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Page 17
The day broke with a frosty clearness, and though I had no glass, it
was possible to see for miles on every hand. The dragon flag waved
everywhere on the Chinese forts, but I could see at first no sign of
the Japanese, and it was not until they began to fire that their
positions were indicated. It was about half-past seven when, far to
the north-west, their guns began to boom. All their preparations had
apparently been made over-night, and they were only waiting for
daylight to begin. The Chinese opened fire in reply on both sides;
battery after battery joined in, and soon there was a thundering roar
of artillery, and a dense volume of white smoke, through which glanced
the flash of the cannon, all round the great semi-circle. The scream
of shells, and the blaze and detonation with which they burst, were
incessant. Away on the right the sea was covered with warships, which
seemed to have nothing to do, and certainly were not assailing the
coast defences. Some of the seaward forts were able to get their guns
to bear on the positions of the Japanese armies, and were blazing
away, though I don't think they could do much damage.
Some minor outlying fortifications had been captured the previous
afternoon, and the Japanese had divided into two bodies for the main
assaults on the north-west and north-east. The Chinese in these two
sections appeared to have no combination, and by a feint at the
north-east the Japanese kept that part diverted until the west forts
had been carried. It is a fact that they fell about an hour and a half
after the cannonade commenced. The Japanese infantry advanced against
them, and the valiant troops holding them ran away at the sight. The
Chinese forts on the other side now began to fire away across the
intervening valley, as if that could remedy the disaster. Upon them
then became concentrated the whole Japanese fire. The Chinamen here
made a far better show, and the fire was vigorous and sustained. About
eleven o'clock, with a terrific blast of flame and thunder, which
seemed to shake the ground far and near to the shores of the sea,
their largest fort, the Shoju, or Pine Tree Hill, blew up; a shell
must have alighted in the magazine. At noon the whole Japanese line
advanced to the charge, and here, too, the Celestials never waited for
the assault, but fled precipitately. There was no fighting at all at
close quarters; not a solitary Chinaman stood for a bayonet thrust.
Thus pusillanimously were abandoned these two great masses of
fortifications, placed in the most commanding situations, on steep
mountain heights where attacking forces could keep no sort of regular
formation, and could have been mowed down in thousands by competent
gunners as they struggled up the impregnable inclines. It was with a
feeling of bewilderment that I beheld such powerful defences lost in
such a manner, and realized that after three or four hours'
bombardment on one side, without a shot fired against the tremendous
coast defences, it was all up with Port Arthur.
The victors next turned their attention to the redoubts and walled
camps on the lower ground, with the calm method which distinguished
all their operations. From the valleys between the hills began to
emerge dark columns of infantry, which closed steadily upon the
devoted town, rolling to their positions with the mechanical
regularity of parade, the sheen of their bayonets glancing here and
there through the volumes of smoke which had settled thickly in the
hollows. Nearer, spread over the ground to which the forts their
cowardice had lost should have afforded ample protection, were the
disorganized masses of Chinese, preparing for their last scattered and
fruitless efforts. Only one of the inland forts, that nearest to the
town, and called, I think, Golden Hill, was still in their possession.
The trenches below me on White Boulders' front face, which had been
unoccupied during the early portion of the day, now began to swarm
with riflemen, whose weapons kept up a continuous roll, swelled from
many a rifle-pit and redoubt away forward from the base of the
elevation. Steadily the enemy advanced, working their way round on
both wings within the captured fortresses. They took skilful advantage
of every protection the ground afforded, and the resistance in their
front rapidly diminished as they pressed on irresistibly from position
to position.
It was now high time for me to evacuate my post, where I had had a
solitary and secure vantage-place amidst the rugged inequalities of
its summit, which probably I should not have been permitted to attain
if I had not set about it so early. Past its front runs a shallow but
broad stream, which coming through the Suishiyeh valley, rounds the
parade-ground on the south towards White Boulders, whence it flows
into a large and deep creek farther west. This stream the Japanese
had to cross before they could attack the trenches below me. Two or
three times they were beaten back by the hail of bullets poured on
them at very close range, but covered by a heavy fire on their own
side they were at length over, and then their opponents took to flight
round the right-hand side of the hill. I stayed only to see this, and
plunged down the rear. It was growing dusk, and I had numerous narrow
escapes of breaking my neck in the deep and rugged hollows, some of
them almost ravines, which seam that side of the elevation.
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