Hankow, Feb. 4.
After several days of heavy fighting, which culminated in an inten: bombardment of the Chinese posi tions by the Japanese, the Chine: abandoned the town of Pengpu yesterday morning and retired to the chain of the lakes of the Hwai river.
The Japanese have now reached the strongly fortified Chinese main line of defence which is supported by natural obstacles of terra The fate of that section of the Tientsin-Pukow railway line which is still in Chinese hands and of the easter sector of the Lunghat railway will be decided by the degree of resistance. which the Chinese are able to offer on the new front The Chinese as well as the Japanese have reinforced their troops by a number of fresh divisions, Military quarters here believe that the Japanese will after giving their launch a violent ive in order to force the decision, and that they are prepared to suffer heavy losses in order to bring the action to a successful i: the control of the Tientsin-Pukow railway would greatly facilitate Japanese troops movements between Shanghai and Tiéntsin.—Trans-Ocean.
Chinese Advance d Liu-an, Feb. 4 As a result of violent counte: attacks on Wuhu, south-eastern Anhwei, the Chinese forces have advanced to Shutsinglou and other strategic points, halfway up Mount Takuanshan to the southeast of Wuhu, according to military dis-Patches from the front. The Chinese are making satisfactory progress in the counter-drive, Wuhu is reported to be garrisoned by no less than 20,000 Japanese soldiers—Kuo Min
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.