Forced to flee to the southwestern city of Chongqing by the Japanese advance, Chiang spent the next seven and a half years of the war ineffectively resisting the Japanese and worrying about the communists. Chiang received military aid from the British and Americans, and even had an American Chief of Staff, General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell…. Read more »
Despite a renewed focus on the Japanese, the war did not go well. Chiang’s forces proved unable to displace the Japanese from the northeast, and Japan began pushing southward with impunity. In late 1937, they reached the capital in Nanjing. The Chinese attempted to resist, holding their ground for several weeks, but eventually were forced… Read more »
With the Communist Party continuing to foment insurrection internally, the Japanese in Manchuria became increasingly aggressive. Echoing Feng Guifen’s predicament during the Taiping Rebellion, Chiang was forced to choose where to allocate his forces, and he chose the communists. A patriotic warlord in the western city of Xian took issue with Chiang’s decision and decided… Read more »