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8 CHANG TSO-LIN’S STRUGGLE CHAPTER I HOW NORTH-CHINA

Manchus) who did all this work of reorganization and who died in 1916 because he plotted to make himself Emperor with the help of his generals. Even after he had debauched the army by propaganda he left a very fair force behind him distributed in the provinces under political generals who called themselves Tu-Chün (military governors) and whose policy of combining the territorial administration with military commands was sedulously imitated throughout the length and breadth of the country.

That is why Chang Tso-lin as soon as he had acquired power at Mukden in 1916 also began to arm. At first it was done on a modest scale, as if he were timid about committing himself. But by 1920 his own numbers had risen to tens of thousands of men, and all Manchuria was laid under contribution to provide arsenals and arms for what was now almost a levée-en-masse.

Chang Tso-lin, although only the imitator of Yuan Shih Kai, had certain advantages. He had improved on what his predecessor had done; he had better instructors, better arms, better arsenals—and an immensely rich territory, the size of France and Germany rolled

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