軍閥內戰乃是20世紀上半葉中國歷史的縮影，但卻罕有以地方政治運作的觀點去探討不同世代與背景的地方菁英對地方兵災的因應之道。本文以地方社會研究的觀點，透過探討廿世紀初期的地方菁英是如何透過不同的路徑取得資源及運用不同的專才，來參與地方政治的運作，再聚焦於地方菁英於1924年江浙戰爭溫州戰場的兵災中的應對去進行探討。本文希冀透過重新解讀溫州地方文獻，解決以下問題：20世紀現代戰爭對地方政治運作到底造成怎樣的影響？現代型態的戰爭又是透過結合地方社會中哪些新的條件或人群，進而造成影響？地方社會出現的不同世代與人群組織，是如何應對這些變化？藉由討論1924年溫州戰場，又能如何反思20世紀以來，浙江與中國東南沿海地方政治運作的實態，及其所引發的討論問題。

The multiple civil wars among different military strongmen became the defining feature of early twentieth-century Chinese history. However, there have been very few examinations of the impact and damage that these numerous wars had on ordinary people’s daily lives. Besides examining the military outcomes of these wars, this article will explore civil war politics in the twentieth century Chinese history. It will ask how local elites from different backgrounds and generations worked together to protect their communities from the man-made disaster of the war. It will show that in the case of Wenzhou, local elites successfully protected their city. The article uses Wenzhou’s local archives to show how different local elites cooperated to mediate the crisis caused by a battle between two military strongmen in 1924. The article will also show that this group of local elites included political activists, retired Qing officials, former bankers, merchants and the Wenzhou Catholic church. By reexamining the two warlords’ battle in Wenzhou in 1924, we can use this case to better understand local politics in modern China.