Once in Japan he lost no time in assembling his revolutionary friends and in a body they embarked for South China.  As rapidly as possible he reached Yunnan province from Hongkong, travelling by way of the French Tonkin railway.  Entering the province early in December he found everything fairly ready for revolt, though there was a deficiency in arms and munitions which had to be made good.  Yuan Shih-kai, furious at this evasion, had telegraphed to confidential agents in Yunnan to kill him at sight, but fortunately he was warned and spared to perform his important work.  Had a fortnight of grace been vouchsafed him, he would have probably made the most brilliant modern campaign that has been witnessed in China, for he was an excellent soldier.  Acting from the natural fortress of Yunnan it was his plan to descend suddenly on the Yangtsze Valley by way of Chungking and to capture the upper river in one victorious march thus closing the vast province of Szechuan to the Northern troops.  But circumstances had made it imperative for him and his friends to telegraph the Yunnan ultimatum a fortnight sooner than it should have been dispatched, and the warning thus conveyed to the Central Government largely crippled the Yunnan offensive.

The circumstances which had made instant action necessary were as follows.  As we have seen from the record of the previous risings, the region of the Yangtsze river has superlative value in Chinese politics.  Offering as it does an easy road into the heart of the country and touching more than half the Provinces, it is indeed a priceless means of communication, and for this reason Yuan Shih-kai had been careful after the crushing of the rebellion of 1913 to load the river-towns with his troops under the command of Generals he believed incorruptible.  Chief of these was General Feng Kuo-chang at Nanking who held the balance of power on the great river, and whose politics, though not entirely above suspicion, had been proof against all the tempting offers South China made to him until the ill-fated monarchy movement had commenced.  But during this movement General Feng Kuo-chang had expressed himself in such contemptuous terms of the would-be Emperor that orders had been given to another high official—­ Admiral Tseng, Garrison Commissioner at Shanghai—­to have him assassinated.  Instead of obeying his instructions, Admiral Tseng had conveyed a warning to his proposed victim, the consequence being that the unfortunate admiral was himself brutally murdered on the streets of Shanghai by revolver-shots for betraying the confidence of his master.  After this denouement it was not very strange that General Feng Kuo-chang should have intimated to the Republican Party that as soon as they entered the Yangtsze Valley he would throw his lot with them together with all his troops.  Of this Yuan Shih-kai became aware through his extraordinary system of intelligence; and following his usual practice he had ordered General