Guangdong–Guangxi War

Guangdong–Guangxi War
Part of Warlord Era
Date 1920–1922 Location South China Result Victory for Sun Yat-sen
Belligerents
Old Guangxi clique	Constitutional Protection Junta
Commanders and leaders
Lu Rongting Tan Haoming Shen Hongying Chen Binghun	Sun Yat-sen Chen Jiongming

Guangdong–Guangxi War
Traditional Chinese	粵桂戰爭
Simplified Chinese	粵桂战争
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yuè-Guì Zhànzhēng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Jyut6-Gwai3 Zin3-zang1

The Guangdong–Guangxi War, or the 1st and 2nd Yue-Gui Wars, occurred between the Kuomintang and the Old Guangxi Clique.

First Yue-Gui War

When Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, attempted to re-establish himself in Guangzhou in 1917, warlord Lu Rongting reluctantly supported him for a few years. After Sun split from the Old Guangxi Clique over allocation of troops, he attempted to strip Cen Chunxuan (aka Tsen Chun-Hsuan or Sam Sun-Suen), one of Lu's most important allies in Guangdong, of some of his troops, in order to assign them to the more apparently loyal Chen Jiongming, a local Guangdong warlord who had sponsored Sun. Sun Yat-sen then directed Chen Jiongming to attack Lu Rongting and the other Guangxi warlords. In October 1920, Chen captured Guangzhou and drove the Guangxi warlords out of Guangdong.

Second Yue-Gui War

In 1921, Chen hoped to unite the region surrounding Guangdong behind Sun's regime at Guangzhou and pushed into Guangxi itself. Lu sent two armies--one led by his wife's younger brother Tan Haoming, the other under Shen Hongying—against Chen's forces. These drove Chen back and occupied the areas of Qinzhou and Lianzhou. However, Lu's ally Chen Binghun collapsed, losing Wuzhou and allowing Chen Jiongming to drive up the rivers into Guangxi as allies moved in from the north. Lu Rongting was forced to step down in July 1921. By August, Chen had occupied Nanning and the rest of Guangxi.

Aftermath

Although Chen Jiongming and the Guangdong forces occupied Guangxi until April 1922, their occupation was largely nominal. Armed bands of Guangxi loyalists continued to gather under local commanders, calling themselves the Self-Government Army. Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming soon split over plans for the Northern Expedition. By May 1922, Sun Yat-sen's Cantonese forces had evacuated Guangxi, leaving it to Chen. Nevertheless, Sun would return later to reform his National government.

See also

• New Guangxi Clique

Sources

• Tang Degang; Li Zongren (February 1988). 李宗仁回忆录 [Memoirs of Li Zongren] (1st ed.). Guangxi: Guangxi People's Publishing House.
• Southwest Warlord History Research Association, ed. (August 1982). 西南军阀史研究丛刊 [Southwest Warlord History Research Series]. Vol. 1 (First ed.). Sichuan People's Publishing House.
• Southwest Warlord History Research Association, ed. (June 1983). 西南军阀史研究丛刊 [Southwest Warlord History Research Series"] (Second ed.). Guizhou People's Publishing House.
• Liu Zhichao (March 1998). 民国军阀史 [History of Warlords in the Republic of China]. Liaoning: Liaoning University Press.