ADVENTURES IN CHINA

Synopsis: There are countless stories, adventures, tales, and folk beliefs circulating by word of mouth throughout the towns and cities of the ancient *Long Diguo*-or Dragon Empire...
Our story focuses on China during the conflicts of the "Warlord Era" (*Junfa shidai*); this period in the history of the Republic of China, spanning from 1916 to 1928, saw the country divided among military cliques-a fragmentation that persisted until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan, and Xinjiang.
The era of military warlords began following the death of Yuan Shikai and nominally ended in 1928 with the victorious conclusion of the Northern Expedition and the "Northeast Flag Replacement," which ushered in the so-called "Nanjing Decade." However, although major warlords like Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang were ousted, lesser warlords remained active into the 1930s and 1940s. The central government struggled to keep its nominal allies in check-a major challenge for the Kuomintang during World War II and the subsequent civil war. Some of the major clashes between warlords following the theoretical reunification of 1928-including the Central Plains War-involved nearly a million soldiers.
This period was marked by attempts to reunify the country by various factions of military warlords, each seeking to do so under its own control. Whenever one clique appeared too powerful to the others, they would ally to curb its dominance. In 1920, the Fengtian and Zhili cliques united to defeat the Anhui clique; in 1922, the remnants of the latter joined forces with the Fengtian clique and southern provinces to try to oust the Zhili clique from power. Although that coalition was initially defeated, it reformed in 1924 and achieved victory thanks to the betrayal of Feng Yuxiang; in 1926, the remnants of the defeated clique joined their former enemy, Zhang Zuolin, to confront Feng. Zhang and the other warlords then had to face the Guomindang, which ultimately succeeded in formally dismantling their power.
During these turbulent times, the protagonist of our story-Alejandro Martín, better known in journalistic circles as Alex-was working in Beijing as a freelance correspondent for the American press...
Meanwhile, Mr. Preston-a prominent American banker, businessman, and lover of Chinese ceramics-was in Beijing, searching for the last of the yellow Ming imperial ceramics...
The story follows the adventures of Alejandro Martín, a Spanish correspondent based in Beijing, and an eccentric American millionaire as they embark on an expedition across the enigmatic China of the warlords, venturing deep into the country in search of the final treasures of the Dragon Empire. It is a thrilling adventure filled with intrigue, history, mystery, romance, and courage, as the expedition party falls into the hands of bandits and faces numerous perils...