The bulk of the second Japanese army moved to Kinchow, on its way northward after the capture of Port Arthur, and the Chinese force which attacked the Japanese garrison at Kinchow on November 22, fell back to Foochow, a little to the northward of Port Arthur, on the road to Niuchwang. About the 1st of December General Nogi’s brigade left Kinchow, with orders from Marshal Oyama to attack Foochow. The garrison of the city was reported to number five thousand, and the position was favorable for defense. The brigade moved forward very rapidly, as there was no organized opposition to its advance. On the 4th, General Nogi heard that the Chinese were retreating, and on the following day the Japanese entered Foochow without firing a shot. The Chinese had evacuated the city and had retreated northward towards Niuchwang.
The first Japanese army continued clearing the country north of the Yalu. Large bodies of Chinese were in the triangle formed by lines drawn between Chiu-lien, Niuchwang, and Mukden. The mountains around about Feng-hwang, which constituted a strong strategic position, had been in the hands of the Japanese since October, and now General Tatsumi attacked the highest pass, Lien-shan-kuan, from the east. On December 12 a strong Japanese scouting party from Feng-hwang sighted a large force of Chinese advancing from the west. The Japanese, who consisted entirely of cavalry, sent word back to Feng-hwang, and keeping the Chinese in sight fell back upon the main body. The Chinese pushed on as far as Yih-man-shan, where they encamped for the night. The Japanese force set out to attack the Chinese position, and at dawn the next morning the fight began. The Chinese were fully four thousand strong, and while the fight was in progress two more regiments joined them. The Japanese fell back to a stronger position, and adopted defensive tactics. The Chinese forces, emboldened by their temporary success, made repeated efforts to break through the Japanese lines, but each attack was repulsed. Seeing that the Chinese were in such force, General Nodzu ordered one battalion of the fifth division to reinforce the garrison of Feng-hwang. This reinforced garrison then started on Thursday night, December 13, to strengthen the Japanese advance posts at Yih-man-shan. Colonel Tomayasu was in command of the Japanese force, which numbered one thousand four hundred men with six field guns.
At daybreak an attack was made upon the Chinese left flank. The enemy was well posted, and fought better than any troops heretofore encountered by the Japanese in Manchooria. The struggle was a severe one, but the Chinese left wing gave way before the Japanese charge, and threw the center into confusion. A hot and continuous fire prevented the Chinese from recovering their formation, and a second charge drove them into a disorderly retreat. The contents of the camp and thirty prisoners fell into the hands of the Japanese. The Chinese lost some two hundred and fifty killed and wounded and the Japanese about one hundred.
It is difficult to convey a clear idea of the various operations in Manchooria, for no map accessible to general readers is sufficiently accurate to afford trustworthy indications, and the field of fighting extended over a considerable area among places too small in many instances to be recorded on a map. There were in fact, at this time, December, three Japanese and three Chinese armies operating in Manchooria. The Japanese forces consisted of the second army under Oyama, in the Liao-Tung peninsula, and the right and left wings of Yamagata’s force, who had been succeeded by Nodzu. The first army, Yamagata’s, after passing the Yalu and capturing Chiu-lien, separated into two parts, the right wing nominally twelve thousand five hundred strong, moving northward along the Mukden road under the command of Nodzu, and the left wing of equal strength, under the command of Katsura, moving westward down the Yalu, its object being ultimately to establish communication with Oyama’s forces, twenty-two thousand strong, when the capture of Port Arthur should have freed the latter to advance northeastward up the peninsula.
The Chinese armies were also three. One of these armies was massed at the north, defending the approaches to Mukden. It aggregated about twenty-five thousand men so far as could be ascertained, but its fragmentary fashion of fighting rendered a total estimate difficult. The second army was grouped in the southwest, guarding the coast roads to China proper, via Niuchwang. This army, according to the accounts, aggregated about thirty thousand. Its headquarters were at Kai-phing, where a junction would naturally be effected between Oyama’s forces and the left wing of Yamagata’s army. The easiest method of obtaining a clear idea of the situation, is to follow in outline, the operations of the various armies.
The southeastern Chinese army was composed of the Amoor frontier forces, under General I. It was moved down under direct orders from the throne, the strategical idea being to strike swiftly and secretly at Marshal Yamagata’s weak point, namely, his long line of communications between the Yalu River and his outposts, fifty miles north of Feng-hwang. Thus General I's operations ultimately resolved themselves into an attempt to recover Feng-hwang. He marched against it from three directions, the main northerly road, and two easterly roads. The Japanese did not wait to receive his attack. On December 10, Major-General Techimi, who commanded the van of the Japanese right wing, launched his battalion at I's van of three thousand men on the main road, and by consecutive onsets cut the enemy in two, driving a part of his force into the mountains eastward, and a part along the main road northward. Two days later a reconnoissance sent eastward from Feng-hwang found the main body of I's forces on the Aiyang-pien road, and the following morning a battalion moved out to attack him. But it having been seen that he mustered fully six thousand, and that advancing along two roads his front extended over a distance of more than three miles, the Japanese plan was modified so as to deliver the chief assault against his left wing, orders being also forwarded to Techimi, then operating north of Feng-hwang to move east and south with the object of taking I's right wing in the rear. December 14 saw the attack on the Tartar general’s left wing. It was completely rolled back and broken, the Japanese pursuing its remnants far into the mountains. The Chinese lost one hundred and fifty killed and sixteen prisoners, and abandoned four Krupp guns, a number of horses, and a quantity of war material. The Japanese had twelve killed and sixty-three wounded. I's right wing made no attempt to hold its ground after the defeat of the left. It retired in a northeasterly direction and its retreat was subsequently changed into a route by collision with a Japanese pursuing column sent out from Techimi’s position.
The northerly army of China consisted of that portion of General Sung’s troops that retreated along the main road towards Mukden after the fall of Chiu-lien and Feng-hwang, together with the Mukden garrison. They held the pass of Mo-thien-ling against several attacks of the Japanese, and remained there in force after severe winter set in. They had several collisions with Techimi’s outposts, but none of importance to the general conduct of the war.
The western Chinese army consisted partly of troops originally engaged in the defense of Chiu-lien and Feng-hwang, partly of the Niuchwang garrison, and partly of a Mongolian force that had come down to join them from the northwest. This was the largest force and aggregated nearly sixty thousand. After the battles around the lower Yalu, these troops had been driven inland by the Japanese, taking Hai-tcheng as their objective point, but halting on the way at Siu-Yen. They were driven out of here by the Japanese, and moved westward to Simu-tcheng, a town eighteen miles southeast of Hai-tcheng. On December 11, the Japanese troops under Osako, moving northward from Siu-Yan, reached the advance posts of the enemy and made an attack. The Chinese force consisting of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry[cavalry], with eight guns, was driven back after a brief resistance, and the next day another body four thousand five hundred strong, with six guns, was dislodged from a position three or four miles further on. The Japanese, following up their advantage, took possession of the Simu-tcheng the same afternoon. This division and the co-operating division which had taken another road, entered the place almost simultaneously after two days of unbroken success. They advanced together on the following day, and at 11:00 A.M. Hai-tcheng was in their possession. Its garrison was found to consist of only one thousand five hundred men, who after a show of resistance retired northeastward in the direction of Liao-Yang. The occupation of Hai-tcheng placed the Japanese on the high road from Niuchwang to Mukden, some twenty miles from Niuchwang and eighty from Mukden. This was a position of considerable strategical importance. For the moment however, Japanese[Japanese] troops turned southward a few miles in the direction of Kao-Khan, a fortified town not far from the mouth of the Liao River. This movement was connected with the march of the second army up the Laio-Tung peninsula, to which reference must now be made.
After the capture of Port Arthur and the completion of arrangements relating to the occupation of that place, Marshal Oyama returned to Kinchow and made preparations to advance northward against Foochow, an important walled town of twenty-five thousand inhabitants fifty-three miles to the northward. General Sung, with some six thousand men held Foochow, and a vigorous resistance was anticipated. But on December 5, the Japanese van entered the town unopposed. The advance was then resumed to Kai-phing, a city of still greater importance sixty-three miles distant. And as this army moved northward, the left wing of the first army moved southward from Hai-tcheng, as has just been said, threatening Kai-phing from the other side and cutting off the garrison’s direct line of retreat. It is interesting to note that wherever Japanese troops took possession of a city or district, an officer was immediately appointed to be military governor, the inhabitants were kindly treated, and every effort was made to preserve peace and free the natives from annoyance or oppression.
On the 17th and 18th of December the scouts of General Katsura’s division brought word to him of important movements of the enemy, who appeared to be advancing in strong force. All this proved to be nothing more formidable than the flight of General Sung’s army northward. On the night of the 18th the Chinese army was ascertained to be passing within a few miles of the Japanese camp, and Katsura therefore moved against them with his full strength. The Chinese were overtaken on the following morning. Osako’s brigade was the first to be engaged. The enemy made a stand at the village of Kungwasai and severe fighting ensued. While this was proceeding Oshima’s brigade coming from Hai-tcheng entered the field and joined hands with Osako. The combined force consisted of four complete regiments, five batteries of artillery, besides other troops. The Japanese artillery, which was well placed, played havoc with the Chinese, who stubbornly stood their ground. The Japanese infantry charged splendidly and cut their way through the Chinese army, but the enemy rallied and fired steadily. A desperate hand-to-hand struggle took place. After five hours’ fighting, the Chinese began to falter and soon they were in full and disorderly flight, some to the westward and others north. The Chinese lost probably five hundred killed and wounded and the Japanese loss, too, was very severe. This was probably the most obstinate engagement yet fought by the armies in Manchooria. The Chinese had strongly entrenched themselves at the little village of Kung-wasai, near Hai-tcheng, and they defended their position most vigorously. The ground was thick with snow, and the battle was a desperate one. Charge after charge made by the Japanese was faced and the assaulting troops driven back. But with a fourth charge the battle ended, the Japanese rushing into the Chinese works and carrying everything before them.