The Nationalist Revolution of the 1920s succeeded because of a remarkable mobilization of human energy and material resources in the service of patriotic and revolutionary goals. This chapter discusses the rejuvenating the Kuomintang, creation of a revolutionary military force, conflict in the Kwangtung base, and the Russian financing of Chinese revolutionary activities. The patriotic purposes of the Northern Expedition was to liberate China from the warlords and win its rightful place of equality among the nations, with friendship for all. The disastrous Canton uprising, engineered by a small group of daring Chinese communist leaders to carry out general instructions of the new Provisional Politburo in Shanghai, marked a low point in the Communist Party's long struggle for power. Now the country had five main agglomerations of regional military power: the group proclaiming itself the Nationalist government, the Kwangsi faction, Feng Yii-hsiang's Kuominchiin, Yen Hsi-shan of Shansi, and Chang Hsuehliang and other Manchurian generals controlling domestic affairs in the North-east.