On the political stage of the Republic of China, whenever Chiang Kai-shek fought with other factions within the Kuomintang, he often won because he held military power. Similarly, when Chiang had armed conflicts with local powerful factions, they usually ended in victory.

On the political stage of the Republic of China, whenever Chiang Kai-shek fought with other factions within the Kuomintang, they often won because they held military power. Similarly, when Chiang had armed conflicts with local powerful factions, they usually ended in victory. There are two biggest differences between Chiang Kai-shek and the powerful local factions: First, Chiang Kai-shek controls the central power and his economic strength is far stronger than his opponents; second, under the Kuomintang's system of "ruling the country by party", Chiang Kai-shek has never given up "party power" .

Since the establishment of the Nanjing government in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek has experienced three resignations in the past 22 years, respectively during the military administration (August 1927), training administration (December 1931) and constitutional administration (January 1949). The first time he stepped down was when he resigned as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army less than four months after he founded the Nanjing National Government. The second time he stepped down was six months after the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China, when he resigned as chairman of the National Government and executive director. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force; he stepped down for the third time eight months after being elected as the first constitutional president of the Republic of China.

During these three times when he was out of office, although Chiang resigned from his nominal political position, he still actually held power through various means, especially military power, which was difficult for others to gain access to.

In January 1928, Chiang Kai-shek was reinstated as Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army and led the Second Northern Expedition. In view of his lack of strength, he had to divide the Northern Expeditionary Army into four group armies. Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren were appointed as commanders-in-chief of the four group armies. . After the success of the Second Northern Expedition, in addition to the above four military groups, plus Li Jishen's group in Guangzhou and Zhang Xueliang's group in the Northeast, it can be said that six major princes coexisted, and there were even more small princes in each province. The actual scope of control of the central government in Nanjing is only concentrated in a few provinces downstream of the Yangtze River. In order to accommodate the facts, the central government had to set up four political branches in Kaifeng (Feng Yuxiang), Taiyuan (Yan Xishan), Wuhan (Li Zongren), and Guangzhou (Li Jishen), and appointed Zhang Xueliang as the Northeast Security Commander to rule the three northeastern provinces.

In October 1929, the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang passed the "Organic Law of the National Government of the Republic of China", which stipulated that the highest power of the country lies in the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang; the National Government was reorganized and formally implemented a five-camera system, and adopted a new Chairman of the National Government, Chairman and Vice-Presidents of the Five Chambers. Candidates for the Prime Minister and State Council members, the list is as follows:

Chairman of the National Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force Chiang Kai-shek

President of the Executive Yuan Tan Yankai Vice President Feng Yuxiang

President of the Legislative Yuan Vice President Hu Hanmin Lin Sen

President of the Judicial Yuan Wang Chonghui Vice President Zhang Jikao

President of the Examination Court Dai Jitao Vice President Sun Ke

Supervisory Yuan Court Cai Yuanpei Vice President Chen Guofu

There are 17 members of the National Government. In addition to the above-mentioned Chairman of the National Government and the 11 presidents and deputy presidents of the Fifth Academy as ex-officio members, there are also He Yingqin (Director of the Military Training Department), Li Zongren (President of the Military Senate), Yang Shuzhuang (Minister of the Navy), Yan Xishan (Minister of the Interior), Li Jishen (Minister of the General Staff), Zhang Xueliang (Commander-in-Chief of the Northeast Frontier Defense Force). Among these 17 members of the national government, except for the 9 presidents and deputy presidents, the other 8 are military generals with heavy troops. This is a phenomenon that has never happened among previous members of the National Government since the establishment of the Guangzhou National Government. In this regard, American scholars commented: "In fact, this move is still an old practice of warlord politics: the central government awards corresponding positions to the warlords based on their strength and territory size. The result is to legalize and institutionalize the warlords' ability to tear the earth apart and become kings." The big warlords who hold important positions in the central government appoint their cronies as provincial chairpersons in their jurisdictions. It is equivalent to the military governor in the past. Furthermore, the establishment of political branches of the Kuomintang in Guangzhou, Wuhan, Kaifeng, Taiyuan and other places, with Li Jishen, Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan as chairmen respectively, is also a de facto recognition of the status quo of warlords ceding territory and ruling the roost. "This is obviously inconsistent with the idea of ​​"ruling the country by the party" advertised by the Kuomintang. But this situation fully reflects the true state of China's political situation: Although Chiang Kai-shek controls the central power, he not only has no control over the other five major groups militarily, but also lacks political appeal.If he wants to truly unify the country, he must use "party power" to weaken "military power" in various places. The "ruling the country by party" that Hu Hanmin advertised was exactly the strength that he needed most but that other local princes did not possess.

According to the provisions of the "Political Training Program" drafted by Hu Hanmin, the Kuomintang's status and power in the country's political life have been greatly improved. It provides a legal basis for the Kuomintang's "ruling the country by the party." After that, Chiang Kai-shek first demanded to change the military separatist situation formed after the Northern Expedition and asked the central government to take back the power of local political branches. The Fifth Plenary Session of the Second Central Committee of the Communist Party of China resolved that “all political sub-committees in all regions shall be cancelled, by the end of this year.” Before the political sub-committees were cancelled, the central government also restricted their power, stipulating that local governments “may not issue orders to the outside world in the name of the sub-committee, nor use the name of the sub-committee to issue orders to the outside world.” Nominately appoint and remove personnel within that specific area." This move is intended to use the name of the party to take back the personnel appointment and dismissal rights originally controlled by the generals of various military groups. At the same time, the plenary session also passed the "Arrangement of Military Cases", declaring that it would "abolish all the old local-based and individual-centered systems and habits" and emphasized that "military, political and military orders must be absolutely unified." This is actually a political preparation for the central government to "cut down the vassal state".

In January 1929, Chiang Kai-shek presided over a national military demobilization meeting. The demobilization plan mainly targeted the three group armies of Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and Li Zongren formed in the late Northern Expedition and the Eighth Route Army commanded by Li Jishen, but rarely mentioned the demobilization of the First Group Army. , which naturally caused dissatisfaction among everyone. Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Jishen and others left without saying goodbye. "The so-called reorganization and dispatch even broke up without any results." Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek chose the Gui clan as his first target.

At this time, the area controlled by the Guangxi clique was the largest in its history: Li Zongren and Li Jishen controlled the Wuhan and Guangzhou political branches respectively. Since September 1927, the power of the Guangxi faction has been growing day by day. Li Jishen led the Guangdong army to control Guangdong and Guangxi with Gui people. During this period, although Zhang Fakui launched a campaign to drive out Li, he was quickly defeated by Li's subordinates Chen Mingshu , Chen Jitang and Gui. It was pacified by Huang Shaohong. Li Zongren in Nanjing launched a campaign against Tang Shengzhi in the name of a special committee, and sent Bai Chongxi into Hunan to collect Tang Shengzhi's surrendered troops. There were originally four armies in the Tang Dynasty. Except for He Jian's 35th Army, which was still stationed in Hunan, the other three armies were led by Guangxi generals Li Pinxian, Liao Lei, and Ye Qi respectively, and they were combined into the First Army. The Twelfth Route Army was led by Bai Chongxi to the north, while Li Zongren was based in Wuhan and controlled the two lakes. In June 1928, Fengjun withdrew from the Pass, and Zhang Zongchang's Zhilu Allied Forces still occupied the Tangshan and Luanzhou areas east of Peiping. In August, Bai Chongxi led the 12th Route Army to attack successfully, and then led his troops to station in the area from Jidong to Shanhaiguan. At that time, it was widely rumored that Bai Chongxi wanted to "seize the weapons of the Third Army of Pingjin" and monopolize Peiping. In his message to Yan Xishan, Shang Zhen even pointed out that Bai Chongxi "carved up the heart of Hebei, which is known to everyone on the road."

In Chiang Kai-shek's view, all this was undoubtedly the result of the Guangxi clique forming a three-sided siege on the Nanjing government from Guangdong and Guangxi (Li Jishen, Huang Shaohong), Lianghu (Li Zongren) to North China (Bai Chongxi). One of the "culprits" who forced Chiang to step down during the Ning-Han cooperation was Li and Bai from the Guangxi clique. Among the five major military groups mentioned above, Zhang Xueliang's faction returned to the Northeast soon, and there is no threat to Chiang for the time being. There was a grudge between Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, but Chiang used the central power he controlled to let Yan Xishan occupy Pingjin, thereby provoking conflicts between Yan and Feng. Therefore, the military group Chiang Kai-shek was most eager to attack was the Guangxi clique.

After the reorganization meeting broke up unhappy, in February 1929, the Wuhan Political Branch controlled by the Guangxi clique ordered the removal of Lu Diping, chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, from his post without authorization, and sent troops to Changsha. This incident provided an excellent excuse for Chiang Kai-shek to attack Li Zongren.

html In March, the Kuomintang held its third congress in Nanjing. The congress authorized Chiang Kai-shek to use force to attack the Guangxi clique that was proclaiming troops and causing chaos in Wuhan.At that time, some elders within the party did not agree. Hu Hanmin strongly stated that the move was "inevitable" and further said: "This time the crusade against the Guangxi clique, from the party's standpoint, is to use revolutionary forces to eliminate counter-revolutionary forces. "From the government's standpoint, it is for the central government to attack the rebel generals who are trying to rebel." Hu Hanmin, as the chairman of the conference, proposed that Li Zongren and other Guangxi generals be expelled from the party. This provided a legal basis for Chiang Kai-shek to carry out military crusade and attack dissidents.

During the central government's campaign for Guangxi, another major achievement of Hu Hanmin was to help Chiang Kai-shek stabilize Guangdong's military power. As Chen Gongbo said, "The headquarters of the Guangxi clique is in Guangdong and Guangxi, and the main force of Guangxi and Guangxi is in Guangdong." The armed forces Li Jishen had at that time were mainly Chen Mingshu and Chen Jitang. Chen Mingshu has always had a close relationship with Chiang, while Chen Jitang relied on the promotion of Hu Hanmin, Gu Yingfen and others to get where he is today, so he obeyed the advice of Hu, Gu and others. Before Chiang Kai-shek's crusade against the Guangxi clique, he first deceived Li Jishen into Nanjing through Wu Zhihui and detained him in Tangshan. At that time, the military and political personnel of Guangdong Province, most of whom were Li Zhi's cronies, were deeply dissatisfied and called the central government to question him. Chiang used Hu Hanmin, Wang Chonghui, Gu Yingfen and other Cantonese elders to secretly communicate with Chen Jitang and "instruct him to protect the country and the people." Later, Chen and Chen jointly sent a telegram to the central government stating: "Guangdong is a province under the central government's rule" and "the army of Guangdong Province is owned by the party and state and is not for the command and driving of one faction or another." The transformation of Erchen made the Guangxi clique lose its reliance and accelerated the military collapse of the Guangxi clique.

After the Jiang-Gui War broke out, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Tang Shengzhi, who had opposed him during the Ning-Han split, to go to North China to alienate the Twelfth Route Army led by Bai Chongxi. This force was mainly collected by the Guangxi clique during its crusade against Tang Shengzhi after the cooperation between Ning and Han. Although Tang Shengzhi has been electrified to step down and hand over military power, he still has a certain influence on the old army. As soon as he arrived in North China, he told his old troops: "On the order of Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek, I came to take over the units of the Fourth Army garrisoned in peace." As a result, the old members of the Tang family turned against Tang in vain. At the same time, Chiang used Yu Zuobai, who had deep conflicts with Li and Bai, to persuade Li Mingrui (Yu's cousin), the commander of the First Division of the Seventh Army, the main force of the Guangxi faction in Wuhan, to defect. When the war between the Central Army and the Guangxi Clique army was about to break out, Li Mingrui suddenly announced in front of the battle line that he would obey the Central Committee and return to Wuhan, causing the Guangxi Clique's troops in the two lakes to quickly collapse.

In the following more than a year, the Nanjing Central Committee controlled by Chiang Kai-shek, in the name of unifying the country, formed different combinations of local powerful factions such as Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohong, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Tang Shengzhi, Zhang Fakui, Shiyousan, etc. Or jointly launched countless civil wars , and the fight was dark and dark. On the big stage of modern China, "heroes" from all walks of life have appeared one after another. Just as you finish singing, I will appear again. Sometimes I'm already on stage before you even get off the stage, making people dazzled and dumbfounded. For example, after the Jiang-Gui War in October 1929, Chiang Kai-shek pointed the finger at Feng Yuxiang. The person who served as the vanguard against Feng was Tang Shengzhi, who was the most vehement anti-Chiang during the split of Ning-Han. Tang Shengzhi had just taken back his old troops in compliance with Jiang's order. He wanted to welcome Wang to rebel against Chiang, but he incredibly decided to defeat Feng first and then rebel against Chiang. He once said to his subordinate Li Pinxian: "Now our army has been ordered by Commander-in-Chief Chiang to attack Luoyang Feng Jun attacked, but Mr. Wang Jingwei is also what we want to support. At present, there is still a dispute between Wang and Feng. There is no cooperation. My idea is to defeat Feng's army and occupy Shaanxi first, and then ask you to take charge of everything in Guanzhong. I will lead my own army in Henan to declare independence and ask Mr. Wang to return to China and take charge. "

What is equally ridiculous is accepting Chiang Kai-shek. Yu Zuobai, who was ordered to instigate rebellion against Li Mingrui, was later appointed chairman of the Guangxi Provincial Government. After Yu led his troops back to Guangxi from Lianghu, he immediately raised an anti-Chiang flag. After Yu Zuobai failed, Zhang Fakui rebelled against Chiang Kai-shek in Yichang, and he was joined by Huang Shaohong, his old enemy from the Guangxi clique. Since they were all anti-Chiang, they had to first attack the "friendly forces" who were also anti-Chiang. No wonder Chiang Kai-shek was able to defeat them all. Yan Xishan accepted the post of deputy commander-in-chief of the navy, army and air force appointed by Chiang when Chiang Kai-shek fought against Feng Yuxiang, and placed the defeated Feng Yuxiang under house arrest in Shanxi.But within two months, Yan raised the banner of anti-Chiang again, leading to a larger-scale Central Plains war . As an American scholar said: "In short, China's warlordism remains the same, except that the warlords have become senior officials of the National Government." The way warlords get along with each other is also like the " game theory" of international politics. ", the motivations for forming alliances and splitting with each other are mostly out of snobbish considerations, and "preserving strength" is always the top priority for themselves.

At this time, only Hu Hanmin always stood by Chiang Kai-shek. Whenever there was a war, Hu would call and denounce without exception. During the war, Chiang commanded operations on the front line, while Hu presided over party and government affairs in Nanjing and maintained the rear. Chiang and Hu cooperated very well, so Chiang had no worries. At that time, without Hu supporting Chiang in Nanjing, it would have been difficult for Chiang to be so adept militarily and politically. Hu Hanmin's role is as praised by Wu Zhihui: "In conquering Guangxi, his contribution goes beyond words; in dealing with Yan Feng, his contribution comes first in defense."

After the self-organizing meeting, the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and the local powerful factions The conflict broke out across the board and evolved into a series of armed conflicts and successive years of melee. Among them, the largest scale and impact was the Central Plains War in 1930. In this war, those who stood against Chiang were not only Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren, but also party veteran Wang Jingwei and the Xishan Conference Faction. When Chiang Kai-shek was fighting at the front, it was the Legislative Yuan that presided over the central power in Nanjing for him. President Hu Hanmin and President of the Executive Yuan Tan Yankai.

On September 18, 1930, when the two sides were fighting fiercely in the Central Plains and the outcome was hard to decide, Zhang Xueliang led the main force of the Northeast Army into the Pass and announced his support for the Nanjing Central Committee, winning the Central Plains War for Chiang Kai-shek. In return, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Zhang Xueliang as deputy commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and air force, assigned the territory north of the Yellow River to Zhang Xueliang, and tasked Zhang Xueliang with reorganizing the remnants of the Jin clique and the Northwest Army. The Northeast Army's sphere of influence exceeded that of the Beiyang Fengclan Zhang Zuolin era and reached its historical peak.

Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek detained Hu Hanmin due to a legal dispute, triggering a confrontation between Ningxia and Guangdong. Later, due to the outbreak of the September 18th Incident, Ningxia and Guangdong were forced to negotiate peace. After being released, Hu Hanmin insisted on forcing Chiang to resign in order to weaken the power of the Chiang family and avenge his imprisonment. Although Wang Jingwei once formed an anti-Chiang alliance with Hu Hanmin, because Wang and Hu lacked the basis for sincere cooperation, they had to jointly recommend Sun Ke to take charge. After that, Chiang used various means to finally divide the Wang-Hu alliance, forming a new situation of Chiang-Wang cooperation.

Faced with the complicated conflicts within the party, Hu Hanmin had to admit that his hope of taking over Nanjing was extremely slim. Although Chiang Kai-shek has resigned from power, the military power in Chiang's hands has not been weakened, and his political influence is still very great. In addition, the cooperation between Chiang and Wang has gradually formed, and Hu's power is even weaker. Therefore, after Hu Hanmin returned to Guangzhou, he planned to build Guangdong and Guangxi into his own base. He changed his past attitude of advocating centralization and put forward the theory of "equal power". He publicly declared: "The Manchu and Qing dynasties died because of centralization, Yuan Shikai died because of centralization, and today's people use centralization to cause chaos." "I oppose centralization because I advocate equal power." After that, under Hu Hanmin's leadership, Under the instruction of the Guangzhou Kuomintang’s Four Major Passed the "Implementing Equalization of Power for Co-governance Case" and decided to establish the Southwest Executive Department of the Kuomintang and the Southwest Political Affairs Committee of the National Government in Guangzhou to handle party and government affairs in the Southwest on behalf of the Central Party Headquarters and the National Government, making it responsible for half of the central government in Nanjing. Legalize the state of independence in order to confront Chiang Kai-shek.

However, Chen Jitang, the leader of Guangdong's powerful faction who was the most reliable in Hu Hanmin's eyes at this time, was actually not reliable. The reason why he supported Hu Hanmin was simply to use Hu's prestige within the party to maintain and expand his power in Guangdong and his status as the "Southern King". He did not want Hu Hanmin to really command everything on his head. His attitude towards Hu can be described as "respecting him like a god and guarding him like a robber." Chen Jitang always hindered Hu Hanmin's various plans to establish an anti-Chiang base in Guangdong. The death of Gu Yingfen deprived Hu of a figure who could restrain Chen Jitang. Hu Hanmin, who had suffered enough from Chiang Kai-shek, naturally did not want to experience this again."Although Hu did not abandon Bonan's Guangzhou government, he was unable to cooperate in person. He could only lead it remotely from Miaokao Terrace in Hong Kong." Hu hoped to use the banner of the Southwest Executive Department to control Guangdong and Guangxi and take advantage of the conflicts between the leaders of the southwest provinces and Chiang Kai-shek. Establish new alliances in the southwest to strengthen the anti-Chiang forces, hoping to "expand from the southwest to central China, north China, northwest, east China, west China , northeast, inner and outer Mongolia, and carry out more progressive transformation in organization." For this reason, Hu Hanmin actively organized the "New Kuomintang" and published the "Three People's Principles Monthly", flaunting himself as the orthodox Kuomintang, in order to compete with the Nanjing Central Branch. However, Hu Hanmin never openly challenged the legitimacy of the Nanjing Central Committee.

Although the confrontation between Ning and Guangdong once forced Chiang Kai-shek to resign and established the pro-Hu regime of Sun Ke, the Sun Ke cabinet lacked the support of the Chiang and Wang factions and lacked the strength itself. Soon, it was at a loss in finance and diplomacy. It lasted for a month and then died. The political views of Sun Ke's faction were originally inclined towards Hu Hanmin. But at this time, Hu Yixin only wanted to control Guangdong and Guangxi, maintain the semi-independence of the southwest, and had no intention of returning to Nanjing. However, the powerful Chen Jitang was not willing at all to let Sun Ke divide his power in Guangdong. Therefore, Sun and Chen could not cooperate. As early as during the Extraordinary Meeting, the two factions were incompatible with each other over their competition for naval and air power. Fu Bingchang, Sun's close confidant, once made it clear that "this 'local warlord' should not be praised."

Although Sun Ke hated Wang Jingwei for taking away his position as President of the Executive Yuan, and expressed dissatisfaction with Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, the high position of President of the Legislative Yuan was still quite attractive to Sun. After weighing the pros and cons, Sun Ke finally returned to Nanjing and took charge of the post of President of the Legislative Yuan that Hu Hanmin had held for a long time. Liang Hancao, an important figure from the prince faction, was appointed as Secretary-General. Wu Shangying , Fu Bingchang, Chen Zhaoying were appointed as the Legislative Yuan's economic and political affairs department. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Military Committee. For more than ten years since then, the Legislative Yuan has become the main political stage and stronghold of Sun Ke's faction.

The Xishan Conference faction has been away from the core circle of the Kuomintang's rule for a long time since the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang. After the Fourth National Congress of the Kuomintang, all leaders of the Xishan Conference faction restored their membership in the party and returned to the party under the call of unity to resist aggression. Qin Zhen, Juzheng, Xie Chi, Xu Chongzhi, Xiong Kewu and others were awarded high positions, or served as president and vice president of the fifth academy, or were elected as members of the national government. Although these people are veterans of the Kuomintang, they have no strength themselves. Even though the positions assigned to them are all in name only, they are happy to end their lives there. From then on, the Xishan Conference faction ceased to exist in the Kuomintang factional struggle. After the founding of the Republic, not a single important member of the Xishan faction defected to the new regime. Although they did not willingly succumb to Chiang Kai-shek's centralized rule, they all insisted on anti-communism, which was the only thing seen among other factions of the Kuomintang.

In early 1932, the newly established Military Commission with the cooperation of Jiang and Wang accommodated almost all local military leaders who had armed themselves against Chiang. Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, Tang Shengzhi, Chen Jitang and others were all elected as members of the Military Commission, with the exception of Zhang Fakui. During the peace talks between Ning and Guangdong, Zhang Fakui, under the instruction of Wang Jingwei, prompted the Fourth Army to leave Guangxi and played a key role in the cooperation between Jiang and Wang. After Wang became President of the Executive Yuan, he avoided seeing Zhang Fakui in order to show his sincere cooperation with Chiang Kai-shek. The Fourth Army was finally ordered to be transferred to Jiangxi to "suppress communism", and Zhang was forced to accept a 100,000 yuan overseas study fee from Chiang Kai-shek to go to Europe for inspection. From then on, Wang and Zhang broke up, which also ended the history of more than two years of Zhang Guijun's coalition against Chiang Kai-shek.

Through the confrontation between Ning and Guangdong, Chiang Kai-shek knew that his position in the party did not yet have the ability to fight against Wang and Hu at the same time. Since then, he has repeatedly reflected in his diary on the detainment of Hu: "After the rebellion of Yan and Feng, we should take advantage of the remaining power of the victory to actively unify the military, civilian, financial and political affairs of the provinces, and be humble and cooperative within the central government, and treat Hu Te If we give them trust and respect and let the President of the Republic of China give them a hand, then the 20-year-old Hu case will not happen and the internal affairs will be stable." He also reminded himself that "we must not make the same mistakes as the winter of the 19th year of the Republic of China."Therefore, after the Chiang Kai-shek cooperation government was formed, he changed his past arrogant practice of holding many positions such as Chairman of the National Government, Chairman of the Central Political Council, President of the Executive Yuan, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and became a full-time member of the Military Commission. A long post and a firm grip on military power. The word "Chairman" became Chiang Kai-shek's special title for a long time. Lin Sen served as the President of the State Council, and the President of the Executive Yuan was given to Wang Jingwei. The Central Political Council was also chaired by Chiang, Wang, and Hu in turns. At the same time, Chiang also accommodated many opponents within the party in the past to join the new regime.

Although Hu Hanmin continued to be an "opposition" and insisted on resisting Japan and opposing Chiang Kai-shek, and called for "equal power", he was never able to form a new anti-Chiang wave. The Southwest Executive Department and the Southwest Political Affairs Committee controlled by Hu had to always express their obedience to the central government in form. This shows that the anti-Chiang forces of various factions are much weaker economically than Chiang Kai-shek, who is supported by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang plutocrats. They do not have the support of European and American powers in diplomacy, and their military strength is not as strong as Chiang. No matter what faction, it is impossible to break away from Chiang Kai-shek. Take power independently.

Although there have been three smaller-scale armed anti-Chiang incidents since then, namely the Fujian Incident led by Chen Mingshu in 1933, the Chahar Anti-Japanese Allied Army led by Feng Yuxiang, and The Guangdong and Guangxi Incident led by Chen Jitang and Li Zongren in 1936 was initiated by local powerful factions alone. It lacked widespread support from within the party and had no overall impact. It quickly collapsed under the force of Chiang Kai-shek. After that, Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of the opportunity of "suppressing the Communists" and led his troops into the southwest and northwest. Local powerful factions such as He Jian in Hunan, Liu Xiang in Sichuan, Longyun in Yunnan, and Ma Jiajun in the northwest expressed their allegiance to the central government. In 1942, Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of the outbreak of the Soviet-German War to surrender the "King of Xinjiang" Sheng Shicai who had long been pro-Soviet.

With the mutual compromise between the various factions within the Kuomintang, it was difficult to form a unified anti-Chiang foundation within the party, and a situation in which Chiang Kai-shek was the leader and the various factions jointly ruled was gradually established. Around the Fifth National Congress of the Kuomintang at the end of 1935, due to Japan's intensified invasion of North China, the national crisis was unprecedentedly profound. The call for the entire nation to unite to resist Japan became increasingly louder, and Chiang Kai-shek's domestic reputation gradually increased. At that time, academic leader Hu Shi once commented: "It is a fact that Mr. Chiang has become a nationally recognized leader, because no one else can compete with him for the position of leader." Although at this time, no one in the local powerful factions and party leaders was anymore He had the strength to challenge Chiang, but Chiang knew that in terms of his historical status within the party, he had not yet reached the point where he could speak for himself. He also learned the lesson of being dismissed twice and no longer cared about his status. He personally went to Taiyuan, Shanxi and Taishan, Shandong, and invited Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang to Nanjing to attend the Wuquan Conference.

At this Fifth National Congress, some representatives proposed "Please elect Comrade Chiang as the leader of our party" and "Our party should resume the prime ministerial process", but Chiang Kai-shek rejected them. Lin Sen continued to serve as the chairman of the National Government. The two positions of chairman of the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang and chairman of the Central Political Conference elected by the congress were handed over to Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei respectively by Chiang Kai-shek, while he was willing to serve as the vice chairman of these two institutions. Seize the military power and become the de facto leader.

In May 1936, Hu Hanmin passed away in Guangzhou, and Chiang Kai-shek's status was virtually improved. Half a year later, he wrote in his diary: "In the past, I only regarded myself as a hero, but did not want to treat myself as a sage. Today, I regard myself as a sage, and I do not want to treat myself as a hero." After the Xi'an Incident, due to the No one can replace Chiang to realize the all-out war of resistance, so the CCP advocates a peaceful solution. It was not until the second year after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War that Chiang Kai-shek was elected president of the Kuomintang at the Provisional National Congress of the Kuomintang, with Wang Jingwei as vice president. Soon after Wang Jingwei surrendered and was expelled from the party, Chiang finally became the sole leader of the party, completely completing the leadership succession issue in the post-Sun Yat-sen era. Since then, the factional conflicts within the Kuomintang have mainly manifested themselves as conflicts between various factions under the arbitrary control of Chiang Kai-shek.