Wuchang, Aug. 16.
General Hsiao holds the field He was astute and politic in his movements, he had solid military power at his back, not only his own troops, for the shadow figure of the Super-Tuchun, Wu Pei-fu seemed always to invest his actions with a greater meaning.
Hsiao Yao-nan is a Hupebh man, and the chessboard of Wu-Han with all its pawns and pieces seemed quite familiar to him. He moved his pieces with such skill and sureness that General Wang Was soon out-manguvred and ousted from his stronghold.
In is almost pitiful to hear from men at the front how badly led some sections of Wang's forces
roads and) paths and villages seems, were. Their knowledge of the to have been seriously at fault, Lacking surer guides, detachments of the Hupeh men committed themselves to local countrymen, who frequently had Southern sympa-thios. These farmers, cordially hating Tuchun Wang, led parties) of his troops on to the hills where they found no place for night quarters. Horses and men were: worn out with fatigue, and slept in the fields. Parties of Southerners soon appeared and forced them to give up their weapons and desert. In other porta of the line, where fighting actually took place, orders were only carried out with a tardy reluctance, and sometimes with a positive disobedience. There was a lack of cohesion in advance and retreat, with the result that various units got' isolated and defeated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.