'The Fengtien armies' progress towards Jehol has been a scarcely interrupted triumphal marek. three weeks two columns have penetrated 100 miles from the Fengtien border into the new province of Outer Mongolia and now fare within striking distance of The important city of Lin-trouble, but following its capture there "was an engagement which early demonstrated. the outstanding superiority of the. Fengtien treens." Chang Chung-chang,~second-in-command of the Second!
Fengtien Army, detached a single regiment and led it 50 1 southwest to Chapeng, which was defended by Wang Linsi-ching with the entire 13th Division. " One battalion of the tacking regiment was sent to outflank the defence and the remaining] two battalions made a determined frontal attack, "Elated over their previous successes, the Fengtien men fought most courageously" and their desperate manceuvre was a complete success. Two Chiblt reximents surrendered and the booty included four heavy. guns, eight machine-guns, a great number of rifles and large quantities of pistols and military supplies, Wang Hua ching had a very narrow escape, fleeing with only a small bodyguard Taoerhteng, near the ChihliJebol boundary.
The Capture of Chihfeng Two or three days later news arrived to the effect that Chihfeng had" been captured, bat the next morning headquarters denied it, and in the evening gave out the informa tion that the news was intelligent! anticipation, as the city had that day "been "captured. After the! feature of "Chapeng a cavalry brigade was sent out to harry the! fugitives and. to. reconnoitre Chih-feng. "Again they met with nothing but success. and" when they" broke up & counter-attack in the neighbourhood of Chibteng' the intellig-Jence service apparently gained the impression that the city had fallen. On the contrary, the cavalry had to fallback, having discovered th strong Chihli reinforcements teen "brought up and. that garrison numbered "quite 60,000 ten, well entrenched and possessed lof a large ammunition store, It is a strict order of Chang Tsovlin that ju no case are his armies to attack until they are sufficiently strong in numbers and supplies—which makes the Chapeng incident the more audacious—and it was not until October 9 that Pengtien_ reinforeerents of into position. Then there 'Was a short and sharp engagement, cost Chihli 1,000 "casualties and as many more captured, whilst Chang's forces gained entire' possession of the city, with ten "heavy guns and all the military. stores, Since then nothing has been heard from the. armies on that front, though staff officers here are confident the fate of Jehol is sealed—and therefore, as they. believe, necessarily Peking also—especially is reported that Feng Yo-hsiang, to whom and his. much-praised troops the defence of Johot was specially committed, has decided to remain neutral.
Nows from the Shanhaikuan front is not so definite, nor is it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.