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negotiations with Chen Jiongming as “Canton needs the salvage of a large and united body of influential men" and they all "begged me [Lu] to form the Merchants' Association at once”. "All urging me not to leave things as they were", emphasised Liu, and they were "offering to support whole-heartedly the scheme of government that I might propose"
Immediately after Liu's return to Hong Kong in late March, Liu Zhubo announced an organizational charter for a "Business Maintenance Committee". This committee was to raise a loan of $3,000,000 for the new Canton Government. To put up the sum, Liu proposed two methods to recruit adequate subscribers. The committee would either include a membership of 300 merchants with subscription fee of $10,000 or a membership of 30,000 with a subscription fee of $100. This charter was actually published and distributed in Canton and Hong Kong
With everything in place, Chen Jiongming broke with Sun Yat-sen in June 1922. During the incident, Sun's residence was bombarded. Sun fled to a gunboat and, from Hong Kong, he escaped to Shanghai
Chen Jiongming's co-operation with the Hong Kong merchants, however, proved to be a very short one. Sun returned to Canton in January 1923 with the military support of the Yunnanese and the financial support of the Siyi men from Hong Kong
Back in Canton, Sun faced the familiar problem of trying to organize a government without adequate money and with no real command over military forces. To prevent the guest armies from mutiny, Sun had to provide a daily maintenance expense of $20,000 to $30,000 to the armies. Added to this problem was Sun's inability to collect tax in the province. Almost all the existing organizations for tax collection were non-functioning in the face of the guest armies who divided Guangdong into spheres of influence.
Immediately upon his return, Sun called for a meeting with the merchants in Hong Kong. Fifty overseas returned merchants in Hong Kong, led by Li Yutang, met Sun Yat-sen in the Cement Factory of Guangdong. In response to Sun's call for financial support, Li made a public speech.