[Illustration: TAKING AN OBSERVATION FROM THE BALLOON ] WAR BALLOON AND GAS BAG USED BY THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA [Illustration: IN THE RUSSIAN TRENCHES DURING THE FIGHTING AT TALING ] CHAPTER IX THE BATTLE OF LIAO-YANG The battle of Liao-Yang was the culminating event of the four months’ Manchurian campaign which the Japanese began when they crossed the Yalu. In the point of number of men engaged it was the greatest battle of modern times, and it resulted in a decisive, though hard-won, victory for the Japanese. Between 400,000 and half a million men fought in the two armies, and when the five days’ duel was over the total losses in killed and wounded were estimated at about 30,000. The result of the battle was that the Japanese gained complete control of the Liaotung Peninsula, north of Port Arthur, and that the Russian army was forced to retreat northward toward Mukden and Harbin. The Russians under General Kuropatkin had collected a large amount of ammunition and supplies at Liao-Yang and the town itself was elaborately fortified. It was generally understood that General Kuropatkin’s plan was to lure the Japanese on to the plain in front of Liao-Yang and there to meet them in decisive battle. When the battle proper began on August 26, the Russian army occupied three groups of positions, extending in a semicircle in front of and to the southward of the fortifications of the town. Kuroki’s army on the east, Nodzu’s on the south, and Oku’s on the west—the whole under the command of Field Marshal Oyama—attacked along the whole front. After five days of the most persistent attack and defence, and a terrific and almost continuous artillery duel, during which the Russians were pushed back into Liao-Yang, General Kuroki succeeded in throwing a considerable force across the Taitse River, which extends eastward and westward just north of the town. With his left flank and rear thus menaced, Kuropatkin was compelled, on September 1, to evacuate Liao-Yang and retreat on Mukden.