Q@CORING further gains south of the Yangtze, Japanese detachments yesterday captured Haishangneng in Kiangsi after routing Chinese troops in bitter hand-to-hand fighting lasting six hours, a Domei dispatch from the front claimed last night, The Japanese troops forced their way into the town at 9.30 o'clo yesterday morning and by 12.30 o'clock. had pushed on to occupy Peishan, west of Haishangneng, after breaking through three Chinese defence lines, the message stated.
1 In southern Shansi Japanese forces were advancing on Cheng: chow, strategic town at the junction of the Lunghai and Pingha Railroads, a message from Yuncheng said. A concerted drive on the town was launched early yesterday morning.
Crack units moved up to assault Chengchow engaged Chinese forces near the Chungtiao Mountains on the north side of the Yellow River. These columns were" ce-operating with other detachments pushing toward Chengchow from the east.
In a furious ten-day battle in the northern foot-hills of the Tapieh range near the Anhwei-Honan provincial border, Chinese troops suffered at least 10,000 casualties, Japanese officers surveying the debris-littered area estimated yesterday.
The engagements, ranking in tensity with the most sanguinary encounters in the Shanghai campaign, brought death to 4,000 Chinese soldiers, whose rigid, blood-stained bodies were scattered about on the once-wooded hill slopes, Domei correspondents at the front reported.
The battle came to an end on Monday, when Chinese forces, once estimated to be 10 divisions strong, gave up a stubborn defence of elaborate positions on hills commanding the roads from Yehkiatsi, in western Anhwei near the provincial border, to Shangcheng, pivotal point in the Chinese defence triangle in southeastern Honan.
In small, isolated groups, they began a ragged retreat towards Shangcheng, as Japanese troops seized Fuchinshan, Hwayenshan and a hill that became to be known among the Japanese as 800-metre height Hemmed in from three directions, with their backs to the Tapieh mountains, the Chinese had no alternative but to retire westward in escaping extermination:
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