Page:Chang Tso-lin's struggle against the communist menace.pdf/27

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AGAINST THE COMMUNIST MENACE 9

BECAME MILITARIZED CHAPTER I

into one, to support him. In ten years he had spent fifty millions sterling alone on military equipment and arsenals, never hesitating to buy the best and being the only man in China to-day with any artillery worthy of the name, his parks comprising 52 batteries of field guns, together with heavy and medium howitzers. Brought into inevitable opposition with the armies inside the Great Wall, he strained every effort to eclipse them, throwing the immense agricultural resources of Manchuria into the scales, a factor of very great importance since grain is one of the most liquid forms of wealth in China.

By 1920 he had raised and equipped 100,000 men, and made his first incursion inside the Great Wall, which was of an abortive nature since the fighting was over by the time his troops reached Peking. But by 1922 his total had reached 180,000 men; and once more he was pouring them down the narrow bottle-neck of Shanhaikwan in the first of his inconclusive wars with that fallen leader, Wu Pei-fu. In 1924, after having added another 100,000 men to his effectives, he struck again. This time, through the unexpected action of the so-called Christian General, who suddenly descended with his army from the mountains above Peking

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