The Anhui Clique was largely a collection of military officers with connections to Duan Qirui, either due to family ties such as Wu Guangxin, being from the same locality such as Duan Zhigui, or having a teacher-student relationship such as Xu Shuzheng or Jin Yunpeng.[2] However, the Anhui Clique would grow to be defined by the policy of Unification By Force, which would was the strategy of uniting North and South China through military conquest rather than peaceful negotiation.[2] Their rivals in the Zhili Clique were opposed to Unification By Force, fracturing the Beijing governments of 1916 to 1920.[2]
Because the Anhui clique organized itself very early, it was more politically sophisticated than its warlord rivals, with an associated civilian wing being organised as the Anfu Club.
With Japanese support and the suppression of the Manchu Restoration in 1917, the Anhui clique became the most powerful faction in China from 1916 to 1920.
The Anhui clique advocated for a hardline approach during the Constitutional Protection War, giving the revolutionaries his political support as Duan Qirui sought to become the President of the Republic.
After the death of Yuan Shikai and his abdication of the Hongxiang Emperor the Beiyang government was restored to which Duan Qirui served as premier under the presidency of Li Yuanhong; Effectively giving Duan Qirui the leadership of China by controlling the weak President, the Clique would only rise in terms of power until 1920.
In 1919 the May Fourth Movement weakened their influence and eventually led to the Zhili–Anhui War in 1920 which saw the surprise defeat of the Anhui clique.[3]
In 1920 Duan Qirui resigned and the clique lacked national leadership for the next four years when all their provinces were eventually annexed by the Zhili clique by the summer of 1924. (Shandong was an anomaly, the Zhili clique appointed an Anhui general in 1923 there provided he remain neutral, see Shandong Problem. Zheng Shiqi ruled until 1925 when he transferred it to Fengtian's Zhang Zongchang per agreement with Duan.)[1]
After the Beijing Coup, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin picked Duan to lead a provisional government. Lacking any significant military power, he and his few remaining supporters played Feng and Zhang against each other, they removed him from power and his last followers joined the Fengtian clique.[3][1]
Political wing
The Anhui clique also had a political wing known as the Anfu Club (literally, Peace and Happiness Club, after a Beijing lane where they met; folk etymology claims it was a pun on Anhui and Fujian) which consisted of politicians that threw their fortune in with Duan.
Formed on 7 March 1918 by Xu Shuzheng and Wang Yitang, it ran for elections for the northern National Assembly and won three-fourths of the seats primarily because Anhui warlords bought the votes.
The Anfu Club was a highly disciplined party created to push Duan Qirui's agenda through legal means such as electing fellow party member Xu Shichang as President of the ROC.
The Anhui Clique, as opposed to their civilian partners in the Anfu Club, was primarily an association of generals and military governors.
Duan Qirui commanded an army independent from the Ministry of War, originally named the War Participation Army, which was funded and trained by the Japanese and consisted of around 50,000 troops. Qu Tongfeng commanded the 1st Division, Ma Liang commanded the 2nd Division, and Chen Wenyuan commanded the 3rd Division. There were also five additional mixed brigades, stationed in Luoyang, Zhangjiakou and the suburbs of Beijing.[4]
Within the Central Army, the official national army of the Beijing Government, several generals and their divisions were loyal to the Anhui Clique. The 9th and 13th Division stationed near Beijing were led by Anhui Clique generals, Wei Zonghan and Li Jincai respectively, and the 15th Division led by Liu Xun would defect to the Anhui Clique following the death of Zhili Clique leader Feng Guozhang.[5] Additionally, in 1919, the 4th, 5th, 8th and 10th Divisions were led by Anhui Clique officers and were stationed in Anhui Clique-loyal provinces, along with several other mixed brigades.[4]
The last significant component of the Anhui Clique was the provincial military governors and local armies. Wu Guangxin commanded the Upper Yangtze Garrison, which controlled several brigades and a division in Western Hubei.[4]Lu Yongxiang governed Zhejiang through the Zhejiang provincial army and He Fenglin served as the Military Commissioner of Shanghai.[4]Chen Shufan, the nominal governor of Shaanxi, controlled most of the South of his province with several local armies under his command.[5] The military governors of Shandong were subservient to Duan Qirui, although it was plagued by intra-clique rivalries due to Jin Yunpeng's influence in the province and Jin's rivalry with Xu Shuzheng, who had subordinates such as Ma Liang and Qu Yingguang in the province.[5]Ni Sichong, governor of Anhui, was a major contributor to the Anhui Clique, and he controlled two armies in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu.[5] The provinces of Gansu, Fujian and Zhang Jingyao's Hunan were reliant on the Anhui Clique and led by Anhui Clique governors. Other provinces such as Xinjiang, Shanxi, and Fengtian were politically associated with the Anhui Clique during 1918-1919 as their provincial delegations in the National Assembly were part of the Anfu Club.[2]
The Anhui Clique has received aid in the form of military equipment, advisors and more mostly from the Japanese, they had also received aid from the French and British, most notably in the form of warplanes and armoured cars.
The Anhui Clique purchased weaponry such as bolt-action rifles and ammunition from the United States, France and others.
^ abcdAndrew J Nathan (1976). Peking politics, 1918-1923: factionalism and the failure of constitutionalism. University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies. ISBN 978-0-89264-131-4.
