Shanighal, Apr. 9.
A fire of unprecedented proportions was reported in Chinese circles yes~ terday to have raged. in. Hengyang, Hunan, on April 6, destroying, the businers centre in the city and Killing many persons, as a result of a bombing ald carried' out by 18 Japanese planes.
'The machines circled above the district at about noon, dropping numerous bombs, many' of which were incendiary, The best part of the district wai' admitted to have been wiped out, The plant of the "Hunan Dally," the Mengyang branch of the Commercial Press, and many other publishing. firms and schools were destroyed by dire or bombs, Four Japanese planes bombed Kian, Kiangsi on Friday morning destroying about 20 houses and buildings inside the elly. The Kian Branch of the Central Bank of China was bombed and eleven persons, including a bank fieer, were killed, A' Nanchang hhewspaper plant recently moved to the elly was also bombed, and several persons inside the plant were killed, the Siv River under fire at Chinkeu, eight kilometres west of Loki, on March 21.
At Yangchow, 24 kin. south of Loki, the detachment defeated 1,000 Chinese on March 24, taking about 80 prisoners among ' whom were commanders of @ battalion and a 'After the victory at Yangchow the detachment "pushed up into" the Kiuling Mountains, An' engineering unit led the way and widened the narrow trails wherever possible as. the long file of soldiers and horses Jserambled up steep, rocky slopes and edges and threaded slowly along the brink of deep chasms.
Engineering work was accomplished at great risk and the soldiers. were threatened frequently with death in plunge from the trails. "Aerobatic feats which required legs as nimble 8 a goat's and merves as steady wooden Indian's were performed sometimes as the engineers spanned gaping ravines with logs and the following column clambered up provised ladders or guided horses over log bridges.
They negotiated the trails for 40 red another stretch of 20 kin, arriving east of Hwangyashan and Likiapien, both 1,300 metres above sea level.
The trails became steeper and one horse after another slipped off the trails and tumbled into an abyss. One hundred horses were Tost in this man=
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.