The Northern Warlord Regimes of Hunan and Hubei

Wu Peifu's reaction to being passed over for Hunan's military governorship reflects the importance this post had begun to assume in the structure of Chinese political power. In theory, military governors still held their positions by central appointment. Whether such appointments came from Beijing or Canton, they gave the governors a degree of legitimacy and justified their jurisdictional authority over provincial administrations. As such, the power of appointment still gave these rival governments some political leverage. Nonetheless, a military governor's power in fact rested on the forces actually under his control. Fearing to alienate men who held such power, central governments conceded a considerable degree of administrative autonomy to the military governors. By this means, military governors gained control over financial resources and political patronage that they could use to solidify their provincial political and military bases further. Thus, after an appointment was made, the central government's leverage as the dispenser of legitimacy decreased, while the military governor's autonomy increased. The account of Wang Zhanyuan's Hubei military governorship in Chapter 6 shows how such autonomy had already manifested itself during the Anti-Monarchical War. The outbreak of the North-South War strengthened the positions of military governors even further. Indeed, an irony of the 1917–18 north-south conflict was that while northern forces were supposedly fighting to extend central control over the south, northern military governors claiming allegiance to the Beijing government were nearly as autonomous as their southern counterparts. The effects were apparent, not only in the continued consolidation of Wang Zhanyuan's military governorship, but in the provincial regime constructed under Hunan's new military governor, Zhang Jingyao.

One obvious reflection of the increasing administrative power of the military governors was the continuing decline of civil governorships. As previously noted, Wang Zhanyuan had assumed Hubei's civil governorship in mid 1916 and resisted efforts, both by the central government and by Hubei political interests, to dislodge him from this post. Similarly, Zhang Jingyao received a concurrent appointment as Hunan's acting civil governor.^[4] Both men therefore claimed complete authority over both military and civil provincial administrations.

Wang eventually yielded up the civil governorship in late 1919, but he made sure that the post went to his own candidate, his former chief-of-staff He Peirong.^[5] All important provincial business meanwhile continued to be conducted at the military governor's office. Indeed, the staff of the civil governor's office was said to "only know there was a military governor, and not that there was a civil governor."^[6] Thus, civil governors, where they existed, were not the military governors' equals but served as their civil administrators. The centralizing stratagem that used civil governors to counterbalance the power of military governors had become a lost cause.

The loss of central power in Hubei and Hunan was evident in Beijing's weakening influence over local and provincial government appointments. In most cases, the central government was reduced to confirming candidates selected by the military governors. At the local level, Beijing effectively conceded total authority to select county magistrates and other local officials to the military governors.^[7] Thus, after his arrival in Hunan, Zhang Jingyao carried out a wholesale replacement of county magistrates with his own appointees.^[8] As a result of Wang Zhanyuan's preferential treatment of relatives and friends from his native province, over two-thirds of Hubei's county magistrates were Shandong natives.^[9] Beijing still made periodic, albeit increasingly ineffectual, attempts to place its own appointees in provincial-level offices. To maintain appearances, Wang continued to allow Beijing to fill some provincial posts. Nonetheless, he made sure that posts with real power, particularly financial positions, went to men he trusted. To this end, Wang usually drew these men from his own military staff.^[10] Thus, Wang's chief-of-staff, He Peirong, headed Hubei's Department of Government Affairs and Department of Finance before becoming civil governor.^[11] In September 1917, Wang asserted his control over the lucrative Wine and Tobacco Bureau by removing its centrally appointed head on charges of corruption. Wang then appointed his own chief secretary to the post and refused a Beijing-appointed replacement. Beijing was forced to yield to Wang's will.^[12] Zhang Jingyao was also known for placing Hunan's most important financial posts in the hands of his cronies. This not only ensured Zhang's control but resulted in a considerable amount of corruption.^[13] While the structure of civil administration remained intact, and continued to be staffed primarily by civil bureaucrats, it was effectively subordinated to the military governors.^[14]

The most important loss of central power to the military governors was in finances. In theory, most major taxes, including the land tax,

were classified national revenues. Except in specially authorized circumstances, these taxes were supposed to be forwarded directly to the central government. Since the 1911 Revolution, though, many provincial governments had retained the national revenues collected in their provinces for their own expenses. Yuan Shikai had some success in reviving provincial remittances, but they dropped off drastically again with his death. Although Beijing maintained its claim on these revenues, most military governors, including Wang and Zhang, retained increasing amounts of these funds in their provincial treasuries. One contemporary account noted that Wang's unauthorized appropriation of land, stamp, and commercial taxes, as well as wine, tobacco, and salt monopoly revenues, would have been a capital offense under the Qing dynasty. By this time, though, Beijing had no alternative but to accept Wang's actions as faits accomplis.^[15]

Most military governors justified their seizures of national revenues by claiming to use them for "national" expenses incurred at the provincial level. The most important of these expenses was the upkeep of armies carrying national designations, which the central government was theoretically supposed to support. The provincial expropriation of national revenues was, of course, one reason why Beijing had trouble meeting these obligations. By retaining national revenues, military governors created the conditions that justified their actions. Zhang Jingyao finally abandoned the fiction of maintaining separate "national" and "local" budgets altogether. In his eyes, the need "in this military era" to apply tax revenues directly to immediate military expenses made this distinction meaningless. Indeed, he claimed that Hunan's military expenses alone far exceeded the province's total income, in both national and local categories. Thus Zhang not only justified his retention of national taxes but demanded additional central funds to complete military payrolls.^[16] Hoping to create some degree of financial dependence, Beijing made efforts to provide such payrolls whenever funds were available. While such funding helped maintain formal ties of allegiance, it was never enough to ensure total control.

Other financial resources were also available to military governors aside from the retention of national taxes. The governors had jurisdictional authority over existing provincial or local taxes, and they asserted the right to institute new ones. Military governors also used their offices to raise funds in a variety of other ways. For example, both Wang and Zhang bolstered their treasuries by issuing bonds, printing paper currency, manipulating official exchange rates, and obtaining domestic and even foreign loans. Needless to say, their con-

trol over such resources also gave them considerable opportunities to line their own pockets.^[17] A number of excellent studies have outlined the details of warlord financing, and there is no need to duplicate this work.^[18] Nonetheless it is important to emphasize that the control of considerable financial resources by military governors was one basis for their particular political strength. At the same time, their mastery of these resources reveals not only the degree of their independence from central control but also their relative autonomy from social and political forces within their own provinces.

Given the political importance of military force, the fundamental concern of every military commander was the maintenance and expansion of his army. As military commanders like Wang and Zhang gained control over provincial administrations, they reordered governmental priorities to meet this basic need. Even if exaggerated, Zhang's claim that Hunan's military expenses exceeded the province's total income reflects the scope of the military claim on the provincial budget. This situation had two obvious effects. First, there was a constant demand not just to collect old taxes but to create new sources of revenue. Second, funds normally budgeted for civilian programs were increasingly shifted to pay military expenses. Both of these outcomes created conflicts with civilian interests.

Among the main casualties of growing military financial demands were the reform programs dearest to the civilian elite. Education was particularly hard hit. In both Hunan and Hubei, substantial portions of the funds budgeted for the operating expenses of schools or teachers' salaries were simply not paid or were expropriated to meet military expenses. A Hankou newspaper bemoaned that in contrast to Zhang Zhidong's late Qing governorship, when Hubei's educational system had outshone those of most provinces, "since the rise of the military, educational funds have been shifted to military expenses, and Hubei education has suffered a drastic decline."^[19] In Hunan the principals of Changsha's leading schools resigned in protest against Zhang Jingyao's failure to meet teachers' salaries for months on end. Even this failed to force Zhang to provide the funds owed.^[20] Other civilian programs also suffered from the priority given military needs. When one of Wang Zhanyuan's advisers sought his support to develop new factories and schools, Wang responded:

Look at the presidents and premiers of the central government and at the heads of each province. Which has given any thought to national construction? These past years I have had to work without rest, day and

night, attending to the large armies pressing Hubei's borders. When do I have time to pay attention to things like industry or education?^[21]

The contrast with earlier provincialist regimes, with their commitment to (if not always the ability to carry out) civilian reform programs, is nowhere clearer than in this statement.

Provincial assemblies in Hunan and Hubei remained one potential voice of opposition to the financial policies of the military governors. In the wake of Yuan Shikai's attempt to make himself emperor and Zhang Xun's failed Manchu restoration, the maintenance of assemblies allowed military governors to show their commitment to republican values. Like central-government appointments, the existence of assemblies gave provincial regimes a symbolic legitimacy, and both Wang and Zhang therefore allowed their provincial assemblies to continue to function. By the same token, the actual authority wielded by the provincial assemblies depended on what the military governors would allow them. In theory, the assemblies still claimed the right to pass provincial budgets. On this basis, they would at times speak out against financial irregularities, particularly the use of budgeted civilian funds for military expenses.^[22] The assemblies could do little, though, if the governors decided to ignore these protests. By creating negative publicity, opposition in the assemblies could be a nuisance. Wang dealt with this problem by putting forward his own approved, and well-funded, slate of candidates for provincial assembly elections. Nonetheless, the longer Wang remained in office the less he worried about the assembly's opposition. When he reached an impasse with the assembly over some issue, he generally ignored its protests and acted as he saw fit.^[23]

Chambers of commerce were another civilian organization that had some input into provincial government. Both Wang and Zhang regularly involved provincial chambers of commerce in the planning and implementation of financial measures. However, this was usually because the chambers themselves were the object of some new exaction. The chambers were, for example, asked to collect new taxes, organize merchant subscriptions for bond issues, or negotiate loans for the provincial government.^[24] Because their assistance was useful, or even needed, the chambers had some leeway to negotiate reductions in the amounts demanded or to propose less burdensome methods of collection. Ultimately, though, the threat of coercion was always present to ensure cooperation. For example, when the Hunan Chamber of

Commerce balked at loaning Zhang 400,000 yuan for troop pay, he warned that an "accident" might occur if his soldiers remained unpaid.^[25] In 1920, Wang used similar threats to extort several million yuan for troop pay from Hubei's Chamber of Commerce. He warned that if the full amount he sought was not forthcoming, "he could no longer take responsibility for local order." The threat here was not that his unpaid soldiers would stop keeping order, but that the soldiers themselves would riot.^[26]

Other civilian organizations, such as provincial education associations, had similar records of protests and negotiations with Zhang and Wang over a variety of political issues. Seeking to avoid adverse publicity, the military governors did not alienate such civilian groups unnecessarily. Nonetheless, military power, not the acquiescence of these groups, was the ultimate basis of the military governors' authority. When military needs conflicted with civilian interests, the military governors did not hesitate to ignore civilian opposition or force civilian compliance.

Under these circumstances, Jerome Ch'en's characterization of warlord regimes as "military-gentry coalitions" does not seem appropriate.^[27] During the Republic's first years, provincial regimes were certainly dominated by coalitions of civilian and military elites. The militarization of politics ended this partnership, however, by separating the interests of military commanders from those of their previous civilian allies. In provincial warlord governments, the maintenance of the warlord's military power became the primary goal of the regime. Thus, rather than representing civilian interests, civilian bureaucrats serving in warlord administrations were subordinated to fulfilling this military goal. There was still some convergence of warlord and elite interests in the preservation of order. Indeed, as in the case of Wang Zhanyuan, elite concern for order provided initial social support for military rule. The ability, or willingness, of warlord regimes to deliver on this promise, however, lessened as a result of the conflicts that warlordism itself generated. For example, civil wars exacerbated banditry by contributing to the general diffusion of weapons and the dispersal of defeated or disbanded soldiers.^[28] Meanwhile warlords concerned with preserving their own troops for political battles were reluctant to expend them to suppress banditry or local disorder. "The authorities are busy waging war and never consider this problem," one 1918 account of the spread of banditry lamented.^[29] The crowning irony was when warlords' troops themselves became one of the

greatest sources of disorder. Nothing reveals the divergence between the interests of the warlords and those of the civilian elite more than Wang and Zhang's use of threats of troop disorder to extract funds to support their military power.