Cai E, who led the National Guard Army on an expedition

On January 16, 1916, Cai E set out for Luzhou, Sichuan in advance. On the occasion of departure, he published the "Letter to the Fathers in Dianzhong", expressing that he would "use all his strength to help him with loyalty, so as not to lose the high hopes of my father", and led all the officers and soldiers to take an oath, the oath was: "Who defends the herding? Those who are in the sun. Be enmity with your son, and never give up. Strict discipline, obey my strategy. To cut down sins and hang people, righteousness is heard and washed. You only use your life, and your merits are mao. If you violate it, you should be punished, and if you violate it, you should be praised."

On January 21, the National Defense Army entered Xuzhou City. On the 17th, the two detachments of Liu Yunfeng on the left flank of the National Defense Army had arrived near the new field where Wu Xiangzhen, the garrison envoy of the northern army in Sichuan, was stationed in southern Sichuan. On the morning of the 17th, the first battle was won and the enemy was forced to retreat to Yanzipo. On the morning of the 18th, Liu's army advanced towards Hengjiang and occupied Hengjiang at 11 o'clock at that time. On the 19th, Liu's army advanced towards Anbian by taking advantage of the victory. The defending enemy stood high on the peak and tightly blocked the river with machine guns and artillery. Liu Yunfeng led his main force to cross the river from Luodong, upstream, and directly inserted it behind Anbian. At 23:30 in the afternoon, Liu's commanding team swarmed to the mountain, rushed to the back of the enemy, killed a member of the enemy battalion commander Dai Hongzhi, killed the enemy soldiers, captured countless weapons, and captured the key to Xuzhou the next morning. Anbian Wu Xiangzhen left Xuzhou City. The commander of the Han army, Zhang Zhanhong, was defeated and returned to Xucheng. Seeing that Wu Xiangzhen had gone, he also led the remnants away.

At 10 o'clock on the night of the 21st, Liu Yunfeng led his troops to invade Syria and achieved the first major victory in the War of Protecting the Nation. On the 22nd, Sichuan General Chen Huan hurriedly offered a reward of 500,000 yuan and ordered Feng Yuxiang to lead two battalions from Luzhou to attack eastern Syria. The defeated general Wu Xiangzhen led the remnants of his troops back to attack northern Syria. Zhu Deng led the Han army to attack western Syria. Luzhou sent two battalions to attack southern Syria in an attempt to recapture Syria. On the 26th, Liu Yunfeng ordered Deng Taizhong's detachment to go to the sect field in northern Syria to meet the Wu Brigade. On the 27th, they fought at Bullouyan and fought again at the sect field on the 30th, defeating all the enemy. Yang Zhen's detachment went to eastern Syria and met Feng Brigade on the 31st. They fought for three days and nights, killing, drowning and capturing countless enemy troops. Feng Yuxiang led the remnants of his troops to escape. Seeing that the north and east companies suffered a disastrous defeat, the enemy troops on the south road retreated without fighting.