On November 3, anniversary of the birthday of Emperor Meiji, Japanese forces will enter the stra-logic tri-cities of Wuhan, a Domei correspondent at the front predicted yesterday.
Favoured by the swollen Yangtze, Japanese naval forces pushed their way to within sight of Shihweiyao and Hwangshihkang, whose fall, he said, was imminent, The capture of the, latter fort will put he Japanese only 78 miles from Wuhan.
With the Peiping-Hankow Railway. line cut and gains in sectors south of the Yangtze River, the inner Chinese defence lines have lost both their strategic importance and their value as the "spiritual hope" of China, the correspondent said.
On the Yangtze, Japanese troops which captured Kichun are mopping up surviving Chinese forces retreating in disorder westward across the Rainy Lake, Yulin, to the Poshan mountain ranges, he reported.
The Japanese fleet on the Yangtze followed up its victory at Kichun by pressing on to Shihhweiyao and Hwangshihkang, thus threatening the second line of Wuhan defences, The Chinese, are entrenched at Shih-wei yao and Hwangshihkang, on the southern bank of the river about seven nautical miles upstream from Kichun.
China's widely publicized mobile artillery units, which have been harassing the Japanese naval forces, were attempting to stage a rally with Hwangshihkang as "they ¢entre, the dispatch continued.
With the fall of Tienchiacheng, believed by the Chinese to be the key of Wuhan defence, Chinese forces operating on the river?) banks were completely demoralized, aecorde ing to this Domei reporter with the. vanguard of the Japanese on Yangtze. 1
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