RUSSIAN GUNS CAPTURED AT NANSHAN USED BY THE JAPANESE AT SHUZAN-HO ] [Illustration: RUSSIAN BATTERY POSITION AT YUSHULING, WITH PROTECTING INFANTRY TRENCH CAPTURED BY THE JAPANESE ] [Illustration: JAPANESE HORSES KILLED AT BATTERY POSITION NEAR TOWAN ] [Illustration: RUSSIAN GUN OVERTURNED AND ABANDONED IN RETREAT FROM TOWAN ] ALONG THE LINE OF BATTLE IN THE MANCHURIAN PASSES SOUTH OF LIAO-YANG [Illustration: SCOUT BRINGING INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENEMY TO GENERAL OKASAKI ] [Illustration: JAPANESE MOUNTAIN BATTERY IN ACTION NEAR LIAO-YANG ] [Illustration: SOLDIERS MAKING THEMSELVES COMFORTABLE ON A HOT, WET DAY ] PRESSING THE RUSSIANS CLOSE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF LIAO-YANG [Illustration: GATHERING THE WOUNDED RUSSIANS WHO HAD LAIN ALL NIGHT IN THE RAIN ] [Illustration: SOME OF THE SPOILS GATHERED IN JUST BEFORE THE CAPTURE OF LIAO-YANG ] [Illustration: BODIES OF JAPANESE SOLDIERS READY FOR CREMATION ] [Illustration: BURNING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD IN THE FIELDS NEAR LIAO-YANG ] WITH THE JAPANESE ON AUGUST THIRTIETH CLOSE TO LIAO-YANG CHAPTER VII BEGINNING THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR As soon as the Japanese learned of Kuroki’s success at the Yalu, they hurried troops ashore at Takushan and Pitsewo, on the eastern shore of the Liaotung Peninsula north of Port Arthur. This was on May 5. The landing was quite unexpected by the Russians; there was no sufficient force to attempt any resistance, and in three days an army was marching southward to begin the closing-in movement that ended in the fall of Russia’s supposedly impregnable fortress. On May 26, after fighting in and about Kinchow for nine days, Nanshan Hill, on the narrow isthmus joining the Port Arthur Peninsula to the main part of the Liaotung Peninsula, was captured by assault. Every device of modern warfare—the railway, telegraph, telephones, a captive balloon, mine-fields, barbed wire network, iron-roofed trenches, searchlights, illuminating star-shells—was used at Nanshan Hill to increase the natural strength of the fort. The ranges were known and the approach was from but one direction. There had been three months and a half since the war began and three weeks since the landing at Pitsewo. If Russian troops could be driven from such a position, and under such circumstances, by the Japanese, it seemed perfectly certain that no fortifications that Russia could devise could withstand the enemy. One last and unsuccessful attempt was made to cut the Japanese off before it was too late. The Russian army at Tashichao, under General Stakelberg, made a sortie southward and met General Oku’s army on June 14 at Wafengtien. The Russians were completely defeated. The Liaotung Peninsula was then open to the Japanese, and as soon as General Nogi and his army arrived to hold it and to begin to close in on Port Arthur, Oku was free to wheel