 Duan refused to acknowledge the Zhili's efforts and favored his own officers and politicians over others.After building a "de facto" private army using the Nishihara Loans, he used it to occupy Outer Mongolia.Feeling threatened, Manchuria's Fengtian clique allied with the Zhili clique and began courting those warlords in southwestern China who had previously been threatened by Duan's Anhui armies.