Show and Tell 3: Training and Equipment for Warlord Armies

During the period of 1911-1927, various factions competed for power over China. These warlords had to negotiate major obstacles in order to build armies strong enough to dominate the others. In this, they were hampered by a military tradition in China that had been steadily declining for over half a century. Therefore, the warlords of the 1920s turned to outside influences for training and equipping their men in a modern fashion; in their haste to bring in as much hardware and knowledge as possible, Chinese warlords managed to concentrate a massively varied array of weapons in China, as well as forming a haven for Russian fugitives and Japanese spies.

Long before the fall of the Qing, the Chinese military had fallen woefully behind the rest of the world in military technology. The reforms of men like Yuan Shikai brought small numbers of weapons into the country, but not enough that one ubiquitous set of “standard” weapons existed. Rather, as Philip Jowett put it, “the disparate sources of the warlords’ arms supplies meant that just about every type of pistol, rifle, and machine gun available on the world arms market could be found in China during the 1910s and 1920s….”¹ In many cases, the weapons that foreign arms dealers were willing to sell most easily were leftovers from the First World War, such as the German Mauser 1888 and the Austro-Hungarian 1886 Mannlicher. Also sold in large numbers into China were the Russian 1891 Mosin-Nagant and the Japanese Arisaka Type 38.² All of these rifles were chambered in different calibers, making supply a bit of a nightmare. Unfortunately for the men who used them, many of these weapons had already been outdated by the time of the First World War.³ However, the relative obsolescence of the rifles mattered less when stacked up against the fact that it made them cheap and available.

However, the age of some of the weapons reached absurd levels. For example, the Chinese imported large quantities of old Russian arms as the Russian civil war ended, and one of the handguns that was commonly imported was the Smith and Wesson Russian Model. That Russian Model predates the ubiquitous 1872 Colt Peacemaker.⁴ In many ways, the handguns that Chinese warlord armies received were just as varied as their rifles, however in handguns a clear favorite emerged. While Japanese imports and German Lugers were popular, the ubiquitous weapon of the warlord troops was the 1896 Broomhandle Mauser.⁵ This weapon, and its fully automatic cousin, the Schnellfeuer, could almost be said to be the defining weapon of the warlord era.⁶

In addition to weapons, the warlords looked to the rest of the world for training. While they were quick to bring in any soldiers of fortune, two nationalities dominated the ranks of foreign advisors. These were White Russian refugees and Japanese officers.⁷ Thousands of White Russians joined the armies of northern warlords.⁸ These men brought with them a great deal of experience, as many had not only spent the past few years fighting the Bolsheviks and other forces in the Russian Civil War, but were also veterans of the Eastern Front of World War One.⁹ They also brought specific expertise, with armored trains being one of the technologies that they were most associated with.¹⁰

An important point to note is that the White Russians who came south to China were not exclusively fighting men; the fear of communist repression brought entire families over the border. While the men no doubt had the greatest influence on the warlord armies, it was by no means exclusive. One interesting example of this is the female nurse regiment recruited by Zang Zhongchang, which was comprised entirely of White Russian women.¹¹ Indeed, the lives and fates of White Russian refugees in the far east could be the subject of interesting future research.

Where the majority of Russian advisors were fleeing to China for their lives, Japanese advisors largely came because they were directed to do so. This allowed the Japanese government to send veritable spies into the various Chinese factions with complete ease.¹² Since the advisors brought modern weapons and knowledge with them, they were invariably welcomed by the warlords. Of course, in addition to helping the Chinese factions destroy themselves, the Japanese officers who helped organize them were in a perfect position to organize the various puppet armies that Japan would set up in Manchuria and across occupied China in the late 1930s and early 1940s.¹³

¹ Philip Jowett, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, Men-at-Arms 463 (Osprey Publishing, 2010), 20-22.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ “Smith & Wesson New Model Russian,” Imperial War Museums, accessed March 27, 2023, https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30029002.

⁵ Philip Jowett, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, Men-at-Arms 463 (Osprey Publishing, 2010), 20-22.

⁶ Philip Jowett, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, Men-at-Arms 463 (Osprey Publishing, 2010), 18-19.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Philip Jowett, Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49, Men-at-Arms 306 (Osprey Publishing, 1997), 15.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Philip Jowett, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, Men-at-Arms 463 (Osprey Publishing, 2010), 18-19.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Philip Jowett, Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49, Men-at-Arms 306 (Osprey Publishing, 1997), 36.

Works Consulted

Imperial War Museums. “Smith & Wesson New Model Russian.” Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30029002.

Jowett, Philip. Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49. Men-at-Arms 306. Osprey Publishing, 1997.

Jowett, Philip. Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30. Men-at-Arms 463. Osprey Publishing, 2010.