Chen Jiongming
In 1920, Chen Jiongming drove Lu Rongting and the Old Guangxi clique out of Guangdong in the First Yue-Gui War. In 1921 Chen pushed into Guangxi, starting the Second Yue-Gui war, forcing Lu Rongting to step down in July 1921. By August, Chen had occupied Nanning and the rest of Guangxi. Chen Jiongming and the Cantonese forces occupied Guangxi until April 1922. Their occupation was largely nominal because armed bands of Guangxi loyalists began to gather under local commanders, calling themselves the Self-government Army. Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming soon split over the continuation of the Northern Expedition. Chen, however, aspired merely to be the warlord of Guangdong and after the Zhili clique in Beijing recognized his power in the south, he abandoned Sun Yat-sen. By May 1922 the Cantonese forces had evacuated Guangxi leaving a power vacuum.