Having lost most of China 's economic and industrial centers , Chiang withdrew into the hinterlands , stretching the Japanese supply lines and bogging down Japanese soldiers in the vast Chinese interior . As part of a policy of protracted resistance , Chiang authorized the use of scorched earth tactics , resulting in many civilian deaths . During the Nationalists ' retreat from Zhengzhou , the dams around the city were deliberately destroyed by the Nationalist army in order to delay the Japanese advance , killing 500,000 people in the subsequent 1938 Yellow River flood
1938 Yellow River flood
1938 Yellow River flood
Chiang Kai-shek