The alliance between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party is questioned after the Zhongshan Warship Incident in March 1926, and the following events have effectively made Chiang Kai-shek the paramount military leader of the KMT.

Although Chiang doubts Sun Yat-sen's policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the CCP, he still needs aid from the Soviet Union, so he cannot break up the alliance at this time.

Above all, Chiang needs a stage to display his military talent and his role of paramount leader.

On the other hand, the Soviet Union and the CCP cherish the alliance more than Chiang, as they require a platform to display their friendship to the KMT.

Thus, all three parties agree to launch the Northern Expedition to solve their own problems.

The main targets of this expedition are three notorious and powerful warlords: Zhang Zuolin, who governs Manchuria, Wu Peifu in the Central Plain, and Sun Chuanfang in the eastern coastal region.

Advised by the famous Russian general Vasily Blyukher, using the pseudonym Galen, the expedition’s command headquarters decides to use all its power to defeat these warlords one by one: first Wu, then Sun, and finally Zhang.

On July 9, 1926, Chiang delivers a lecture to one hundred thoiusand soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army, which has been set up by the students trained in the Whampoa Military Academy and equipped with a Russian arsenal in the opening ceremony, which is the official commencement of Northern Expedition.

NRA soldiers are far better organized than the warlord armies which they face, for they have good military advisors, better weapons, and commissars from CCP to inspire the soldiers.

In addition, the NRA is regarded as a progressive force on behalf of ordinary people persecuted by warlords, for which it receives warm welcome and strong support from peasants and workers.

The NRA is thus able to march from the Zhu River area to