1916年6月袁世凯病死,使帝国主义失去了侵华的共同工具。于是各个帝国主义国家纷纷从北洋军阀中寻找新代理人,作为它们各自侵略中国的工具。北洋军阀集团内部各派之间为争夺北洋首领地位和北京政府的中央大权,彼此展开激烈的角逐和斗争,从而形成皖、直、奉三大军阀派系。这三大派系在帝国主义操纵下,相互之间明争暗斗,争权夺利,造成中国兵连祸结、民不聊生的惨象和政局的动荡不安。这种动乱局面给阎锡山扩张势力割据山西提供了可乘之隙。他决定大力经营山西,积聚内力。1917年7、8月间,阎锡山施展权术,先后收回了黄国梁、董崇仁、孔庚等人握有的军权,将山西的军权完全集中到了他个人的手里。他先后赶走北京政府 Yuan Shikai died of illness in June 1916, losing the common tool of imperialism to invade China. As a result, various imperialist countries have sought new agents from the Beiyang warlords as tools for their respective aggression against China. The factions within the Beiyang warlord group fought for the leader of the Northern Ocean and the central government of the Beijing government. They fought fiercely each other and fought against each other to form the three warlord factions of Anhui, Zeng and Feng. Under these imperialist manipulations, these three factions fought against each other and won over their power and power, causing the war criminals in China to battle the country, the tragedies of the people living in poverty and the political turmoil. This chaotic situation gave Yan Xishan an expansion of power to cut off Shanxi provided ample advantage. He decided to vigorously operate Shanxi, accumulating internal forces. In July and August 1917, Yen Hsi-shan exercised his technique and successively reclaimed the military power held by Huang Guoliang, Dong Chongren and Kong Geng and others and completely centralized the military power of Shanxi into his own hands. He has drove away Beijing government successively