On the evening of November 8, I received a note from General Kondratenko, inviting me to come and examine the mining work at Fort Chi-kuan,[103] where they could already hear the enemy’s miners working. The main object of this examination was to ascertain how far off their work was going on.
That evening I rode into Port Arthur and met Colonel Grigorenko.[104] Having had tea with him and a fairly large gathering of officers, who made one feel quite at home, we all set out in carriages for Fort Chi-kuan, where we arrived without any mishap.
In company with General Nikizhin, Colonel Reiss, and several staff officers we passed through the north gate of the town, where the sentry was inclined to stop us, because, as he said, he had received no order to let us through.
The road passed through some dark ravines, and by a way which was quite unknown to me. In half an hour’s time we reached General Nadyein’s headquarters, which consisted of two barrack rooms, surrounded on all sides and roofed over with several rows of sand-bags.
General Nadyein had taken some time in building this splinter-proof, and had used thousands of sand-bags over its construction. Inside it was comfortable and light. It stood close under a steep cliff. On the way to it we had heard a good many bullets whistling around, but the staff quarters themselves were in an absolutely safe place.
Telephone wires on service poles radiated in all directions from the headquarters office.
General Kondratenko and Colonel Irman joined us here and accompanied us to the position, to the advanced lines of which we proceeded on foot.
There was a continuous rattle of rifle fire from all sides, and it was already quite dark. We proceeded along the narrow communication passages, sometimes coming out into a deep ravine, and thence into the fighting trenches, where our riflemen were standing in silence with their overcoats half thrown open (a coat turned inside-out looks like a rock from a distance, and the men in my section always wore their coats like that). Occasionally some of them would take aim and fire into the darkness.
Just as I was going past one of the men, he literally deafened me for the moment with the report of his rifle. “What are you firing at?” I asked. “Into the trench there, sir.” “What are you firing into the trench for?” “I saw something moving there,” he said. I looked over the parapet. The enemy’s trench was indeed very close,[105] but I doubt if it were possible to see anything moving in it.