One wing of the Japanese encircle ing movement, which reached the banks of the Tsingshui River, northeast of Pingyang on February 2, was now engaged in blocking the flight of Chinese troops withdrawing from Litanghu and Kantang.
Another column, it said, was advancing southwards after having cleared the area north of Pingyang of Chinese troops. This unit originally struck at Chinese troops entrenched north of Kiutang, the communique declared.
A third column, after breaking through the Chinese defences at Kiutang, was advancing westward to the rear of the Chinese positions at Wuming in order to cut the retreat of Chinese forces fleeing in that direction, according to the corns muniqué.—Domei,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.