 During the war the two cliques fought one large battle near Tianjin in October 1924, as well as a number of smaller skirmishes and sieges.Afterwards, both Feng and Zhang Zuolin, the latter being ruler of the Fengtian clique, appointed Duan Qirui as a figurehead prime minister.In south and central China, more liberal Chinese were dismayed by the Fengtian's advance and by the resulting power vacuum.