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organized everywhere. Once a local army was organized, its commander would petition general headquarters (that is the office of Sun Yat-sen) for recognition and for an official title, and once formal recognition was accorded, they would draw rations from the local government. Thus all such local armies had their respective "territories".
On the relationship with the Cantonese, the memoir has very exciting records.
Our relations with the local people worsened each day. The natives looked down on us. Occasionally some of our trouble-making soldiers tried to stop their games (of gambling). In doing so they were usually mobbed and beaten up by the gamblers...
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One day at noon the entire regiment suddenly rose as one man and shouted for armed revenge against the local people. "Captain, we are going to (the town) and pay them back for those insults!" About a thousand soldiers marched toward the town, rifles in hand. Fortunately, [the town] and our stations were separated by a small river. When the ferryboat operators heard of the uprising, they moved all the boats away.
Prevented from crossing, the soldiers massed themselves on the bank of the river and shouted toward the town. The noise made by a thousand soldiers was dreadful! Some of the soldiers even began to fire their rifles, which increased the tension. The people of the town were, of course, frightened. Merchants and gentry began to send agents across the river begging our pardon.
In these situations, the constitutional government was in control of the Guangxi militarists. Recognizing this, Sun retired to Shanghai. Tragically, Canton was, in the following four years, left in the hands of the Guangxi militarists. And these situations provided another arena for political investments for the Hong Kong merchants.
Hong Kong Merchants in Favor of a "Canton for the Cantonese"
By 1920, Guangxi's dominance in Guangdong was threatened by