The poorly armed peasants of the Chinese army stood little chance against the well armed and supplied Japanese invaders. In a small village amid the grainfields that supplied Shanghai's numerous noodle factories, fresh Chinese units were billeted and completely unaware that the Japanese had advanced rapidly and were only a few hundred metres away. As the grain ripened under the midday sun, a wave of Japanese charged through the fields into the farmhouses, supported by heavily armored motor vehicles bristling with machine guns.
