98 years ago today, on April 19, 1927 (March 18, 1927 in the lunar calendar), the Wuhan Nationalist Government launched a northern expedition. On April 19, 1927, the Wuhan Nationalist Government decided to launch a northern expedition under Zhang Zuolin. The Wuhan Nationalist Government was facing a serious crisis of military siege and economic blockade: Chiang Kai-shek, with Nanjing as the center, united the warlords of Hechuan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Gui provinces, faced Wuhan from the east, south and west. In the north, Zhang Zuolin invaded Henan and coveted Wuhan. In order to get rid of the besieged situation, Tang Shengzhi, Zhang Fakui and others advocated the Eastern Expedition against Chiang, and Wang Jingwei and Borodin advocated the Northern Expedition, on the grounds that Feng Yuxiang's national army could be sent out of Shaanxi, meet forces in Henan, expel the Fenghuang army from Beijing and Tianjin, and then solve the problem of Chiang Kai-shek's establishment of a separate central government, which violated the party's organizational discipline. Li Zongren from Nanjing sent his chief of staff Wang Yingyu to Wuhan and proposed that "both sides recognize the fait accompli, and everyone will part ways in the Northern Expedition. We will march to Beijing later, and then hold a meeting to peacefully resolve intra-party disputes." The Wuhan Central Committee then decided to continue the strategic decision of the Northern Expedition. On the 19th, the Wuhan National Government held Wang Jingwei said impassively at the oath-taking ceremony: "To expand the revolutionary forces to Beijing, unify the whole of China, break the biggest chains of imperialism in the north, and completely eliminate the economic and political forces of imperialism in China. This is the first purpose of our Northern Expedition. To liberate the people of the whole country, we must overthrow the Fenghuang warlords. This is the second purpose of our Northern Expedition. We must overthrow imperialism and warlords, especially our party's mole Chiang Kai-shek! This is the third purpose of the Northern Expedition." The main force of the Northern Expedition was Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Fakui's troops, with more than 60,000 people, and Tang Shengzhi was the commander-in-chief. On April 21, the Northern Expedition troops advanced along Jinghan Road to Kaifeng, Henan Province.