After the Anti-Japanese War began, in order to defend against the Japanese invasion, all counties in Guangdong basically organized and established anti-Japanese self-defense armies at all administrative levels, including anti-Japanese self-defense regiments, self-defense brigades, self-defense squadrons and self-defense teams.

These anti-Japanese self-defense forces, with the support of the local organizations and members of the Communist Party of China, gave full play to their advantages of being familiar with the terrain and the situation, and cooperated with the national government forces to fight the Japanese invaders.