JAPANESE INFANTRY ATTACKING A CHINESE POSITION.
JAPAN'S FORWARD MOVEMENT IN COREA.
Effects of the Battles of Ping-Yang and the Yalu River—How the Two Nations Received the News—Withdrawal of the Chinese Fleet—Armies Moving North to the Boundary—Li Hung Chang Losing His Rank and Influence—Possible Destination of the New Japanese Army—Prince Kung—Chinese Driven out of Several Positions in the North of Corea—Abandoning the Peninsula—Danger to Foreigners in China—Captain Von Hannecken—The Japanese Advance into Manchooria.
The effects of the battles of Ping-Yang and the Yalu River upon the governments and peoples of the two belligerent nations were characteristic. Japan was the scene of rejoicings most hearty in every city and village of the empire. Congratulations were sent from the emperor to the commanders of the military and naval forces, and memorials complimentary to them were voted by the Japanese parliament. Additional levies of troops were made and hurried into Corea, with the intention that the war should be prosecuted with renewed vigor.
In China, on the other hand, the dazed government was scarcely able to realize what had happened. Reports were made to the emperor which caused him to declare that the defeat was merely the result of the cowardice of his commanders, and that they must be punished for the losses. The emperor at once began to contemplate a change of counsellors, and the dismissal of all mandarins and others who had been concerned in the conduct of the war. Li Hung Chang’s position in imperial favor began to waver. The captain of the cruiser Kwang Kai was beheaded for cowardice. At the battle of the Yalu River he saw one of the enemy’s ships approaching to attack him, and immediately turned and fled with his vessel as rapidly as possible. He intended to escape to Port Arthur, but as he was endeavoring to shape a course thither which would keep him out of range of the enemy’s guns, he ran the vessel ashore and she became a total wreck.
The Coreans, except those under the immediate influence of the home government, were not yet willing to accept the Japanese influence for that of China, which had been so strong throughout their lives. A body of two thousand Japanese left Fusan just before the battle of Ping-Yang, to march to Seoul. Their advance was, however, opposed by the Coreans, who harassed them continually by a guerilla warfare. The Japanese lost heavily, and were compelled to return to Fusan, having lost nearly half of their number. Two thousand fresh troops were immediately sent to that port from Japan to guard the neighboring settlements, where some three thousand Japanese permanently resided. Another uprising of the armed Tonghaks, whose rebellion had been one of the first features of the war, was apprehended.
The remnant of the Chinese fleet sought refuge after the battle of the Yalu river under the protection of the Port Arthur forts, where they were soon locked up by Japanese ships which patrolled the neighboring waters, preventing the exit of Chinese vessels. The Chinese army defeated at Ping-Yang fled to Wi-ju, at the apex of the most northerly angle of the Bay of Corea, on the Corean side of the mouth of the Yalu River. About seven thousand Chinese troops had been landed there from the transports which were escorted by the Chinese squadron engaged in the battle at the mouth of the river. The governor of Manchooria began to concentrate all the troops raised in that province upon Mukden and the route between that city and Wi-ju, and extensive earthworks were thrown up along the road.
It was believed by the Chinese that Mukden would be the scene of the next great battle of the war. This famous Manchoo city possessed a political and dynastic importance, which might easily render its downfall decisive for the war, irrespective of all strategic considerations. It was the sacred city of the royal house, the ancestral home of the reigning family of China. It contained the tomb of many of the emperor’s august ancestors, and accordingly was invested in the eyes of all good Chinamen with a halo of sanctity reflected on the Lord of the Dragon Throne himself. The capture of the city in which so many sons of heaven had found sepulchres would be accepted throughout the empire as an omen that the present occupant of the royal seat was not worthy of divine protection, and such omens, in days of disastrous wars, are often fulfilled with remarkable celerity. As the politicians about the court were perfectly aware of what the consequences of the fall of Mukden would be, it was natural that they should take every precaution to prevent such a catastrophe. Furthermore, in Mukden the Chinese emperor was supposed to have gold and silver accumulated in the course of two centuries, to the amount of $1,200,000,000.