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danger.
Of the three divisions of northern troops
in Kuangtung province two had been withdrawn to meet
:1
the threat from Feng Yu-hsiang.
There remained the
other northern division, and four divisions of
provincial troops, none of which however was at full strength, a generous estimate of the total for all five divisions being 40,000 men. No reliable information regarding the numbers opposed to them is available; but it seems likely that they were outnumbered by the attackers, augmented as these seem to have been by troops of bandits and irregulars inspired by the hope of loot. The so-called Iron Army, led by Cheung Fat-fui, was reputed to be an excellent fighting machine and was expected to fight desperately for the prize before it, while the defenders were thought to have been corrupted by easy living to be unlikely to offer a determined resistance.
und
Ʌ
5. Fortunately for Chiang Kai-shek the success of T'ang Shông-chih at Lo-Yang gave him a moment's respite just as the danger to Cant on recurred. He seized the opportunity to despatch to the South what troops could be spared for the purpose nominally four divisions, but in fact perhaps 10,000 men in all, augmented the number
J
of aeroplanes at the disposal of Canton andordered four gunboats to proceed thither from Amoy. He also sent one of his German military advisers and General Ho Ying-yam his Chief of Staff, to direct all operations. Before these reinforcements arrived, the Cantonese commanders had already withdrawn their men from Kwangsi province without fighting and had taken up positions along the North River from Sam-shui to Tsing-yuen, where they dug
trenches
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