Warlord Era of Tangkuo (1913-1940)

The First Republic and the Reform Government of the South

Having lost parts of the south, the Jin Empire quickly became unpopular. Despite successful modernisation in the army and in parts of the government administration, the Jin dynasty had to rely more and more on the allegiance of capable military officers. In 1903, a rebellion led by the influential and republican Tanggu Reform Party, (Tangg'o Halandang), was followed by a coup in Tukdan by generals Liao Bahai, Chen Yi, and Puchan Jogosang, who had pledged their allegiance to the republican cause in the hopes it would give them power. The Tanggu Reform Party, led by Ce Yangha, made the necessary decision of giving many of these generals offices and titles within the fledgling republic, as these generals had the support of the army, and could easily conduct their own coup. In the 1904 elections, Liao Bahai and Chen Yi organised the assassination of the Tanggu Reform Party candidate Jang Fuguzhi, and installed themselves as President and Vice-President. Liao and Chen ruled as a diarchy, and set about centralising the country, which resulted in revolts from many of the provincial governors and generals, beginning the Warlord Period of Tangkuo.

Ce Yangha and many of his fellow reformers fled south, managing to cement control around ... with the help of warlords in 1906 and 1910, and set up successive rival governments to the diarchy in government in Tukdan, re-establishing the Tangg'o Halandang and declaring themselves the restored Republic of Tangkuo in October 1910. However, the international community saw the diarchy in Tukdan as the legitimate government. As such, the Reform Party's rule in ... is known as the Reform Government. Ce's dream was to unify Tangkuo by launching an expedition against the diarchy in the north. However, Ce lacked the military support and funding to turn it into a reality. So Ce began to reform ... into a "model province", improving the province's infrastructure and creating local assemblies. Ce was inspired by western governments and other revolutionaries across Yidao when formulating his own political theories, such as the People's Four Principles; National Unity, Revolution/Reform, Democracy, and Redistribution. The People's Four Principles would shape the ideologies of all parties of the Reform Government, as well as democracy in Tangkuo as a whole.

Ce died in 1919, after years of poor health. Over the next few years, the Reform Government juggled leaders, struggling to cement a new President, until the ascension of General Kay Mingshu. Kay, despite coming from a military background, managed to unite the majority of the Reform Government into an United Front in preparations for an expedition north. Despite this, there were tensions. Kay, despite being a member of the right-wing of the Halandang himself, executed the right-wing politician, Shen Songyao, who was rumoured to be behind the assassination of ..., one of the leaders of the Halandang's left wing. By 1922, the Reform Government in the south had managed to gather enough military support and funding, aided by socialist revolutionaries and theorists from Asura, to engage in an expedition north.

At this time the northern warlords had been engaging with each other in intermittent warfare. The Diarchy of the Bodin Clique had collapsed in 1908, with the deposition of Liao at the hands of a coup led by military genius Cai Hesun. Chen Yi fled to start his own clique in ... , while the governor of ..., Ning Hasuran, reformed his government to be one of the most powerful in the country. Ning, backed by ..., had ambitions to control all of Tangkuo. The aftermath of all this squabbling has sapped all legitimacy from what remains to the central government in Tukdan. In March 1922, the forces of the Halandang’s National Revolutionary Army surged northwards toward the cities of Šangji, Dandong, and Huludao, aiming from there to take Daijuhu, Šangrao, and eventually Tukdan. Foreign powers, who intermittently supported various sides in Tangkuo’s internal conflicts, looked on nervously. The northern warlords had never been entirely amenable to their goals, which are mainly exploitative, but they were typically reliable factors with reliable interests. The Halandang and their National Revolutionary Army were something new, unifying two otherwise opposed political factions: A nationalist right wing, under Kay Mingshu, and a socialist wing, under Sen Kunuma. The Halandang, at least partially funded by socialist organisations in Asura, was seen as a dire threat by many, including ... .

The seeds for intervention in ... were planted at the Siege of Huludao, the last standing of Dandong’s two neighboring cities, the others having fallen just months earlier in August 1922. The continued survival of the city's garrison was a thorn in Kay Mingshu's side. He counted on a swift victory, and while the capture of Šangji to the east was met with praise, the significance of Huludao as the birthplace of the revolution against the Jin possessed the perfect propaganda piece to legitimise the Halandang's Northern Expedition. When Kay delivered an ultimatum to the powers demanding that they withdraw their gunboats from the area, most decided on a policy of passive defiance, but ... instead began supplying the Huludao garrison with badly needed food under the pretense of delivering "postage". ... now had a basis to escalate the conflict, and called Kay's bluff. Further escalation would risk further intervention, but Kay gambled that this pretense is the extent of ... intervention, and that a true victory lay elsewhere nearby.

Instead of doubling down, Kay left the siege to his subordinates, and proceeded northwards from Huludao towards Daijuhu in October 1922, aiming to acquire his essential victory there. The old southern capital made for an equally good stage for the Halandang to announce the rebirth of Tangkuo. the ... decided to act decisively and dispatched two forces, the first invading the Halandang's provisional capital at ..., and the second moving south from ... into Zangwu Province. A major battle breaks out in the vicinity of ... in early 1923, pitching the core of the National Revolutionary Army against the forces of warlord Puchan Jogosang, supported by ... reinforcements from ... . Kay suffered a decisive defeat.

With the capture of the Halandang's provisional capital, and denied any major propaganda victory, talk of desertion begins to spread throughout the ranks of Halandang forces in ..., ..., and ... . Once scattered reports begin to arrive from Kay's retreating forces in the east, this only worsens, and chaos ensues as various units defect, desert, or outright disintegrate. Kay Mingshu was held personally responsible for the army's failures, and on the 9th of March 1923 was assassinated by a subordinate in revenge for his earlier elimination of competing conservative ideologue Shen Songyao. Much of the left-wing leadership under Sen Kunuma fled abroad as warlord armies marched south, either to ... or to newly established socialist regimes nearby. Some units scatter, with a number making their way to ..., while other forces stubbornly hold out, but the last major NRA force in the East surrenders in April. Halandang activists retreated into communes in the mountains and countryside, where they continued for the next decade to ferment rebellion.

Kay's death dealt a mortal blow to the Halandang's right wing, which fractured and broke apart not long after. Its left wing entered the Northern Expedition stronger, and exited as the organization's sole politically coherent component.

The League of Four Provinces

The League of Four Provinces, sometimes referred to as the Southern Bodin Clique, was a loose confederation of Tanggu provincial governments centered around its leader, League-Marshal Puchan Jogosang, who declared its formation in 1929. The Four Provinces were defined by their close association with, and formal subservience to, the Central Government in Tukdan, paired with their desire to maintain a high degree of functional autonomy. Beyond the advantage of their collective strength, this seemingly contradictory status was enabled by a series of informal agreements with the Independent Cities, which provided material aid in return for land-leasing rights and other privileges across the League.

Due to its status as a regional confederation of military governments with even fewer democratic commitments than the national-level Jin or Hoji governments, the League of Four Provinces could be considered a consensus-driven oligarchy at best and a kleptocratic dictatorship at worst. None of its internal factions were organized political parties, and were instead a mix of both formal and informal organizations better resembling interest groups or lobbies. The vast majority of power was held by the provincial governors, topped only by the League-Marshal himself. Power struggles between these governors and the League-Marshal, as well as between the governors themselves, were not uncommon and surfaced prominently during the 1932 Takushan Uprising. Soldiers and officials at almost every level of the hierarchy, many already predisposed to corruption, became complicit in everything from arms smuggling to the stolen antiquities trade. As its generals grew fat and rich, the League’s popular support plummeted, culminating in the bloody affair later known as the “Takushan Uprising”.

By 1934 a combination of restlessness and disgust at blatant corruption had spurred insurrectionist forces seeking to restore democracy back into action, and in alignment with agrarian communist remnants in the countryside, they launched a general uprising in and around Takushan; sparking similar risings in Daijuhu, Wuhan, and several cities along the Southeastern Coast. Though the movement floundered and failed within a matter of weeks, crushed in large part thanks to a vicious crackdown in Takushan by Yen General Chen Yi, it is considered by many to have set the stage for future conflicts in Tangkuo. The mass centralization of the League around League-Marshal Puchan Jogosang meant that it collapsed in 1936 with his violent death when his train carriage exploded in an act of sabotage. The League broke up into several cliques as a result, only to be swept up by the resurgent Second Republic and the emerging Tanggu People's Republic, whose leader Sen Kunuma, returned from exile in Midrasia after hearing of the collapse.

The Independent Cities

The term, "Independent Cities" to refer to the treaty ports and cities that were once under joint control of several world powers is something of a misnomer. The Independent Cities were de facto independent in their own affairs, and existed as a sort of confederation between the wealthy port cities of eastern Tangkuo, but only existed in order to expand profits and influence of other world powers owning interests in Tangkuo and Yidao in general. Initially, the Independent Cities flourished, not only through trade with foreign powers but also thanks to smuggling people, drugs, and weapons into Tangkuo. By the 1930s, recent events had caused the Independent economy to collapse, therefore leading to high crime rates. Corruption had caused police forces to be minimal and lobbyists for crime groups to be all over the government. The Independent Cities was initially backed by foreign powers, but as profits started to dry up and economic instability wracked the world, they were left to their own fate. By the time of the Tanggu Civil War, they had been forced to concede much of their territory, including the cities of Boli and Yingkou for profit, before a coup d'etat by local officers ended the Independent Mandate, and the remaining cities were conceded to the Second Republic.

The Hoji Clique

Main articles: History of Tangkuo, and Hoji Clique (1927-1951)

The Hoji Clique, or the Hoxi or Heshi Clique in Yen, also known as the Sei Clique, was one of many cliques and warlord states that erupted from the fall of the Jin Empire. Notable for being led by the Hojis family, an Irsadic Qidan dynasty, the clique has been considered by many to be a model for Tangkuo's future, having promoted the modernization of Tangkuo, national, religious, and gender equality, as well as the funding of many educational, medical, agricultural, and sanitation projects. The Hoji Clique was also notable for having the world's only female Imams. Under the Hoji Clique, illiteracy in the Tadagur region decreased dramatically from 1927 to 1951, from 89% to 13%. The Hoji Clique, while not a republic, had local elections in major towns every couple of years while main executive power was held by the Hoji family.

Originally the Tadagur region was controlled by Governor Liu Sahani, who had controlled the region prior to the Jin collapse in 1913. Liu was only assigned to govern the Tadagur region temporarily, but as soon as the Jin collapsed, he found himself isolated, forced into a governorship that he was unable to relinquish. So Liu bided his time, issuing his personal "Tukdan government" rule, issuing fealty to any clique or warlord that had gained control of Tukdan. Liu had developed a bad case of paranoia, combined with his old age. Thinking even his closest officials were conspiring against him, cabinets were constantly switched as one minister after another was put to death for suspicion of treachery. Liu’s right-hand man, Nahu Tugesu shared many of his traits of generally being power hungry and untrusting of those who escape his very exclusive clique. With Liu only growing more reclusive in his old age, many of the daily responsibilities of administration were left to Jin. However, Liu had not given Nahu enough autonomy to make radical changes on his own, keeping him on a tight leash along with his many other officials. By 1925, Liu, rarely ventured out of his room, only to sign documents and give his handwritten orders to his administrators. It was a complete surprise then, that when Nahu Tugesu sought permission from Liu to hunt down Sukhbataaryn raiders coming over the border, he found his room empty, with Liu seemingly having disappeared from the entire Tadagur region. A quick examination of the accounts showed that the entire treasury of taxes taken from the Qidan population was empty. Nahu acted quickly, and raised his personal army to seize control, executing Liu's other right-hand men. With his control quickly cemented, Nahu began his rule of Tadagur.

Nahu Tugesu was quite obviously Sahani’s protege according to some, but Liu’s paranoia being replaced with Nahu's ego and incompetence. Nahu immediately began to make moves against both the Qidan and his own officials in order to establish dominance over his domain. From the doubling of the Qidan and Nian tax, to finally dealing with the Sukhbataaryn problem he sought to take all necessary steps to ensure that Tadaguria was his and his alone. Nahu’s final goal, however, is unexpected to many, the unification of Tadaguria. Along the Hanjur corridor between the heartland of Tangkuo and the Tadagur region lay the Jau Haanate, a tributary state that allied with Liu after the Jin collapse. On the 27th of May 1926, Nahu invited the Haan of the Jau Haanate, Bala Haan, to celebrate Nahu’s own inauguration as the governor of Tadaguria in Kherlen. Bala agreed, not wanting to insult this new governor. After Bala arrived and partook in the celebrations, he was escorted away, captured, and imprisoned. Nahu’s administrators immediately got to work regarding the recent integration, seeking to take advantage of this new and unique region. Nahu's first step was to truly make use of this exclusive road to civilize the Qidan, with recently annexed Jau becoming the first to be settled in Nahu's quest of making the great Tanggu race reach beyond its typical bounds.

The Jauliks already upset by these foreigners trespassing upon their rightful lands have little patience for this administration. If any thought that the reformist Bala was bad as a monarch, then their current situation was worse than they could have ever imagined. Already feeling the weight on their shoulders, the last straw on their back is quickly broken as a Tanggu tax collector by the name of Tuda Oon arranges a forced marriage to a Jaulik’s underage Irsadic daughter. Already enraged by foreign entry and now the foreign marriage of their honorable people, tensions finally explode. During one of Tuda Oon’s meetings with his soon to be wife’s father, a large group of Jauliks broke into the building, lynching and killing Tuda Oon, the father, and the daughter. For the people of Jau, enough was enough, and their great uprising began. Qidan religious orders began calling for a Jihad, or holy war, against Nahu Tugesu and his government. The Jaulik rebels stormed the fortified inner city, massacring the Tanggu garrison there and beheading many of the newly arrived Tanggu immigrants. At the same time, as news of the occupation spread to the south of Tadaguria, a miner's strike quickly gave way to a revolt.

A local Qidan landholder, minor aristocrat and soldier, Hojis Burhasi, joined the revolt, and quickly became leader of the rebellion. The Qidan, with the aid of other warlords, defeated Nahu's troops and stormed Kherlen. Nahu Tugesu had not mastered his former mentor's art of disappearing however, and faced with an army of Qidan zealots, he stabbed himself with his ceremonial sword. After Nahu's death, Hojis Solomani was elevated to his place. Hoji made deals with the other cliques, telling them that the Tadagur region was now equal in standing to the rest of Tangkuo, and that there would be no more mass migrations into the region. Hojis Solomani paid tribute to the Bodin Clique, the Later Jin dynasty, and then the Second Republic making sure they accepted the Qidan as equals in exchange for loyalty, and the support of several divisons of the elite Danmaa Gungk’ar Braves.

The Hoji Clique from 1927 to 1951, before its invasion by the Tangkuo People's Republic, was led by two brothers, Hojis Solomani and Hojis Sanjii. The Clique, despite being de facto independent, still pledged allegiance to the Jin Remnant, and sometimes sent representatives to the Jin Remnant in order to ease tensions. However, the Hojis family made it clear that they would not give up executive power to the Jin unless a much greater reward was given to them, such as key government positions or vast estates, that the Jin Remnant, being a constitutional monarchy, was either unable or unwilling to do. Despite its progressiveness, the Hoji Clique had major underlying problems, including terrorist attacks and raids by the radical Irsadist Yehewani religious order. Attacks by the Yehewani culminated in a long, protracted conflict lasting for the entirety of the Hoji Clique's history in the mountains surrounding the Tadagur valley. The Yehewani sought to overthrow the Hoji Clique and to establish fundamentalist Irsadic ideals, such as forced conversion, the veiling and strict separation of women from men, and the destruction of non-Irsadic temples and idols. After the annexation of the Hoji Clique into the People's Republic of Tangkuo, the Yehewani attacks ceased amid a brutal crackdown on the Irsadic religion. In recent years however since the fall of the People's Republic, there are signs that the Yehewani are mobilizing again.

Bodin Clique

In March, 1930, Emperor Aišïn Jahudai Jïlunggusu was restored to the throne in Tukdan as a condition of Asuran support for Cai Hesun and the Bodin Clique. The new government was technically a constitutional monarchy, with Jïlunggusu sharing power with a National Assembly in Tukdan. Nominally composed of representatives from all of China, only the area around Tukdan and the North Tangkuo Plain frequently sent representatives, with warlord cliques hostile or ambivalent to Tukdan's rule not participating for various reasons. Cai Hesun initially allowed various democratic parties to hold some seats in the assembly as a way of securing international and domestic legitimacy for his regime. This strategy backfired, however, as Tangkuo’s trade debt continued to spiral out of control.

With day-to-day governance largely handled by the Bodin clique, the Emperor spent the next few decades practicing calligraphy, and playing tennis matches. Theoretically, the Jin Emperor controlled all of the former lands of the Jin Dynasty, but in reality the Emperor's power barely extended beyond the walls of his palace, while Prime Minister Ma Ningji was largely powerless beyond the senate floor. The real power lay with military genius and philosopher-general Cai Hesun, who was more interested in consolidating his power base in Tukdan and balancing military cliques off from each other than actually improving the Jin Remnant in any meaningful way. It was Cai's gravitas that bound the Remnant together, and granted him far-reaching influence outside of the conventional political system.

What seemed to be a somewhat peaceful past few years for eastern Tangkuo suddenly ended when the League of Six Provinces collapsed in February 1936, following the assassination of Puchan Jogosang. With the League in chaos, Cai Hesun and the Bodin clique decided to sit out the collapse, to try and make a deal with the eventual victor. The initial reaction by the general population, however, was one of hostility and anger. By refusing to take a side in the intervention, Cai Hesun opened himself up to widespread criticism not only from the reform parties and urban intellectuals, but from some generals within the Bodin Clique as well. A few were genuine monarchists, but most are simply angry at Cai for failing to use the opportunity of the League collapse to expand their influence southward. These generals, plus the aforementioned reformist parties, began to plot in secret to overthrow Cai Hesun and reinstate Jïlunggusu. On the 9th of May, 1936, the plot was carried out, and Cai was gunned down in the middle of a radio broadcast.

However, the plotters underestimated the number of Cai's supporters. The resulting action was swift, but bloody. Many of the supporting generals were arrested and placed under house arrest, but some escaped and mustered their forces, including the elite Songgi Cadets. Street fighting broke out in downtown Tukdan, and the Imperial Palace came under mortar fire. The Bodin army advanced closer to the Songgi barracks, taking street by street in bloody fighting. When the dust cleared, the plotters had been defeated.

The Second Republic

The resulting crackdown was swift. Immediately, the Emperor was removed from the government, officially ending the monarchy, monarchist supporters in the government were purged, and officials gathered to create a new republican interim government to rule Tangkuo, the role of President being settled on former diplomat to Midrasia Antoine-Bartomieu Oon. The Republic of Tangkuo was restored.