January 6, 1938 - Chinese Forces Continue Resistance Against Japanese Invasion During the Second Sino-Japanese War

By January 6, 1938, you're witnessing China refuse to collapse despite staggering losses across the north. Japanese forces have seized key cities and pushed deep into Chinese territory, yet 300,000 Chinese troops are consolidating along the JinPu and Longhai rail lines, determined to hold the line. Commanders are scrambling to protect vital supply routes into the interior. The battles, strategies, and turning points that defined China's resistance throughout 1938 are worth exploring further.

Key Takeaways

• By January 6, 1938, Chinese forces maintained active resistance against Japan despite suffering significant territorial losses across northern China.
• Japan had seized major cities and much of northern China, displacing millions of civilians and disrupting agricultural supply lines.
• Chinese commanders worked to consolidate defensive positions and protect critical supply routes leading into China's interior.
• The Battle of Taierzhuang in spring 1938 delivered China's first major victory, shattering the myth of Japanese invincibility.
• Communist forces complemented Nationalist resistance through guerrilla tactics, including night raids and disruption of Japanese supply lines.

What Was Happening in China at the Start of 1938?

By the start of 1938, Japan's military machine was tightening its grip on China. Japanese forces had seized large portions of the north, occupying key cities and pushing deep into Chinese territory. You'd see entire regions destabilized, with civilian displacement uprooting millions from their homes and livelihoods. Rural grain supplies, critical to sustaining both armies and ordinary people, faced constant disruption as fighting tore through agricultural heartlands.

In Shandong, Japanese forces controlled Jinan and much of the north by March 1938, shredding China's defensive line along the Yellow River. Meanwhile, Chinese commanders scrambled to consolidate resistance.

Around Xuzhou in Jiangsu, 64 divisions gathered, swelling from a core of 80,000 troops to 300,000, positioning along the JinPu and Longhai rail lines to mount a determined defense. Chiang Kai-shek would later sanction a desperate strategy to breach the Yellow River dikes near Zhengzhou in June 1938, using floodwaters as a weapon to slow the Japanese advance toward Wuhan and protect key supply routes into China's interior.

The Battle of Taierzhuang, fought between late March and early April 1938, delivered China its first major victory of the war, dealing heavy losses to Japanese forces and providing a critical morale boost ahead of the Defense of Wuhan.

Why Did Japan Shift to Total War After Diplomatic Collapse?

As Japan's diplomatic efforts crumbled under Western pressure, its leaders faced a stark choice: submit to economic strangulation or gamble on total war. The economic blockade imposed after America froze Japanese assets in July 1941, backed by Britain and the Dutch, cut off the oil and metals Japan's war machine desperately needed. Advisors warned of total collapse within two years without decisive action.

You can see how this desperation accelerated Japan's pivot toward southern expansion, targeting Dutch and British territories rich in oil and rubber. Negotiations with Washington collapsed once the US demanded Japan abandon its national objectives — terms leaders viewed as permanent surrender. Militarists seized control, forging alliances with Germany and Italy, and committed Japan to a rapid, aggressive strategy before its resources ran dry.

Japan's oil stocks in 1941 totaled only 43 million barrels, enough to sustain operations for roughly two years under the most favorable conditions, making the window for decisive military action perilously narrow. The mandated Pacific islands, acquired after World War I as former German territories, provided Japan with a strategic string of naval and air bases ideally positioned to support its southward advance into resource-rich territories.

Night Attacks and Guerrilla Tactics: How China Countered Japanese Firepower

Facing Japan's overwhelming firepower advantage, Chinese Communist forces turned asymmetric warfare into their most potent weapon. You'd see guerrilla units launch night raids on Japanese camps with rapier-like precision, striking swiftly before vanishing into the countryside. They'd feint east and attack west, hit communication lines, then disappear before Japanese forces could respond effectively.

Rather than risking pitched battles, commanders relied on superior intelligence to avoid strong enemy formations entirely. When Japanese columns advanced, guerrilla units flanked them, cutting supply lines and attacking front and rear simultaneously. Tunnel tactics allowed fighters to blend seamlessly into rural populations, giving them unmatched mobility. Japan's soldiers found themselves guarding provisions constantly, exhausted by relentless harassment you couldn't counter with conventional firepower alone — exactly the strategic drain Mao's protracted war doctrine intended. The Eighth Route Army established critical anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines across Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong, providing the operational foundation that made sustained guerrilla campaigns possible.

Mao's forces understood that popular support was inseparable from military success, and so they actively cultivated peasant loyalty through land reforms and protection against landlords, transforming rural communities into a sustaining sea of popular support that sheltered and supplied guerrilla fighters operating deep within contested territory.

Where Nationalist and Communist Forces Held the Line in 1938

Guerrilla pressure alone couldn't win the war — China needed conventional victories too, and 1938 delivered several.

Nationalist defensive lines held at critical moments, while Communist strongholds resisted Japanese occupation across the north. You can picture the resistance clearly through three defining moments:

• Taierzhuang (March–April): KMT forces used night attacks and severed Japanese supply lines, forcing a full retreat
• Wanjialing: Nationalists secured another victory during an otherwise brutal year of territorial losses
• Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region: Eighth Route Army units inflicted up to 5,000 Japanese casualties, compelling Japanese withdrawal

Neither force fought in isolation. Red Army units fought alongside KMT troops at Taiyuan, reaching peak cooperation during Wuhan. Following the fall of Wuhan in late 1938, the Nationalist government had already relocated its capital to Chongqing, continuing resistance from the southwestern interior.

The human cost of the war extended far beyond the battlefield, with conservative estimates placing the total dead at at least 14 million, a figure underscored by historians such as Rana Mitter.

The 1938 Battle of Xuzhou: Japan's Push Into Central China

The spring of 1938 brought Japan's next major push — a drive on Xuzhou, the rail hub connecting north and central China.

After securing Shandong Province, Japan's North China Area Army drove south into Jiangsu, using air reconnaissance from Yokosuka B3Y1 and Mitsubishi G3M units based in Shanghai to track Chinese movements.

General Itagaki Seishiro launched the offensive on March 14, 1938, but he underestimated what he'd face. China had massed 64 divisions — roughly 600,000 troops — around Xuzhou, and the scale created serious logistics strain for Japanese supply lines.

Though Japan eventually took Xuzhou, it cost them 30,000 casualties, 120 field guns, and 931 machine guns. Chinese forces slipped the encirclement, denying Japan the decisive annihilation it sought. The pivotal Battle of Taierzhuang saw Chinese defenders under Li Zongren successfully repel the Japanese 10th Division, marking one of China's most significant early victories of the war. The battle unfolded across five weeks of fighting, spanning from late March to early May 1938, as both sides committed reinforcements in a prolonged struggle for control of the region.

How Taierzhuang Changed the Course of Chinese Resistance

Taierzhuang wasn't just a battle — it was proof. You watched Chinese forces dismantle the myth of Japanese invincibility through street-to-street fighting, coordinated encirclements, and sheer civilian resilience. The Taierzhuang legacy reshaped how China saw itself in this war.

Picture what that victory meant:

• Exhausted soldiers holding crumbling buildings, refusing to surrender ground
• Crowds hearing the news, reigniting hope they'd nearly abandoned
• International observers stunned, reassessing Chinese military capability

The battle, fought between March 24 and April 7, saw Chinese forces under General Li Zongren successfully force a Japanese retreat through disciplined urban warfare and strategic encirclement of enemy supply lines. The city's canals and narrow streets proved to be a natural advantage, as these geographical features impeded tank effectiveness and neutralized much of Japan's superior weaponry.