Nanchang in the ninth war zone was garrisoned by the 19th Army under the command of Gen. Lo Choying, who is concurrently Commander of the Nanchang Defence Headquartfrs. The Headquarters had been situated 10 kilometres southwest of Nanchang to escape Japanese aerial attacks. Some 20 divisions of Chinese troops totalling about 100.000 were said to have been deployed in front of Nanchang. Chinese forces opposing the Japanese on a line linking Yochow and Tungcheng in Hunan and Hupeh respectively were rushed to reinforce the Nanchang front, Sixty Chinese divisions totalling 400,- 000 troops were said to be within operating distance of the Nanchang front. The Siu River was lined with barbed wire barriers and pillbox trenches were dug along the banks.
Nanchang figured prominently in the anti-Communist drives of Gen.
Chiang in 1928 and later years when his armies fought seven major batties with the red forces. Soon after the start of the present hostilities Gen. Chiang established the Nanchang headquarters of the Kuomintang Military Affairs Council, converting Nanchang into a major base of operations. Apparently expecting to make it his military headquarters after the fall of Nanking, Gen. Chiang constructed military highways radiate ing from Nanchang, reorganized the railways and built the biggest aerodrome in China there.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.