Chapter VIII Early Campaigning Before the Battle of Liao-Yang
With Port Arthur cut off from the north, the three Japanese armies pushed rapidly northward in a general closing-in movement on Liao-Yang. General Nodzu’s army on June 26 captured Fengshuiling, on the main road northward from Takushan to Newchwang, and the Russian forces began to fall steadily back. At the same time, Kuroki, on the north, was capturing two passes of even greater importance, Motienling and Taling, and Oku, to the southward, was driving the Russians back with similar success. On July 17 the Russians, under General Count Keller, did make a desperate effort to retake Motienling, but were repulsed with heavy loss. Keller made another attempt to force the Japanese back a fortnight later, but it was equally disastrous and the general himself was killed. Meanwhile, on July 22 and 23, General Oku, on the extreme south and west of the long Japanese front, closed in upon Tashichao, and, with the assistance of Nodzu’s army, which had pushed up from Fengshuiling, captured the town and compelled the 40,000 Russians there to retreat. This, together with the unsuccessful battle in which Keller was killed, was practically the last of the Russians’ attempts to make a forward movement. General Kuropatkin devoted himself to preparing for a decisive battle at Liao-Yang, meanwhile keeping up all along the line just enough resistance to delay and hamper the Japanese advance.
At the outset of the war Russia had in Manchuria about 45,700 men and 120 field guns. Of this force about 20,000 men were at Port Arthur, 4,400 at Talienwan, 1,400 at Yinkow, 1,150 at Haicheng, 1,900 at Liao-Yang, 2,750 at Tieling, north of Mukden, 1,250 at Ninguta in northeast Manchuria, 4,550 at Harbin, 1,950 at Tsitsihar in northwest Manchuria, and the rest in the smaller garrisons scattered through the territory from northeast Manchuria to Port Arthur. In addition there was a separate organization of railway patrol troops stationed in small bodies at many points on and near the railway. On January 1, 1904, the number of these railway troops was estimated at 15,200 with 32 guns, so that the grand total at the beginning of the war was about 60,000 men with about 150 field guns. In spite of the pressure on the Siberian Railroad and the hard marches cross Lake Baikal in the winter, Russia soon found that, however many millions she might have in Europe, she could not maintain in the field, at the end of 6,000 miles of single track, more than 300,000 troops, and keep them fully supplied with food, ammunition, and fresh men to take the place of the killed, wounded, and sick.
During all this campaigning in Manchuria the Japanese showed the same preparedness and mobility which had been so strikingly characteristic of them during the earlier months of the war. They knew at all times the strength of their enemy as well as they knew the country, and to the information gathered by their spies and outposts was added that supplied by a generally friendly native population.
MUKDEN, WHEN THE JAPANESE WERE STILL MANY MILES AWAY
RUSSIANS AT MUKDEN ON THEIR WAY TO THE FRONT
WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA
WITH THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN MANCHURIA
IN THE FIELD WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA
WITH THE RUSSIANS ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT
PART OF THE MOVEMENT OF FORTY THOUSAND MEN SOUTHEAST OF LIAO-YANG
SCENES AT LIAO-YANG ON THE ARRIVAL OF THE RUSSIANS
WHEN NEWS FROM THE FIRING LINE CAME BACK TO THOSE WHO HAD NOT YET MET THE JAPANESE
WITH THE RUSSIAN TROOPS NEAR HAICHENG
WITH THE RUSSIAN TROOPS DURING THE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE JAPANESE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF HAICHENG
RUSSIAN BATTERIES IN ACTION GUARDING TOWAN PASS
WITH THE RUSSIAN OFFICERS AND FIGHTING MEN DURING THE ENGAGEMENT AT TOWAN PASS
WITH THE RUSSIAN TROOPS DURING THE EARLY CAMPAIGNING IN MANCHURIA
WITH THE RUSSIANS AT TOWAN PASS
THE REWARDS OF VALOR WITH KUROPATKIN’S ARMY IN MANCHURIA
WITH THE RUSSIAN FORCES IN MANCHURIA DURING THE EARLY CAMPAIGNING
WITH THE TENTH RUSSIAN ARMY CORPS AT YUSHULING, NEAR LIAO-YANG
WITH THE RUSSIAN TROOPS DURING THE EARLY CAMPAIGNING IN MANCHURIA
WITH THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS SERVICE IN MANCHURIA
WAR BALLOON AND GAS BAG USED BY THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA