Page "Xi'an Incident" Paragraph 5

Zhang Xueliang, known also as The Young Marshal, was the son of Zhang Zuolin, warlord of Manchuria in northeast China.

For sometime prior to the Kuomintang-led China-uniting Northern Expedition, the elder Zhang was being quietly supported by the Japanese government.

When it became imminent the advancing Expedition forces would defeat Zhang and thus threaten Japanese interests in Manchuria, rogue elements within the Kantogun ( Japan's Army in Manchuria ) forcibly halted the Expedition in Ji ' nan and assassinated Zhang on the grounds he was an unreliable ally, hoping to capitalise on the confusion caused by his death.

They miscalculated however, and his son quickly pledged his allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek, turning his forces over to Kuomintang control and supported Chiang in his war of unification against other warlords such as Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan.

As a reward, Zhang remained ruler of Manchuria and even extended his influence to Northern China around Beijing and Hebei.

Following the Mukden Incident of 1931, when the Japanese invaded with defections of Chinese generals and the flight of the local governments quickly took full control of Manchuria.

As with the other generals who tried to resist the invasion, Zhang's forces lacking equipment and reinforcements due to Chiang's reluctance to fight the Japanese, were pushed back.

By 1936, his father's assassination and the loss of his homeland made Zhang one of the leading opponents of the Japanese among the Chinese general staff.