Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

by Herbert Strang

For a time he hesitated. The weighty reasons against endangering his life flocked one after another through his mind; uppermost of all, the thought of his father, and of his friends at home so anxiously waiting for news of him. But he felt that having brought his men into their present hot corner it was his duty, at whatever personal risk, to get them out of it; and only by ascertaining the Russian plan of attack, if they had one, could he hope with his mere handful of men to hold his own. He hesitated no longer. Not that he was disposed to forget prudence and play the dare-devil. He would not throw away any chance. Shouting to the men nearest to him he told them what he proposed to do, and arranged that when he reached the limits of cover three of the bandits should draw the Russian fire by the old Indian trick of displaying the corner of a garment above their lurking place, as if they were exposing themselves to take aim. The trick when tried for the first time was almost certain to provoke a fusillade from the enemy, and Jack could then seize the opportunity to make a dash across the open ground. The same device could be employed again when he signalled his desire to return; but it was less likely to prove successful then, for the Russians would be on the watch, and the more intelligent of them would have seen through the ruse. Still, it would be worth the trial even in the second case. Accordingly, having arranged for the signal which should announce his return, he started to worm his way to the limit of cover.

When he arrived there he halted, turned round, and, lifting his hand to show that he was ready, braced himself for the sprint across the open. The appearance of a hat and portion of a coat above the rocks behind was followed instantly by the rattle of musketry from the Russian position. Setting his teeth, Jack sprang from cover and raced at full speed up the hill to a little knot of boulders above him. Before he had gone half the distance there was a second crash of volleying rifles; but the Russians had clearly taken very flurried aim; Jack heard the hissing flight of the bullets, but reached the shelter of the rock without a scratch.

As soon as he had taken breath, he set himself to make a careful survey of the scene beneath him. There was a party of Cossacks, whose numbers it was impossible to estimate, more or less hidden in the rough ground immediately in front of the pass. Half a mile in their rear was another body, apparently in reserve, numbering, as he guessed, about 300. But the force he had seen an hour before, winding its way down the hillside, had consisted of more than 1000 men. Where, then, were the rest? Jack's eye travelled from the lower to the upper slopes of the hill. For a few moments he could distinguish nothing resembling a body of men; then—yes, about a mile and a half away was a dark object moving diagonally across the field of view, and this soon resolved itself into a column of horsemen. The remnant of the Cossack force, about a third of its strength, had presumably returned some distance along the path of their advance, then swept round to the right. In a few minutes they disappeared from view; Jack could hardly doubt that they intended to turn his position by following a bridle path that would probably bring them out upon his rear. He must go back and question the guide. He made the signal to his men; again they raised the garments; there was a scathing volley from the Russians, but some, not to be caught napping a second time, held their fire, and as Jack bounded forth he heard the flying bullets whistling unpleasantly around him. One tore the felt from his Chinese shoe; another stung him like a whip in the forearm; but, owing, doubtless, to the fact that he was racing downhill, and that in consequence both the range and the elevation were rapidly changing, he reached cover in safety except for these slight mishaps.

While his wound was being bound up, he questioned the man who had guided the bandits to the district. The Chinaman, on Jack explaining what he had seen, agreed that there was a path through the hills in the direction indicated. It led to a ledge of rock jutting out from a shoulder of the hill about half a mile in the rear of Jack's position. An enemy holding that narrow platform could command the southern outlet of the pass, and completely cut off the Chunchuse force. For a moment Jack thought of stealing a march on the Cossacks and occupying the ledge, but a little reflection showed how useless this would be. Not only would he weaken the body holding the pass, every man of whom would be required when the serious attack was delivered, but the ledge itself and the path in its neighbourhood were scarcely tenable against a force so largely outnumbering his own.

Another move that suggested itself was to abandon the pass and fight a rearguard action as he retraced his steps towards Ah Lum's position. But to do this would be, he felt, to abandon his whole object, which was to relieve Ah Lum as long as possible of pressure from the second Russian force. After taking anxious thought, he decided that he must stick to the pass if the chief was to have any chance of escaping the net now closing around him. So long as there was a fighting force in the pass the Russians would not venture to attack Ah Lum, for they could not spare enough men to bottle up Jack's division and at the same time strike an effective blow at the chief so strongly placed. Accordingly Jack withdrew his men from the section of the pass likely to be covered by the flanking force, and settled down to await developments. Sounds of firing still came across the hills in the rear, showing that Ah Lum, and possibly by this time Wang Shih also, were at grips with the first Russian column.

Fronting the southern end of the pass was a small clump of trees that would give the Russians ample cover if they could reach it. But in order to reach it they would have to cross a quarter of a mile of comparatively level ground, affording little cover, and exposed to the direct fire of the defenders. For a moment Jack was tempted to occupy the clump; but that would involve the splitting of his force, and any detachment he might send to hold the position would be completely cut off from support except by rifle-fire. Fortunately the clump was not approachable from the rear; the attempt would involve a laborious climb uphill, the climbers all the time exposed to fire from the mouth of the pass. This end being less defensible than the northern, Jack had already placed the greater number of his men in cover here in anticipation of the arrival of the Russian turning column.

Some twenty minutes passed, during which Jack impressed upon his men the necessity of husbanding their ammunition. They had but a small supply, with no reserve to draw upon; it was imperative that they should not reply to the Russian fire until they could see their enemy distinctly. The near approach of the Cossacks was heralded by a sudden hail of bullets falling upon the rocks on either side of the pass. This was the signal for a warm fusillade from the original point of attack. To neither was any reply made by the Chunchuses, among whom not a man was touched. After a few minutes there was a sudden lull in the firing; it had become evident to the Russians that unless they rushed the clump of trees they could make no impression on an enemy so well protected. Intuitively Jack knew what was impending; he called to his men to be on the alert; and scarcely had he spoken when forty or fifty big horsemen, in open order, dashed across the open space towards the trees. Then Jack gave the word. The Cossacks had covered but a few yards when a terrible fire was poured upon them from the pass. Here a man dropped from his saddle; there a horse rolled over; but with the fine courage that had distinguished the Russian soldier throughout the war, the others held on in their terrible race with death. As they galloped forward man after man fell; only a gallant remnant reached the clump, and with it comparative safety. Scarcely a third of the troop gained the shelter of the trees, but tactically the movement was worth the sacrifice. There was silence for a brief space; then the men in the clump opened fire. From their new position they were able to enfilade a considerable section of the pass. One by one Jack's men began to fall; then there was a second rush from the Cossack main body to reinforce the men in the copse; and the defenders of the pass, enfiladed as they were, were unable to stop it. Most of the Russians got across; and with the reinforcements they had received, the men in the clump poured a still more damaging fire into the Chunchuses, only half-concealed now by rocks and boulders, and hampered by the necessity of sparing their ammunition. The Russians, feeling that they had the upper hand, began to expose themselves both in the copse and on the rough ground whence their rushes had been made; and the bandits, with the fear of their cartridges running short, durst not take full advantage of their opportunities of picking off incautious individuals among the enemy; they had to content themselves with firing whenever a group of two or more presented a broad target, and directing occasional close volleys into the copse. Still, the distance separating the combatants was so short—barely three hundred yards—that even in the comparative shelter of the trees the Russians suffered heavily; every now and then their fire slackened, and it was necessary to reinforce them by further detachments from the main column.

While the battle was thus waged at the south of the pass, there had been constant firing at the other end. Hi Lo went backwards and forwards between the two divisions of Jack's band, with news of the enemy's movements and the progress of the fight—a duty involving considerable risk; but the boy could make use of rocks and inequalities of the ground that would not have sheltered a grown man, and he was indeed exceedingly proud of being selected to assist in this way.

He reported now that the enfilading fire of the Russians in the copse at the south had driven the Chunchuses from the western face of the pass at the north end, allowing the Cossacks to creep round the hillside on the north-east of the entrance, and gain a position from which they were able to inflict serious loss on the defenders. Jack felt that the coils were gradually being drawn around him; and when a number of men, covered by a brisk rifle-fire, dashed from the copse towards the steep hillside overlooking the pass, and in spite of the loss of several of their number began laboriously to climb the slope, he could not but recognize that the game was well-nigh up. The fight had lasted three hours. His men were worn; the strain had been very great; and they were reduced to half a dozen rounds a rifle. But they were still steady and undismayed; how much their tenacity owed to Jack's training and how much to their native courage it would be difficult to say; but two things were certain: their marksmanship was distinctly superior to that of the Cossacks, and the temptation of undisciplined troops to blaze away at random had been quite heroically resisted.

The men climbing the face of the hill soon passed out of sight; but in about ten minutes they opened fire from a ridge high up the slope. In excellent cover themselves, they had many of the Chunchuses in full view; and the Chinamen could not move into shelter without exposing themselves to the fire of the Cossacks in the copse. Nevertheless the bandits, with the characteristic doggedness of the Chinese in face of peril, clung to their positions, flattening themselves against the rocks and boulders, which gave them less and less protection, attacked as they now were from several sides. More than once Jack made a hazardous trip to the northern end of the pass, encouraging his men; each time he noticed with a sinking heart that the number of still and prostrate forms was greater. What caused the keenest pang, it was impossible to bring the wounded to a place of safety. As soon as a man fell, he almost inevitably lost the complete protection of his boulder; a portion of his body lay outside the zone of safety, and the poor wretch thus became the mark for a score of bullets. His heart torn with pity for the men, Jack at one time thought of surrender. But then he recollected that they would merely exchange the bullet for the noose; and there was always a bare chance of relief. He himself was wounded in the shoulder; at least half his men were out of action; the Russians were gradually closing in towards both entrances of the pass; and a simultaneous rush at each end must finish the struggle. Jack wondered why such an assault had not already been made. It would entail a certain loss of life; but perhaps less in the end than would result from prolonging the struggle. Even as the thought struck him, he saw signs of the movement he so much dreaded, and hurrying back to the southern end, where the worst of the fighting must take place, he was about to urge his men to sell their lives dearly, when from the steep pathway beyond the rocky platform previously pointed out by his guide there came the discharge of half a hundred rifles. The combat in the pass ceased instantly; both sides were startled and amazed—Jack wondering whether the first Russian force had disposed of Ah Lum, and was now returning to complete the destruction of his followers; the Cossacks apparently uncertain whether the shots came from friend or foe. Another volley flashed from the height; immediately afterwards a swarm of horsemen was seen to descend. By the manner of their riding it was plain they were not Cossacks. They were making direct for the rear of the Russian force, threatening to cut off its retreat. The Cossacks beyond the copse waited no longer. In one wild rush, some throwing away their rifles in their haste, they fled towards the pathway by which they had come, hoping to reach the ponies tethered beyond the zone of fire. The men in the copse, less fortunately placed than their comrades, offered a desperate resistance to the Chunchuses now enveloping them—Jack leading some of his men in a charge from the pass, the new-comers sweeping round at headlong speed to intercept the fugitives. A few of the Cossacks, seeing their flight hopeless, surrendered; the rest died fighting; while those on the hillside, taken in reverse, were shot down almost to a man.