Hsiao Yao-nan had no intention jot giving Wu any reap support and Sun Chuan-fang had no thought of] fighting for anyone but himself. Hsiao Yao-nan is now an indepen. dent monarch and does not consider himself' a subordinate of the man who promoted him and put him in his post. His one ambition was to get Wu Pei-fu out of his bailiwick and to this end he was willing to Jet him use Hankow as a starting point; but once he had pushed him well up the Peking-Hankow line, he] proposed to abandon him' to his Hate, declare Hupeh's neutrality and to consolidate his position so" that no one could use his province military highway, Sun Chuan-fang considers himeelf a great military genius and believes, that he is going to conquer China {—for Sun Chum He says nite frankly in fact and adele that hho does not intend to fight under Wa Pei-fu's orders nor recognize even his nominal authority. Hie immediate objective when be set] out on his spectacular campaign was Shantung. He, hoped that in Chihli, thereby creating a diversion which' would make the seizure of Shantung easier for him.
At the same time Governor Yueh Wei-chun, of Honan, who succeeded Hu Ching-yi as commander of his Yarbarous hordes and who has added thousands of Wu Pei-fu's old Honan troops to his command, also wanted Shantung. As one of the Kuominchun chiefs he is an ally and a nominal subordinate of Feng Yuhsiang, but he was quite prepared to put himself completely at Wa Pei-fu's command if the latter could guarantee him Shantung reward. With Sun -Chuan-fang storming the same citadel and taking no orders from anyone, Wa Pei-fa could make no such pledges, 0 Yueh, finding himself in a remarkably strong pivotal position, decided to take full advantage of it, give no help to anyone, but watch for an opportunity to improve his own position.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.