The Liu family would be one of the major forces in the early Guizhou clique, with many of its members holding important positions in the military.

[1] After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911, governor Shen Yuqing went into a state of panic, and Liu Xianshi entered the provincial capital in an emergency effort to suppress the revolution.

[3] Ren Kecheng, Zhang Bailin, and old bureaucrat Guo Chongguang worked from inside the Privy Council to suppress the revolution.

[3] They ordered Dujun (military governor) Yang Yicheng to lead his army North, and for the Dean, Zhang Bailin, to leave the provincial capital to visit various places.

At the beginning of February 1912, they killed Huang Zelin, a local Tongmenghui and provincial capital law enforcement leader.

Zhong Changying chased the army in an attempt to persuade Tang Jiyao to change course, but he was assassinated in Anshun.

[5][10] On March 4, 1912, Tang Jiyao became military governor of Guizhou, recognized in May 1912 by Beijing, with Liu Xianshi assuming the role of Minister of War.

Due to the sharing of power with Tang, Liu Xianshi's power was limited, but it would be rewarded with the removal of office of Cai E. In order to cultivate military talent, Tang Jiyao founded the Guizhou Military Academy, with Han Fenglou, a Yunnanese general, serving as its head.

Liu Xianshi initially stayed neutral, but when the situation became urgent, he had to declare Guizhou's independence on January 27, 1916.

In June, after Yuan Shikai's death, Beijing appointed Liu to the position of Dujun, with Dai Kan becoming the civil governor.

In August, Dai was transferred to the Office of Military Affairs of Sichuan, with the post of civil governor passed on to Liu Xianshi.

During a political crisis in 1916, Liu sent 400000 yuan to Shanghai from his treasury as an emergency fund in case he lost power.

[9] With influence from events in Beijing and the Treaty of Versailles, Guizhou students in Hunan organized a National Salvation Association, with 600 members.

[18]: 154 Wang Boqun, who was an emissary of Liu Xianshi, met Zhao Shijin, an overseas Chinese man who had previously helped Sun Yat-sen with funding infrastructure projects in China.

Zhao agreed to raise 5 million dollars to fund the project, signing an agreement in March 1919 which said that the Guizhou Provincial Assembly would have to authorize the construction of the railway within 3 months.

Zhang, in a several hundred page long report, detailed his opposition to the loan and to the railroad, which changed Liu's mind.

The Young Guizhou Association Daily published several articles on Zhang's alleged mishandling of provincial finance.

After a banquet at Wang Wenhua's house attended by multiple leaders of the Guizhou clique (including Liu Xianshi) to discuss provincial affairs on November 26, 1919, an assassin shot twice at Chen at 11p.m., leaving him wounded.

He ordered deputy commander Lu Tao to take the army back South to Guiyang to "sweep out the princes" and dismantle Liu Xianshi's power, while Wang himself sailed to Shanghai.

[9]: 277 [21]: 116 [14]: 152–153  Zhang Pengnian claims that before he left, Wang drew up two lists of names with Gu - one for those who were to be immediately assassinated, and the other for those who would be observed and possibly killed in the future.

Gu Zhenglun ordered Sun Jianfeng to lead his troops to Guiyang, to where he arrived in early November.

Provincial assemblyman Zhang Shiren was invited to mediate, and the list was finalized to four people - Guo Chongguang, Xiong Fanyu, He Linshu, and Ding Yizhong, the "four pillars" of the Old Xingyi Clique.

[9]: 278 [19]: 62 [21]: 118 Sun Jianfeng put the heads of Guo Chengguang and Xiong Fanyu in a barrel, sending them to Gu Zhenglun.

[21]: 118–119 [17]: 104–105 He Yingqin quickly put into action the next phase of the plan, which was installing Ren Kecheng as acting governor until Wang Wenhua returned.

He was found by soldiers and taken back to Guiyang, but he escaped again, this time hiding in a Catholic church with Xiong Fanyu's brother and Chen Tingce.

Liu's supporters went to Shanghai with him, and in March 1921, as Wang stepped into a car outside his hotel, assassins sent by Yuan Zuming shot and killed him, ending the Liu-Wang conflict.

[9]: 280 [19]: 63–65 [20]: 197 [16]: 111 Liu Xianshi, who had fled to Kunming, returned to Guiyang in April 1923 with Yunnanese troops, who restored him to power.

[9]: 280 In April 1920, Yuan Zuming, receiving financial support from Beijing, organized the Qianding Army in Wuchang and served as its commander-in-chief.

In March 1924, Yuan was appointed to the Sichuan-Guizhou Border Inspection Office by the government in Beijing and made the Chief of the 34th Division.

However, he continued to participate in the civil war in Sichuan, and he left governing to his subordinates - Wang Tianpei, Peng Hanzhang, and Zhou Xicheng.