These Chinese forces, it was learned, had defended the northern sector of the Tapieh range, but were driven out and later caught between the Japanese forces driving south over the range and those driving north from the banks of the Yangtze.
According to reports brought here by men of the newly-arrived columns, Sungfow, once a flourishing town of 30,000 inhabitants on the bank of the Peitou river, is now nothing more than a mass of rubble, According to reports, the Chinese, when fleeing, destroyed everything of value including even hospitals. At every village, it was reported, the Japanese saw heaps of dead Chinese soldiers.
At Chiting, it was learned, the Japanese columns were given an enthusiastic welcome. Here the Japanese commanders were informed of the location of the final batch of 6,000 Chinese soldiers who had escaped the encircling net. Two columns closed in on this group and scored a crushing victory, the reports said—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.