Jagged Warlord

It is said that after Duan Qirui was unable to escape, the forces of the Beiyang faction still controlled Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces, and their economic and military forces were still very large.

效忠段祺瑞的皖系实力派有浙江督军卢永祥、安徽督军倪嗣冲、福建督军李厚基、陕西督军陈树藩、湖南督军张敬尧、淞沪护军使何丰林，另有第四师师长陈乐山、第十师师长卢永祥 浙江No.17师师长陈复初、第八混成旅旅长靳云鹗、第十混成旅旅长臧致平、No.13混成旅旅长吴光新、No.15混成旅旅长贾德耀、No.20四混成旅旅长王永泉、No.40七混成旅旅长施从滨。

效忠冯国璋的直系实力派有江西督军李纯、湖北督军王占元、汉黄镇守使杜锡钧，以及第二师师长王金镜、第六师师长齐燮元、第八师师长王汝贤、No.11师师长李奎元、No.16师师长王廷桢、No.18师师长王懋赏、No.19师师长杨春普、No.20师师长范国璋、湖北第一旅旅长孙建业、湖北第二旅旅长寇英杰、湖北第三旅旅长宋大霈、湖北第四旅旅长刘佐龙、湖北第五旅旅长张允明、江苏第二师师长朱熙、江苏第三师师长马玉仁、江苏第二旅旅长黄振魁、江苏第三旅旅长李殿臣、江苏第六旅旅长张宗昌。

The combination of these two forces is still very important, so Duan Qirui was encouraged by Xu Shuzheng to encourage Feng Guozhang to be the president and prime minister himself, and combine the two forces of Anhui and Zhili to make the Northern Expedition and retake the land that belongs to Beiyang.

Feng Guozhang had long had the idea of ​​establishing his own family. Duan Qirui's suggestion was quickly approved by Feng Guozhang, so Feng Guozhang became the President of the Republic of China in Nanjing, and Duan Qirui was appointed as the Prime Minister and Chief of the Army.At the same time, Feng Guozhang announced that Li Mohan and Li Yuanhong were false posts as the only legal governing body of the Republic of China, and all appointments and laws were invalid.

Later, according to the suggestion of Xu Shuzheng, the military adviser of the little fan, Duan Qirui formulated a strategic plan of first easy and then difficult, first south and then north.According to this plan, Duan Qirui first extended his hand to Guangdong.Guangdong was the political and military center in the southwest at that time, but the internal situation in Guangdong was very unstable. Although it was not as superficial as Sichuan, it was still extremely complicated.Duan Qirui adopted pressure from the outside on the one hand, and created divisions on the other hand, using the xenophobia of local soldiers to try to create chaos between the host and guest armies in Guangdong, so that the Beiyang Army could take advantage of the gap.At that time, the Beiyang faction had already occupied Fujian and Jiangxi, and these two provinces were adjacent to Guangdong. Duan Qirui planned to use these two provinces as a springboard to attack Guangdong, and at the same time transport troops from the sea to the coastal areas of Guangdong.

The interior of Guangdong has always been unstable, and several forces are fighting openly and secretly.Chen Bingkun, a Guangxi soldier, is the governor of Guangdong and claims to be the ruler. However, Zhu Qinglan, the governor of the province, also has military power. He commands the guard army and local soldiers.They are opposed to each other, the warlord is opposed to the governor, and the Guangxi soldiers are opposed to the Guangdong local soldiers.Later, Zhu Qinglan went north to the capital, and partnered with Song Xiaolian to serve as a military governor in Heilongjiang.Later, Chen Bingkun did too poorly in Guangdong, and Sun Wen made a strong protest to Lu Rongting. In order to perfunctory Sun Wen, Lu Rongting reassigned Mo Rongxin to replace Chen Bingkun.

In addition, there are two divisions of the Yunnan Army stationed in Beijiang, led by Li Liejun, which are the basic force of the Kuomintang.The entry of the Kuomintang forces into Guangdong began with Duan Qirui, a warlord of the Anhui faction, controlling the Beijing government and refusing to restore the National Congress and the provisional treaty of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen initiated the Dharma Protection Movement in Shanghai, and first sent Hu Hanmin and Zhu Zhixin to Guangdong and Guangxi to lobby Lu Rongting and Chen Bingkun of the Guangxi faction and Tang Jiyao, a warlord of the Yunnan faction.At that time, Guangdong and Guangxi were playing the banner of "independence" and expressed their welcome to Sun Yat-sen to go south.Therefore, Sun Yat-sen, Liao Zhongkai, Chen Jiongming and others supported Sun Yat-sen's navy to go south to protect the law. Later, some members of Congress also came to Guangdong one after another to hold an extraordinary congress. Marshal of the government, Tang Jiyao and Lu Rongting are the marshals.

The military government of the Guangdong French Protectorate Army was proclaimed, and Sun Yat-sen took the post of Generalissimo.The Extraordinary Congress also elected Tang Shaoyi as the Chief of Finance, Wu Tingfang as the Chief of Foreign Affairs, Sun Hongyi as the Chief of the Interior, Zhang Kairu as the Chief of the Army, and Hu Hanmin as the Chief of Transportation.Sun Yat-sen also appointed Li Liejun as the chief of staff, Lin Baoyi as the commander in chief of the navy, Fang Shengtao as the commander in chief of the garrison, Li Fulin as the commander in chief of the pro-army, Zhang Binglin as the secretary general, Xu Chongzhi as the chief of the army, and Li Yaohan as the chief of staff.The law-protecting government did not receive the support of the Southwest soldiers. Tang Jiyao of Yunnan ignored it, and Lu Rongting of the Guangxi faction was even more indifferent.

This was the first time that Sun Yat-sen established a political power in Guangdong, opposing the Beiyang warlord government, but the Guangxi and Yunnan warlords who ruled Guangdong and Guangxi at that time did not really support the law protection movement.They took a non-cooperative attitude towards Sun Yat-sen's activities, and even restricted them in case of trouble. As a result, as soon as the Dharma-protecting military government was established, there was a hidden crisis of division.

In order to realize his plan, Duan Qirui first ordered Long Jiguang of Hainan Island to attack the French Guardian Army from the south.Duan Qirui appointed Long Jiguang, who was stationed in Qiongzhou, as the patrol envoy of Guangdong and Guangxi, and ordered him to send troops to attack the French military government. After receiving the order, Long Jiguang immediately led more than [-] people to attack in three groups: Li Jiapin was the first route, and Duan Yunyuan was the second. The second route, Ma Cunfa's third route, landed from Yangjiang to capture Guangzhou, and landed from Leizhou Peninsula to capture Nanning.

Guangdong and Guangxi are Lu Rongting's territory, how can you allow Long Jiguang to be arrogant?So Lu Rongting sent Mo Rongxin, the governor of Guangdong, and Shen Hongying, the guardian of Qinlian, as the commanders of the first army of the Dragon Army, and ordered them to lead their troops to block the Longjiguang Army from Shicheng to Huazhou. The commander of the Second Army of the Dragon Army ordered him to lead the guards to meet the enemy in the direction of Enping.

Mo Rongxin appointed Li Liejun as the commander-in-chief of the Dragon Army, and led his troops to counterattack.First conquer Enping, then capture Yangjiang, and then occupy Dianbai, forcing Long Jiguang's main force to resist stubbornly in Gaozhou, Huazhou, and Shicheng.The Dragon Army divided the water and the land to attack the Dragon Army, and then the Dragon Army recovered Huazhou, then conquered Shicheng, and then captured Suixi. Long Jiguang lost his ground and was forced to abandon his army and flee.

Duan Qirui saw that one plan failed, so he made another plan. Feng Guozhang ordered Jiangxi Governor Li Chun to send troops from Jiangxi to capture Nanxiong.Zhang Kairu, chief of the Army of the French Protectorate Army and commander of the Fifth Army of Jinggong, urgently dispatched troops to Shaoguan and other places to reinforce Nanxiong.Due to the unstable foothold of the reinforcements, they were defeated by the Jiangxi army, and Nanxiong fell.Mo Rongxin urgently transferred Li Yuanyuan to be the supervisor of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan frontier defense military affairs, and led the Yunnan army to march northward from the battlefield of Chaolong.Li Liejun was also ordered to lead the dragon-hunting troops to reinforce Beidai, and together with Li Gengen to reorganize the troops, launched an all-out attack in three routes, fought fiercely for four days and nights, forced the Jiangxi army to retreat to Jiangxi, and Jingyang defeated Nanxiong.It is called the Battle of Nanxiong in the history of the battle.

Although Sun Yat-sen was the Generalissimo of the French Protectorate Military Government, he was squeezed out by the Yunnan and Guangxi warlords and had no real power at the time, so he desperately wanted to build his own army.At that time, the Beiyang Army attacked Chaoshan from Fujian, and Guangdong was in a hurry.Sun Yat-sen sent Hu Hanmin to lobby the warlords of the Guangxi clique, please allocate [-] battalions of Cantonese troops from the provincial governor's pro-army, led by Chen Jiongming to "aid Fujian".The Guangxi warlords were not allowed at first, but Mo Qingyu, the guardian of Chaomei, joined Duan Qirui and declared independence, and the situation was critical, so he reluctantly agreed.

The fight in the south is lively, Li Mohan is snickering in the north, he has no time to talk to them now.U.S. Minister Rui Enshi came to visit and brought a large number of investment projects.Before, Li Mohan contacted a number of Sino-US joint venture projects through the relationship between Huashang Company, Zhou Mingshun Jushan Company and the Rockefeller Foundation, but after such a long time, few projects were implemented.

As soon as Li Mohan saw Rui Enshi, he asked: "Mr. Minister, you didn't come to protest with me because of the establishment of Jiangdong County in our country, did you?"

Rui Enshi smiled slightly and said, "Where is that? I'm here to talk about cooperation." In fact, Rui Enshi himself and the US government have mixed feelings about Li Mohan, the new warlord leader.Li Mohan is a nationalist who extremely rejects the Japanese.Although Americans also regard the Japanese as potential opponents, nationalism will basically develop into the rejection of all foreign races in the end.

National sentiments are secondary. What is important is that Japan is the main competitor of the United States in the Chinese market.The so-called blocking people's money is like killing their parents. Of course, the American consortium will not have a good impression of Japan.For the United States, building a good relationship with the prime minister who often advertises himself as a pro-American faction is a breakthrough to introduce American power into China.

Rui Enshi knew that whether it was the SS or the newly formed Wehrmacht, the weapons they used were all American-style, and most of the machinery and equipment they purchased came from the United States.Originally, the United States coveted China's arms market, but due to political pressure and preference (influenced by Japanese and German students studying abroad), the Chinese arms market has always been dominated by Germany and Japan for a long time. The future is bright.

After the simple greetings, Rui Enshi began to ask Li Mohan what his future plans were, whether he could establish a closer relationship with the United States?

Li Mohan laughed deeper. He first praised the United States in fluent American English. He mentioned Hollywood, Coca-Cola, and Ford Model T, fully expressing his love and admiration for American civilization.Then he expressed his dissatisfaction with the "Chinese Exclusion Act" passed by the US Congress.

Li Mohan said to Rui Enshi: "The United States is a model of this civilized world. I hope to build my territory into an American-style society, so that everyone on the territory can live an American-style life. Of course, all of this must be based on China's The actual national conditions. In this society, there will be some desires at the top. But it’s only a little bit.”

Li Mohan also promised that under his territory, he would give the United States the most favorable policies to drive out the influence of the British and Japanese.He allowed and hoped that American businessmen would build railways, develop mines, invest in factories, etc. in his territory.He specifically proposed to invite Mr. Ford to build a car and tractor factory on his site. He said that China's domestic agriculture and transportation construction needed Mr. Ford's enthusiastic help.

After a long conversation, Rui Enshi felt that Li Mohan was an ideal agent who couldn't be more ideal.In Rui Enshi's image, this warlord received a high-level American education, fully accepted American culture, and was extremely pro-American.The United States should strongly support Li Mohan in order to obtain the greatest benefits in China, and can also use this to suppress Japan's expansion.