During March 4, which was thus lost to us for offensive operations, Nogi continued his turning movement, which was now becoming enveloping and dangerous. Accordingly, after discussing the matter with Kaulbars, I ordered him on the 5th to concentrate sufficient troops for the purpose, and to attack the enemy’s left, and I again emphasized the fact that our main chance of success lay in the rapidity and energy with which he struck. In an order of the 2nd Army of March 5, a force of forty-nine battalions was organized to make the attack under the command of Gerngross. Here again the concentration was too slow, and the right column only moved out from the line Sha-ho-tzu–Khou-kha about 2 p.m. Its right flank might have been strengthened by a brigade of the 41st Division with Zapolski’s column, and the left flank by sixteen battalions of the 25th Division. We therefore might have contained the enemy on the Yang-hsin-tun–Hsiao-sha-ho-tzu line with a force under Tserpitski, and have attacked with a mass of seventy-seven battalions.
Kaulbars, alarmed at Tserpitski’s exaggerated reports as to the nature of the attacks made on his left by some three divisions, moved a brigade from Gerngross’s force behind the left flank, sent another on to the left bank of the river, and stopped Gerngross’s attack till such time as the result of Tserpitski’s action should be known. The net result of these proceedings, of the late commencement of the operations, and of their half-hearted nature, was that, although we met with no opposition, on the 5th we moved our right only on to the line Pao-ta-tun–Fang-hsin-tun–San-chia-fen; and so another day was lost. In accordance with my orders for energetic action, the advance of the right was continued on the 6th, but it was carried out with less men than on the previous day (thirty-three battalions), without energy or cohesion, and met with determined opposition at the village of Liu-chia-kan. Then, before the whole of Gerngross’s force had become engaged, Kaulbars stopped the advance, and gave orders to take up the defensive. That day we got possession only of Tsuang-fang-chih. In short, notwithstanding the great strength of the 2nd Army, with its reinforcements of more than fifty battalions, on March 4, 5, and 6—the three most important days—we moved our right only a few miles forward, and took to defensive measures even on the western front.
Owing to the ill success of the operations of the 2nd Army on March 5, I issued orders to all the armies to send back their divisional baggage along their respective lines of communication towards the north of Mukden. On the 5th the Japanese began a series of attacks on our northern and western fronts. On the left flank of our west front they were everywhere repulsed by Tserpitski and Hershelman, whose forces amounted to forty-nine battalions. In the centre of the western front they won a partial success, on March 7 compelling units of the 25th Division to retire temporarily from Wu-kuan-tun. But on the northern front, which was the most dangerous for us, they won great successes, on the 7th and 8th getting possession of several villages. From there they repeatedly attacked our northern force of twenty-five battalions under Launits, which was holding the line Ta-heng-tun–San-tai-tzu–Kung-chia-tun. At the same time their columns moved still farther to the north, and threatened Hu-shih-tai station. To protect this, I despatched a force of six battalions of the 4th Siberians to Tsu-erh-tun under Colonel Borisoff. To secure our retirement to Tieh-ling, in case we should not succeed in beating off Nogi’s army, on the evening of March 7 I gave orders to the 1st and 3rd Armies, who were too far forward, to retire early on the 8th to our fortified positions south of Mukden—at Fu-liang and Fu-shun. With their retirement and the concentration of the whole of the 2nd Army on the right bank it became possible to allot forty-eight battalions from the 1st and 3rd Armies to operate against Nogi, and to collect seventeen battalions into the reserve of the 2nd Army. Of these reinforcements, General Artamonoff’s force of ten battalions alone arrived under my command on the 8th.
Third Phase.
Having failed in our attempts to stop Nogi’s army, which was moving round our right flank, first on the line from Sha-ling-pu to the old railway embankment, and then on the line of the Hsin-min-tun main road, I decided to try once more to block it on the line Ku-san-tun–Tsu-erh-tun, and, if a favourable opportunity occurred, to assume the offensive from this line. On the 9th we had the following troops available for the purpose:
1. Borisoff’s column of 6 battalions holding the villages of Tung-chan-tzu, Ku-san-tun, and Hsia-hsin-tun.
2. Artamonoff’s column of 9 battalions[92] at Tsu-erh-tun.
3. Hershelman’s column of 14 battalions, sent from the reserve of the 2nd Army to that place. Total, 29 battalions.
On March 9 I ordered Lieutenant-General Muiloff, to whom was given the command of these troops, to co-operate with Launits’ force in an attack on the village of Hei-ni-tun. The operation was carried out in a disjointed manner, without careful reconnaissance, and without any arrangement for co-operation having been made with Launits; a bad storm and clouds of sand also impeded us, and the attack failed. The Japanese continued their advance to the north-west. Thus, by the 9th, the enemy was still not driven back on the side where they were most dangerous; part of the village of San-tai-tzu, taken from us in the early hours of that day, remained in their hands. The situation, indeed, appeared critical, for we received news on the same evening of the Japanese advance to the Hun Ho against the section Fu-liang–Hsiao-fang-shen, which was held by weak units of the 1st Army, 4th and 2nd Siberians. Indeed, if we delayed the withdrawal on Tieh-ling longer there was great danger that some of our most advanced forces in the south and south-west might be cut off. Therefore orders were given that same evening for a retirement to Tieh-ling early on the 10th, and for this operation roads were allotted as follows: The 2nd Army was to proceed along both sides of the railway and west of the Mandarin road; the 3rd Army along the Mandarin road and others to the east of it, as far as the Fu-liang–Hsi-chui-chen–Hui-san–Shu-lin-tzu road; the 1st Army along the latter, and the roads to the east of it.
Meanwhile the enemy had on the 9th broken through the 1st Army near Chiu-tien, driving back part of the 4th Siberians from this point to Leng-hua-chi. The officer commanding the 2nd Siberians (next to them) did nothing but merely hold his position on the River Hun at Hsiao-fang-chen, and the enemy spread out along the valley Hsiao-hsi-chua–Hu-shan-pu. The attempt made to drive them back at night by the Tsaritsin Regiment failed.