About twelve o’clock the enemy’s rifle fire suddenly ceased, and his artillery also grew silent. Taking advantage of this, I went down to the road from No. 13 Battery to meet two gunners coming from the position. We noticed General Fock and his adjutant on the road. Major Visoki reported that the gunners had suffered severely, and that the ammunition supply was exhausted. As they had no rifles, I sent them away from the position, and thus, from twelve o’clock, we were left without artillery. Just before this sudden temporary cessation of fire I had already noticed from the hill how our artillery fire was dying down and how cruelly the enemy’s shells blew our gunners to pieces; indeed, the helplessness of our guns became apparent as soon as the enemy’s cannonade commenced.
It is impossible to imagine what such a fire is like. An unceasing stream of shells burst over each battery and over No. 13 Battery, where it was only possible to sit right up against the earth-work, now and then venturing to glance over it to observe what was going on. When the fire had become positively fiendish we took cover in the upper bomb-proof, a relic of the Chinese war. It gave us sufficient cover from small shell, and it was possible to write there, send reports, and receive reports from orderlies, but the fire from the ships made us fear for our safety. A single shell would have been sufficient to bury us all under the ruins of our shelter. All the ravines were literally pitted with shell splinters. Our unfortunate artillery was so occupied in its struggle with the enemy’s guns that it paid no attention to the ships threatening the fortifications on our left flank. However, this was not surprising, as the batteries did not themselves feel the fire of the enemy’s ships. From their front guns roared also, so from a feeling of self-preservation they returned that fire at first as energetically as they could. The order I had sent to No. 4 Battery to direct its fire on the enemy’s ships had evidently not got through to the battery commander. Our fire began to slacken, and finally ceased, owing to losses and, in many batteries, for want of ammunition. In No. 9 Battery every man was killed but one, and he continued to fire by himself from each gun in rotation. He loaded the guns in turn and fired them until a shell put an end to this hero. In spite of all my efforts I have been unable to learn his name. “Peace to your ashes, unknown hero, the pride and glory of your regiment!”[28]
The greater number of our guns was unharmed, though two pieces in the centre of the position were dismounted, as were also all the guns of No. 15 Battery, against which the enemy’s ships were firing.
A deathlike stillness now reigned along the whole position for an hour. Going down to the lower line of trenches, I tried to get to General Fock, who had been seen, as I have said, on the road to No. 10 Battery, but he had gone off somewhere, and I did not see him again; possibly he went along the ravines to Ta-fang-shen station.
Soldiers of the 5th Company who had fallen to the rear said that it had gone badly with that company, and that it had vacated the advanced trench and occupied No. 9 Redoubt and the ravines near it. The men in all the other trenches and forts gallantly stuck to their posts. After an hour of silence, firing began again, rifles cracked, and guns roared. I went to my observing station. The enemy literally swept us with a hail of shrapnel. One shell burst right over the heads of two of my orderlies standing behind me, killing one outright and wounding the other in the head. A short time after, our small-arm ammunition magazine near No. 10 Battery caught fire.
Soon after there were some distressing signs of disorder on the left flank (the section defended by the 5th Company)—men were retiring and going back, without stopping, to the rear of the position; but I received no report from the commander of the 5th Company. I then noticed that the enemy’s fire was concentrated on the 5th and 7th Companies. Though I had foreseen an attack on these points I was not afraid that the enemy would break through there, as Rotaiski’s company and Redoubt No. 8, with its trenches, made it impracticable. Nevertheless, I felt the need of a larger reserve, and I reported to General Fock that I should have no men with which to renew the battle if the enemy should beat us back out of our advanced positions. I earnestly asked for reinforcements; but General Fock, guided, I suppose, by the general supposition that reinforcements are always asked for before they are needed, and thinking, perhaps, that I was making mountains out of molehills, did not pay any attention to my request, or else did not wish to satisfy it, and our position became critical. Our scouts on the left flank, as also the 5th and 7th Companies, were demoralized, especially the 5th.
Captain Lubeemov’s company of the 13th Regiment, which was with me in the reserve, had disappeared somewhere, so that Captain Teemoshenko, who was sent by me to take it to the place where I had decided it should go (on the left flank, in the interval between our 7th Company and Captain Ushakov’s company, near No. 15), could not find it, and came back. Thus I now had not a single company under my hand.[29] Afterwards it became known that Lubeemov’s company had received by an orderly an order purporting to come from me, and had taken up a position near our 5th and 7th Companies on the left flank. It had failed to reach its correct position (see [last page]), as no one was there to direct it. I do not, however, blame Captain Lubeemov; he had obeyed his orders, but went to the right, instead of the left, flank of Captain Ushakov. Captain Teemoshenko should have pointed out the right place, but he failed to find the company. Where Captain Lubeemov was wrong, was in altering his position without my orders.
Shortly after, about four o’clock, an officer came up and reported that the 6th and 7th Companies of the 14th Regiment were coming to my assistance. I received a note from General Fock, in which he ordered me to use these companies only to cover a retreat, and not to employ them in the trenches. Then I understood that General Fock was not going to help me to hold the position, which he might have done without much difficulty, since I only required one additional battalion in reserve.
Lieutenant-Colonel Bielozor now sent to ask for reinforcements. Although I could see no attack on his side, in view of the urgency of the request, and so as to be quite safe on our right flank (where an adjoining village was strongly held by the Japanese, and the railway embankment could screen large numbers of the enemy), I decided to send half a company of the 14th Regiment under Captain Kousmin, an excellent officer, well known to me.
About six o’clock bullets began to whistle over our heads in No. 13, and, my trumpeter being wounded, I took him myself into the bomb-proof to be attended to. On the left flank men in yellow jackets[30] were moving about in groups, and five minutes had not passed before Second-Lieutenant Sadykov came into the shelter and reported that the left flank was retreating. I rushed out and saw that the yellow-coats were streaming up, and shrapnel bursting over the 7th and 5th Companies, while a heavy cross fire was being kept up. The Japanese skirmishers had lain down in their places and there was no warning of their sudden advance. Seeing that our scouts were retreating, and that all the others might retreat with them, I, not having any orders to retreat from the position, galloped off to the reserve and ordered the one-and-a-half companies of the 14th Regiment, sent by General Fock, to move against the Japanese appearing near Work No. 10. As we rode down, we came into a hot fire from the neighbouring hills.