Chapter 126 125. Guangxi clique rescued themselves against Anhui

The French Protectorate Military Government was not happy in Guangzhou because the Guangxi faction refused to cooperate. The Guangxi faction had plans for the Guangxi faction. They regarded Guangdong and Guangxi as the sphere of influence of the Guangxi faction. Lu Rongyan hoped that Hunan could be used as a buffer area between the Beiyang faction and the Guangxi faction.After Fu Liangzuo entered Hunan, the Guangxi army increased its troops and deployed defenses at the Huangsha River on the border of Hunan and Guangxi.Lu Rongting hoped that the direct lineage in the north could contain the Anhui lineage and abort Duan Qirui's plan to use troops in Hunan.Feng Guozhang once sent a secret envoy to Nanning to visit Lu Rongting. Lu told Feng's secret envoy that he had no prejudice against the issue of the Congress, but there must be one Congress, not one in the north and another in the south.As for the Hunan issue, it should be restored to its original status, designated as a military buffer zone between the north and the south, allowed to be autonomous, and everyone to guarantee mutual non-aggression.Although Feng agreed with Lu's proposition, Duan Yongbing Feng could not stop it. Therefore, although Feng and Lu had the same voice, they could not stop Duan's military actions.

In view of the serious situation in Hunan, the Guangxi faction was helpless, and the Hunan army was unable to resist the Northern Army alone. If the Northern Army occupied Hunan, the second target would naturally be Guangdong and Guangxi. Therefore, Lu Rongting convened a military meeting in Nanning. Cheng Biguang, chief of the Navy of the French Protectorate Military Government, was invited to Nanning to discuss with Lu Rongting the issue of sending troops to aid Hunan. On October 2, when the Nanning Military Conference opened, Lu Rongting gave a generous speech, denouncing Duan Qirui's surrender to Japan and launching a civil war, and called on all attendees to sign an oath to express their determination to resist the Anhui warlords.The meeting decided that Chen Bingkun, Tan Haoming, Cheng Biguang, and Li Yaohan, the authorities of Guangdong and Guangxi, would jointly send a telegram to denounce Duan Qirui, listing Duan's crimes as: envoys of the Citizens Group to encircle the Congress, the Chief Superintendents' Corps to destroy the law and treason, and arbitrarily launching a civil war.At the same time, it proposed: (1) welcome the reinstatement of President Li Da, (2) restore the National Assembly, (3) remove Duan Qirui, and (4) withdraw the appointment of Fu Liangzuo, Governor of Hunan.Finally, it is presumed that Tan Haoming, the governor of Guangxi, is the commander-in-chief of the Guangdong-Guangxi National Defense Army. Guangxi sent 45 battalions, and Guangdong sent 35 battalions to form five armies. Lu Yuguang was the commander of the first army, Lin Junting was the commander of the second army, and Wei Rongchang was the commander of the second army. Commander of the three armies, Ma Ji was the commander of the Fourth Army, and Lin Hu was the commander of the Fifth Army.After the military meeting ended, Lu Rongting still returned to his hometown of Wuming to recuperate from his illness, and secretly continued to communicate with the direct line in the north.

On October 20, Tan Haoming received a telegram to assume the post of commander-in-chief of the Guangdong-Guangdong National Defense Army, and vowed to help Hunan.So the Hunan issue evolved into the Civil War, which was also called the "War of Law Protection".Originally, Duan Qirui wanted to use the cannibalization policy in his military campaign to unify the south. He didn't want to encounter the Guangxi faction at the beginning, but now the Guangxi faction is attacking him with great fanfare. Clash against the Guangxi family. The Duan cabinet ordered a crusade against the Guangxi faction, and dismissed Lu Rongting, the inspector of Guangdong and Guangxi, Chen Bingkun, the governor of Guangdong, and Tan Haoming, the governor of Guangxi.At this time, he had just completed two batches of Japanese loans, and he became more courageous when he had money, so he confidently decided to conquer Hunan, flatten Guangdong, conquer Guangxi, and fight against Yunnan. Zhang Shuyuan, commander of the 5th Division stationed in Shandong, succeeded as Songhu Guard; Ni Sichong's 20th Battalion of Anwu Army and Zhang Jingyao's 7th Division were dispatched to Hunan; Zhang Liuji, the supervisor of Yu and Huizhou, responded internally; he also ordered Li Houji, the governor of Fujian, to send troops to land on the coast of Guangdong via the seaway.The Feng army and the Shaanxi army were transferred to Sichuan to assist Wu Guangxin and Liu Cunhou in attacking the Yunnan army.

On October 20, when Tan Haoming, Commander-in-Chief of the Guangdong-Guangxi National Defense Army, came to Hunan, the three direct governors of the Yangtze River, Jiangsu Governor Li Chun, Hubei Governor Wang Zhanyuan, and Jiangxi Governor Chen Guangyuan jointly proposed four proposals to solve the North-South issue: (1) Stop the war in Hunan; (2) Withdraw Fu Liangzuo; (3) Reorganize the cabinet; (4) Reorganize Ni Sichong's department.This is the action of the direct line to open fire on the Anhui faction, and it also echoes the southern Guangxi faction.Because among these four propositions, the first and second two are against Duan's policy of unification by force, which is to attack Duan's prestige; the third proposition is to reiterate Li Chun's previous request to eliminate pro-Japanese factions in Duan's cabinet That is to say, the strike phase obtains military expenditure and arms support from Japan.These propositions of the direct lineage are similar to those of the Guangxi lineage, and the direct lineage is especially important. It is to take Zhang Xun's old troops in Xuzhou and Haizhou in northern Jiangsu from Ni Sichong, so as to weaken the strength of the main fighters of the Anhui lineage.

Since the Zhili lineage echoes the Guangxi lineage, the Anhui lineage has also drawn in the Feng lineage. Zhang Zuolin, the "New Fengtian King", sent a telegram on October 21, urging the Beijing government to immediately crusade against Guangdong and Guangxi. Due to the strong attitude of the three governors of the Yangtze River, Duan felt that the situation was getting serious, so he had to keep Lu Yongxiang, the general of the Anhui Province, in Shanghai to deal with the unexpected incident on the Yangtze River and postpone the plan to attack the southwest.Some radicals in the Anhui faction planned another coup against Feng Guozhang.From late October to early November, rumors in Beijing were raging that Beijing soldiers were going to launch a coup to put the president under house arrest, which shocked Feng Guozhang overnight.

Duan's order to dismiss Lu Rongting, Chen Bingkun, and Tan Haoming required the president's seal, but Feng refused. He euphemistically said that he hoped that the major incident would be reduced to a minor one, but he did not dare to insist, fearing that Duan would really turn his back on him. On October 27, he reluctantly Under the order, Chen Bingkun, the governor of Guangdong, was dismissed, Li Yaohan was appointed as the governor of Guangdong, Mo Qingzi would handle Guangdong military affairs, and Li Fulin took over as the guardian of Guanghui. On October 30, Li Yaohan was awarded the rank of general of the army, and Mo Qingyu was promoted to lieutenant general of the army.Li Yaohan, Mo Qingyu and Li Fulin are all Guangdong local soldiers.Mo Rongxin, the former guardian of Guanghui, was also a general of the Guangxi faction. This was Duan's plan to use the Guangdong local faction to drive out the Guangxi faction.Feng Guozhang did not issue the order to dismiss Lu Rongting, which made Duan Qirui deeply dissatisfied, and again drafted three orders to Feng. Ji Guang took over as the patrol envoy of Guangdong and Guangxi; the third is to instruct the new Guangdong governor Li Yaohan to strictly decorate the Gui army and drive back to Guangxi.On the one hand, he urged Feng Gaiyin, on the other hand, he stepped up the spread of rumors about a coup and expulsion of the president.

On November 6, amidst the rumors, Feng had no choice but to hand over these three orders to the casting bureau for stamping and publishing them. However, he was very distressed and regretted his mistake of easily entering Beijing to become the empty president. He was so angry that he didn't even eat dinner. , In the middle of the night, they sent people to the Printing and Casting Bureau to chase the three orders back.Duan didn't see the President's order issued the next day. When he asked the Printing and Casting Bureau, he found out that the President had recovered him. He was not polite at all, and asked Feng sternly, why did the three orders that he had promised to publish change his mind again, how could the president go back on what he said?Facing the imposing Prime Minister, Feng was speechless, so he had to agree to publish it the next day. After Duan left, Feng handed over the order to the Printing and Casting Bureau.

The Guangxi faction originally relied on the direct line for Austrian aid, so they did not take Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang seriously. After Feng was forced to issue orders such as Lu Rongting, he realized that the direct line, an ally, could not stop the Anhui faction in the north.Since the direct lineage cannot be the Austrian aid of the Guangxi faction, the Guangxi faction extended a hand of friendship to shake hands with the KMT. On November 10, Lu Rongting went to Wuzhou to preside over a military meeting. In addition to the Guangxi military leaders, the meeting also invited Hu Hanmin, the representative of Marshal Sun, Wang Zhengting, the representative of the French military government, Wang Zhengting, the chief of the navy, Cheng Biguang, Guangdong Provincial Governor Li Yaohan attended.This Wuzhou Military Conference was expanded compared to the Nanning Military Conference. It was a joint meeting involving the Kuomintang, Guangxi clique, and local soldiers from Guangdong.The theme of this meeting is to cooperate sincerely to resist the Northern Army and at the same time eliminate internal barriers.The Guangxi faction themselves took the positive action of aiding Hunan, and at the same time asked the Kuomintang to send troops to Fujian to open up a second battlefield to contain the Northern Army.

Only at this time did the Kuomintang have a chance to express its decisive opinion. Therefore, it raised the issue of Chen Bingkun, the Guangdong governor of the Guangxi faction, who was unpopular and seized the governor's pro-army. At that time, the 20th Battalion of the Provincial Governor's Pro-Army received by Chen Bingkun was also assigned to the command of Chen Jiongming to attack Fujian, but it was subject to Cheng Biguang's restraint. Cheng Biguang was a well-known moderate faction in the Kuomintang. He had always advocated uniting with the Guangxi faction to resist the Northern Army. The position made the Gui family feel sad, so he strongly urged Lu Rongting to go to Guangzhou to preside over the military.In the final meeting, it was recommended that Lu Rongting serve as the patrol envoy to Guangdong and Guangxi concurrently as the governor of Guangdong, Cheng Biguang as the chief of the navy concurrently served as the commander-in-chief of the land and sea coalition forces of the Fujian Army, under his command Lin Zaoyi, the commander-in-chief of the navy, and Fang Shengtao, the commander-in-chief of the Yunnan Army, jointly attacked Fujian.Lu Rongting said that he was old and sick, so he sent Mo Rongxin, the guardian envoy of Guanghui, to act as the governor of Guangdong during his recuperation period.

There is nothing wrong with the Guangxi faction not daring to rely on the direct lineage for self-help, because Feng Guozhang is really in a difficult situation in Beijing.It turned out that at this time the Northern Army had received good news from both Hunan and Sichuan. Duan believed that it would be easy to pacify the South by force, and the most important thing was to get rid of the elbow and armpit problems. Therefore, there were two types of "coup against Feng" and "legal expulsion of Feng" in the Anhui Clique. different opinions.In the coup against Feng, Ni Sichong and Zhang Zuolin declared independence, set up a provisional government in Tianjin, promoted Xu Shichang as Grand Marshal to act as the president, and then marched into Beijing to force Feng to step down.Legal expulsion is to quickly establish a provisional Senate as the acting legislature, amend the "Congress Organization Law" and the law on the election of members of the two chambers, and call a new Congress to formally re-elect the president according to these new laws.

The coup against Feng was straightforward, but Feng was not Li Yuanhong. Feng had the three governors of the Yangtze River as his backing.As for the formation of a provisional government in Tianjin, it is just like the military government in Guangzhou, and it is not as good as the military government in Guangzhou in terms of law.The most worrying thing is that in this way, the Zhili will be forced to Liangshan and united with the Southwest.Duan was very cautious and dared not take this path.