Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Chiang K'ai-shek's successful military campaign, launched in cooperation with the CCP, to defeat the warlords and establish a unified government." [Fall and Rise of China Guidebook, p. 193] "After Dr. Sun's untimely death in March 1925, his followers achieved, in 1926-27, the successful Northern Expedition from Guangzhou to the Yangzi valley. The newly trained propagandists of the Nationalist revolution preceded the armies of Jiang Jieshi, who was aided by Russian arms and advisers. By advance propaganda, popular agitation, and the bribery of 'silver bullets,' the Northern Expedition's six main armies defeated or absorbed some thirty-four warlord forces in South China." [Fairbank: China, p. 283]