Part 10/14:
Tensions among the main factions boiled over in 1920, culminating in the First Warlord War. Deteriorating alliances and nationalist discontent with warlord misrule prompted open conflict.
Yuan Shikai’s successor, Duan Qirui, renamed his army the National Pacification Army and sought to suppress rival factions. In 1920, war erupted when Duan’s forces (aligned with the Anhui clique and supported indirectly by Japan) faced Zhang Zuolin’s Fengtian clique and others.