Shortly after Wang Hengyue became the Sichuan-Guizhou Patrol Envoy, on August 14, 1917, Yanjing officially declared war on the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, abolishing the Sino-German and Sino-Austrian treaties!

Navy Chief Cheng Biguang and others arrived in Huangpu on 5 August.

Because Duan Qirui defeated Zhang Xun and regained power, he refused to restore the Treaty Law and the National Assembly, and adopted Liang Qichao's suggestion to prepare to convene a separate "provisional Senate" to reformulate the Organic Law and the Election Law of the National Assembly, and elect a new National Assembly, so as to achieve his goal of abolishing the old National Assembly, in which the Kuomintang members had the upper hand, and abolishing the Provisional Legislative Force, thus arousing the dissatisfaction of the old National Assembly, and they responded to Sun Yat-sen's call to choose a place to open another National Assembly, and went south to Guangdong one after another. By mid-August, more than 150 members of the National Assembly had arrived in Guangzhou.

On August 18, Sun Yat-sen hosted a banquet for members of the National Assembly in Whampoa Park to discuss the convening of the National Assembly. In view of the fact that there was not enough quorum of deputies from Guangdong, it was decided to follow the precedent of holding a National Assembly on the eve of the French Revolution and convene an "extraordinary session of the National Assembly".

Lu Rongting, who was fighting Tang Jiyao in Yunnan, was shocked when he heard the news.

He fought with the Dian army in Yunnan, but the Dian army had not yet been defeated, and Sun Wen's forces had infiltrated his territory first!

It was impossible to defeat the Dian army for a while, so Lu Rongting hurriedly ordered the front line to stop the attack on the Dian army, and issued a truce to Tang Jiyao.

Tang Jiyao didn't want to fight this inexplicable battle at all, not to mention that his biggest enemy now was not the Gui army, but the one who had already occupied Guizhou:

Wang Hengyue!

Wang Hengyue's power expansion was too fast, and in such a short period of time, he occupied Guiyang and drove away Liu Xianshi and Wang Wenhua.

The Yunnan-Guizhou alliance collapsed in an instant!

Guizhou has always been under Tang Jiyao's control, but in the blink of an eye, it has become Wang Hengyue's territory, which makes Tang Jiyao unacceptable at all!

Moreover, the Sichuan army has entered Yunnan, and although it does not control much territory, it has at least gained a foothold. Wang Hengyue's meaning couldn't be clearer:

With the power of Sichuan and Guizhou, we will jointly attack Yunnan!

In such a situation, the grudge between him and Gui Jun is nothing

Guangzhou has already taken intensive action.

On July 25, Duan Qirui's cabinet ordered Zhu Qinglan, governor of Guangdong, and Liu Chengen, governor of Guangxi, to be transferred. Zhu Qinglan refused to accept this order on the grounds of Guangdong's independence.

Guangdong was the political and military center in the southwest at that time, but the situation in Guangdong was very unstable and complicated. Duan Qirui took advantage of the xenophobia of the local military personnel to create chaos between the host and guest armies in Guangdong, so that the Beiyang Army could take advantage of the situation to enter the country. At that time, the Beiyang faction had already occupied Fujian and Jiangxi, which were adjacent to Guangdong, and Duan planned to use these two provinces as a springboard to attack Guangdong, and at the same time transport troops from the sea to land in the coastal areas of Guangdong.

Duan Qirui's plan was blocked in Jiangxi, because Chen Guangyuan, the overseer of Jiangxi, was a direct line, and the two factions of Jiangxi and Anhui did not agree on the use of troops to the south, so Duan Nai later sent troops to take Hunan and open another route to Guangdong.

Guangdong has always been unstable, and several forces are fighting openly and covertly.

Chen Bingkun, a soldier of the Gui family, was the overseer of Guangdong and assumed the position of ruler, but the governor Zhu Qinglan also had military power, and he commanded the guards and local soldiers. They were opposed to each other, the overseers and the provincial governors, and the Gui soldiers and the Guangdong local soldiers. In addition, there were two divisions of the Yunnan Army stationed in Beijiang, led by Li Liejun, which were the basic armed forces of the Kuomintang.

The local soldiers in Guangdong sometimes united with the Kuomintang against the Gui faction, and sometimes vacillated between the south and the north, and between the Kuomintang and the Gui faction.

The two Cantons claimed "autonomy" at the time of the rebellion of the Overseers and the dissolution of the Diet. When Yanjing was restored, the Gui faction sang and sent troops, but in fact there was no action, mainly to use the opportunity to unify the military power of Guangdong!

The Yunnan Army stationed in Guangdong and the garrison to which Zhu Qinglan belonged also wanted to go on a northern expedition, but the Gui department refused to give military equipment......

Since the Gui faction in Guangdong was the ruler, they were stingy with military spending on the Yunnan army and local armed forces, forcing the local troops stationed in the counties to raise salaries on the spot. Zhu Qinglan issued national salvation bonds in the name of the provincial governor, while the Dian army raised stamp duties and even withheld the opium of the Hongan Company to finance military expenses. The Gui family used this as a reason to attack the Dian army and Zhu Qinglan.

The autonomy pursued by the Gui system is completely a speculative means, and they believe that autonomy is half-reading, and in the case of half-reading, they adopt the strategy of linking Feng to reverse the section.

On the side of the Kuomintang.

On August 18, Sun Yat-sen hosted a banquet for members of the National Assembly in Whampoa Park to discuss the convening of the National Assembly. In view of the fact that there was not enough quorum of deputies from Guangdong, it was decided to follow the precedent of holding a National Assembly on the eve of the French Revolution and convene an "extraordinary session of the National Assembly". On the 25th, the extraordinary National Assembly opened, and on the 31st, Article 13 of the "Outline of the Organization of the Political Axe of the Republic of China" was adopted, stipulating that the Republic of China was specially organized to suppress the rebellion and restore the "Provisional Covenant Law". The military and political axes shall have a generalissimo and three marshals, who shall be elected by the extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

Until the effect of the Provisional Statute was fully restored, the executive power of the Republic of China was exercised by the Generalissimo, who represented the Republic of China externally, and the Marshal assisted the Generalissimo in the preparation of government affairs. The military and political axes are divided into six departments: foreign affairs, internal affairs, finance, army, navy, and communications. In order to meet the needs of the war to protect the law and fight the rebellion, the military and political axes did not adopt the cabinet system stipulated in the "Provisional Provisional Treaty Law" but adopted the generalissimo system of integrating the party, the government, and the military power as proposed in the "Revolutionary Strategy" of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, and implemented the head of state system that integrates military, internal affairs, and foreign affairs.

On September 1, the Extraordinary National Assembly elected a generalissimo according to the outline of the military and political axe, Sun Yat-sen was elected, and three marshals were by-elected.

The three marshals were:

Sichuan-Guizhou patrol envoy Wang Hengyue, Liangguang patrol envoy Lu Rongting, and Sichuan overseer Tang Jiyao.

It's a pity that this Dharma protector political axe did not get the support of the southwest soldiers at all, Tang Jiyao in Yunnan ignored it, and Lu Rongting of the Gui department was even more cold.

As for Wang Hengyue, the Sichuan-Guizhou patrol envoy, he didn't even look at this so-called appointment!

After the Extraordinary Congress elected Wang Hengyue as the marshal, Wang Hengyue quickly sent a telegram to the marshal, and both the Extraordinary Congress and Generalissimo Sun sent a telegram to exhort, and at the same time sent Zhang Binglin as a labor envoy to Wang Hengyue, who was in Guiyang with the marshal seal, and asked Wang Hengyue to accept it. Wang Hengyue still refused to accept it.

Wang Hengyue's attitude was ironclad, the knife could not be pierced, and the water could not be splashed, which made Sun Yat-sen very angry.

Soon Sun Yat-sen issued an order to Tang Jiyao as the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, but where was Tang Jiyao willing to accept this vacant position?

Commander-in-Chief of the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou? Now that Sichuan and Guizhou are under the control of Wang Hengyue, who else can he, the commander-in-chief, command besides the Dian army?

As if it had been said, although the three marshals elected by the Extraordinary Congress fought openly and secretly with each other, and even fought fiercely, they were surprisingly consistent in their treatment of the "marshals."

On the day that the Extraordinary National Assembly elected Lu Rongting as marshal, Lu Rongting sent a telegram to the Extraordinary National Assembly to express his political views, opposing the formation of another political axe, advocating the reinstatement of President Li Yuanhong, and at the same time sending a telegram to the whole country stating that "we will not be responsible for any problems that occur in Guangdong in the future." The extraordinary congress did not dare to condemn Lu Rongting's attitude

Chen Bingkun, the overseer of Guangdong in the Gui family, expressed a different attitude, and he entertained the Guangzhou press to explain his position: "The position of Acting President Feng is legitimate, and the position of Duan's cabinet is illegal, so we oppose Duan and not Feng." ”

As for the question of organizing a military and political axe in Guangzhou, he said: "I cannot express an attitude of approval or an attitude of interference, but the people of Canton cannot afford to spend money on the military and political axe and the extraordinary congress." ”

The three major warlords of the powerful faction in the southwest, Wang Hengyue, Lu Rongting, and Tang Jiyao, have adopted a completely uncooperative attitude towards the so-called "legal protection and political axe"!

The warlords of all walks of life in the southwest have guns and soldiers, and what they need is to dominate one side, but in terms of military and political axes, they have adopted the head of state system and established Sun Yat-sen's leading position in the protector regime, and they have become supporting roles!

Wang Hengyue had always ignored any orders from Sun Wen, and Lu Rongting and Tang Jiyao were very dissatisfied with the organizational principles and election results of the military and political axes, and it was reasonable that the three of them refused to take up the post of marshal.

Wu Tingfang, Tang Shaoyi, Cheng Biguang, Li Liejun, and other moderate Kuomintang figures also favored the collegial system in order to seek cooperation with the powerful factions in the southwest, so these four people refused to take office.

As a result, Sun Yat-sen appointed a number of backbone members of the Chinese Revolutionary Party and radicals from the former League or the Kuomintang to act as agents for all work.

In this way, the military and political axe actually became the political axe of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in its efforts to lead the movement to protect the law, thus determining its fate against the warlords of the southwest!

The establishment of the military and political axe marked the arrival of the Dharma Protection Movement, and also marked the formation of the confrontation between the north and the south.

Duan Qirui inherited the mantle of Yuan Shikai's unification of China by force, and was determined to suppress the Southwest Protector with Beiyang force and provoke the Second Civil War.

Duan Qirui's enemies were southwestern soldiers, including the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. His plan for using troops was to stabilize Sichuan first, win over the Sichuan warlord Wang Hengyue, and if Wang Hengyue could give in, then he would send Wang Hengyue to attack Yunnan from Sichuan, and he would attack Liangguang from Hunan.

Hunan is the closest to the occupied area of the Beiyang faction, and its own strength is not tough, so it is an ideal area for false Taoism. Duan Qirui planned to attack Hunan from Hubei and Jiangxi, and Duan Qirui decided to transfer Lu Yongxiang, the envoy of the Songhu Protector and the commander of the 10th Division, as the overseer of Hunan.

At this time, the people of Hunan sang the slogan of "Hunan people governing Hunan". Famous Hunan personalities in Yanjing, such as Xiong Xiling and Fan Yuanlian, also advocated that the Hunan people should govern Hunan and maintain the status quo, oppose the entry of the northern army into Hunan Province.

However, this is not the situation that Duan Qirui wants to see!

(To be continued)