Guangxi Clique

Guangxi Clique 桂系
Flag of Guangxi
Location of Guangxi (Light green) Its Overlord China (Light Grey) GEACPS (Dark red) TAG = GUX
Politics
Capital	Nanning
Ruling Party	Guixi Junfa
Head of State	Xia Wei
Diplomacy
Sphere	Co-Prosperity Sphere
Foreign Alignment	Chinese Warlord, Co-Prosperity Sphere
Economy
GDP	$21.21B
Credit Rating	Good
Market Type	Corporate Oligopoly

The Guangxi Clique is a de facto province of China that is de jure independent. Former NRA general Xia Wei, currently governs the province with little influence from the Chinese or Japanese governments.

It is bordered by Guizhou Province to the north-west, the Republic of China to the north-east, directly-administrated Japanese holdings to the south in Hainan, the Empire of Vietnam to the south-west, the State of Guangdong to the east and Yunnan to the west.

History

Beginnings of the Guangxi Clique

During the Warlord Era of China, the New Guangxi Clique (Chinese: 新桂系; pinyin: Xīn Guìxì), led by Li Zongren, Huang Shaohong, and Bai Chongxi, was a warlord clique during the Republic of China. After the founding of the Republic, Guangxi served as the base for one of the Old Guangxi clique, one of the most powerful warlord cliques of China. In the early 1920s, the Guangdong–Guangxi War saw the pro-Kuomintang New Guangxi Clique replace the Old Clique.

By the spring of 1924, the 3 main founders of the New Guangxi Clique had created the well equipped Guangxi Pacification Army. Li Zongren was the Commander in Chief, Huang Shaohong was the deputy Commander, and Bai Chongxi the Chief-of-Staff. By August they had defeated and driven the former ruler Lu Rongting and other contenders out of the province. Li Zongren was military governor of Guangxi from 1924–25, and from 1925 to his ousting by Xia Wei.

The coalition's efforts brought Guangxi Province under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China. Li Zongren was military governor of Guangxi from 1924–25, Huang became the civil governor of Guangxi from 1924 to 1929, and Guangxi remained under Li Zongren's influence until Xia Wei's rise to power.

The New Guangxi Clique made attempts at modernising between 1926 and 1927, when the Guangxi clique controlled Guangxi and much of Guangdong, Hunan, and Hubei. The New Guangxi clique was much more active in modernizing than Lu Rongting had been. They founded the University of Guangxi in Nanning, built over five thousand kilometers of roads and extended electrification of the area.

However, because the clique had to constantly be mobilized for war, first against the Guangdong warlords, then later against the Japanese, the tax burden which they levied was far heavier than that of Lu Rongting. The New Guangxi Clique also taxed the opium trade. As was later true for Chiang Kai-shek's government, the taxes were collected via opium suppression offices, ostensibly created to destroy the trade. In 1932, opium income amounted to fifty million dollars, the largest source of income in the provincial budget.

At the end of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek began to agitate to reorganize the army, the fact that it would alter the existing territorial influences among the Cliques in the party quickly aggravated the relationships between the central government and the regional powers. Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong of the Guangxi Clique were the first to break off relations with Chiang in March 1929, which started the confrontation that lead to the Central Plains War. Chiang Kai-shek defeated the Clique in 1929.

Following defeat in that civil war, Guangxi allied with Chen Jitang after he became chairman of the government of Guangdong in 1931, and turned against Chiang Kai-shek. Another civil war would have broken out if there had been no Mukden Incident, which prompted all sides to unite against the Empire of Japan.

As a result of national unity from 1930 to 1936, the Clique organized the reconstruction of Guangxi, which became a "model" province with a progressive administration. As a result, Guangxi was able to supply large numbers of troops in the war effort against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Second Sino Japanese War

During the war, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to make use of Li's military experience by promoting him to be the director of the KMT Fifth War Zone. Li's first action against the Japanese came in the 1938 Battle of Taierzhuang, after the Communist Zhou Enlai (who was aiding the Nationalists as part of the United Front) recognized Li as the most capable Nationalist general available and used his influence to have Li appointed overall commander, despite Chiang's reservations about Li's loyalty.

Under Li's command the defense of Tai'erzhuang was a major victory for the Chinese, killing 20,000–30,000 Japanese soldiers and capturing a large amount of supplies and equipment. The victory was principally credited to Li's planning and use of tactics, luring the Japanese into a trap and then annihilating them. The battle of Taierzhuang was one of the first major Chinese victories in the war against Japan, proving that with good weapons and inspired leadership Chinese armies could hold their own. Li would participated in the Battle of Xuzhou, Battle of Wuhan, Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang, 1939–40 Winter Offensive, Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang, Central Hubei Operation, and Battle of South Henan.

From 1943 to the end of the war, Li was made Director of the Generalissimo's Headquarters. This was a virtual and unwanted retirement from active command after his earlier successes. Li spent the last years of the war grumbling about his enforced inactivity. Additionally, it kept him away from his own support base, leading to General Xia Wei rising up in influence.

For General Xia Wei, he led the armies of the KMT in a last ditch offensive that was able to repel the Japanese military from the borders of Guangxi during the late stages of China's futile war against Japan. However, seeing the last resistance collapsing in the Battle of Chengdu, he was forced to surrender to the Japanese instead of waging a doomed war, having lost almost everyone in the New Guangxi Clique in the doomed war against Japan.

Although part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, in reality Xia Wei only puts up a facade of loyalty to Tokyo. In reality, he prepares his land and people for an uprising to finally liberate the Chinese homeland.

Great Asian War

If the NPA has high legitimacy, they could potentially be able to join their side in the Great Asian War.