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There being no reporters anywhere near Shantung's suddenly created No Man's Land, correspondents hundreds of miles away in Peiping and Shanghai began a guessing game, guessed unanimously that Han would worst Liu. While the battle raged what was the attitude of Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek? Did he back up Governor Han and order Subordinate Liu to submit? By no means.
In China every War Lord is jealous of every other, and the Generalissimo is no exception. His reaction was to telegraph rebukes to both Han and Liu, ordering them to stop fighting, but supporting the rights of neither. Ineffectual Chiang's telegrams were ignored. But after 72 hours of the hottest fighting into which two Chinese armies have pitched for years, they did stop. There had been the usual Chinese deal, probably put over with the usual bribes.
Deal. Chefoo, which has benefited so much from War Lord Liu's comparatively enlightened rule, learned that he has "consented to be transferred to some other Chinese province." The disputed revenues go to Governor Han of Shantung, but he does not get Chefoo. It passes into the hands of the so-called North Chinese Navy which has held Tsingtao for some time and belongs to Marshal Chang Jr., son of the late, great Manchurian War Lord Chang Tso-lin.
Governor Han. apparently satisfied, withdrew with his forces to Tsinan and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek could pretend that the "balance of power" in China had been maintained—by a deal. What next? Han, having much expanded his prestige by ousting Liu, may be expected to conspire with his honored guest in Shantung, the famed "Christian War Lord" Feng Yu-hsiang. onetime master of "The Largest Private Army in the World" (TIME, Sept. 29, 1930).
Feng has been spending the summer in poor health near the "Sacred Mountain," meditating an alliance with model Governor Han of Shantung and model Governor Yen Hsi-shan of Shansi Province. Should those three able heads really get together, Generalissimo Chiang, Marshal Chang Jr. and the so-called Chinese Government at Nanking may expect to be wiped from the map while ancient glory is restored to PEKING.*
* Meaning "Northern Capital" whereas it is now called Peiping, meaning "Northern Peace.''