1937: Foreign Intervention
The fall of the small Shanxi Clique set off alarms in capitals around the world. Nations that had a vested interest in propping up the weak Republican regime and its even weaker Warlord counterparts, began to see a real danger of Japan and Manchukuo toppling the Chinese governments. The first to explicitly begin providing direct aid to Generalissimo Chiang was Great Britain. The decaying British Empire saw real danger in Japan taking China, and began funneling supplies through their colonial holdings in Burma. The so called 'Burma Road' was a major lifeline for the collapsing usurper governments, and a major headache for the Qing leadership. The Republicans and their allies had been collapsing all along the frontline, before the British began supporting them.
Now, the fight got a lot more difficult.
Chinese soldiers defending their positions.
An indication of the morale and equipment boost the enemy gained was quick to come. Both Yan'an and Shilou were defended by what should have been a motley collection of Republican, Communist and Muslim forces. And yet, both held against Qing offenses. The latter would only hold for about a week, but Yan'an would prove to be a much harder target to crack. Elite garrisons, armed with German and British weapons, held the city and would not give it up easily. The former enemies of the Communists, the Republican Chinese, had the largest number of troops holding Yan'an.
And while the Reds may not have liked the secrets of their extensive fort system being revealed to their bitter foe, they didn't turn away the help. The mountain fortress would not fall easily.
And the Reds soon received another boost. The Soviet Union, watching the war warily, began to funnel supplies to the various splinter-states. Needless to say, while the Soviet Bear declared neutrality in the war itself, there was a scramble in Manchukuo to get more troops to the border. If the Soviets were willing to supply the usurpers, they would be perfectly willing to overrun the Qing homeland if it came to that. Any new troops were rushed to the border with the Soviets as a result, instead of the fight in China.
Filled with a sudden desire to end the war as soon as possible, before yet
more foreign support came for their enemies, the Manchukuo Imperial Army began an operation to surround Yan'an. If they couldn't take the town in a direct assault, starving the defenders out would have to work. General Semenov, the White Russian Cossack, once again lead an attack. This time, it was against a lesser-defended area to the south-west of Yan'an. Only one Red division and a single Ma headquarters unit defended Zhidan.
Even if the Qing militia were qualitatively inferior, the Communists were disorganized and heavily outnumbered. It only took a day of harsh fighting to force them out, and open a gap in the Chinese lines. A gap that the Manchukuo forces exploited, from both east and west.
This victory allowed Yan'an to be surrounded on all sides, once again. The fortress would still hold out against probing attacks, but the limited Chinese Air Force was unsuited to supplying the area. And the Qing forces did not let any supply runners through. The goal was to force a surrender, and they were not going to give in, even as desperate attacks came from multiple directions to try and break through to the city.
As if to taunt Pu-Yi's government, the surrounding of Yan'an merely provoked
more intervention from foreign powers. In this case, from across the vast Pacific Ocean. The Americans were watching the war anxiously, with their puppets in the Philippines being very close to what they saw as an expanding Japanese Empire. Unlike the British or Soviets, the United States kept out of overtly supporting either side, and did not send arms and supplies to the Republic and Warlords.
What they
did do was attempt to negotiate a peace treaty between the two sides. Unsurprisingly, both the Japanese/Qing leadership and the various Chinese factions flat out refused to agree to a peace treaty. And thus, the war continued on.
A war that saw a milestone that not even the Republicans had managed. A final attack against demoralized and disorganized garrison forces finally took Yan'an. The fall of the Communist capital was a major morale booster for the tired Manchukuo forces, and allowed a large portion of the army to be redeployed for new offenses, now that there was not a large force sitting in their rear-lines.
Red: Planned Qing attacks. Orange: Japanese Area of Operations. Green: Qing Area of Operations
With the fall of Yan'an, a new plan was developed between the Qing leadership and the Japanese Kwantung Army. The Manchukuo Imperial Army would thrust into the Ma Clique, aiming to take out the weakest of the Chinese Warlords. The Kwantung, meanwhile, would take Nanjing and the largest of the Republican coastal cities. Smaller groups of the united armies would simultaneously move south, both Qing and Japanese forces taking the remaining territory of the Guangxi Clique.
Yunnan, both its remaining territory and the land it had returned to the Republic of China, would be left until the larger threats were finished.
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Two notes:
A. I still don't know how people get the nice maps
B.
Semenov actually has a fairly interesting history. At least this gives me a General I can focus on.