Decisive defeats were inflicted by Japanese forces upon Chinese troops falling back from Hwaiyuen, west of Pengpu, strategic defence position on the Tientsin~Pukow Railway, a Japanese military spokesman claimed Inst night.
Other Chinese forces from Pengpu and Fengyang were retreating in disorder along the Tsinpu line with Japanese columns in hot pursuit, the spokesman further claimed.
The Chinese troops, consisting of Szechuen units in addition to former Manchurian forces under General Vu Hsueh-chung, one-time chairman of Hopei Province, were "completely demoralized," the. officer asserted.
Driying north-west from Hwaiyuen, on the northern bank of the Hwai River, Japanese forces inflicted "dis-estrous losses" upon the fleeing Chinese at Tangshan, twenty kilometres north-west of Hwaiyuen, according to the announcement.
The Chinese left between 1,500 and 1,600 killed, the spokesman asserted. "When the number of their wounded is taken into consideration, then losses must be estimated as fatal" he declared.
Captured in this battle were three trench mortars and eight machineguns, the spokesman stated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.