Marksmanship and cover: these he took to be the principal factors in modern warfare. So far as the use of cover was concerned, he found that his men had little to learn; several months of hard fighting against troops carrying arms of precision had enforced the value of cover in the most practical way. In each engagement the Russians had taken toll of those who failed to recognize its importance: their bodies lay among the hills from the Yalu to the Sungari. But in marksmanship the Chunchuses were not so efficient. A large proportion of them had never handled, perhaps never even seen, a rifle until they joined the band. Without definite instruction they were apt to blaze away at their own will and pleasure, absolutely reckless of the wastage of ammunition, which had hitherto, owing to one or two lucky raids, been plentiful. Jack suspected that the proportion of hits to misses was woefully small. He therefore set earnestly to work to effect an improvement in this respect. He rigged up butts, put every man in his command through a course, and, taking advantage of the Chinaman's love of competitive examination, started a shooting competition, with badges of different form and colour for the prizes. This especially pleased Ah Lum; it aroused a keen spirit among his men; the example of Jack's division was soon followed by the rest, and the general proficiency was very largely increased.
Among Jack's men were the greater part of the company he had rescued. One of them was Hu Hang, the ex-constable. This man showed extraordinary skill with the rifle. As Hi Lo said:
"Policeyman he can shootee allo plopa first-chop what-time no piecee man he shootee back."
This was a somewhat caustic remark; but Hi Lo had no love for the constable, who indeed was not popular among the band. His comrades would have been hardly human if they had not made the most of their opportunities of paying off against Hu Hang the scores that many of them owed to members of his hated class. He kept a good deal apart, finding a congenial soul only in C'hu Tan, the former second in command, who had been deposed for grave neglect of duty, and replaced by Wang Shih. The two malcontents were often together, condoling with each other on their wrongs; and their animus against Wang Shih extended to Jack, who struck them as an additional supplanter, the more hateful from being a foreigner. Jack knew nothing of this himself; but it did not escape the shrewd eyes of Hi Lo, who kept quiet and unobtrusive watch upon C'hu Tan, dogging him at every turn.
After a fortnight's steady practice Jack felt that the fighting value of his little force was well-nigh doubled. But at the end of that time Ah Lum suddenly ordered the rifle practice to be stopped. A scout had reported that the Russians had approached within striking distance, and the chief feared lest the sound of the firing should betray his whereabouts.
At last one morning, after hearing a messenger who came in faint and gasping after a long night's ride, Ah Lum felt that the coil was being drawn too tightly around him. He gave a sudden order to decamp; the band quitted the valley that had sheltered them so long, and set off into the hills. Lack of provisions was beginning to be felt. The ponies, hardy little animals, were able to pick up a subsistence on the hillsides, sparse though the grazing was at this time of year; and for them stalks of kowliang could always be obtained as a last resource. But the supply of rice and buckwheat, on which the men depended, was running short. Ah Lum somewhat dismally told Jack that it would now be necessary to reduce the rations. He confessed that he was in a tighter place than ever before. At no time previously had the Russians made such determined efforts to crush him. In addition to the Korean frontier force far to his rear, which for the present need not be reckoned with, there were, as he had learnt, three large forces of Cossacks, each stronger than his own band, converging upon him from north, east, and west. General Kuropatkin had hitherto been able to make little use of these characteristic cavalry of the Russian army, so that they were available for the less dignified but very necessary work of bandit-hunting. The three forces directed against Ah Lum were still a considerable distance apart from one another, but it was clear to him that in a few days he would have to try conclusions with one of them before they got into touch. He had only escaped this necessity so long because the Cossacks were unaccustomed to hill work. Matchless in rapid furious charges on the plain, they had shown little capacity for mountain fighting or even for scouting; and, as Jack learnt afterwards, they were desperately chagrined at their hard luck in having so few chances of the kind of work that suited them.
The Chunchuses marched for several days into the hills, their condition going from bad to worse. The rations were verging on exhaustion. The Cossacks were no doubt well supplied, and Ah Lum felt that the moment had come for an attack on one of their forces. The nearest was only a long march distant. Breaking up his camp early one morning, when the night's frost lay white on the ground, he led his men across the hills northward, and, proceeding with great caution, located the enemy late in the afternoon. Throwing out scouts in advance—men intimately acquainted with the country—he sighted the Cossacks before they sighted him, and at once fell back behind a forest-clad ridge so that his presence might not be discovered that day. During the night his scouts reported, apparently by a calculation from the enemy's watch-fires, that the Cossacks were at least a thousand strong, and thus about equal numerically to Ah Lum's effective force, with the advantage of better discipline and training. But the chief, in common with all his countrymen, had shrewdly studied the invaders; he had not been blind to the Cossacks' failure in the war, and he was hardly the kind of man to allow himself to be terrorized by the mere name of Cossack, the effect of which was due merely to the memory of past exploits when the conditions of warfare were different.
An hour or two before they sighted the Russians, the bandits had advanced through a narrow pass, enclosed between steep and rugged bluffs. Upon this pass Ah Lum decided to fall back; it offered every advantage for an ambuscade. Withdrawing thither during the hours of darkness, he allowed his men a brief spell of sleep; then, while the dawn was yet but a glimmer, he set them to fell trees in the copses that crowned the hills, and to pile them across the pathway at the far end. It was still early when he placed half his men in cover upon the heights overlooking the track; the rest, consisting of the divisions of Wang Shih and Jack, were sent to threaten the Russian rear. A mist hung over the hills; it was bitterly cold, and the ponies often slipped on the frosty ground. Luckily Wang Shih had with him a peasant of the neighbourhood who acted as guide. But for him the Chunchuses could hardly have found their way.
It was but an hour after daybreak when they found themselves on the right rear of the Russians about two miles from the latter's camp. Wang Shih's orders were to wait until the Cossacks had advanced to the end of the pass and been checked by the ambuscade there. Then, before the enemy could recover from the confusion into which they would be thrown, he was to follow up rapidly in the hope that a movement seeming to threaten their line of retreat might complete their disorder. He therefore waited until, from a secure hiding-place, he saw them quit their camp and march out. Then he moved his men with Jack's down the hill somewhat closer to the enemy's line of march, and awaited the sound of firing in the distance that would announce the beginning of the fight at the ambuscade.
Meanwhile Jack narrowly scanned the surrounding country. The mist had cleared away, and a bright cold October sun was painting the distant hills with various charming tints. Suddenly Jack's attention was attracted by a dark, narrow, tape-like something moving down a slope far to the north-west. Before many seconds were past he was convinced that it was a body of horsemen. The question was, what horsemen? In the distance their character could not be distinguished; the one thing certain was that they were not Japanese, for their clothes were very dark; the Japanese were wearing khaki. They were scarcely likely to be Chunchuses; from their regular even progress Jack concluded that they could not be native carriers; surely they must be a second body of Cossacks who had advanced by forced marches to co-operate with those now approaching the ambush.