In October 1938, Chinese soldiers were killed by Japanese fighter planes bombing Beihai in Guangdong Province. After the Japanese occupied the Luofang site, the corpses of Chinese soldiers were laid out on the outdoor steps.

 In October 1938, Chinese soldiers were killed by Japanese fighter planes bombing Beihai in Guangdong Province. After the Japanese occupied the Luofang site, the corpses of Chinese soldiers were laid out on the outdoor steps. When the Japanese attacked Guangdong Province, they laid the corpses of Chinese soldiers on the street steps. The Chinese soldiers' clothes were already torn and their faces so damaged that they were barely recognizable. This suggested how tragic the Sino-Japanese war had been. Even in the face of dead Chinese soldiers, the Japanese invaded without mercy.

　In May 1938, they occupied Xuzhou, a key point connecting North China and Central China. From August to October, the attack and occupation of Hankou, the center of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in central China, and Guangdong, the central city of southern China, occurred in succession. The attack on Hankou was particularly fierce, with some casualties due to malaria, and the Japanese army suffered 22,000 casualties in the war.

　The Japanese invasion of Canton began with a surprise landing at Bias Bay on October 12. The landing forces invaded the interior at once, capturing Huizhou on October 15 and Zengcheng on October 19. Chinese troops in the Guangdong area were allocated to defend Wuhan, and interceptions were sporadic. Japanese forces entered Guangzhou on October 21. Meanwhile, the 5th Division, which had split off from the main force and moved up the Pearl River to occupy Fort Humen and Sanshui, also launched the Canton offensive, and on October 29 entered Guangdong to join the main force of the 21st Army to complete the Canton offensive.

　The Japanese military hoped to complete its armed control of China by the end of 1938. However, Chiang Kai-shek, who had moved his capital to Chongqing, announced his determination to fight a protracted war by issuing the "Call to All Military Personnel," and Mao Zedong of the Communist Party of China appealed for the unification and solidarity of all ethnic groups to fight a long-term endurance war. Despite the fact that Japan had sent more than one million troops to invade China, China, with its vast land area, was barely able to maintain point-to-point control of its cities and the railroads that connected them, and was mired in the mire of a protracted war that could end at any moment.