As soon as the fort had been captured, guards were placed for the protection of the foreign settlement, and the streets were strongly patrolled. Scouts were sent out along the Niuchwang road to meet General Nodzu’s patrol. On the morning of the 6th, General Nodzu sent a brigade towards Ying-kow, which the second army was to attack that day. Tung-kia-thun was found destitute of Chinese troops, and the Japanese advanced nearly to Kao-khan without seeing anything of the enemy. Here they camped for the night, and before morning the outposts of the two forces had met and had exchanged the good news of the success of each. The retreating Chinese, under Generals Sung and Ma, were reported to have halted at Chen-sho-tai.
The occupation of Niuchwang and its port by the Japanese marked a distinct phase in the interesting campaign in Manchooria. For many weeks Niuchwang and Ying-kow had sheltered the Chinese army. From them a succession of feeble attacks upon the Chinese positions had been delivered. General Sung’s unwieldy forces were now broken up; the Japanese front was advanced to the river Liao; and the first and second armies had joined hands. The third important fortified harbor had fallen into the hands of the Japanese. The defense of Niuchwang was maintained with vigor, the Chinese fighting most bitterly to the very end, but uselessly. The[The] coast defenses too at Ying-kow made some show of resistance, but being attacked in the rear had quickly fallen in accordance with all established precedents.
The general situation in Manchooria was now entirely changed. The Japanese encouraged by the half-hearted attacks to which they had been subjected, had broken up the forces in their vicinity. The difficulties of movement in large bodies, combined with the incapacity of commanders, and general disorganization, had effectually prevented the Chinese from gaining any advantage from their superior numbers. Niuchwang, a city of sixty thousand people, a town with an immense annual trade, had fallen into Japanese hands, and its capture was unquestionably an important stroke. On the Japanese right Katsura had pushed forward until he was near Liao-Yang, and after the occupation of Niuchwang relieved some of the troops there, another brigade moved northward to his support. The country centering at Niuchwang was practically in undisputed possession of the Japanese. Thus, after a march of about four hundred miles, the troops of the first army which landed at Chemulpo were once again on the sea-board, and in possession of an important port.
CHINESE SOLDIER LADEN WITH PROVISIONS,
SHOWING WINTER DRESS.
On the 9th of March the first division of the first Japanese army attacked Thien-chuang-thai, on the western side of the river Liao, to which place General Sung fled after the capture of Ying-kow. A fierce engagement ensued, lasting three hours and a half. The main body of the Chinese force numbered seven thousand men with thirty guns, and the Japanese forces were but few less than that number. General Katsura commanded the Japanese center, and General Oku the right wing. The left wing was composed of Yamaji’s troops from Kai-phing. The Chinese fled towards Kinchow, leaving fourteen hundred dead on the field. For strategic reasons the village was burned, and the Japanese returned across the river.
A proclamation was issued by the Japanese commander at Ying-kow urging the inhabitants to continue their peaceful pursuits, promising all law-abiding inhabitants justice and protection, and warning them of the consequences should they commit any belligerent acts or create any disorders. The commanders of the foreign war ships in the river called on the Japanese general, and asked him to telegraph to their respective admirals that all the foreigners in the town were safe. The general complied with this request, as well as with that of the consuls who asked him to telegraph in the same way to their governments. All Chinese were strictly prohibited from entering the European quarter, unless employed by or having business with the foreign residents. Six hundred troops were told off to carry this order into effect and to patrol the streets. English and American officers united to express their thanks to the commanding general, for the elaborate precautions taken to insure the safety of foreigners.
It will be remembered that from the very beginning of the war a Japanese descent upon Formosa was one of the operations expected and frequently reported. To provide against this threatened danger, a large body of the famous troops from the south of China known as the Black Flags, were sent to the island to intrench themselves and arrange for its defense. They were scarcely settled in comfort when they began a series of outrages on the native population that made them feared and hated by every one, and justified their name. Early in February they extended their outrages from the native population to the British residents. Disturbances on the island increased, and affairs became so bad that foreign residents became alarmed and left in haste. The British consul at the chief treaty-port of the island, sent to Hong Kong an urgent call for assistance, which was furnished without delay. The war ship Mercury left for the island in haste, and its presence acted strongly to quell the disturbances and insure safety for the people. A Japanese squadron too, which was seen patroling the island on several occasions, acted as a damper upon the spirits of the rioters, and the Chinese authorities themselves were able to quell the disturbance. Twenty-five of the ring leaders were arrested and punished, and peace was restored.
After this time, operations in the south were abandoned until early in the spring, when a fleet of Japanese transports moved down the west side of the island of Formosa, to the group of small islands known[known] as the Pescadores, between Formosa and the mainland. The Chinese feared that an attack upon Canton was contemplated, but in reality there was at no time any considerable danger of this. The Japanese desired to be exceedingly careful of the interest of all foreign nations in the treaty ports, and so naturally avoided an attack on any city where they might be endangered. The real point of attack intended by this course, was the town of Makung, in the southwest of the island of Pong-hu, the largest of the group. Makung had a large and absolutely safe harbor, capable of affording accommodations for vessels of large draft, and was protected by its citadel and a line of defensive works. Admiral Ito was in command of the squadron, which numbered nine cruisers and two gunboats. Bombardment was begun March 23, from all the vessels of the fleet, the fire centering on the east fort, which dominated the others. A thousand troops from five transports landed simultaneously and attacked the same fort. The Chinese evacuated the place during the night, and the Japanese entered at 6:00 o’clock on the morning of the 24th, and turned the guns upon the other forts. One of the western forts blew up before it was evacuated. One thousand Chinese prisoners were taken, the rest of the garrison escaping in junks. Three thousand Japanese troops now garrisoned Pong-hu, securing a southern base of operations for the Japanese fleet. Within a few days the Japanese were in entire possession of the Pescadore Islands.
South of Yung-tcheng Bay, the Chinese coast line had remained inviolate up to this period of the war, in spite of frequent rumors from startled Chinese sources, of the appearance of Japanese squadrons and their threatened attack. The Japanese fleet had been profitably used to foster a continual state of nervous terror in all the Chinese coast cities, but attention was now turned suddenly in a very different direction, and actively developed towards the southward. Simultaneously with the attack on Pong-hu, the Japanese on the 24th of March made a descent upon Hai-chow, on the sea-board of the province of Chiang-su, some two hundred miles north of Shanghai. It was early in the morning when the Japanese squadron appeared off Hai-chow and at once opened fire upon the small forts there. Under cover of the bombardment a force of several thousand Japanese troops, landed and attacked the Chinese positions. After a few hours’ fighting, the stout resistance of the Chinese proved unavailing, and they abandoned their works, having lost some three hundred killed. The island of Yuchow, which lies off Hai-chow had already been occupied by the invaders. At Hai-chow the Japanese were less than fifty miles in a direct line from the Grand Canal connecting Nanking with Peking, which at this point approaches nearest to the coast. The canal had been the chief route by which supplies were conveyed to Peking, and had been of invaluable service for the movement of troops to the capital and to the front by way of Tien-tsin. The threatened dash of the Japanese upon this main artery of travel startled those who realized it. This sudden and unexpected descent upon the Chinese coast served to bring home the realities of war to a section of the population which probably had never heard of the Japanese successes. The Viceroy of Nanking awakened to his danger, and hastily ordered troops to the front to oppose the Japanese advance and recapture Hai-chow.