Troops under General Sun Lien-chung, with headquarters at Sinyang, are already stated to have taken up positions on this line to act as a nucleus round which the armies retreating from the first line, should it be broken, would reform.
Behind this second line, there is still another third line running in a semi-circle from Wushengkwan, on the Peiping-Hankow Railway at the border of Honan and Hupeh provinces, through Macheng, east of Hankow, across the Yangtze to the south bank, where the major stand will be attempted.
This line will be stocked by fresh troops, supported.by all the new supplies of artillery and mechanised units, Guarding the flanks of these three main lines running diagonally across the Peiping-Hankow Railway'are two forces: cne to the north along the Lunghai between Kunghsien and Tungkwan and southward from Tungkwan along the Tapishan mountains, and the other to the south running southward from Kushih through Macheng to the Yangtze.
The northern flank is composed of a portion of the forces withdrawn from Lanfeng, Kaifeng and Chengchow combined with those formerly stationed in the western section of the Lunghai. They are under the command of General Chen Chien, with headquarters at Loyang.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.