Shortly after Wang Hengyue became the patrol envoy to Sichuan and Guizhou, on August 14, 1917, the Beijing government officially declared war on the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and abrogated the Sino-German and Sino-Austrian treaties!
Navy Chief Cheng Biguang and others arrived at Huangpu on August 5.
After Duan Qirui defeated Zhang Xun and regained power, he refused to abrogate the treaty and the Congress, adopted Liang Qichao's suggestion, and prepared to convene a separate "temporary Senate" to re-enact the Congressional Organization Law and the Election Law, and elect a new Congress, in order to achieve the goal of abolishing the Kuomintang.
The old Congress with the majority of members and the purpose of abolishing the provisional constitution aroused dissatisfaction among the members of the old Congress. They responded to Sun Yat-sen’s call to choose a place to open a new Congress and went south to Guangdong. By mid-August, 150 members of Congress had arrived in Guangzhou.
The remaining people.
On August 18, Sun Yat-sen hosted a banquet for members of Congress in Huangpu Park to discuss the issue of convening the Congress. Considering that the number of members coming to Guangdong was insufficient to meet the quorum, he decided to follow the precedent of the third estate representatives holding the National Assembly on the eve of the French Revolution and convene an "extraordinary session of Congress."
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Lu Rongting, who was fighting Tang Jiyao in Yunnan, was shocked when he heard the news.
He fought with the Yunnan Army in Yunnan, but before the Yunnan Army was defeated, Sun Wen's forces penetrated into his territory first!
It was impossible to defeat the Yunnan Army for a while. Lu Rongting hurriedly ordered the front line to stop attacking the Yunnan Army and sent a truce to Tang Jiyao.
Tang Jiyao didn't want to fight this inexplicable battle at all. What's more, his biggest enemy now was not the Gui army, but the one who had already occupied Guizhou: Wang Hengyue!
Wang Hengyue's power expanded too fast. In such a short period of time, he occupied Guiyang and drove away Liu Xianshi and Wang Wenhua.
The Dian Jin Alliance collapsed in an instant!
Guizhou has always been under Tang Jiyao's control, but in the blink of an eye, it became Wang Hengyue's territory, which Tang Jiyao simply couldn't accept!
Moreover, the Sichuan army has entered Yunnan. Although it does not control much territory, it at least has a foothold. Wang Hengyue's meaning cannot be more clear: use the power of Sichuan and Guizhou to jointly attack Yunnan!
Under such circumstances, the grudge between the Gui army and the Gui army was nothing, and the Guangzhou side had already taken action intensively.
On July 25, Duan Qirui's cabinet ordered the governor of Guangdong, Zhu Qinglan, and the governor of Guangxi, Liu Chengen, to be swapped. Zhu Qinglan refused to accept the order on the grounds that Guangdong was from Lou.
Guangdong was the political and military center in the southwest at that time, but the situation inside Guangdong was very unstable and extremely complicated. Duan Qirui applied pressure on Guangdong from the outside on the one hand, and created divisions internally by taking advantage of the ability of local soldiers to be dispatched.
Anti-foreignism, in an attempt to create chaos between the host and guest armies in Guangdong, so that the Beiyang army could take advantage of the situation. At that time, the Beiyang forces had occupied Fujian and Jiangxi, which were adjacent to Guangdong. Duan planned to use these two provinces as a base to attack Guangdong.
springboard, and at the same time transport troops from the seaway to land in the coastal areas of Guangdong.
Duan Qirui's plan... was blocked by Jiangxi because Chen Guangyuan, the governor of Jiangxi, was a member of the Zhili clique, and the Zhili clique and Anhui clique had different opinions on sending troops to the south, so Duan Nai later sent troops to Hunan to open another route to Guangdong.
There has been internal instability in Guangdong, with several forces fighting overtly and covertly.
Chen Binggun, a soldier of the Guangxi clique, is the governor of Guangdong and considers himself the ruler. However, the provincial governor Zhu Qinglan also has military power. He commands the guards and local soldiers. They are in opposition. The governor and the governor are in opposition, and the soldiers of the Guangxi clique and the Guangdong
Local soldiers were sent to fight. In addition, there were two divisions of the Yunnan Army stationed in Beijiang, led by Li Liejun, which were the basic force of the Kuomintang.
The local soldiers in Guangdong sometimes united with the Kuomintang to fight against the Guangxi clique, and sometimes wavered between the south and the north, and between the Kuomintang and the Guangxi clique.
Guangdong and Guangxi declared "independence" when the military governors rebelled and the National Assembly was dissolved. When Beijing was restored, the Guangxi clique sang loudly about sending troops, but in fact they did not take action. They mainly wanted to take advantage of 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 make the Northern Expedition, but the Guangxi clique refused to provide military equipment.
Since the Guangxi clique in Guangdong was the ruler, they were stingy with military expenditures for the Yunnan army and local armed forces, forcing the local armies garrisoned in various counties to raise wages on the spot.
Zhu Qinglan issued national salvation bonds in the name of the governor, and the Yunnan Army raised seal taxes and even withheld opium from Hong'an Company to pay for military expenses. The Guangxi clique used this as a reason to attack the Yunnan Army and Zhu Qinglan.
The autonomy pursued by the Guangxi clique is entirely a speculative method. They believe that autonomy is semi-independence. In the context of semi-independence, they adopt the strategy of joining forces with Feng to reverse the trend.
On the Kuomintang side.
On August 18, Sun Yat-sen hosted a banquet for members of Congress in Huangpu Park to discuss the issue of convening the Congress. Considering that the number of members coming to Guangdong was insufficient to meet the quorum, he decided to follow the precedent of the third estate representatives holding the National Assembly on the eve of the French Revolution and convene an "extraordinary session of Congress."
". The Extraordinary Congress opened on the 25th and passed 13 articles of the "Organizational Outline of the Military Government of the Republic of China" on the 31st, stipulating that in order to suppress the rebellion and restore the "Provisional Constitution", the Republic of China specially organized the military government of the Republic of China. The military government shall have a general marshal.
The three marshals are elected separately by an extraordinary session of the National Assembly.
Before the effectiveness of the "Provisional Convention" is fully restored, the administrative power of the Republic of China is exercised by the Grand Marshal. The Grand Marshal represents the Republic of China to the outside world. The Marshal assists the Grand Marshal in planning government affairs. The military government consists of six ministries: foreign affairs, interior affairs, finance, army, navy, and transportation.
.In order to meet the needs of the war to protect law and fight rebellion, the military government did not adopt the cabinet system stipulated in the "Provisional Constitution", but adopted the great unity of party, government and military power proposed in the "Revolutionary Strategy" of the Chinese Revolutionary Party.
The marshal system plan implements a head of state system that integrates military, internal affairs, and diplomacy.
On September 1, the Extraordinary Congress elected the general marshal according to the outline of the military government. Sun Yat-sen was elected, and the next day a by-election was held for three marshals.
The three marshals are: Wang Hengyue, the patrol envoy from Sichuan, Lu Rongting, the patrol envoy from Guangdong and Guangxi, and Tang Jiyao, the governor of Sichuan.
It is a pity that this law-protecting government did not get the support of the southwest soldiers at all. Tang Jiyao of Yunnan ignored it, and Lu Rongting of the Guangxi faction was even more indifferent.
As for Wang Hengyue, the patrol envoy to Sichuan, he didn’t even look at this so-called appointment!
After the Extraordinary Congress elected Wang Hengyue as marshal, Wang Hengyue quickly called the marshal. The Extraordinary Congress and Marshal Sun both called to exhort him. At the same time, Zhang Binglin was sent as a labor envoy to Wang Hengyue in Guiyang with the seal of marshal and asked Wang Hengyue to accept it. Wang Hengyue still
refuse to accept.
Wang Hengyue's attitude was rigid, invulnerable to piercing with knives and invulnerable to splashing water, which made Sun Yat-sen very angry.
Soon Sun Yat-sen issued an order to Tang Jiyao to be the commander-in-chief of the Jingguo Army in the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Jin. However, how could Tang Jiyao be willing to accept this empty post?
Commander-in-chief of the Jingguo Army in the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Jin? Now that Si Z: and Guizhou are under Wang Hengyue's control, who else can he, the commander-in-chief, command besides the Yunnan Army?
It seemed that they had agreed upon it. Although the three marshals elected by the Extraordinary Congress fought openly and secretly with each other, and even fought with each other, they were surprisingly consistent in their treatment of the "marshal".
On the day when the Extraordinary Congress elected Lu Rongting as marshal, Lu Rongting called the Extraordinary Congress to express his political opinions, opposed the formation of another government, and advocated the reinstatement of President Li Yuanhong. At the same time, he sent a message to the whole country stating that "any problems that occur in Guangdong in the future will not be responsible." The Extraordinary Congress expressed his political opinions to Lu Rongting.
I dare not condemn this attitude...
Chen Binggun, the Guangdong governor of the Guangxi clique, expressed a different attitude. He entertained the Guangzhou press and explained his position: "The status of President Feng is legal, and the status of Duan's cabinet is illegal, so we oppose Duan but not Duan."
Feng.”
As for the issue of organizing a military government in Guangzhou, he said, "I cannot express my approval, nor am I willing to intervene, but the people of Guangdong cannot bear the expenses of the military government and the extraordinary parliament."
The three powerful warlords in the southwest, Wang Hengyue, Lu Rongting, and Tang Jiyao, have adopted a completely uncooperative attitude towards the so-called "law-protecting government"!
Warlords from all walks of life in the southwest have guns and soldiers. What they need is to dominate one side. However, the military government has adopted a head of state system and established Sun Yat-sen's leadership position in the law-protecting regime. Instead, they have become supporting roles!
Wang Hengyue had always ignored any of Sun Wen's orders, and Lu Rongting and Tang Jiyao were very dissatisfied with the organizational principles and election results of the military government. It was understandable that the three of them refused to take up the position of marshal.
Wu Tingfang, Tang Shaoyi, Cheng Biguang, Li Liejun and other moderate figures of the Kuomintang also favored the collegial system in order to seek cooperation with the powerful factions in the southwest, so these four people also refused to take office.
So Sun Yat-sen appointed a group of backbones of the Chinese Revolutionary Party and radical elements of the former Tongmenghui or Kuomintang to handle various tasks.
In this way, the military government actually became the government that the Chinese Revolutionary Party tried to lead the law-protecting movement, thus determining its fate of being opposed by the southwestern warlords!
The establishment of the military government marked the arrival of the climax of the law-protection movement and the formation of the North-South confrontation.
Duan Qirui inherited Yuan Shikai's mantle of unifying China by force, and determined to use northern force to suppress the Southwest Protector and provoke the second Civil War.
Duan Qirui's enemies are the southwest soldiers, including the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangdong and Guangxi. His military plan is to first stabilize Sichuan and win over the Sichuan warlord Wang Hengyue. If Wang Hengyue can submit, then he will send Wang Hengyue to attack from Sichuan.
Yunnan will attack Guangdong and Guangxi from Hunan.
Hunan is the closest to the Beiyang faction's occupied area, and its own strength is not strong, so it is an ideal area for false attacks. Duan Qirui planned to attack Hunan from Hubei and Jiangxi, so Duan Qirui decided to mobilize the Songhu garrison envoy.
Division commander Lu Yongxiang is the military governor of Hunan.
At this time, Hunan people sang the slogan "Hunan people rule Hunan". Famous Hunan figures in Beijing, such as Xiong Xiling, Fan Yuanlian, etc. also advocated Hunan people rule Hunan, maintain the status quo, and opposed the Northern Army's entry into Hunan. In addition, Tan Yankai served as the governor of Hunan Province and also served as the military governor.
, which is quite popular among people in Hunan.
However, this is not a situation Duan Qirui wants to see!!.