 Lu was murdered in Tianjin by Fengtian clique members Xu Shuzheng and Yang Yuting.An opponent of Duan Qirui and the policies of the Anhui clique, Lu was shot in an ambush a day after arriving in Tianjin from Shanghai.His death further strained relations between the Zhili and Anhui cliques, eventually leading to the Zhili–Anhui War of 1920.