On 22 March, when Kuomintang Chairman Soong Chiao-jen died in Shanghai due to his injuries and ineffective medical treatment, the angry Kuomintang mobilized public opinion to denounce Yuan Shikai, and at the same time stepped up the integration of the armed forces, shouting the slogan of "second revolution" for the first time.

But no one expected that the largest and most fierce armed uprising would take place in the barren and remote province of Guizhou.

Lu Pingshan, the former commander of the new army in Guizhou, gathered 3,000 old troops, raised the banner of "overthrowing tyranny and returning our homeland," and led his troops to raid Zunyi in the early morning of 25 April.

In less than 30 minutes, Liu Xianqian led the guards to break through the siege, Lu Pingshan led his troops to pursue more than 100 miles, slaughtering more than 400 deserters all the way before he stopped, and when Liu Xian absconded to Guiyang, there were only more than 30 people left around him.

After this battle, Lu Pingshan captured more than 2,300 long and short guns and four French artillery, occupied the military material warehouse in Zunyi City, and obtained a large amount of ammunition and food supplies.

Under the rule of the Yunnan army, the officers and soldiers of Guizhou who swallowed their anger began to change, and groups of Guizhou officers and soldiers gathered under the banner of Lupingshan with weapons and ammunition, plus a regiment and four companies of Zunyi Surrender, the Lupingshan Department quickly increased to 8,000 men and horses, and occupied the surrounding counties of Zunyi in one fell swoop, and the troops were directed at Tang Jiyao's department in Guiyang.

Tang Jiyao, who had already been appointed by Yuan Shikai as the governor of Guizhou, soon waited for a brigade reinforcement from Qujing, Yunnan, to jointly formulate a large-scale counterinsurgency plan, and immediately sent troops to Zunyi after resting.

On the night after Tang Jiyao's main forces left for Zunyi, a large-scale armed riot suddenly broke out in Guiyang City, where the army was empty, and thousands of rebels threw grenades and oil bottles at the major military camps and material warehouses, and attacked the patrolling Yunnan army with pistols, spears and machetes, among which a team of more than 250 people successfully knocked down the material warehouse in the north of the city, beheaded more than 130 Yunnan officers and soldiers guarding the warehouse, and set fire to the material warehouse in the north of the city, causing a series of explosions and fires, even the gate and front yard of Tang Jiyao's Governor's Mansion, More than two dozen powerful grenades also fell, seven guards were killed on the spot, and more than a dozen were injured.

By the time the garrisons of the various units of the Dian army reacted, the rioters had all evacuated, leaving a chaotic city burning everywhere for the Dian army.

After dawn, the losses were reported to Tang Jiyao one after another, Tang Jiyao was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and in the short two-hour riot, the number of casualties among the officers and men of Yunnan was as high as 800, most of whom were killed and injured by grenades and fire oil bottles in their sleep, and the two munitions warehouses were still burning, and a large amount of ammunition and grain stored in them were reduced to ashes.

An unexploded grenade was removed from the fuse and sent to Tang Jiyao, and there was not a single word or symbol on the 36-petal grid-shaped cast iron bullet body, but Tang Jiyao firmly believed that the grenade came from the Sichuan border army, and it was this powerful grenade that blew up all parts of the Yunnan army in the Sichuan-Yunnan War.

This is a big problem!

Tang Jiyao immediately ordered to stop the attack on Zunyi, and all the departments in the front were on standby, and then immediately telegraphed the situation to the Kunming headquarters.

Without waiting for the telegram from the headquarters of the Yunnan Army, the Luping Mountain Department launched a fierce attack on the advance regiment of the Yunnan Army, which was stationed in Wujiang Town, more than 50 kilometers south of Zunyi, with a superior force of 6,000 men and horses, and the fierce battle lasted for three and a half hours, and finally ended with the rapid reinforcement of the Eighth Brigade of the Yunnan Army.

The Eighth Brigade of the Yunnan Army rushed to the battlefield, and the Luping Mountain Department had already dropped more than 400 corpses and evacuated to the north, and the advance regiment of the Yunnan Army, which had suffered heavy blows under the unguarded situation, suffered heavy losses, more than half of the 1,800 officers and men were killed and wounded, hundreds of war horses and a batch of weapons were snatched away by the Luping Mountain Department, and two of the battalion commanders were brutally cut off and hung on trees.

The Dian army was hit by this and immediately withdrew to Guiyang, never daring to take the initiative again.

When the news reached Yunnan, the military and the people were in an uproar, so the newspapers pointed the finger at Sichuan and Xiao Yimin's border army, and the already huge contradictions between the two provinces suddenly escalated.

People from all walks of life in Sichuan immediately launched a powerful public opinion counterattack, satirizing the insatiable greed of the Yunnan political axe and the Yunnan army, and taking the blame for themselves, counting the atrocities of the Yunnan army in invading Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in the past two years, and finally the literati of the two provinces became more and more quarrelful, and the literati of Sichuan simply went into battle shirtless, and directly appealed to the military and people of the whole province to support the people of Guizhou in the just war to expel the rape.

On 1 May, Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Frontier Army, held a Chinese and foreign news conference in Chengdu, solemnly stating that the Sichuan Frontier Army had nothing to do with the armed conflict in Guizhou, and sternly warned the Yunnan Provincial Political Axe and the Yunnan Army Headquarters to immediately stop the despicable deeds of thieves shouting to catch thieves, correctly guide public opinion from all walks of life, and stop spreading rumors and slandering the Sichuan political axe and the people's army.

Finally, in the question of Chinese and foreign reporters, Xiao Yimin said unsatisfactorily:

"I support the just cause of the people in Guizhou, and hope that the Yunnan side will respect the wishes of the people of Guizhou, withdraw its troops from Guizhou as soon as possible, and return government to the people of Guizhou.

On 7 May, two brigades of the Yunnan Army held a high-profile departure ceremony in Kunming, the provincial capital, vowing not to exterminate the counter-revolutionary riots in Guizhou and never to withdraw their troops!

When the news came out, the whole country was shaken, and Yuan Shikai, who was sending troops to suppress the rebellion of the Kuomintang troops in Jiangxi, was so angry that he immediately ordered the Yunnan political axe and the army to stop any acts of war, and that all units of the Yunnan army were not allowed to enter Guizhou, stating that the turmoil in Guizhou was mainly political turmoil, and could only be resolved through peaceful negotiations under the auspices of the central authorities.

However, after Cai Ye's transfer, the Yunnan army did not buy Yuan Shikai's account at all, and the two mixed brigades completed the oath and left for Guizhou.

On 9 May, the Fourth Division of the Sichuan Army began to assemble on a large scale, and its main forces, the 1st and 2nd Regiments, quickly moved north of Yanjin, an important town in northeastern Yunnan, to occupy the beachhead line in the Sichuan-Yunnan border area, and to build fortifications and pontoon bridges.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, Xiao Yimin, commander of the Sichuan Frontier Army, solemnly announced to the outside world: After two days and one night of heroic fighting, 5,000 soldiers of the Reading Brigade under the Xikang Command of the Frontier Army wiped out in one fell swoop the Kang-Tibet rebel army that had once again occupied Yanjing, an important town in Xichuan, and completely recovered this strategic place and officially defended it!

When the news was issued, not only all walks of life in Yunnan were shocked, but the British could not sit still.

Yanjing faces Batang County in Sichuan Province across the river in the east, adjoins Deqin County in Yunnan Province in the south, connects Bitu in the west, and connects Mangkang in the north, it has always been the main transportation route between the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, and most of the salt supply in western Yunnan, northwest Yunnan and Tibetan provinces depends on this important salt-producing area.

Due to the special status of Yanjing, the successive political axes of the three provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet have been in accordance with the customs inherited for a hundred years, allowing them to develop naturally, and everyone wants to take care of it, but no one dares to take care of it, lest it cause a large-scale multi-party war.

But now that Xiao Yimin is in charge, and he is in charge of it in a dignified manner, his border army not only eliminated the Kang-Tibet rebel forces that have been entrenched in Yanjing for many years in one fell swoop, completely uprooted the local stubborn forces, but also sent Phuntsok's mixed brigade to garrison Yanjing for a long time, and solemnly refused the urgent appointment of the British Consul General in Chengdu, and for the first time through a special article, sternly warned the British in rare witty language: I don't care how you sprinkle in other places, but don't spread wild in my territory, I am in charge of my territory, and I don't need outsiders to dictate my hands!

As soon as the article was published, public opinion throughout the country applauded, and the Kuomintang public opinion, which had recently criticized Xiao Yimin a lot, immediately adjusted the wind and supported it, attacked Britain's hegemonic behavior with great fanfare, and praised General Xiao Yimin as a patriotic general who dared to do and act boldly, which greatly encouraged the people's morale and invigorated the national spirit, and General Xiao Yimin's resolute decision has a sufficient basis in legal theory, and this heroic deed will surely be remembered by history.

The Kuomintang was happy, but Yuan Shikai had a headache.

Yuan Shikai has been sarcastic about Sun Yat-sen in the past few days, saying that Sun Yat-sen was completely because he couldn't borrow money from the British, and he turned against the British everywhere in anger, otherwise why didn't he see Sun Yat-sen scolding his godfather?

In addition to satirizing Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai scolded Xiao Yimin for making such a mess regardless of time or good or bad, how could he, the president, face the British who had just lent him a huge loan? How can the forces of Yunnan and Tibet be convinced? If it weren't for Lao Tzu locking up the tiger Cai Yi, you would be a small teapot and dare to challenge the whole of Yunnan?

However, the sudden upsurge of the Jiangxi and Zhejiang armies led to local fierce battles with the troops sent south by Yuan Shikai to suppress them; Xiong Kewu, a diehard member of the League entrenched in Chongqing, also publicly telegraphed at this time, demanding that the masterminds behind the Song Jiaoren case be brought to justice, and secretly stepped up preparations for military war, and made frequent contacts with the revolutionary party forces in Hubei and Jiangnan.

In the face of the flames of war burning everywhere, Yuan Shikai could no longer care about the far southwest, and he hurriedly issued secret orders to Hu Jingyi, the governor of Sichuan, and Li Yuanhong, the governor of Hubei, and immediately put all his energy on the Yangtze River basin area, which was related to the life and death of the Beiyang political axe.

At this moment, Yunnan is already in chaos, and the military and political circles do not need to think about it to know what Xiao Yimin's purpose is, but the loss of the source of salt and the abundant tax revenue is secondary, and it is the most fatal thing to be in the dangerous situation of being attacked from many sides, and Xiao Yimin's move is tantamount to not being afraid of provoking a large-scale war between the two provinces in exchange for the interests of other parties.

The two brigades of the Yunnan Army heading for Guizhou were urgently stopped, and a difficult choice was finally placed in front of officials from the military and political circles in Yunnan: Either fight hard with Sichuan, or stop increasing troops in Guizhou and sit down with Sichuan to negotiate.

After three consecutive days of meetings, the Yunnan side finally chose to sit down and negotiate, because more than 10,000 people of the Sichuan Army's Wang Jian's division were oppressing the border, Peng Guanglie's division of the second division of the Sichuan army stationed in Leshan had already moved south to Syria one after another, and the first brigade of Zhou Junbu, the first division of the Sichuan army, stationed in Neijiang, had also left for Luzhou, obviously telling everyone that our Sichuan army was united and was ready for war.

Secondly, the Luping Mountain Division of the Guizhou Rebel Army grew rapidly, and they constantly attacked the troops of the Yunnan army stationed in various counties, attacked various transportation lines out of nowhere, brutally cut off the heads of Yunnan officers and soldiers, frequently wrote letters and posted posters, calling on the people to rise up against the tyranny of the Yunnan army, lobbying the vacillating officials at all levels of the political axe, warning all those who worked for the Yunnan army's internal annihilation, and dozens of counties in northern and northwestern Guizhou had lost control.

The Guizhou army that originally obeyed Tang Jiyao's leadership was also ready to move, and several counties in southern Qiannan saw the chaos in Guizhou and the inability of the Yunnan army to conquer, and they also successively announced that they would no longer accept the leadership of Tang Jiyao's political axe.

Another and most serious problem is:

Due to the hostility between Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, each of them levied high circulation taxes, resulting in a rapid rise in prices in various parts of Yunnan, and Guizhou's rebellion cut off Yunnan's only trade route in and out.

In such a situation, negotiation becomes the only way to solve the problem.

When the Sichuan Provincial Government received the Yunnan Provincial Political Axe's interview telegram, everyone from the Metropolitan Governor down to the ordinary officials were elated and extremely proud, as if they had won a huge war.

Metropolitan Governor Hu Jingyi immediately summoned Xiao Yimin, the commander of the border army, praised Xiao Yimin's far-reaching plan, and then discussed when to withdraw the troops.

Xiao Yimin shook his head and smiled:

"This matter is not busy, military mobilization can be stopped, but it is still necessary to maintain the status quo and form a momentum of oppression, we can first discuss bilateral economic and trade issues, and then move on to the issue of mutual trust and the withdrawal of border troops, as for the war in Guizhou, it is none of our business in the first place, and we don't need to pay attention to it at all."

Hu Jingyi immediately came to his senses, ended the discussion with a smile, and began to start protracted negotiations with the Yunnan side.

(To be continued)