Tokyo, Feb. 13.
Tightening a steel cordon around Communist guerillas in central Hopei, Japanese detachments which started a general offensive against 70,000 Chinese troops on February 8 have inflicted heavy casualties on them and captured several towns, according to field dispatches received today.
A. Japanese detachment captured Taiyingchen, an important guerilla base on the border between Hopei and Shantung, after an eight-hour battle against 1,000 red troops, which left several hundred dead when they retreated.
Japanese forces driving from three directions to encircle remnants of the Eighth Route Army occupied Kucheng on the. Hopei-Shantung border 25 kilometres north-west of Chengkiakow. One detachment was advancing northward after taking Wucheng, a guerilla base in Shantung.
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