et, 18.
This perplexing war in the] north probably grows to be more of a confusion to our reader ay the conflict No one can but to-day we do have pr messages to local agents of the Fengtien people which make it appear that the advance of! Chang Tso-lin's troops along. their several routes partakes of the nature of a steam roller and that within a few ys Feng! Vu-hsiang will, be Jas Feng's men were. so General [Shang Chen, Yen Hsi-shan's man jin Suiyuan, promptly absorbed whole brigades of. Feng Yu-Ihsiang's defeated forces as they retreated westward, vid Paotouchen, in the general direction of Kansu_ and the wildernesses beyond. A year ago it was known that these absorptions had taint-led Shang Chen. A little later, et us say ten months ago, when Yen Hsi-shan decided that it was time to relieve his relatively poor province by cutting his lanny in half, he discovered that ithe incubus was his master and that reduction was not only impossible but that the incubus iwas much inclined to dictate policy. Shang Chen, and many others besides, had turned lover to the "Nationalist"—then Russian—eause and. would have ejected Governor Yen: from his post after fifteen years'. tenure without a qualm if he had not been willing to sway to and fro with the incubus, This will probably make it reasonably clear why Governor Yen, some little while ago, saw fit to repudiate all his' northern con nections and raise the Kuomintang flag. He considers Feng Vu-hsiang hi most poisonous enemy, but Feng has in some insidious way come to control the incubus, and Feng plays the Russian game hither and yon as it suits him, holding Red hostages against fresh support: from Moscow and baulking obstinately when Moscow wants too much control, Yen Hsi-shan has therefore been swept into this nefarious muddle and. sees no way out.
Peking tried to help him to do something drastic by issuing ultimatums; but Yen found him—lself helpless ax these challenges ame in and his purchased subordinates insisted upon defying them. Me, therefore, had to £0. boldly and openly. Red to mai tain his leadership in Shans Now Shansi has a small railway leading from the—provineiat capital, Taiyuanfu, eastwards to Shihchigehuany on the Pekin Mankow line. Above Shibchi fe huang on this line there is Jerushed, will desert his army as remarkably fine military position he always does when serious|known as Niangtzckuan, trouble comes, and will retreat] to Moscow by' the most modern, twekuan and send out worrying atate! has only to hold Niuns gla,
leonveyances for fresh parties, to endanger all com t-tions. To seize the man's person munications on the Peking-Han-is virtually impossible because ko railway. In the north with Shansi in the way, the! hasan equally strong Fengtien armies can only' fight position at Tatungfu on the Ssu their way to a positi yuan line; and by the Fen River great north-west road in his real valley, running southwest from and long before they can arrive Taiyuan, Shansi can, at any time, fat such a point—let us say] strike at the one Vig westward Tungkuan—the bird will have highway at Tungkuan, on the flown, HonansShensi border, "und seal The existing situation is not!
Feng Vu-hsiang's fate in the difficult to explain to anyone event of defeat. This explains familiar with the geography of} why Feng is not too keen upon China; for others we should coming to Yen Hsi-shan's help in thave to draw diagrams. Let us his revolt against Fengtien. Yen Jassume that our readers have an might suddenly regain control of elementary knowledge of the map 2 group of frightened and Last year Feng Yupentant subordinates and push my was driven out of 4 big force down to Tungkuan <0 ty of Peking and Kalgan that the Fengtien armies could efforts of the devour Feng and his wretched and Wu Pei-fu's Tittle, half equipped force as a rather wretched display of ritf-Jeat would a mouse who had no raft from Honan and elsewhere. refuge but the trap. Feng Yue Marshal Wu's achievements were, Ihsiang is a splendid runner. He fas usual, out of proportis loves to leave his men" and the material that he had in officers behind and bolt to some hand, but it will never be known very secure position from which how much his rabble, pouring, the can issue declarations of his through the hills west of the love of peace.
Nankow Pass, contributed to the Tt will be well remembered capture of that supposedly imhere that when Sun Chuan-sang pregnable stronghold. At any was making his expensive effort rate Governor Yen Hsi-shan then to cross the Yangtze, Peking was helped valiantly in the defeat of advising very strongly against it. Feng's army, which was financed, Yang Vu-ting saw that whatever equipped, and advised by' little conquests were male Moscow, by holding the city of against the nondescript Kuomin-Tatung in the extreme north of jes, Feng Vu-h the province of Shansi and by putting up a splendid defence at various passes south of Suiyuan, and Jehol, Tatung. would constitute a menace No Chinese commander, how-hind the lines which the best lever, can resist the temptation] a of enlisting defeated enemies, especially when they are fully armed and as beautifully trained Chang Tso-lin and General Yang, Vu-ting wanted to make a horrible example of Feng Vu-hsiang
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.