Northern Expedition | |||||||
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Part of Warlord Era, Chinese Civil War | |||||||
Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching northwards; an NRA artillery unit engaged in a battle with warlords; people showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteer to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack. |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Chiang Kai-shek Feng Yuxiang Li Zongren Bai Chongxi He Yingqin Yan Xishan Cen Chunxuan Zhou Enlai Ye Ting |
Du Xigui V.K. Wellington Koo Zhang Zuolin Wu Peifu Sun Chuanfang |
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Strength | |||||||
about 250,000 | about 800,000 |
Northern Expedition | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 國民革命軍北伐 | ||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 国民革命军北伐 | ||||||
Literal meaning | National Revolutionary Army northern expedition | ||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Guómín gémìng jūn běifá |
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Nationalists, against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, and the expedition was divided into two phases. The first phase was interrupted by the political split in the Kuomintang following the formation of the Nanjing faction in April 1927 against the existing faction in Wuhan. The split was partially motivated by the purge of the Communists within the party, which marked the end of the First United Front, and Chiang Kai-shek briefly stepped down as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army.