One argument is “location, location, location” -- that Sichuan suffered greatly during the early warlord period for having the bad luck to be next to a growing military power in the form of the Yunnan-Guangxi alliance. Dixon and Sarkees (2016) describe a series of civil and interprovincial wars involving Sichuan that began with the Anti-Monarchy War of 1915-1916 and continued through 1920, after which Sichuan “enjoyed” four years of autonomy before being reoccupied by “government” forces; thereafter, Sichuan is rarely mentioned as an arena of armed conflict during the warlord period. So I will focus on the fighting in Sichuan from 1915-1920.
Yuan Shikai, President of the Republic of China, moved to turn the republic-in-name-only into an empire with himself as founder of the royal dynasty. On December 11, 1915, the parliament “elected” him as emperor and the next day he proclaimed the empire. This move provoked opposition from many quarters, but it was in Yunnan that the rebellion began. Military commanders seemed to fear the prospect of a Yuan able to rule without their support.
On December 25, some 6000 troops in Yunnan declared Yunnanese independence and proclaimed the Yuan monarchy to be illegitimate; fighting soon began as Yunnanese troops invaded Sichuan. About 30,000 government soldiers were mobilized to stop them between January and March. The rebels adopted the name National Protection Army (Ho-kuo-chün). After heavy fighting, Sichuan’s provincial government joined the revolt on February 1.
Japan refused to recognize the monarchy and treated both sides as belligerents, aiding the rebel cause. Jianxi rebelled on March 15, and six days later Feng Guozhang in Nanjing – one of the government’s top commanders and part of the Beiyang Army that Yuan relied on for support – declared his neutrality. The South was now united against the loyalist provinces of the North – and advancing. As Yuan’s army crumbled, he abdicated on March 22. However, the rebels refused to stand down until he abandoned the Presidency. Informal truces existed over much of the front, but hostilities continued. On June 6, Yuan died; nine days later, the new President Li Yuanhong declared the war to be at an end.
The outcome of the war was a military victory by the rebels, but the price of victory was allowing a weak President who was dominated by northern political figure Duan Qirui. The new President announced the reinstatement of the constitution of 1912 and restoration of the Republic. The rebels rescinded their declarations of independence, but the government of the North was unable to exert effective control over the former rebels in the South. According to Sutton (1980), Yunnanese “casualties” to April 1916 numbered between 1200 and 1600, but 2000 were treated for wounds; this suggests that his “casualty” estimates refer only to those killed rather than the total of killed or wounded. Some 2000 Northern (government) dead were reported in Sichuan, which is where most of the combat took place.
In 1917, pro-Northern general Liu Ts’un-hou was appointed to replace Tai K’an as the highest military authority in Sichuan. Tai K’an remained governor of the province, but when Liu sought to eject him from the capital of Chengdu on April 18, war broke out. More than 200 soldiers and 3000 civilians died in the first three days of the war. Tai received support from Yunnanese and Guizhou units, which were also nominally part of the national army but really controlled by the respective warlords of each of the provinces. Together, they maintained Tai in power. On or about July 6, Liu attacked the capital. On July 12, a ceasefire was agreed upon and the remaining 2000 Guizhou troops evacuated Chengdu. However, they were ambushed and about 500 of them were killed.
Lo P'ei-chin, the military commander of Yunnan-Guizhou forces, immediately dispatched 10,000 reinforcements to Tai, which arrived too late to prevent Tai’s death. They faced off against about 25,000 Sichuanese troops. Attacked on three fronts, the Sichuanese suffered 2000 wounded on the Chengdu front alone. But then the Sichuanese mounted a counterattack and almost 1000 of Lo’s men drowned or otherwise died during the ensuing rout.
On August 2, a truce was signed, but it later broke down when the Sichuan conflict became merged into the North-South War (see below). Lo was dismissed as commander in chief by the Yunnan governor in September. The war had effectively been won by Sichuanese forces under Liu. Yunnan completed its withdrawal from the province in November.