Tientsin, Oct. 6.
With the remnants of the Chinese troops defeated in the battle of Paotingfu making a determined stand in the Shihchiachwang area, Japanese military authorities here to-day predicted a major combat for possession of southern Hopei will be fought within the next few days near Chengting, north of Shihchiachwang.
Unable to retreat to Tsinan because Central Army sentries have been posted to prevent the flight of Chinese from the front, the Chinese forces badly defeated at Tehchow are now scattering in the Kueheng, Wucheng and Linching districts in northern Shantung Province, military reports here revealed. The only remaining Chinese troops in Hopei province, the reports said. are at Shihchiachwang., These forces are wavering as a result of a series of%àerial bombardments and intensive thrusts by Japanese army units.
The reports added that the complete destruction of the remnants of the 29th Army and Central Army troops now entrenched in Hopei Province, is merely a matter of time.
"Push South of hohow kilometres "south of Tehchow along Hwanghoyai, proximately (en the Tientsin-Pukow Railway was occupied during the afternoon of October 4 by the Akashiba. Nagano, Numata anê Nakai detachments which pushed on toward the south following the fall of Tehchow, the headquarters of the North China Garrison announced yesterday afternoon.
Tapanebe military planes destroyed four Chinese bombers at the Loyang aerodrome after planes from it attempted to bomb the Japanese positions at Paoting. The Japanese planes, the communique said. chased the four Chinese back to the Loyang aerodrome and as they landed, bombed them with telling effect. AN the Chinese bombers. the announcement said, caught bre and were destroyed while no damage was inflicted on the Japanese ships—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.