INCIDENTS OF THE LAST WAR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 64

INCIDENTS OF THE LAST WAR

When the Avar began Japan had a small force in possession of Seoul, Avhile the Chinese had an army at Assan, to the south, and another advancing from the Yalu River towards the capital. But Japan Lad no intention of being hemmed in. The promptness, the intelligence, the correctness of her strategy Avas amazing. Officers and men alike seemed to play the game of Avar like a game of chess. No. tning interfered Avith their coolness, no immediate prize could tempt them from following up the chief object. The Assan force, strongly entrenched and surrounded by flooded fields, ' was defeated by a night attack. Avhile a party under a young lieutenant went north to Avatch the approach from the Yalu. They found the Chinese on Tai Dong River, half Avay between Seoul and the frontier, encamped in the city of Pyong Yang, round which they had constructed a series of modern forts Avith artillery. The lieutenant and most of his men were killed oAving to their persistence in dogging the movements of the Chinese, but tAvo escaped, and the Japanese army Tjegan its northward march, the road lying through almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses. In one place a &rw men could have held the defile against thousands. But the Chinese had preferred to keep the river between themselves and the enemy. Marshal Yamagata, the Japanese commander-in-chief. determined .on a triple attack, and sent two forces by different roads from Seoul, and a third from Gensan, in the Japan Sea, to take Pyong Yang in the rear. On an appointed day all struck at once. There was a terrific fight. The Chinese had abundance of munition of Avar, and fought Avith frenzied courage, but the Japanese, with their cool, dauntless precision and almost inhuman disregard for danger, took the place bit by bit. Tbe first fort to fall was that on Peony where the Japanese scaled the walls like firemen or monkeys, while the Chinese were firing over their heads. By night the Chinese were in full flight, the generals leaving in the town their head quarters Avith their names in enormous characters floating on standards over each. They retreated straight to the Yalu, although 'dd-way the road passed through anotLsr defile which might have been made impregnable. But the Yalu River proved no better a defence than the Tai Dong; the victorious Ja-

panese fought their way through with ease, and overran Manchuria. Instead of going north to Mukden, they turned southward down the long Liao Tung Peninsula, and, proceeding to its extremity, made a determined assault on Port Arthur. In spite of the chain of forts on the hills all round, crammed with heavy ordnance and quick-firing guns the place was taken in a single lay, redoubt after redoubt- being silenced and stormed. Such was the enthusiasm of the Japanese that one of their officers, who fell ill during the assault, committed suicide with chagrin at not having led the storming party. As far as Manchuria was concerned, the campaign was now over, a«id the Japanese navy, without a daj’s lods of time made Port Arthur its headquarters. The whole of the peninsula, the Korean Bay and the road from Manchuria to Seoul is thus familiar ground to the soldiers of Japan, who are meeting there a very different enemy to-day. In view of the position of affairs between Japan and Russia, it will doubtless interest a number of people to know that Vice-Admiral Count Togo, the commander of the Japanese fleet, as well a? the captains of three of the principal battleships of the Mikado’s navy, are converts to Christianity. Native Christiana are, indeed, beginning to occupy many high and honourable positions in the State. Quite a long list of members of the Lower and of the Upper House of Parliament are Christians, and a number of the latter occupy seats on the judicial bench. Moreover, three of the largest daily newspapers of Tokio, the capital of Japan, are in the hands of Christians.