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other hand had secured, in addition to General Lui's
men, a small body of Hunanese under one T'ong Shang-
ming who had been expelled from Hunan by Ho Kin and
found their way into Kwangsi. At this juncture
Chiang Kai-shek early in February announced his
intention of proceeding in person to the South with
three divisions of his own troops in order to
complete the subjugation of Kwangsi but the renewal
of hostilities further North caused him to change his
mind. Meanwhile Cheung Fat-fui had reformed his army and proceeded to march southward from Kuei Lin
and Luichow with the intention of establishing
himself in the South-Western districts of Kwangtung
whither he had previously sent emissaries to secure
the co-operation of the local bandits. Cheung is
himself a native of Kochow and it was from this
region that he hoped to draw considerable support.
By the middle of February his advance guard had
crossed the Kwangtung frontier and his main body
had reached Pak Lau in the neighbourhood of Wat Lam
when he was attacked in flank by the Cantonese
aided by those troops who had remained faithful to
Lui Wun-yim. The result was a victory for the
Cantonese who claim that Cheung's army was driven
from the field leaving eight hundred dead with a
large number of rifles and machine guns. Kwangsi
troops took some part in the fighting but seem to
have made no serious attempt to assist their allies. Among the prisoners taken were very few Cantonese
and it is thought that the greater part of Cheung's
forces