However, that same day, a massive event was held in front of the civil government to pay tribute to the militiamen who had returned by train from fighting the internationalists of the Petroleum Revolution in Alcoy and the crowd gathered there, after a harangue by the Feliu deputy, shouted "Long live the Valencian Canton".

The civil governor Castejón, who had fled to Alcira by train, where declared in a manifesto that he made public on 20 July that "the Valencian Canton has been proclaimed, separating Valencia from the common homeland" in a "flaunt of lack of respect for the law" and that he continued to be the highest authority in the province awaiting orders from the Executive Branch of the Republic.

That same day, the president of the Junta, Pedro Barrientos, made the official proclamation of the Canton in the square of the Valencia cathedral, which was renamed Plaza de la República Federal.

On Saturday 2 August, after the failure of several attempts at negotiation, Martínez Campos began the bombardment of the city from Xirivella, about two kilometers west of Valencia, while the cantonalists responded from the cannon they had placed at the Torres de Cuart.

When the commission returned to Valencia they informed the Junta who quickly drafted a document with proposed conditions of surrender that included amnesty for the insurgents which was taken to Quart de Poblet by three commissioners.

The next day, 9 August, Martínez Campos made public a statement ordering the dissolution of the militias and the surrender of their weapons within two hours, under threat of subjecting those who disobeyed to a court martial.