The Qing and the Northern Zhili Clique had held a tenuous but seemingly powerful hold on China throughout the twentieth century since the Xinhai Revolution. Wu Peifu, all but dictator of the Northern Zhili Clique and nominally in charge of the Southern Zhili Clique, maintained control in the shadows. Cao Kun represented the Zhili officially through the political party called the Harmony Association, but it was public knowledge Cao Kun was not the conniving politician he used to be but rather a raving drunk who maintains his position through name recognition and the lack of contenders. Regardless, the Zhili's influence in the North China Plain has ensured the Harmony Association maintained control against the four other political organizations. The least political political organization in the National Assembly of China, the Prosperity League, was simply a front for German interests in China. There was no question about it, and the Zhili ensured it always had a fair share of the continually rigged Assembly elections to protect their shaky alliance with the Germans. The remaining three political parties were all minor in the current scheme of things but were notable for providing the veneer of legitimacy badly needed for the monarchy and for the Zhili. One of these was the New Chinese Empire Reform Association (NCERA), it itself a coalition of two different groups. The former was a fairly fringe group of individuals who wanted to play into the traditional Confucian and rural aspects of Chinese society. The agrarianism and traditionalism provides them with a solid base of voters in the rural farming regions of the North China Plain, but they are far over shadowed politically by all the other groups. The other half of the NCERA coalition and the more prominent half was a group of primarily intellectuals who argued for a stronger but still constitutional monarchy that dominated national politics. However, they also argued that such a monarchy should provide a heavy degree of decentralization with governors, not warlords, ruling over the provinces. This dual structure left them fairly isolated as republicans and warlord-associated organizations both detested these ideals, but their pro-monarchy views made them popular in the eyes of the Qing and their allies. Nevertheless, they would be over shadowed themselves by the final political party, the aptly named Manchu Party. With the lack of voting support from Manchuria due to the Republic of China's refusal of recognition of the Qing Empire, it was clear to all that their continued solid electoral success was the most obvious rigging of them all. Lacking any popular support, it was held up by both German influence and the elites of Beijing who surrounded the Emperor Puyi.

Regardless, the Assembly's actual power was very little and it was relegated to playing an important symbolic one. The Emperor and his supporters were powerful, but their power was almost entirely centered around the capital of Beijing and their foreign backers of Germany. The Norther Zhili Clique was the one who held all these groups together, primarily through savvy political pragmatism and brute military strength. Lead by the Jade Marshal Wu Peifu, the rest of the Clique were made up by opportunists such as Yang Sen, Jin Yunpeng, Li Chun, Wang Chengbin, and Kou Yingjie. They had all served the Jade Marshal and his expeditions before the Zhili had cemented their power, and they had maintained their positions as the Zhili found success. They were an aging organization however, and their officer ranks have not swelled in a significant period of time. This can mostly be blamed on both Cao Kun's ineptitude and the Southern Zhili Clique's rise to power, at least until recently. Long an ironic thorn in the Jade Marshal's side, their sudden collapse would jolt them into action. However, before anything could be done, there was the annual report to be given by Cao Kun to the Assembly which would hopefully keep the voices of dissidence down internally. More importantly, the Northern Zhili Clique wouldn't be the only forces moving inside the Qing's center of power due to the Southern Zhili Clique's collapse.

Cao Kun's report to the National Assembly was read in an almost robotic tone. It was known by this point that little to nobody in the Qing had any interest in actually resolving the issues that plagued the country, certainly not with the outbreak of the new conflict, and the promises laid out were ones that had been given almost verbatim for the past two years. The Qing would increase taxes on provincial governors to make up for tax breaks for farmers while government subsidies for light manufacturing businesses would be raised by these taxes. The Qing would reach out and get foreign investment, understood innately to be from Germany, to fund a military expansion that would inevitably never actually materialize. His report was still received with thunderous applause as praise was given to the efforts made by the Assembly and the Emperor to save China and restore its greatness.

As the Jade Marshal made no public statement on the outbreak of the conflict in the League of Eight Provinces, the Emperor would be none the wiser as his allies in the Manchu Party began organizing a strategy. Refusing to believe the Jade Marshal would not take the opportunity to re-organize the Zhili together, they plotted to reach out to an old ally in Yan Xishan in Shaanxi. They refused to communicate this with the Emperor, for fear of implicating him and for fear of the Germans finding out. They would still imply that the Emperor had given his confirmation to Xishan, and would request his assistance "when the time was right." He would be given the leading position of the Manchu Party and allowed to spread his ideals as long as it did not antagonize the status of the monarchy, and have the personal favor of the Emperor. The Manchu Party was confident in the Northern Zhili Clique's inability to do anything but get bogged down the southern war, especially after the Zhili's failure in the fourth Zhili-Fengtian War. It was hoped that Xishan's cooperation would allow for the final step in removing the Zhili and the Jade Marshal, who were known to be increasingly upset at the German's demand to instate the Qing.