Fought in 1929 between Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-centered Nationalists and the Guangxi clique (
桂系) led by Li Zongren
李宗仁 and Bai Chongxi
白崇禧. After defeating the Northern warlords, Chiang turned on his ostensible allies; he detained Guangdong leader Li Jishen
李济深, split the Cantonese–Guangxi alliance, and combined military pressure with bribery to break the Guangxi forces around Wuhan. The conflict opened a string of intra-Nationalist warlord wars that ran through 1930.
