In the spring of 1925, Zhang Zongchang was appointed military governor of Shandong. Zheng Shiqi, the former governor of the Anhui Clan, was unwilling to give up his territory and was reluctant to leave for a long time. Zhang Zuolin joined forces with Feng Yuxiang in the Second Zhifeng War to defeat the zhi clan, and in order to balance, Zhang Zuolin pushed duan Qirui, the leader of the Anhui clan, to the front and made him the temporary ruler. Zhang Zongchang made great contributions to the Feng army in the Zhifeng War, but he did not have a suitable territory, so Duan Qirui, under the pressure of Zhang Zuolin, had to give up Shandong controlled by the Anhui clan.
Since the Anhui and Feng clans were allies at that time, Zhang Zongchang had to temporarily tolerate zheng Shiqi's reluctance to hand over Shandong. However, when Zhang Zongchang waited in Xuzhou with his troops for more than three months, he still pretended to be stupid when he saw Zheng Shiqi. Zhang Zongchang was furious and sent his chief of staff, Wang Hanming, to Jinan to meet with Zheng Shiqi, hoping to take over peacefully.
While sending Wang Hanming to negotiate with Zheng Shiqi, Zhang Zongchang asked his subordinate Xu Kun to lead two brigades into Shandong. At that time, the Shandong army under the command of Zheng Shiqi had a division of thirteen mixed brigades and two independent regiments. Most of these units are local troops in Shandong, each with its own historical background, except for Hu Pingsan's Seventh Mixed Brigade, which is Zheng Shiqi's team, and the rest are only nominally under the command of Zheng Shiqi. Under these circumstances, Zheng Shiqi saw that Zhang Zongchang's vanguard troops had already entered Shandong, so he had to hand over the seal letter of the Shandong Military Affairs Inspector to the governor Gong Boheng to collect, and he left Shandong in disgrace.
In the winter of the same year, six months after Zhang Zongchang was appointed military governor of Shandong, there was a battle to block Sun Chuanfang from the south, which was also the beginning of the rise and fall of the Feng clan.
After the Second Zhifeng War, Yang Yuting and Jiang Dengxuan of the Feng clan served as military supervisors of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces respectively, and the Feng clan's sphere of influence reached its peak, but this also caused the feng army to disperse its forces.
At that time, the army led by Zhang Zongchang had all withdrawn to Xuzhou and Shandong, and only Xing Shilian's first division was stationed in Shanghai, and Ding Xichun's first division was stationed in Nanjing, under the command of Yang Yuting. Jiang Dengxuan simply did not bring many troops to Anhui. At that time, the local troops in Anhui included Ni Chaorong, Wang Pu, Zhang Junhe, Ma Xiangbin and other brigades (the Ma Brigade was stationed near Bengbu), and most of them held a yang and yin attitude toward the Feng army.
After sun chuanfang, who was originally a direct descendant, actively reorganized the army and made friends with Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin on the surface, but secretly sent people to contact Feng Yuxiang, Sun Chuanfang also sent someone to contact Wu Peifu, an old commander of the direct line, and made him the commander-in-chief of the Fourteen Provinces Thief Coalition Army.
In October 1925, Sun Chuanfang took advantage of the jiangsu people's hatred for the discipline of the Feng army and ordered Li Baozhang's division to attack Shanghai, Lu Xiangting's division to cross Taihu Lake at night and occupy Danyang to cut off the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, and ordered Xie Hongxun's division to enter Nanjing through Yixing. Under the attack of Sun Jun, the Feng army quickly collapsed, Yang Yuting abandoned the city and fled, and Sun Chuanfang entered Nanjing on October 16. The local army commanders in Anhui also conspired to murder Jiang Dengxuan, and Jiang Dengxuan had to abandon his post and flee north. Immediately afterward, Sun Chuanfang's divisions of Xie Hongxun, Lu Xiangting, and Chen Yi crossed the river in pursuit and rushed to the south bank of the Huai River.
After Zhang Zuolin saw that Yang Yuting and Jiang Dengxuan had retreated without a fight and had quickly lost the territory of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, zhang Zuolin was furious and immediately called a meeting of the backbone of the Feng clan, and decided that Zhang Zongchang would lead a large army to the south to reinforce, and appointed Zhang Zongchang as the jiangsu aftermath supervisor and Shi Congbin as the anhui aftercare supervisor.
After Zhang Zongchang received the order, he immediately sent Shi Congbin to lead the troops forward to Bengbu, and sent recruited White Russian troops south along the east side of the Jinpu Railway to cover Shi Bu's flank. After several days of reorganization and replenishment, Shi Congbin's troops drove from Yanzhou to Bengbu and deployed nearby, at which time Sun Jun first launched a fierce attack, Shi Bu did not support, and they all collapsed, and Bengbu was occupied by Sun Jun. After Shi Congbin withdrew from Bengbu, he commanded the battle south of Guzhen on an ironclad train of the White Russian army in an attempt to save the battle.
When Shi Congbu fought with Sun Jun south of Guzhen, there was also an ironclad train in the rear and several ammunition vehicles in the Ordnance Department, which could be supported and replenished at any time. Later, Sun Jun's Xie Hongxun Division sent a detour force around to the north of guzhen bridge, destroying the railway and cutting off Shi Bu's retreat route. Shi Bu was attacked back and forth and fled north, and Shi Congbin and his entourage were all captured by Sun Jun.
At that time, in the area from Nansu Prefecture to Jiagou north of Guzhen Bridge, Feng Jun Cheng Guorui, Wang Dong, Xu Kun and other troops arrived one after another and engaged Sun Jun. The ammunition convoy led by Li Hengzhen also drove to Jiagou Station.
Sun Chuanfang was good at training troops, and Sun Jun was the leading force among the warlords at that time. After a day and night of fierce fighting, Feng Juncheng Guorui boarded the train and retreated, his reason being that he had lost the bullets, but in fact there was no shortage of ammunition. Cheng Guorui used to fight, known as Xiao Yong, but time has passed, at this time he has become a rich man, no need to sell his life anymore. Other Fengjun troops also retreated north along the Jinpu Railway.
On November 8, Sun's vanguard occupied Xuzhou, and Zhang moved to the area north of Hanzhuang in Shandong. From the time Sun Chuanfang attacked Shanghai to the occupation of Xuzhou, in just over a month, he won an unexpected victory. At this time, Sun Chuanfang urgently needed to return to Nanjing to organize the joint forces of the five provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Gansu, and Anhui, and to digest the fruits of victory, so he no longer attacked north. Under Zhang Zongchang's great defeat, he knew that he was not Sun Chuanfang's opponent, and he did not dare to go south.
After Shi Congbin was captured by Sun Jun, he was taken to Sun Chuanfang's headquarters, and Sun Chuanfang violated the unspoken rule of the Beiyang warlords not to kill each other's senior officers during the battle, and ordered Shi Congbin to be beheaded and executed. Ten years later, Shi Congbin's daughter Shi Jianqiao shot Sun Chuanfang in Jushilin in the Tianjin concession to avenge her father.
Shortly after Zhang Zongchang's defeat and return to Shandong, on the evening of November 21, Guo Songling, a general of the Feng army, suddenly sent a telegram against Zhang Zuolin and Yang Yuting. Guo Songling commanded the most elite troops of the Feng army, and then in the Battle of the Juliu River, Guo Songling was defeated and killed, but the Feng family was seriously injured, and the decline was difficult to reverse.