On September 3 the first shots occurred, a mere brush of outposts at Quinsan, after which Lu Yung-hsiang drew in his advance guards to the line mentioned above and solemnly declared war on President Tsao Kun. On September 5 Dr. Sun Yat-sen (an_ally of Chang Tso-lin and Lu Yung-hsiang, though his own conception of the situation probably was that they: were his Vieutenants) announced" another punitive expedition against Peking: this, by the way, never even made' pretence of staxting, as Sun had no money and too many troubles of his own in Canton (see below). And on the vame day, September 7 that Peking issued a mandate denouncing and cashiering Lu Yung-hsiang, Chang Tso-lin declared war on Peking and began to move his army southwards, For clarity's sake it will be best to take first the story. of the fight round Shanghai, On the night of September 8-9 the Kiangsu army" very nearly did break through Lu's line Anting: they actually breached but failed to follow up their advantage in the dark, The prospect of thousands of defeated troops pouring back on Shanghai caused the Council to mobilize the Volunteers and apply to the British Rear-Admiral Murray Anderson, the senior naval officer on the spot, to land forces. cordingly 1,100 British, American, Japanese and Italian bluejackets were landed (the French already had about 400 marines ashore), all the approaches in Chapei and long main roads were barricaded with barbed wire and a cordon tawn round the Settlements which, though slender indeed, proved entirely efficient. The work of the S. V. C. which wa practically fully mobilized for some six weeks and had some of the worst districts, namely Chapei, to defend, is worthy of high praise.
While holding the Liuho-Anting line, Lu Yung-hsiang launched an attack along the west shore of the Taihu Lake, by Huchow and Thsing, intended to strike a: Chi's flank at Changchow, but this attempt never made any progress against Bei Bao-shan, Chi's lieutenant from Haichow in north Kiangsu.
On Septem: ber 18, Lu was betrayed by Hsia Chao, prefect of police in Hangchow, and Pan Kuo-kan, who should have guarded the southern of Wu Pei-fu's influence. In the not march st clit through to frontier of Chekiang, and the first week of February sutenant in Szechuan, Yang Sen, after repeated failures, captured Chengtu the provincial capital, compelling the two great leaders Hsiong Keh-wu and Liu I-chin to flee into Yunnan. Eastwards Wu Pei-fu secured himself by' placing the navy at Tsingtao and. drawing on the funds of the Kiaochow-Tsinanfu railway for its pay. During April be was. reported as strengthening hold on Hunan by additional support to the Tuchun. Chao) Hong-ti. Hupeh, of curse, was ruled by his own appointee, Hsiao Yao-nan, On May 16 he caused, Chou Yin-jen to be made Tuchun T!
Sun ion of Chekiang, with the promise of its Tuchunship as a bait. At 'Nanking Chi Hsieh-yuan, overlord of Kiangsu, Kiangsi and Anhui (the same' principality, it is interesting to note, as the old Viceroys had held)' was an ally and as events proved, although the. personal relations'. between Wu and Chi were said to be none too good, a loyal one. Thus by midsummer Wu Pei-fu nominally Shanghai as he could probably have done. Either he did not want to fight in this region and thereby incur the odium of foreigners and rich Chinese, or he was waiting for the reinforcements which Wu was to send him. (These came down river by commandeered China Merchants steamers during the end of August and beginning of September to the number of at least 10,000). At any rate Lu 'Yung-hsiang had time to establish what proved to be a very' strong line from Liuho on the Yangtze, by Anting on the 8. N. Railway, Tsingpoo and Sungkiang.
line was held with an abundance of well constructed machine-gun nests which Chi artillery, though formidable in numbers, was too ill-directed to wipe out. Aeroplanes were employed but, as in the fighting later around the Great Wall, they flew far too high to be of any use either in bombing or. spotting. It should be said here, however, that the war was con-
Gucted with great bravery and deterntination on both sides; attacks were pushed home in a road was opened to Sun Chuanfang to march in on Hangchow, Lu retiring to Lunghua while still holding Sungkiang. Seen by the editor of this paper the day after his arrival, Lu expressed himself perfectly confident, he had a shorter line to hold, 35,000 Shantung troops on which' he {could rely and he would ultimately get to Nankitig. Obviously his game was to hold on and wear out Chi, while Wu Pei-fu smash-Jed Chang Tso-lin; and this he might have done, judging by the though mightily reinforced by Wu Pei-fu, never repeated the partial success of September 9. But treachery again ruined Lu. On October 5, Sun Chuan-fang having reached Hangchow and being supported by Bei Bao-shan who had marched in from west of the Taihu, launched an attack on Sungkiang, whence Lu had to fall back on a line at Minghong on Ovtober 10. Here he called on Chen Yao-san, commanding the Ath Division, to come down to his support; Chen refused alleging that his men were sick of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.