Haichang was a prelude to Liaoyang. After fierce fighting, the actual struggle before this strongly fortified position began on August 25. The Japanese army numbered 200,000 men against a probable 165,000 Russians. Generals Oku and Nodzu delivered fierce and incessant frontal attacks from the south, while General Kuroki made a wide turning movement north to encircle Kuropatkin and to cut off his retreat to Mukden. The Russian General ultimately was compelled to meet this turning movement by withdrawing his entire army across the Taitse River, abandoning Liaoyang to the Japanese. General Kuroki was checked and the Russian army was extricated from a grave predicament in a masterly manner after a memorable retreat and rearguard battle of more than fifty miles. The battle had been designed as a crushing blow to the Russians, and would have proved such had Kuroki's turning movement been completely successful. As it turned out the Japanese had won a costly but indecisive victory. The Japanese losses are estimated at 30,000 men. The Russian losses were about 20,000 men.
Battle of Sha-ho River
General Kuropatkin fell back to Mukden and there rested and reinforced his army. On October 4, he began a forward movement against the Japanese, which resulted in a new disaster to his army, the battle of Sha-ho River, October 8-18. The result of this long, sanguinary struggle was again highly indecisive. The Russian advance was checked at the Yentai mines, and thereafter Kuropatkin was forced step by step to the Sha-ho River. After ten days of battle human endurance reached its limit. Almost face to face, the exhausted armies halted. Subsequently the opposing lines stretched out along a line, generally northeast-southwest, for a distance of forty-five miles. The Russian army was reinforced to about 250,000 men, while the Japanese army numbered perhaps 300,000 men with reinforcements from Japan and from Port Arthur.
The Naval Campaign
The opening of the war found the effective ships of Russia's Asiatic fleet divided among Port Arthur, Vladivostock and Chemulpo. In the battle of Chemulpo, February 8-9, the Variag and Korietz were sunk, narrowing naval interest to Port Arthur and Vladivostock. On August 10 was fought the greatest naval battle of the war. The Russian fleet off Port Arthur was defeated and dispersed, and Vice-Admiral Witoft was killed on the bridge of the Czarevitch. The fragment of the fleet which returned to Port Arthur never again assumed the aggressive, while from that date until the surrender of the fortress Togo's squadron had only blockade duty.
Other naval operations there consisted of desperate dashes to the harbor entrance by Japan's smaller craft and the sinking of merchant ships in the entrance to the harbor. A sortie by Admiral Makaroff resulted only in the flight of the Russians to port without giving battle. The disaster to the Petropavlovsk happened just as the flag ship sped under the guns of Tiger's Tail and Golden Hill. Japanese credited the destruction of the ship to their mine-laying operations.
COSSACKS IN RETREAT AFTER A RECONNAISSANCE NEAR LIAO-YANG.
Vladivostock Ships Defeated
The Vladivostock squadron was defeated August 14 in the Sea of Japan. The cruiser Rurik was sunk. The two other ships of the squadron ultimately reached Vladivostock riddled with shells. Repairs were said to have been completed. A renewal of the naval campaign would probably involve an attack on the sole survivors of the Russian fleet. A final naval engagement was the sinking of the cruiser Novik, of the Port Arthur Squadron, which escaped after the battle of August 10. Cruisers of Kamimura's squadron overtook her off Kamchatka, and the ship was beached there, a complete wreck after a fourteen hours' battle. The last act of the naval campaign was the destruction of the Russian battleship Sevastopol outside the harbor of Port Arthur. The Sevastopol took refuge under the Tiger's Tail. Repeated dashes were made by Japanese torpedo boat flotillas and the ship was riddled. Her final destruction, however, was accomplished by the Russians, who mined the ship to prevent possibility of salvage on the fall of Port Arthur.