they saw as cultural imperialism - and even the alignment on the Soviet Union hadn’t changed this fact, for the Soviet Union still allowed religious practice. In Guangzhou, new missions were sent, mainly manned by Irish priests and interprets. The young Irish State was very close to the Vatican, and it showed it once more. When traditional Protestant missions didn’t dare to go in the Chinese interior, fearing armed bands and warlords, the Irish missionaries could count on the support of some of their auxiliaries, who were old members of the IRA. They went to the areas that had been desolated by the civil war, offering food and shelter to the needy. Soon, the numbers of Catholics grew and it is expected that this growth will continue in the foreseeable future, just like it grew in Korea when missionaries were free to proselytize. The CCP and Mao himself have asked the Nanjing Parliament to block these attempts, as peasants who listen to the Irish priests won’t listen to Mao’s men. At the same time, Feng Yuxiang certainly didn’t want to see his religion forbidden.
The KMT finally managed to receive the support it had asked for for years. Upset by the continued Japanese meddling in China, the Soviets decided that they would play the same tricks. While the USS itself didn’t give anything to the United Front, the offices of the Komintern ordered thousands of tons of war materials to the Soviet arsenals, which gladly offered their production to the Komintern. Using the Transsiberian and then regular trading lanes, supply convoys of the Komintern reached Nanjing in late March. Chiang Kai-Shek was delighted to receive these state of the art weapons, and he soon replaced all his obsolete and disparate equipment with brand-new Soviet weapons. In Manchuria, contacts between Russian traders and local Communists became frequent, the Russians making sure that the Communists would have enough supplies for their planned insurrection. At the same time, some tanks were sent to the KMT, with a military mission whose knowledge of Russian was quite lacking.
The German Government, looking to attempt to bolster the support of the KMT, announces that it would be sending their government weapons. As confirmed in the previous year, the government held no other weapons than the ones their soldiers were holding, and, ignoring this, takes all the guns from the German Army, and sends them to the KMT. Adolf Hitler, landing in Hamburg from Sweden, decries this, and announces, in a speech, the establishment of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, the successor to the old German Worker’s Party. Support grew dramatically across the country, with the NSDAP able to control a local council in Bavaria, and his speeches rocketed across Germany, showing his party may gain a strong support in the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, as old divisions received new equipment, new ones were also raised. The KMT didn’t manage to recruit as many troops as it had hoped, most peasants being tired of the endless struggle and refusing to enlist for yet another battle of the civil war. But anti-Manchu feelings remained strong and the United Front didn’t need to apply forced conscription as its Soviet advisors had proposed. In June, the Nationalist army would be ready to strike, with 150.000 new men having been recruited and the entire army outfitted by the Soviets. The Japanese reaction remained to be seen however, and the ongoing elections in Japan would most likely see many angry comments at the treaty. At this point, no one could say if it would be beneficial for the National Socialist League or not, but the Treaty of Vladivostok had undoubtedly created a most fragile peace.
NRA troops during training.
While the Southerners prepared for what they hoped to be the last campaign of the war, the Qing were still struggling to get accepted by the people. The semi-victorious war against the Soviets, the repeated anti-KMT propaganda that gave them the support of traditionalist conservatives, and their commitment to safeguard the acquisitions of the Wuhan Revolution such as elections had made them popular. But while they had enough support to be tacitly accepted by most during a war that threatened China as a whole, with peace came many complaints about the government form. The elections gave them some breathing space, but when the winds of conflict came blowing once more, then the masses began to wonder why they were siding with the Monarchists against the Republic. The KMT wasn’t great, but it surely couldn’t be as bad as the Qing said. Hearing about these dangerous rumours, the Prime Minister managed to find funds to conduct yet another campaign, branding the Nationalists as traitors to the nation and to democracy, who refused the results of the elections. Ever since the party had been reformed among Leninist lines, it had given up on its Chinese soul to become a puppet of the Soviets and it was destroying the legitimacy of both Parliaments, destroying the Chinese desire for democracy, said the leaflets spread all over Hebei. They didn’t manage to convince the Qinmindang to destroy the United Front, but a shaky support for the Empire was established in the North. Most importantly, the army remained loyal to its leaders.
Veterans of the bloody Manchurian campaigns were promoted to become the core of the NCOs of the Qing army. These men could be trusted, for they had risked their lives on multiple occasions for the the Qing Empire and for China, and they were battle-hardened, much more than the Nationalist troops. They had already faced Soviet arms and wouldn’t be surprised by the sudden arrival of new weapons on the Southern front. This reorganization was successful, but the paperwork required to reorganize the army was so immense that the Qing didn’t manage to raise new formations in early 1928, contrary to the National Revolutionary Army. But the Qing managed to finish it a few days before the NRA could be ready for battle and the strike against the Republican lines near Shandong was unexpected by Nanjing.
Chiang Kai-Shek was caught off-guard, but he certainly wasn’t entirely unprepared. The bulk of the NRA, all of it except the divisions that were undergoing a training and garrison troops, was facing the Imperial lines. A sizeable amount of troops coming from various warlords were there too, but the most reliable of them, Chen Jiaoming, had already been deprived of his most of his personal army. Sun Chuanfang and Chen had each sent 35.000 men and some other troops had been sent by the Qinmindang too. But these independent commands were unable to give a coordinated response to the sudden threat of the attack of Zhang Zhuolin, and unity of command, that had given the victory to the Nationalists against Tang years earlier, was the same thing that made them lose. After fifteen hours, the Republican lines were broken. The veterans understood fully that an offensive needed to be as brutal and quick as possible to efficient, and they fought bravely so as to end the battle as soon as possible. The Nationalist lines pierced, Han Fuju was unable to reorganize his troops and fled to safety with his aides, bringing even more confusion to the situation. Two things made what could have been a decisive victory a mere sidenote of the conflict. First of all, Chiang’s reserves were quick to arrive, and instead of rushing to the contact of the enemy, Chiang wisely prepared a second defense line where his routing troops could retreat to. Shandong was lost though, as the Qing redirected their offensive towards Rizhao, condemning the troops that were in the pocket.
The second was the assassination of Zhang Zuolin. At the moment when the CCP learnt of the Shandong offensive, their cells activated. And unlike the first time, they were prepared. The Qing had concentrated their forces in Shandong, leaving Manchuria lightly defended. Simultaneous bombings happened all over the province and in Beijing. The uprising was quelled in Beijing, but the main cities of Manchuria fell in the hands of the CCP once more. The local garrisons were butchered and the administration was decapitated. Zhang Zuolin left his headquarters, handing the control over to his son Zhang Xueming and to Zhang Zuoxiang. On his way to Beijing, his train crossed over a river, using a viaduc. A bomb had been planted there by Communist agents, and while the train didn’t fall in the ravine as expected, the explosion had been prepared skillfully and Zhang died of his wounds three hours after the explosion. Zhang Zuolin’s death was sudden and he left a huge hole behind him. His son and Zuoxiang managed to retain control over the army, and a new line, further South, was established. This however gave the NRA time to rally, the CCP had saved the KMT.
Zhang Zuolin’s wrecked railcar.
In Beijing, the Qing regime was slowly falling apart. Zhang Zuolin had been the key between the Parliament whose main party he presided, the army he led, the administration he had appointed and the Emperor he had restored. Him gone, this shaky construction broke. The Parliament was leaderless, the administration suffered from the purges conducted by the Communists in Manchuria, the army might be losing its monarchist spirit and the Emperor had lost his closest ally. Kang Youwei managed to resume control over the party, and strangely this made the CYP more supportive of the Empire, as they disliked having a warlord Prime Minister. The army could eventually fend off the NRA, but it couldn’t deal with both the regular republican army and the uprisings in Manchuria. Unless a solution was found quickly, the assassination of the undefeated warlord would be the end of everything he created.
Updated Stats
Kuomintang
Government: Military
Population: 62.144 m.
GDP: $ 32,608 m.
Trade: $ 408 m.
Economy: Agrarian, Stagnation
Infrastructure
Primary: (2/5) Average
Modern: (3/5) Failing
Balance: $ -1,963 m.
Income: $ 3,016 m.
Expenses: $ 4,979 m.
Treasury: $ -27,733 m.
Public Support: 78%
Prestige: 47
Army: (3/5) Average, 1924 technology
Ground Units: 25 Infantry divisions, 0 Armoured divisions [+3 CCP Divs. +5 Warlords]
Manpower: 5,711,444
Navy: (4/5) Poor, 1910 technology
Ships: 0 Aircraft Carriers, 0 Battleships, 0 Pre-Dreadnoughts, 0 Battlecruisers, 6 Cruisers, 9 Destroyers, 0 Submarines
Air Force: (1/5) Failing, 1910 technology
Air Units: 0 Fighter Wings, 0 Bomber Wings
Leader: Wang Jingwei
Played by: Stormbringer
Qing Empire
Government: Military
Population: 16.218 m.
GDP: $ 8,357 m.
Trade: $ 84 m.
Economy: Agrarian, Stagnation
Infrastructure
Primary: (2/5) Poor
Modern: (1/5) Poor
Balance: $ -1,192 m.
Income: $ 752 m.
Expenses: $ 1,944 m.
Treasury: $ -17,610 m.
Public Support: 54%
Prestige: 2
Army: (2/5) Average, 1922 technology
Ground Units: 33 Infantry divisions, 0 Armoured divisions
Manpower: 659,569
Navy: (2/5) Poor, 1910 technology
Ships: 0 Aircraft Carriers, 0 Battleships, 0 Pre-Dreadnoughts, 0 Battlecruisers, 0 Cruisers, 0 Destroyers, 0 Submarines
Air Force: (1/5) Failing, 1910 technology
Air Units: 0 Fighter Wings, 0 Bomber Wings
Monarch: Xuantong Emperor
Leader: Prime Minister Zhang Xueming
Played by: Tyriet
