More than a fortnight had Marshal Oyama’s army been marching in two divisions, eastern and western, down the peninsula to Port Arthur. The distance was less than fifty miles, but the country was a difficult one, there being practically no roads available except in the cultivated valleys. As the army approached the objective point, there were occasional brushes with the enemy. At Ye-jo-shu on November 18, the army was more than half way from Kinchow to Port Arthur, and almost within sight of the goal. The next day’s march was expected to bring the forces to camp on the safe side of the hills, within an hour’s ride of Port Arthur, unless the Chinese should prevent. The next day was to be devoted to rest and to making sure that everything was properly arranged and ready for the fray; and it was confidently asserted that on the evening of the day after, November 21, the Japanese army would sleep peacefully in Port Arthur with Dragon Flags for bed quilts.
On the morning of the 18th the Chinese made a reconnoissance in force, but retired without discovering much except a Japanese scouting party, which had a narrow escape. The army was moving along steadily with General Nishi leading the vanguard, General Yamaji, his staff, and the war correspondents all with the main body, and General Nogi bringing up the rear. The field marshal and his staff were also behind, and General Hasegawa was on the left wing, with his forces practically covering the country down to the south coast. In front and on the right as far as the not very distant north coast, small bodies of cavalry and infantry were thrown out along the valleys. The country was magnificent for defensive purposes, studded with moderately steep hills, ranging from low undulations up to huge crags two thousand feet high, with hundreds of rocky ravines and gulleys; broad fertile valleys never very level, intersected by winding water courses, like a labyrinth, almost dry at this season.
Every two or three miles there were small villages roughly built of stone, nestling in hollows, with a few trees here and there. In and about the villages scores of natives crowded, curious to see the foreigners they feared; on the hilltops were the more timorous ones, watching awhile and then hurrying away perhaps to tell the Chinese army what they had seen, but no attempt was ever made to stop them, except occasionally to ask a question or two. The road was the military road connecting Port Arthur with Kinchow, Niuchwang and Peking. There was not the least sign of anything having been done to keep it in repair since it was first cut a quarter of a century ago, the soft parts were deep rutted, and would be well-nigh impassable after heavy rain, while the rocky parts were jagged and strewn with stones of all sizes and shapes. Over the plains dust drove in black clouds which enveloped the column, suggesting the great dust storms of North China. There was bright sunny weather, but the nights were cold during the march down the peninsula.
The day’s march which had begun at seven in the morning, was to end at Ye-jo-shu, a big village near the sea, about ten miles northeast of Port Arthur. Before entering the village General Yamaji was met by an aid-de-camp with news of fighting ahead, half way to Port Arthur. After a little hesitation the general granted the request of two of the correspondents to permit them to go forward, and they galloped off to the left in a southwesterly direction. Five miles away, among the hilltops, they caught a glimpse of a small, square, stone building, like a fort or watchtower, and all around it could be discerned figures moving amidst clouds of smoke. The road was lined many yards on either side with men and animals, all racing in the same direction, spurting to be first at a ford or a narrow defile, urging and helping each other, and only afraid the enemy might retire too soon.
JAPANESE SKIRMISHERS BEFORE PORT ARTHUR.
It was an hour after midday, and Nishi’s force had just begun to pitch camp south of Ye-jo-shu, when a courier arrived and announced that the outer pickets were being forced and cut off. Firing had begun at eleven o’clock, but did not become serious until an hour later. Cavalry were rushed to the front, then infantry, then artillery and ammunition trains as they could be mustered and got away. The correspondents galloped hard where the land allowed, past soldiers looking to their rifles and pouches as they ran, past lumbering guns and kicking mules, past panting coolies and Red Cross men, threading their way through the throng, cheering the wounded as they were taken to the rear, smiling bravely in spite of pain. Progress was delayed in the narrow lanes of a picturesque village, in a little wooded hollow where the artillery stuck in a broad, shallow stream. But by eager efforts it was got clear, and went on scrambling up the bank, splashing and stumbling through half dried ditches, plunging in the soft sand, and bumping over boulders, sparing neither man nor beast in the rush up the glen to the top of the hill. There stood Brigadier-General Nishi, watching a “strategic rearward” movement of the Chinese in the plain beyond, and directing operations intended to cut them off if possible. Two strong columns were pushed out right and left, like the horns of a crescent among the hills encircling the valley, towards the sea northwest and Port Arthur southwest. The artillery was already on the spot, but was not used yet; there was no need to let the Chinese know how much strength was massing before Port Arthur.
The engagement originated simply in a surprise meeting of opposing scouts. The Chinese had been creeping all over the valley and surrounding hills, along the ravines and behind the ridges; Japanese had been striking out in twos and threes, reconnoitering many miles into the enemy’s country. Suddenly shots were heard, and a general move was made on both sides for the main road in the center. The Japanese seeing no great force in front, and knowing how quickly help could be brought from behind them, stood their ground at first. About noon however three strong[strong] columns of Chinese with cavalry and artillery, probably three thousand in all, filed out through the hills from main roads and by-paths leading from Port Arthur. The Japanese were in great danger of being surrounded before the advance guard could arrive. Only a score of cavalry and about two hundred infantry, they had to fight their way back at pretty close quarters, hand to hand at one point. The Chinese advanced with an immense display of banners almost to the foot of the hill where Nishi stood; but the small force of three hundred Japanese cavalry sent out to draw them on, seemed to scare them off, for by half past one they were in full retreat, in good order, over the same paths by which they had come, only just in time to escape the consummation of the Japanese flank movements. It was no use trying to pursue them into the hills about Port Arthur; for as the full force of Nishi’s brigade was collecting about the old stone monument the Chinese army was disappearing through the passes six miles away.
RETREAT OF CHINESE SOLDIERS AFTER THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR.