“You are right.”
“Vot you dinks ve vos going to do next?”
“Oh, we’ll follow them up,—as soon as we get into shape to do it. Our baggage trains have got to get across the river first—and we want re-enforcements, too, I imagine,” concluded the young captain.
It was not until a week after crossing the river that the Japanese army moved forward to Feng-wang-cheng, which the Russians abandoned without showing fight. In the meantime fair-sized Japanese forces landed at Pitsewo and Kin-chow, on the Liao-tung Peninsula, just north of Port Arthur, and cut off all telegraphic communications which the city had heretofore enjoyed with the outside world. This was a serious blow to the Russians at the port, but other blows far more serious were soon to follow.
The Russians at Dalny, the station just north of Port Arthur, were now growing anxious, and before long a large part of the seaport, which had cost many millions to build up, was blown up by them, and they prepared to evacuate the place.
The tide of war seemed to have set in strongly for the Japanese, but now came a setback which they scarcely looked for. In another naval engagement off Port Arthur the armored cruiser Yoshino was rammed in the fog, and the battleship Hatsuse was sunk by a mine. It is said that by the sinking of these two ships the Japanese also lost upward of four hundred officers and sailors. In addition to this the Japanese lost several transports and merchant ships, destroyed or captured by the Russian fleet sailing from Vladivostok.
It could now be seen by the outside world what the general campaign of the Japanese army was to be. By landing forces above Port Arthur they virtually cut that place off from the rest of the world, and thus placed it in a state of siege. With the navy hammering from the water side, the army advanced closer and closer to hem in the place so that it would have to surrender or be destroyed. In order to keep back re-enforcements for the Russians, the army of the Yalu now began to advance toward Liao-Yang, on the railroad which connects Port Arthur with Mukden and other Russian strongholds further north.
It must not be supposed that the Russians gave the army under General Kuroki as much rest as many would have wished. There were constant skirmishes and small battles, and not a few were killed or wounded on both sides.
Spies were sent out constantly by both commanders to learn just what the enemy was doing. So far many Japanese spies had lost their lives, or been taken prisoners, yet the call for men for such duty was always answered eagerly.
One hot day early in July Gilbert and Ben found themselves on a trail leading over one of the hills far to the westward of Feng-wang-cheng. It had been reported that numerous Russian spies were in that vicinity, doing their best to get in and out of the Japanese lines. How the work was being carried on nobody seemed to know, and a detachment was sent out, under Major Okopa. The major had taken with him the two young Americans and six of his best sharpshooters.