Two days later General Oku took up the running for the Japanese, and started to roll up the Russian forces from the south. Moving out from Erh-tau-ho-tse, which is 12 miles south of Kaiping, he marched upon that town along the road westwards of the railway, driving the enemy's outposts before him. By noon on the 9th he had forced the Russians, who were under General Zarubaieff, Commander of the Fourth Siberian Army Corps, back upon their main position at Kaiping itself, and here it appeared that General Kuropatkin had ordered a stand to be made. Upwards of 30,000 men, with numerous guns, were in the neighborhood at the disposal of Zarubaieff and Oku prepared for a stout resistance. But as a matter of fact the opposition offered to him turned out to be comparatively feeble. After an artillery duel lasting for four hours his troops advanced and seized the heights extending from Haishan-chai on the west to Shwangtingshan on the east, from both of which eminences they could command Kaiping. Reinforcements had been hurried up from the Russian rear, but they were soon ordered northward again, and the whole body evacuated the town under cover of heavy gun fire on the afternoon of the same day. The cause of this ineffectual resistance on the part of Zarubaieff was the advance of the Third Army of Japan from Fenshuiling, which acted in co-ordination throughout with General Oku's columns, and threatened to outflank the Russians. To avoid a great disaster General Zarubaieff was compelled to retreat, and as a consequence of this skilful manœuvring, General Oku was enabled to occupy the important position of Kaiping with a loss which was almost negligible, another big step being thus gained in the progress northwards.
Field-Marshal Oyama
On the very day which Oku began his advance on Kaiping there occurred an event which brought strikingly before the world the fact that these movements by the three Japanese generals were only part of one great concerted plan, the vastness of which was not yet realized. This was the departure from Tokio for the seat of war of Field-Marshal Marquis Oyama, the master-mind selected by the Mikado for the supreme command of all his armies in the field. A brief description of the career of this great general, whose renown in Japan is second only to that of the veteran Yamagata, will not be out of place here. Like so many of the Japanese leaders who have distinguished themselves in the present war, Oyama's first experience of fighting was gained in the old days of the Sumatsu rebellion, in which he took part on the revolutionary side, achieving considerable distinction for his gallantry. After peace had placed the Mikado securely upon the throne of Japan, Oyama was sent to Prussia as military attaché, and was present at Moltke's headquarters at all the most important operations of the Franco-German War. There he, no doubt, gained many of the valuable lessons which have since been put in force both in the Chinese War ten years ago and in the present campaign. After the Peace of Versailles he devoted himself to a close study of the military organizations of France and Switzerland, and returning to his own country in 1875 received an appointment on the General Staff in Tokio. He was selected for the command of the First Army on the outbreak of the war with China in 1894, and directed the operations around Port Arthur, which culminated in the storming of that powerful fortress. On the retirement of Marshal Yamagata from ill-health, General Oyama was appointed to the chief command of all the Japanese forces in the field, and carried the campaign to a successful conclusion. After the signature of the Treaty of Peace the Mikado recognized his great services by conferring upon him the baton of Field-Marshal and appointing him Chief of the Staff. In the meanwhile, General Oku was preparing for his further advance northwards, where the next obstacle in his path was the Russian position at Tashichao. This town had been converted into a place of great strength and was garrisoned by at least 60,000 men with 105 guns. But before the opposing forces could meet here a fresh attack of a much more determined character than the last was made upon the Japanese army at Motienling, the Russians, under the command of Kuropatkin's most trusted lieutenant, General Count Keller, making a desperate attempt to regain possession of that important defile. This was the first occasion on which Kuropatkin's troops seriously assumed the offensive in the course of the war, and the result was a conspicuous success once more for the Japanese.
Keller's Failure
The Russian Commander-in-Chief entrusted two divisions to Count Keller for the purpose of the attack, and that General made dispositions for a frontal attack along the main road from Tawan, simultaneously, with movements against both of the Japanese flanks. For the main operation one division was employed, and the other was divided into two bodies, the first marching from Anping upon Hsimatang, where the outposts on Kuroki's right were stationed; and the second pushing forward from Tienshuitien along the paths which lead through the hills to the south of Motienling, where the Japanese left wing was posted. This scheme of advance might have had some success if all the parts of the machine had worked together with complete smoothness, but in the actual event the movements of the several columns were badly co-ordinated, and they came into action at different times.
FOOD FOR THE JAPANESE ARMY.
10th Regiment Ambushed
The frontal attack began at 3 a. m., when, under cover of a dense fog, Keller's two leading battalions fell upon the Japanese outpost upon the main road some distance to the west of the pass. Notwithstanding the shock of the surprise and the formidable disparity of numbers, Kuroki's troops held their ground with the utmost gallantry. The foremost files of the 10th Siberian Regiment became engaged almost at once in a hand-to-hand combat with a small body of about thirty or forty Japanese. Several of the latter were bayonetted before they realized that the enemy was upon them, but the survivors, taking refuge among some Chinese cottages, made a desperate resistance with rifle and cold steel. The din and the crack of musketry aroused some companies who were bivouacking in the neighboring trenches, and they quickly rushed to the support of their comrades. One company, taking up a position in an adjacent temple, poured in a murderous fire upon the Russians, and another stationed itself on a hill on the opposite side and joined in the deadly fusillade. Thus the 10th Regiment, instead of successfully surprising its foe, found itself in turn surprised in an ambush, and after a hot engagement was compelled to retreat back upon its main body. It was five o'clock before the Russians could bring up a sufficient force to drive in the Japanese outposts, by which time the gallant stand made by these few companies had enabled Kuroki's troops entrenched at the Motien Pass itself to prepare fully for the onslaught that awaited them. When Keller's soldiery, therefore, came within range of the Japanese lines, they were met by a heavy fire both from infantry and artillery. Two hours more elapsed before they were properly disposed for the attack, and then, although they consisted of a whole division of 12,000 men, and were opposed by a force of no more than 4,000, their tactics proved quite ineffective, and they could not succeed in the slightest degree in shaking the hold upon the defile which their enemy had gained.
The fire which was directed upon them from the Japanese lines was especially galling upon their left wing, and here, shortly before eleven o'clock, they began to give way, and ere long the whole force fell back in retreat. Their active enemy then sprang forward to the attack themselves and attempted to push the repulse home, but a strong rear guard held them in check, and prevented the reverse from becoming a rout. It afterwards became apparent that the reason for this retreat on the part of Count Keller's main body was the complete failure of the flanking movements which he had presumably intended to be conducted simultaneously.