User:Stars&Stuff553/Association of Provincial Military Governors

The Warlord Corps, officially known as the Association of Provincial Military Governors , was a loosely organised deliberative body formed by Beiyang clique military governors in the Republic of China between 1916 and 1918.

As the political and military situation in China became more fragmented following the death of Yuan Shikai, the Association allowed military governors, division commanders, and their powerful subordinates to consolidate their power, coordinate their interests to maintain peace between themselves, and represent their collective interests to the central government in Beijing. While the Association had no fixed membership and its decisions were non-binding, the forum it provided played an important, if brief, role in maintaining a semblance of unity as the central government's real authority over the provinces and the army disintegrated.

On 6 June 1916, Yuan Shikai died of kidney failure, and both his Empire and the unity of the Beiyang government came to an end.

On 9 June, Zhang Xun, Inspector-General of the Yangtze and military governor of Anhui, invited representatives from the provinces of Zhili, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang to a conference in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, the first of these such conferences. The agenda of the first Xuzhou conference called for the maintenance of unity, peace, and security, and the assumption of constitutional government, while preventing "violent elements" (暴烈分子) from participating in politics (an allusion to the Kuomintang).

On 22 September, representatives of thirteen provincial governors (those ofShandong, Fengtian, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Henan, Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Suiyuan, Chahar, and Rehe) once again convened in Xuzhou at the request of Zhang Xun. Ni Sichong presided over the official establishment of the Association of Provincial Military Governors, the election of Zhang Xun as the organisation's leader (盟主), and the formulation of an eight-point programme that lashed out at both "rebellious elements" (暴亂份子) and the National Assembly for disrupting state affairs. On the 25th, Zhang Xun, Ni Sichong, and thirty four other members called for the resignation of the newly-appointed Foreign Minister Tang Shaoyi, who resigned the following the day, denouncing them.

On 9 January 1917, Zhang Xun, Jin Yunpeng, Xu Shuzheng, and others met for a third time in Xuzhou, this time to discuss their strategy to deal with the National Assembly.

In April 1917, neither President Li Yuanhong, the cabinet under Premier Duan Qirui, nor the National Assembly could resolve the debate surrounding a potential declaration of war on Germany, which would bring China into World War I. On the 25th, Duan convened a meeting of all provincial military governors and their representatives in Beijing, in an attempt to use the Army to force the National Assembly into declaring war. On 5 May, when the National Assembly convened to vote on the matter, Duan encouraged soldiers to organise vagrants and hooligans to intimidate the deputies, sparking public outrage. On the 13th, the Association of Provincial Military Governors organised a banquet to encourage provincial leaders to break with the Assembly, and most members of the National Assembly decided not to intervene. On the 19th, the Association slandered the National Assembly's draft constitution, saying it would lead to a "mob dictatorship" (暴民专政), and used this as a pretext to call for its dissolution.

On 21 May, Zhang Xun convened another meeting in Xuzhou to discuss the dismissal of Duan Qirui as premier by President Li Yuanhong. The conference discussed overthrowing Li. On the 26th, Ni Sichong, Civil Governor of Anhui Province, declared his support for Duan and the independence of his province; seven more provinces declared independence shortly thereafter. Li Yuanhong was forced to ask Zhang Xun to come to Beijing to mediate; Zhang entered the city with three thousand troops.

On 1 July, Zhang Xun launched a coup in Beijing, restoring Puyi, the abdicated Qing emperor, to the throne. Duan Qirui used the opportunity to defeat Zhang and reestablish his control over the central government by the 12th. Duan advertised his victory as "Republican Reconstruction" (共和再造), and abolished the preferential treatment of the imperial family, dissolved the National Assembly, sought aid from Japan, and enlisted the Beiyang Army in reestablishing unity through force, provoking civil war and attempting to eliminate the Constitutional Protection Junta established by Sun Yat-sen.

By the autumn of 1918, the conflict between the Zhili and Anhui cliques had intensified, and the Association of Provincial Military Governors divided and unceremoniously collapsed.