When Yen's army, starting from Kalgan, made a fresh attack
upon Chang near the Nankow Pass, about thirty miles north-west of Peking, it failed and Chang, in a counter-attack, captured many thousands of prisoners and a great deal of ammunition. A similar story of attack and counter-attack comes from the other region where Yen's men have been engaged. The objective was the Peking-Hankow railway. At first the Northerner's were compelled to retire to Paotingfu, about a hundred miles south of Peking, but they then counter-attacked and captured Tingchow in the rear of the Shansi forces. Yen's failure is the more striking because his army was geographically in a strong strategic position. The right flank of the Northerners was exposed either from an attack along the Kalgan-Peking railway, north- west of Peking, or along the Peking-Hankow railway to the south. All the time Yen would be in touch with the army of his new ally, Feng Yu-hsiang (the Christian General), who is in Honan.
