The ill-fated expedition, after some preliminary skirmishing, met General Oku's main body at Wafangkau or Telissu on the 15th of June. Telissu is a village situated to the east of the railway line about 20 miles north of Port Adams. Nothing could better prove the superiority of the Japanese over the Russians in the matter of tactics than the dispositions which were made for this battle by Oku and Stackelberg respectively. Kuropatkin's lieutenant fought in the old-fashioned style, with his men closely packed together over a narrow front. The Japanese, on the other hand, advanced in an open formation over a widely extended area. At dawn General Oku ordered his troops to attack. They advanced in two columns, the main body proceeding along the railway line against the enemy's centre and right, while a second and more mobile force worked round to the west to turn Stackelberg's right flank. The Russians threw themselves fiercely upon the Japanese right and centre, and for some hours the battle was hotly contested. But in the meantime the turning movement to the west was proceeding with entire success. Before he realized the imminence of the danger, Stackelberg found that his right flank was driven in, and that his rear was threatened. He withdrew troops from his left and centre to meet this new danger; but it was too late, and he merely weakened his position in one part of the field without strengthening it in another. From three sides the Japanese now pressed their attack home, gradually encircling the Russians with a ring of fire. The terrible effectiveness of Oku's artillery was borne witness to afterwards by the Russians themselves. Their positions were heaped with dead. General Stackelberg in his dispatch describing the battle said that the 3rd and 4th batteries of the 1st Artillery Brigade were literally cut to pieces by the Japanese shells, and thirteen out of sixteen guns were rendered completely useless. A large number of officers were killed, and among the wounded was Major-General Gerngross. In spite of this tremendous pounding the Russians held their ground with great gallantry; but, as the Japanese attack developed, General Stackelberg saw that if he maintained his position much longer, he would be altogether surrounded. Therefore, just in the nick of time, he ordered a retreat. Slowly and painfully the retirement was conducted over difficult, mountainous country. The Japanese, exhausted by forced marches and two days' fighting, were unable to cut off Stackelberg's escape entirely, but they inflicted terrible losses on his retreating troops, and he only succeeded in reaching Kaichau some days afterwards with a shattered remnant of his force. The Japanese casualties in this great battle were not more than 1,000. On the other hand, upwards of 2,000 Russians were found dead upon the field and buried by the victors, and the total losses sustained by General Stackelberg's army, including prisoners taken, amounted to about 10,000. Large numbers of guns and regimental colors were captured.
The Veil over the Tragedy
Thus ended this ill-advised attempt to relieve Port Arthur. Henceforth all hopes of succor from the north had to be abandoned. In fact, General Kuropatkin, instead of being able to render assistance to the beleaguered garrison, was himself threatened with irremediable disaster, largely in consequence of this ill-fated operation. And now for upwards of two months almost complete darkness fell upon the tragedy that was being enacted round the doomed fortress. Rumors reached the outer world from time to time of the sanguinary combats by which the besiegers slowly fought their way nearer and nearer to the heart of the stronghold; but rumors they remained; and the Japanese, true to their policy of silence while important events were in progress, allowed no authentic news to percolate through the censorship. At last, however, the veil was partially lifted. When in the early days of August the Russian fleet, threatened with ignoble destruction by the fire of the rapidly approaching batteries of the Japanese, made an unsuccessful dash for freedom, it was recognized on all hands that the end was near.
GENERAL NOGI BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.
CHAPTER IX.
Secrecy of Japanese Strategy—The Geographical Position—Kuropatkin's Essential Weakness—Rain Stops Carnage—Oku Rolls up the Russians—Field-Marshal Oyama—Keller's Failure—10th Regiment Ambushed—Desperate Courage against Overwhelming Odds—Kuroki again on the Offensive—Capture of Niuchwang—The Bloodiest Fight so Far—The Death of Count Keller—Kuropatkin's Heavy Loss—Concentration at Liao-yang—Kuropatkin's Urgent Motives—Oyama's Great Resources—Twelve Days' Battle—The Great Armies in Touch—Frightful Scene of Carnage—Costly but Indecisive.
Secrecy of Japanese Strategy
The signal defeat of the Russian army under General Stackelberg at Telissu on the 15th June cleared the way for an advance northwards by General Oku's army. It was one of the consequences of the secrecy which attended the Japanese strategy from first to last that until this moment General Oku's real objective was not guessed either by foreign observers or even by the Russians themselves. The general impression was, naturally, that the Second Army was destined for the tremendous task of storming Port Arthur, but a much larger conception of the campaign was present to the minds of the strategists at Tokio. Fresh troops in large numbers were poured into the Liao-tung Peninsula, and these, under the command of General Nogi were concentrated round Port Arthur, while the main body of the Second Army was pushed northwards to act in co-operation with the First Army of General Kuroki and the Third Army commanded by General Nodzu, which, it will be remembered, had by this time landed at Takushan and was being gradually directed upon Haicheng. As soon, therefore, as his forces had been restored after their tremendous exertions at Telissu, General Oku set out with all possible rapidity along the line of railway towards Kaiping. And now Kuroki's long wait at Feng-hwang-cheng came to an end. It had, however, been well utilized. Not only had it enabled the conqueror of the Yalu to concentrate an army of upwards of 100,000 men, but in the interval his engineers had been employed in constructing defences, of a semi-permanent character, which, in the event of a subsequent retreat being rendered necessary, would make the position almost impregnable against Russian attack. But on the 23rd June General Kuroki broke camp, and, leaving behind him only a rear guard, took the first step in that great series of operations which, as they advanced northwards, stained the fertile plains of Southern Manchuria with the blood of Japanese and Muscovite alike and culminated around Liao-yang and Mukden in the most terrific and sanguinary conflicts experienced in the annals of war since the great struggle between the Northern and Southern States.
Geographical Position