After his election, Sun Yat-sen issued separate statements at home and abroad, and wrote an open letter to Xu Shichang, President of the Beiyang Government, persuading him to resign voluntarily.

Chen Jiongming advocated "suspending the military", implementing inter-provincial autonomy to secure territory, "establishing the provincial constitution first," and building Guangdong.

According to the wishes of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, the northern warlords issued energizations one after another, demanding that the North and South presidents abdicate at the same time.

Wu Peifu and Chen Jiongming used Li Yuanhong's reinstatement as an excuse to say that the purpose of protecting the constitution had been achieved, and they demanded that Sun Yat-sen and Xu Shichang step down at the same time.

Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Gao Yihan and more than two hundred celebrities from all walks of life who supported the inter-provincial autonomy jointly called Sun Yat-sen and the Guangzhou Extraordinary Congress to fulfill his promise.

In the middle of the night on 15 June, senior generals of the Guangdong Army convened a meeting and decided to launch a military operation to remove Sun from power.

Sun Yat-sen left on the Yongfeng ship under the escorts of Jiang Zhongzheng and Chen Ce, and retired from Guangdong in early August to Shanghai, where Lu Yongxiang held influence.