The Russians had made every preparation for attack, and were confident that each attempt would be repulsed, guarded as the positions were with the guns of the forts, machine guns, masked forts, the great trench with its hidden batteries commanding every section of its whole length, the wire entanglements, mines and numerous obstructions. If these did not render the fortress impregnable, they gave its defenders such an immense superiority of position that it seemed no number of men the attacking force could bring against it in succession would be able to overwhelm the many defences which had been constructed. It appears that General Nogi intended to make a direct attack on the Panlung forts behind Takushan simultaneously with one on Kikwan fort, which, if carried, would leave the town at the mercy of the invaders and isolate every other fort of the inner ring of defence. The general bombardment commenced on August 19, and was directed mainly upon the Panlung and Kikwan forts, but the only real damage done was the ignition of the powder magazine in Kikwan on the following day, when the defenders took to the covered way connecting the forts, and withdrew to the south Kikwan fort. At the same dates the forts south-east of Louisa Bay were again shelled from concealed batteries on the flats near the seashore. By night the Japanese infantry attempted to storm the position, but were stopped by the wire entanglements, which they did their utmost to cut, even to bite through, and at last rendered ineffective by attaching lines to the poles and pulling the whole obstruction away bodily and rolling it aside. Metre Hill was stormed and captured on August 20, and was then shelled unceasingly for days by the Russians, who maintained also a constant machine-gun and rifle fire in the hope that the position would be rendered untenable. About the same time the Japanese seized Sui-shi-ying, also a position a quarter of a mile nearer to Wolf Mountain, but from this they were driven by machine-gun fire from the Metre Hill batteries. On August 21 the bombardment of the Kikwan forts became hotter and hotter, and late in the day two infantry regiments, who had with them scaling ladders, carried the outer defences of the Kikwan fort by storm and occupied the fort by morning.