After settling in Mongolia, Zhang Hanqing, who had a heavy army, naturally had to make the next move. According to the established plan, Zhang Hanqing formed the "Anding Northwest Army", referred to as the "Anxi Army", and appointed himself commander-in-chief, in the name of crusading against Zhang Guangjian and stabilizing the northwest.

He took Han Linchun's 1st Division, the 1st Special Operations Brigade of Jiyi Qiaoyuan, the 1st Guards Division, and the two independent brigades of Song Jiuling and Qi Enming as the main forces of the "Anxi Army", and transferred the 1st Guards Brigade Student Teaching Regiment led by Wang Yizhe from Liaoning to convene the oath of the two route armies from the Wengjin River Valley in Mongolia on 20 November.

Han Linchun is the first brave general under his command, resourceful and informal. According to the reality that the northwest is vast and sparsely populated and resources are scarce, he proposed to adopt a "quick solution" in terms of strategy; In terms of tactics, it adopted a "fierce attack and a hard attack," and its operational requirement was to "annihilate the enemy's main force," and the operational purpose was to "strive for total victory." Joke, so many people, with such strong firepower, fight a few tired soldiers in remote and poor provinces, if you can't win all, you will be ashamed to death.

In order to make noise about the military situation, Zhang Hanqing mimeographed thousands of copies of the "Letter to the Northwest Soldiers", which said: "This army does not distinguish between races, does not value regions, regardless of relatives, regardless of religion, and appoints the virtuous and uses the ability, and is a grand duke." I led 100,000 male soldiers, invincible. Now the view of Shuo Fang in the palm, take Longhan if to explore the bag, whip the Yellow River, just around the corner to cross, drink horses and Qinghai, for a period not far away. ”

With the Feng Army's Han Linchun Division, the First Guard Division, the First Special Operations Brigade and the Student Teaching Corps as the left route army, Yinchuan was attacked through the Alxa League, and Han Linchun was the commander-in-chief. Gather 2 regiments of the cavalry brigade of Zhang Chengde of the "Anmeng Army", and the Song Jiuling Independent Brigade and Qi Enming Independent Brigade of the Feng Army, about 25,000 people as the right route army, with Guo Songling as the commander-in-chief, attack Suzhou and Ganzhou along the Juyan Sea through the weak water river as a feint. Zhang Hanqing acted with the Left Route Army.

The main force of the Guards Division did not follow the battle because it was worried about the recurrence of Mongolia in history, and it was left in Mongolia to assist Ji Yiqiao in reorganizing the Mongolian Security Army and serving as the general backup.

There is a reason why the north-western direction was chosen as the breakthrough point.

Before the Zhi-Anhui War, the Anhui system had possessed the provinces of Northern Zhili (Beijing, Tianjin, Rehe, Chahar), Shandong, Shanghai, Anhui, Shaanxi, Fujian, etc., and took advantage of the orthodoxy of the Central Committee. Therefore, going north to Hulunbuir is a good policy, and solving the Mongolian problem is a move to win the hearts of the people, but it has no significant effect on the increase in strength. It was not until the Autonomous Government of the Northeast United Province took the "May Fourth Movement" as an opportunity to strengthen the strength of the Feng army in the north, but it had not yet formed an overwhelming advantage over the warlords of other factions.

At this time, the direct line was preparing a thunderous blow to the Anhui system: Zhili, Suiyuan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Hubei, the three governors of the Yangtze River, were brewing a huge war. Because on the eve of the May Fourth Movement, the North-South peace talks held in Shanghai broke down. At the end of November, the "Draft National Salvation Alliance" was signed with the powerful factions of the five southwestern provinces (Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Sichuan) and Hunan to jointly fight against the Anhui system. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that a storm is inevitable.

As a person who has come over, Zhang Hanqing clearly knew that the Zhiwan War next year was inevitable, and then the first Zhifeng War that took place in 1922 ended in a defeat for the Feng army. Although the Bong Department made a comeback in 1924 and won in one fell swoop, after all, it missed a good opportunity---- at this time the Southern National Revolutionary Army had already grown, and finally the Northern Expedition was successful, and then there was a new round of melee, which allowed Japan to take advantage of the opportunity.

How can we get the most out of this round of warfare? Long before sending troops to Outer Mongolia, Zhang Hanqing agreed on a follow-up strategy: the main force of the Feng army made a detour through Mongolia, taking advantage of the great opportunity of the central government and local governments being unable to take care of the northwest, decisively taking Gansu, the hinterland of the northwest, and waiting for an opportunity to peek into Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Xinjiang.

The current Suiyuan Metropolitan is Cai Chengxun, a direct general and former commander of the First Division of the Central Army, and at this time a major war is brewing in the direct line, so he has a resigned attitude towards the confrontation between the Anxi Army and Zhang Guangjian. Not only that, but he also got out of the way of Suiyuan's main road, and let the People's Army enter the fortress with Dengkou and Wuhai.

After the Great War of Zhiwan in history, Shaanxi was annexed by Feng Yuxiang's direct army, and then achieved the glory of Feng's "Northwest Army". Sichuan, known as the "Land of Abundance", is the barrier of the southwest. Xinjiang is a vast country, and during the civil war, it was the strategic rear. These three places are all good places to nourish the war with war, and as long as any of them are captured, there is basically no need for the Northeast Provincial Autonomous Government to travel thousands of miles to make logistical supplies. Moreover, he used troops in the northwest, no matter how bad Zhang Zuolin was, he would not dare to fight on two fronts and go out of the customs to make the defeat of the first direct war.

In the early days of the Republic of China, Gansu was a great Gansu, and it was not until 1928 that it was divided into the current three provinces of Ningxia, Qinghai and Gansu. In 1919, Zhang Guangjian, the overseer of Gansu, had always supported the Anhui system. Zhang Guangjian was appointed by Yuan Shikai in 1914, with Yuan's support, and led a mixed brigade of the Beiyang Army. In Gansu, where the local military strength was relatively weak, his troops successfully succeeded Zhao Weixi as the governor of Gansu and the chief of civil affairs by virtue of their excellent weapons, supervising the military and political power of Gansu. tightened the rule of the warlords, spared no effort for Yuan Shikai to control the northwest and plot to restore the imperial system, and was awarded the first-class viscount on December 21, 1915 for his meritorious efforts in persuasion. After the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916, the Anhui faction controlled the Beijing regime, and Duan Qirui, who was close to the Anhui faction with his hometown friendship, was able to stay in office until now.

Lanzhou is the base of the successive central government to rule the northwest, and the successive Gansu overseers generally obey the central government and stay out of the warlord faction. Therefore, during the period when the Anhui system was in power in the official history, Zhang Guangjian was regarded as a person from the Anhui family, and when he was directly in power, Lu Hongtao was regarded as a person from the Anhui family. Zhang Hanqing attacked it, and all parties had the least resistance.

There is a "three horses" in the northwest, but in the usual sense, this "three horses" is the new "three horses", which are later entrenched in Qinghai Ma Bufang, Ningxia Ma Hongkui, and Gansu Ma Hongbin. In 1919, there were also old "three horses", which were Ma Anliang, Ma Qianling, and Ma Haiyan. In the early years of the Republic of China, there were eight towns in Gansu, and the "three horses" were the fourth: Ma Tingxing (now Wuwei, Gansu) in Liangzhou, Ma Lin (now Zhangye, Gansu) in Ganzhou, Ma Qi in Xining, and Ma Hongbin in Yinchuan. and Zhang Zhaojiao (now Pingliang, Gansu), Kong Fanjin (now Tianshui, Gansu), Pei Jianzhun (now Linxia, Gansu) in Hezhou, and Wu Tongren (now Jiuquan, Gansu) in Suzhou, which were controlled by the government of the Republic of China.

When Yuan Shikai was president, Ma Anliang was the governor of Gansu, Ma Qi was the general soldier of Xining, Ma Lin was the general soldier of Liangzhou (later transferred to the town guard of Ganzhou, Ma Tingxing was the guard of Liangzhou town), Ma Zhankui was the assistant commander of the central camp, Ma Guoren was the general soldier of Qinzhou, and Ma Fuxiang was the general soldier of Ningxia (soon, it was changed to the envoy of Ningxia Protector). At this time, the Hui people accounted for five of the eight towns in Gansu, and they were hereditary. In the era of the Beiyang government, only the four towns of Ganzhou, Liangzhou, Xining and Ningxia were retained.

The so-called military envoys refer to the special cases of individual special areas that are administratively under the jurisdiction of the province and militarily under the central government.

Ma Fuxiang's father, Ma Qianling, was called "Lianghui" by Zuo Zongtang because he persuaded Ma Zhanao (Ma Qianling's niece and son-in-law) to surrender to the Qing Dynasty during the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui uprising during the Tongzhi period. This is the reason why Ma Hongkui later praised his family as "not a rebellion". Yuan Shikai Zheng appointed Ma Fuxiang as the chief soldier of Ningxia Town, Ningxia got the benefit of the Yellow River irrigation, known as "plugging the south of the Yangtze River", Ma Fuxiang immediately led the "Zhaowu Army" 13 battalions totaling more than 2,500 people to take office. Soon after taking office, he married Chang Lian, the general of Ningxia Manying, and Tawang Zabu, the prince of Zasak of Alxa Banner, as brothers with different surnames. After Ma Fuxiang was the envoy of the Ningxia Protector Army, he also commanded the three banners of Lashan, Wushen and Etuoke, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. He took his nephew Ma Hongbin as the commander of the Gansu New Army (with jurisdiction over 5 battalions) and his son Ma Hongkui as the commander of the 5th Mixed Brigade, and actually determined that Ningxia was the territory of Ma Fuxiang's line.

After Ma Zhanao descended to the Qing Dynasty, the compilation department was the banner of the three battalions of Mabu in the south of the town. The foundations were laid for the armed forces of this group. After two generations of management by Ma Zhanao and Ma Anliang, it developed and grew to his grandsons Ma Tingxian and Ma Tingxian, and their armed forces basically controlled Hezhou (now Linxia Prefecture, Gansu) and Liangzhou (now Wuwei District, Gansu). And it has developed to Lanzhou, Tianshui area, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Tibetan areas, Shaanxi Huangbei and other places. At that time, Ma Tingxing was the strongest: as the commander-in-chief of Liangzhou Town, he had a team of 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry with a total of 24 battalions ---- elite army (commonly known as the Western Army). His father, Ma Anliang, was the commander of the Gansu Elite Army and the governor of Gansu, and at the beginning of the Republic of China, he served as the head of the Gansu branch of the Chinese Kuomintang and the rank of army general, and was awarded the title of first-class baron on December 23, 1915. He used the Western Army as the capital, supported the army and respected himself, manipulated the provincial government of Gansu Province, and became the "Emperor Taishang" of Gansu Province in the early Republic of China.

Ma Haiyan's son Ma Qi formed the "Ning Navy" after the Xinhai Revolution, and finally split from Ma Anliang's elite Western Army and was named the "Ning Navy", and soon served as the chief soldier of Xining Town, entrenched in Qinghai, and controlled Qinghai for more than 60 years with his sons Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang in history.

In terms of religious consciousness, although all three schools are YSL religions, they have different sects. Generally speaking, when Ma Zhanao's father and son were in power, they generally had a balanced attitude towards the old and new religions, controlling the eunuchs in Hezhou under their own influence, and excluding foreign eunuch sects from preaching in Hezhou. Ma Qianling and his descendants are under the eunuch sect of Bijiachang and prefer the old religion. Ma Haiyan's descendants later embraced and supported Protestantism. But all three are powerful factions, and they divide one side.

On the same day, Zhang Guangjian, the overseer of Gansu, ordered the four counties of Hexi to stand by and wait for help, and mobilized the whole province to prepare for the establishment of the "Provincial Protection Army", appointed himself as the commander-in-chief, and urgently transferred Lu Suwu, the defender of Longyou, to wave his troops to the north, and became the commander-in-chief of the front. At the same time, Ma Hongkui's department and Ma Lin's department were ordered to provide emergency support.

In order to minimize resistance and divide the strength of the Gansu tribes, Zhang Hanqing and Guo Songling conspired to adopt the strategy of "false way to destroy Yu": before Zhang Hanqing swore an oath, he sent someone to secretly contact Ma Tingxing, knowing the benefits and disadvantages, and allowed to take the post of Hexi Protector, and the four towns of Yongzhen and Hexi were ---- the four counties of Wuwei, Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Dunhuang opened up by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In exchange for the bloodless soldiers on the right, they crossed the borders of Liangzhou (Wuwei) and Hezhou (Linxia) under their control to threaten Lanzhou from the north and west. As long as Wuwei succeeds, it is like cutting off the waist of Gansu, not only the march is much closer, but also the south can go straight to the Yellow River, and there will be no danger along the way.

The feasibility of this strategy lies in the fact that after Zhang Guangjian, a figure of the Anhui faction, took control of Gansu and forced Ma Anliang, who was in the middle of the day, to return to his hometown in Hezhou, Ma Ting's family was at odds with the Gansu overseers.

If Ma Tingxing is divided, the Gansu War will save time and effort. As long as Zhang Guangjian is defeated, when to clean up Ma Tingxin depends on the mood of Fengjun.