The Cantonese commanders, it is reported, informed the Chinese High Command prior to the engagement:—
"Either we clean up the Japanese, or they clean us up."
The diminutive Southerners are said to have put up a magnificent fight, charging the Japanese lines repeatedly on October 8 and 9. News of the reported Chinese victory spread like wild-fire throughout Hankow. It was relayed by telephone to all provincial capitals. Firecrackers were let off in the streets of the city to celebrate the reported victory.
An earlier message from the Tehan sector stated that the 101st and 106th Divisions of the Japanese army were surrounded by the Chinese in the area between Tehan and Johsi.
This information came through in the form of an urgent telephone message received by the Generalissimo's Headquarters here today.
The operations leading up to the final engagement in which the Chinese claim that their forces won an unprecedented victory were described in this message as follows:
One Japanese column, operating on the Juichang-Wuning Highway. struck southeastwards after reaching Johsi.
The Chinese forces at Wuning, and also at Tehan itself, closed in on this column at a point north-west of Tehan, and, after three day's bitter fighting, the Japanese troops were placed in a most precarious position.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.