Fourteen warships set up a long formation and went up the river, and the fourteen "blue sky and white sun" flags were shining coldly.The setting sun crashed, the river was covered with blood, and the frightened gulls wept bitterly in the salty river wind. Between the blood-colored water and the sky, the huge fleet is like a black python, sailing towards Jiujiangkou in the billowing smoke. Chiang Kai-shek, who was established as the second-generation leader by the "Three All" Congress of the Chinese Kuomintang, is sitting in his seat at this moment. In the ship's cabin.He was dressed in a military uniform, with a serious face, squinting his falcon-like eyes and staring at the river bank that was gradually being swallowed by the dusk, as if he was using an invisible whip to urge the densely packed teams marching on the river bank and the wilderness dirt road.The honking of car horns and the neighing of mules and horses can be heard from time to time on the river bank, echoing the rumbling noise of the fleet. ——In his ears, all the voices are converging into a war song of crusade!A hearty desire to conquer, a kind of excitement that is sure of winning has soaked through all the cells in his body!

As usual, he was accompanied by his beautiful wife Soong Meiling.This year he was 42 years old, just entering the prime of life, full of energy.He has always had his wife with him since their marriage.They held a very grand wedding at the Majestic Hotel in Shanghai on December 1, 1927. More than 1,500 celebrities and dignitaries were invited to attend.A YMCA pastor pronounced them husband and wife, a Russian band played "Here Comes the Bride," and an American tenor sang "Promise Me," a delirious courtship song.In fact, Chiang Kai-shek could not understand and did not appreciate Western music. What he liked to listen to were Peking Opera, Yue Opera, and operas from his hometown in eastern Zhejiang. However, when his wife went with him, she always carried the phonograph that played music when she got married. Play some American jazz or singer records to cheer him up: "Darling (Song's nickname for Jiang. The Chinese transliteration of English Dar-ling, meaning 'dear'), this is the famous conductor class popular in the United States. Nick Goodman's "Saturday Night of Ecstasy", you listen, you listen, you must like it very much." He immediately responded intimately and mechanically: "I like it, I like it."

This time, Chiang Kai-shek confirmed that everything went well, very smoothly. ——He has a well-thought-out plan to subdue the Gui family.He personally served as the commander-in-chief, and came to Jiujiang to take command and crusade against the Guangxi faction.He Yingqin served as the chief of the general staff and dispatched three armies: Liu Zhi's first army, Zhu Shaoliang's second army and Zhu Peide's third army, and 14 ships to cooperate in the battle.In a few days, the Guangxi troops in Wuhan will be besieged on all sides. It was the turn of spring and summer in 1929 AD, at Jiujiang Port, a stone's throw away from the three towns of Wuhan.

This is a bloody dusk filled with a river of jazz, and the noise is crazy! ——The Chiang-Gui war of the Kuomintang’s new warlords kicked off when Chiang Kai-shek stepped off the ship and gently shook off the black cloak he was wearing. On the road of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, the threat of the Guangxi faction has always been in his throat, and he must be eliminated first and then quickly. Two years ago, in the "Ning-Han Controversy" launched by Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei for the central power, Chiang Kai-shek once joined forces with the Guangxi faction to attack Wuhan.Later, the Guangxi faction went north with Chiang Kai-shek to discuss Zhang Zuolin, the former warlord of the Feng faction who was entrenched in Beijing and Tianjin.In these two offensives, the Guangxi army was brave and invincible, and took the opportunity to occupy territory and expand its power: Bai Chongxi stationed in North China, Huang Shaohong guarded Guangxi, and Li Zongren stationed troops in Wuhan to rule the two lakes.For a time, the Guangxi faction from Guangdong to the Yangtze River, and then to North China, looked like a tiger watching the world, and wanted to compete with the Jiang family for male and female.

On February 22, 1929, the Wuhan political branch of the Guangxi faction issued a resolution to dismiss Lu Diping, the chairman of Hunan Province appointed by Chiang Kai-shek, and replace him with He Jian;This incident was just like a fuse, which finally broke the already precarious Jianggui alliance. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a crusade against the Guangxi faction and began what is known in history as the "Second Western Expedition" of the Kuomintang.The Guangxi faction is also preparing for a decisive battle with Jiang and his party.However, the scheming Chiang Kai-shek knows well: military is politics, "the hard fist is the boss."In China, without the backing of a strong military force, any political figure is a politician-style puppet. ——This has been seen from the Northern Expedition: the so-called political struggle has no morals at all, only the principle of interests, if the interests are the same, they will cooperate, and if the interests are contrary, they will divide.To mobilize the forces of various factions, the distribution of interests must be carried out, mother Xipi!You are all old cunning people who don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles, and no one wants to make chestnuts for others; all factions are playing the banner of the Three People's Principles, and the God they really believe in in their hearts is their own interests.

Two heroes cannot stand side by side, and two debates cannot subdue each other; they are brothers who defend against foreign aggression, and enemies who fight inside the wall.The seemingly sudden rupture of the Jianggui alliance is actually an inevitable trend. Chiang Kai-shek's best method is to use the contradictions between various factions and the contradictions within each faction-that is, "use the faction to control the faction" to disintegrate the opponent.Taking advantage of the fact that he held the power of the central government, he used heavy troops to suppress him, secondly used a lot of money to buy him, and thirdly used high-ranking officials to win him over.This method of disintegrating the opponent can play a role in drawing salaries from the bottom of the pot, and the effect is very fast.

On March 9, before Jiang Gui started the war, Chiang Kai-shek personally wrote to Li Zongren, the "leader" of the Guangxi clique, asking Li Zongren to go to Nanjing to attend the third National Congress of the Kuomintang and "openly discuss" party and state affairs.The letter wrote: The safety of the overall situation today depends on whether you can come to Beijing to discuss the overall situation. If you can come to Beijing today, no one in the country will forgive your sincerity, and the government will never be different. .Zhongzheng and his brothers have shared weal and woe for a long time, not only success or failure, but also honor and disgrace. Safety also.

Li Zongren seemed to have seen through Jiang's plot at a glance and ignored it.So he deployed the main force of the group army on the front line in the northeast of Wuhan, and handed over the power of the front-line commander to Li Mingrui and Yang Tenghui, the commanders of the first division. The second target Chiang Kai-shek dealt with was Bai Chongxi, the second leader of the Guangxi faction. Li Pinxian and Liao Lei brought to Hebei by Bai Chongxi were originally the main force of Tang Shengzhi, and they were not willing to work hard for the Guangxi clique.Seizing this contradiction, Chiang Kai-shek secretly summoned Tang Shengzhi, who had quarreled with the Guangxi faction as a "snipe and clam" in the "Ning-Han Controversy", and promised Tang Ke to re-command the troops. , Jin, take back the old department.

At this time, the battle between Jiang and Gui was on the line, and Bai Chongxi wanted to lead his troops south to cooperate with Li Zongren to attack Jiang, but the troops no longer listened to Bai's command, and posted everywhere "Down with the Guangxi faction", "Capture Bai Chongxi alive", "Welcome the commander-in-chief of Tang Dynasty to come back again" They even posted slogans against Guangxi and welcoming Tang Dynasty on the train cars in Beiping and Tianjin.Bai Chongxi could not gain a foothold in the army, so he disguised himself as a businessman and fled from Tanggu on a sun wheel.Coincidentally, this Japanese ship had just brought Tang Shengzhi from Shanghai, and then carried Bai Chongxi away.

On March 20, Tang Shengzhi landed in Tanggu, received a grand welcome from the former Ministry, and announced the crusade against the Guangxi faction.Chiang Kai-shek immediately appointed Tang Shengzhi as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route, which was tantamount to cutting off an arm of the Guangxi faction. Another strategy carefully planned by Chiang Kai-shek to eliminate the Guangxi faction is to dismantle the Guangdong-Guangxi alliance.The target of the deal is Li Jishen. Li Jishen is from Wuzhou, Guangxi, and is an official in Guangdong.In terms of the division of political power, he belongs to the Cantonese family.Guangdong has abundant financial resources, but its soldiers have poor combat effectiveness; Guangxi is poor, but its soldiers are brave in battle.Li Jishen took advantage of his local relations to form an integral whole with the Guangxi faction for a long time. Guangdong supported Guangxi's funds, and Guangxi supported Guangdong's troops.It is difficult for Chiang Kai-shek to succeed in eliminating the Guangxi faction without dismantling the Guangdong-Guangxi alliance.

As a guarantee of his personality, Chiang Kai-shek specially sent Wu Zhihui, Zhang Renjie, Cai Yuanpei, and Li Shizeng, four veterans of the Kuomintang, to invite Li Jishen to Nanjing to participate in the "Three Alls" conference; he was responsible for mediating the "Xiang case".Li Ji believed it was true.Unexpectedly, on the morning of March 21, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ordered Li Jishen to be arrested and detained in the Tangshan Club on the outskirts of Nanjing, on the grounds that Li Jishen was inclined to the Guangxi faction.At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek had persuaded the Cantonese generals Chen Jitang and Chen Mingshu to obey the central government, and appointed Chen Jitang as the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route of the Rebellion Army, focusing on Guangdong. ——After this set of plans succeeded, Chiang Kai-shek went to Jiujiang in person on March 29 to send troops to conquer the main force of the Guangxi faction in order to win a complete victory. When the Jianggui war broke out, Li Zongren returned to Guangxi from Shanghai in a hurry, Bai Chongxi was fleeing from Tanggu to Guangxi, and Huang Shaohong was stationed in Guangxi, resulting in no commander in the Wuhan army. When the two sides were in a bloody battle, General Li Mingrui of the Guangxi Army suddenly led his troops to withdraw from Wuhan to Xiaogan, Hubei, and then declared to obey Chiang Kai-shek's "Central Committee".Li Mingrui's action made the Guangxi family turn pale with shock.Li Zongren was so angry that he coughed up blood, and the famous song "House of Flying Daggers" that he usually listened to playing on the guzheng was roaring in his ears, and he seemed to see in front of his eyes: the Han army was beating drums, and the sound of shouting was all over the mountains and fields, and swords and guns were fighting. , people called the horse neighing; suddenly heard the jackdaws screaming in the lonely army, the wind rustled, the big banner fell, the overlord looked up to the sky and sighed, and the concubine Yu bowed her head and sobbed. "Damn it! Lao Jiang's trick is really vicious! I shouldn't go to Shanghai to treat my eye disease, and I shouldn't hand over the power to Li Mingrui" Seeing that the situation was over, the remnants of the Guangxi Fourth Army, led by Hu Zongduo, Tao Jun, and Xia Wei, abandoned Wuhan and retreated to Jingzhou, Shashi, and Yichang.But how could Chiang Kai-shek allow them to gain a foothold in western Hubei? He ordered Zhang Fakui, Zhu Shaoliang, and Xia Douyin to pursue them. At the same time, he issued a "Letter to Appease the Guangxi Army", saying: If the officers and soldiers return with troops, they will each be rewarded with five yuan; if the officers and soldiers return unarmed All of them will be taken in; if you can kill you and rebel the chief and come back, you will be rewarded with a high rank.If you kill your company or platoon leader, you will be rewarded with 100 yuan in silver, and you will be promoted to a higher rank; , promoted to three ranks. Hu, Tao, and Xia couldn't withstand Chiang Kai-shek's two-pronged approach of force and money, and at the same time announced that they would step down and the troops would be reorganized. In this way, Jiang and Guangxi had not fought, and the two provinces of Hubei and Hunan occupied by the Guangxi clique were divided and disintegrated by Chiang Kai-shek from the localities to the army. On April 5, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Song Meiling arrived in Wuhan.He telegraphed the whole country with great joy: "Wuhan will be settled without bloodshed." Then, Chiang Kai-shek issued the "Admonition to the Generals of the Rebel Army", denouncing the crimes of the Guangxi warlords: the Guangxi warlords occupy the territory of Guangdong, Guangxi and Lakes, control the finances of Guangdong, Guangxi and Lakes, and hijack the troops of Guangdong, Guangxi and Lakes for selfishness. Their separatist behavior is no longer the same. day.There are five biggest ones: (1) opportunism to expand a certain force; (2) conspiracy to destroy the revolutionary force; interests of the people; (5) violating the central government in order to undermine the unity of China.With the efforts of the soldiers of the whole country and the support of the people of the whole country, it is not difficult for the central government to suppress this rebellion. However, the warlords of the Guangxi clique rebelled against the trend of democratic unity and committed feudal separatist atrocities. At the same time, the "Three Big Three" of the Kuomintang made a resolution: Li Zongren, Li Jishen, Bai Chongxi, etc. rebelled against the party and the country, and were permanently expelled from the party. Chiang Kai-shek was not satisfied with the elimination of the Guangxi army in Hubei. He wanted to take advantage of the situation to completely eradicate the Guangxi faction and use it to subdue other factions. On April 8, he published the "Letter to the People of Wuhan", declaring: The purpose of this campaign against rebellion is not only against Li and Bai.Make sure that after Li and Bai are eradicated, there will never be a traitor following Li and Bai. The next day, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife arrived in Changsha from Wuhan to supervise the battle, and ordered to attack Guangxi, the base camp of the Guangxi clique, from Hunan, Guangdong, and Yunnan. Under the pressure of Chiang Kai-shek, the Guangxi faction actively organized forces to counterattack. On May 5th, Li Zongren set up the banner of "Protecting the Party and Salvating the Nation" in Wuzhou. Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong led troops to attack Guangdong in two ways, in an attempt to open a new situation after winning the battle against Guangdong; Li Zongren went to Hong Kong to contact other anti-Chiang forces . On May 21, the Guangdong and Guangxi armies fought a bloody battle in Baini, Guangdong. The Gui army was defeated and returned to Guangxi.Although Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong led troops to fight repeatedly in Guangxi, they were unable to resist Chiang Kai-shek's troops dispatched from all directions to attack Guangxi. Guilin, Wuzhou and Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, fell one after another.People never imagined that the Guangxi faction, which was strong enough to compete with Chiang Kai-shek for world hegemony, would lose so badly! Chiang Kai-shek smiled complacently: Mother Xipi!Ben Jiegong used to be the boss in Shanghai Beach, so he has a lot of ways to deal with you! ——Like an experienced cheetah preying on a group of small animals, he plays with the prey first, and then slowly enjoys it. No matter how angry the prey is, the cheetah always holds the whiskers on its lips calmly and calmly, It seemed particularly graceful and magnanimous. He revealed a "hole card" with ulterior motives: appointing Yu Zuobai, who is an apartment in Hong Kong, and Li Mingrui, who has made great contributions, and let the pair of cousins ​​rule Guangxi temporarily.