National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army served as the military arm of the Chinese Nationalist Party from 1924 until 1947.
From 1928, it functioned as the de facto national armed forces of the Republic of China during the period of Nationalist rule. Following the promulgation of the 1947 Constitution — which established civilian control over the military on a de jure basis — it was formally reorganised as the Republic of China Armed Forces.
Initially formed from pro-nationalist faction troops after 1917, with assistance from the Soviet Union, the NRA was created as an instrument for the Nationalist government to unify China during the Warlord Era. It went on to fight major military conflicts, including the Northern Expedition against the Beiyang warlords, the encirclement campaigns against the Chinese Red Army, the Second Sino-Japanese War against Imperial Japan, and the Chinese Civil War against the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army.
Etymology
The name National Revolutionary Army was formally adopted by the Chinese Nationalist Party following the party's reorganization under Sun Yat-sen's leadership, emphasising its goal of national unification through revolution. Prior to 1928, the force was often referred to simply as the Revolutionary Army, reflecting its role in the Northern Expedition and other efforts to overthrow regional warlords.After the formal unification of China under the Nationalist government in 1928, the term National Army became more common in official discourse, signifying its position as the regular armed forces of the Republic of China.
In Western historiography, the force, particularly the ground arm, has been frequently referred to as the Chinese Nationalist Army to distinguish it from communist military forces. Meanwhile, media and historical narratives originating from the People's Republic of China often describe it as the Kuomintang Army, underscoring its affiliation with the KMT rather than the state.
It is worth noting that, in traditional Chinese usage, the term "army" has often been applied more broadly to refer to the entire armed forces, encompassing the army, navy, and air force. This linguistic nuance is also reflected in the naming of the National Revolutionary Army, which, despite its initial composition being primarily ground forces, gradually came to include the early development of the Nationalist government's air force, air defence units, and other military branches. It was not until the establishment of the Republic of China Armed Forces in 1947 that the government formally adopted the Western, particularly American, convention of using the term Armed Forces to refer collectively to the three services.
It should also be noted that within the NRA, the ground forces—excluding specialised branches such as the military police and air defence troops—were indeed referred to in Chinese as the Land Forces. However, there was no unified or independent General Command specifically overseeing the land force branch in the modern sense; operational command structures were often decentralised and campaign-based, rather than managed through a distinct army headquarters.
Composition
Before the outbreak of the war against Japan, the term "National Revolutionary Army" primarily referred to the core, centrally controlled military units of the Kuomintang, usually referred as the "Central government forces", especially those loyal to Chiang Kai-shek. However, as the war escalated and the need for national unity grew, the title "NRA" was symbolically extended to include former warlords' armies and regional forces, colloquially known as "Regional forces", even though many of them remained semi-autonomous and only nominally under the Military Affairs Commission.In particular, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army, forming the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, but they broke away to form the People's Liberation Army shortly after the end of the war.
With the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and the de jure end of the KMT party-state, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces, with the bulk of its forces forming the Republic of China Army, which retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949.
History
On 1 September 1917, the Kuomintang, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, established the Constitutional Protection Junta in opposition to the Beiyang government, following the launch of the Constitutional Protection Movement on 17 July 1917.The National Revolutionary Army was officially formed in 1924 by the Kuomintang as its military arm, based on pro-Nationalist regional forces and supported by foreign assistance. Its primary mission was to reunify China, beginning with the Northern Expedition.
With organisational support from the Comintern and ideological guidance from Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, the NRA developed as an extension of the party-state system, where the separation between political party, military, and government remained blurred. Many of the NRA's officer corps were graduates of the newly established Whampoa Military Academy, including its first commandant, Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang rose to become commander-in-chief in 1925 and subsequently led the NRA during the Northern Expedition.
The successful conclusion of the Northern Expedition in 1928 is widely considered to mark the end of the Warlord Era in China, although localised warlord activity continued in some regions for years afterwards. Prominent generals who later rose to distinction within the NRA included Tu Yü-ming and Chen Cheng.
In 1927, after the collapse of the First United Front between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, the KMT leadership carried out a purge of its leftist members and significantly reduced Soviet influence within the party. Following this realignment, Chiang Kai-shek turned to Germany—then governed by the Weimar Republic—for assistance in reorganising and modernising the NRA.
Despite restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, which barred German military advisers from officially serving in combat roles abroad, the Weimar Republic did dispatch advisors to China. Chiang initially sought assistance from high-profile generals such as Erich Ludendorff and August von Mackensen, but these requests were declined. German authorities feared that the involvement of such well-known figures would provoke backlash from the Allies and diminish national prestige, especially if they were seen acting in the capacity of mercenaries.
Northern Expedition (1926–1928)
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army in July 1926, with the goal of defeating the warlords of the Beiyang government and unifying China under Nationalist control. The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who had risen to prominence after heading the Whampoa Military Academy.Initially supported by a united front with the Chinese Communist Party and Soviet advisers such as Mikhail Borodin and Vasily Blyukher, the NRA advanced northward from Canton, quickly defeating the Zhili and Hunan warlords, including Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang.
However, internal divisions within the KMT soon emerged. In April 1927, Chiang ordered a purge of Communists in Shanghai—an event known as the Shanghai Massacre—which marked the collapse of the First United Front and a formal split between left- and right-wing factions of the party. Chiang temporarily stepped down, but resumed leadership in early 1928 and relaunched the campaign's second phase.
By mid-1928, the NRA—reinforced by allied warlords including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang—defeated the Beiyang Army and approached Beijing. As their forces closed in, the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin was assassinated in the Huanggutun incident by the Japanese Kwantung Army, and his son Zhang Xueliang soon declared allegiance to the Nanjing government.
The campaign ended in December 1928, when the Northeast officially accepted Nationalist rule, effectively unifying China under the Nationalist regime and marking the beginning of the Nanjing Decade.
Despite the nominal success, true centralisation remained elusive. Many former warlords retained regional power and autonomy, sowing the seeds for future internal conflict.
Nanjing Decade
Immediately following the conclusion of the Northern Expedition, the National Revolutionary Army was significantly overextended and required downsizing and demobilisation. Chiang Kai-shek famously remarked that "soldiers are like water—capable of both carrying the state and sinking it." Official troop figures at the time listed 1,502,000 soldiers under arms, though only 224,000 of these were directly under Chiang's control. In reality, Chiang later admitted to controlling over 500,000 troops, while Feng Yuxiang, whose official number was 269,000, likely commanded closer to 600,000. Thus, the total NRA strength was probably nearer to two million men.During the course of the expedition, the Chinese Nationalist Party also established regional branch political councils. Though these councils were theoretically subordinate to the central political authority in Nanjing, in practice they operated autonomously and maintained their own military forces. Feng Yuxiang controlled the Kaifeng council, Yan Xishan oversaw the Taiyuan council, and the Guangxi clique controlled two separate councils in Wuhan and Beijing, led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, respectively. Li Jishen, another Guangxi-aligned figure, loosely oversaw the council in Canton, while a sixth council was under Zhang Xueliang in Shenyang.
Confronted with the dilemma of how to manage these competing power centres, Chiang had two strategic options: to centralise authority gradually or to act swiftly and decisively. True to the spirit of the expedition's aim to eliminate warlordism and regionalism, he chose immediate centralisation. Using the pretext of demobilisation, Chiang began systematically reducing the military power of regional commanders while expanding and consolidating his own authority.
In July 1928, financial conferences were convened to coordinate demobilisation efforts, and both military commanders and political officials echoed support for reducing troop numbers. Chiang formally called for the NRA to be downsized to 65 divisions and worked to build political consensus for abolishing the branch councils. This initiative alarmed regional leaders, and Li Zongren later remarked that Chiang's plan appeared deliberately designed to provoke a reaction—providing Chiang with the justification to neutralise his rivals.