<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Standard Mandarin </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Hanyu Pinyin </Th> <Td> Guómín gémìng jūn běifá </Td> </Tr> <P> The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the Nationalists, against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926 . The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, and the expedition was divided into two phases . The first phase was interrupted by the political split in the Kuomintang following the formation of the Nanjing faction in April 1927 against the existing faction in Wuhan . The split was partially motivated by the purge of the Communists within the party, which marked the end of the First United Front, and Chiang Kai - shek briefly stepped down as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army . </P> <P> The campaign was resumed in January 1928 with the return of Chiang to the commanding post, and the Nationalist forces advanced to the Yellow River by April 1928 . Strings of victories by the Nationalists toward Peking, with the assistance of allied warlords including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, forced Zhang Zuolin of the Fengtian clique out of Peking . Zhang was assassinated shortly after by the Kwantung Army on his way back to Manchuria, and his son Zhang Xueliang took over as the leader of the Fengtian clique . In June 1928, Zhang Xueliang announced Manchuria would accept the authority of the Nationalist government in Nanjing, effectively ending the Northern Expedition by the end of the year . </P>

The northern expedition was a guomindang movement against whom in china