Invasion
The War Participation Army was renamed the Northwestern Frontier Army. Duan gave control of it to his right-hand, Xu Shuzheng, member of the Pro Japanese Anhui Clique in the Chinese government. They announced the expedition was at the invitation of several Mongolian princes to protect Mongolia from Bolshevik incursions. It was supposed to begin in July 1919, but the train broke down. In October, Xu led a spearhead group of 4000 that quickly captured Urga without resistance. Another 10,000 troops followed to occupy the rest of the country. The successful invasion was met with acclaim throughout China, even by Sun Yat-sen's rival southern government. The Japanese were the ones who ordered the pro Japanese Chinese warlords to occupy Mongolia in order to halt a possibly revolutionary spillover from the Russian revolutionaries into Mongolia and Northern China. After the Chinese completed the occupation, the Japanese then abandoned them and left them on their own.
In February 1920, Xu presided over a very humiliating ceremony in which Bogd Khan and other leaders were forced to kowtow before him and the Five Races Under One Union flag. This event marked the beginning of active resistance against Chinese rule which coalesced into the Mongolian People's Party.
Domestic politics in China soon changed the situation dramatically. The invasion had caused alarm for Zhang Zuolin, the powerful warlord of Manchuria, who was upset that such a large army was moved so close to his territory. He joined the chorus of critics such as Cao Kun and Wu Peifu calling for the removal of the Anhui clique. In July, they forced President Xu Shichang to remove Xu Shuzheng from his position. In response, Xu Shuzheng moved the bulk of his forces to confront his enemies in China. Both he and Duan Qirui were defeated in the ensuing Zhili-Anhui War. This left only a few Chinese troops in Mongolia.
In October, the White Russian Baron R.F. von Ungern-Sternberg swept into Mongolia from the north and fought many battles with the Chinese garrison stationed in Urga before capturing it on February 1921. There he defeated the Chinese forces and restored Bogd Khan as a monarch. At around the same time, the MPP engaged in its first battle against Chinese troops. A joint MPP-Red Army expedition led by Soviet Red commanders and Damdin Sükhbaatar defeated the Baron in August. Tensions leading up to the First Zhili-Fengtian War and the apparent victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War led to the end of China's involvement.
Read more about this topic: Occupation Of Mongolia
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