Orders had been given that picquets and posts were not to resist the enemy if he appeared in force. They were to fall back upon the defensive line on the summit. The Russians advanced “like dark waves of the sea,” and picquet and post withdrew from the hamlet in the valley and from the trench and the temple, firing a few random shots as they retired. Not being accustomed to so gentle a reception the enemy became suspicious and advanced very cautiously toward the temple. Here they seemed inclined to halt, and a few Japanese skirmishers were sent forward to discover their position. When day broke the Russians were in possession of the Western slopes, ridges and valleys of Mou-tien-ling; their right wing rested on a broad hill eight hundred yards from the Japanese trenches below the summit of the Pass: on their right rear was a plantation filled with riflemen; their left flank occupied a trench on a hill fronting the summit, while their centre held the ridge about the temple. In the V-shaped valley were more troops who had marched by the road South of the Pass and in front of the white tower--three thousand five hundred yards away on the Liao-yang road--was posted a field battery of eight guns. Seven Russian regiments or nearly thirty thousand fighting men were engaged, for the attack was not confined to Mou-tien-ling but covered a front of fifteen miles. Three Japanese regiments and one field battery held the Pass. Their left wing was secure, close to it lay a division, but the right was weak and might have suffered but for the magnificent courage of a single company at an isolated post six or seven miles to the North. The dispositions were made under cover of night, and at dawn the two forces confronted each other across a steep and narrow valley. Though the mist still shrouded the mountain the fight began. At twenty minutes before five o’clock a steady fusilade was opened from both sides. The road from the temple to the crest has a gradual ascent, and on one side the ground rises to a height of two or three feet. Under this cover a few daring Russians pressed forward but they could not hope to reach the summit. The bend in the path was quickly strewn with dead. And now was approaching the moment for energetic action. The Russian guns must remain silent; they could do nothing without endangering their comrades in front. The Japanese were anxious not to unmask their artillery too early in the encounter, for they had on the crest only one battery of field guns. Soon after six o’clock this caution was laid aside, and the Japanese guns began to speak. The air was now clear, and below the guns, at a range of fifteen hundred yards, lay a splendid target--the enemy massed in the V-shaped valley. A hail of shrapnel tore gaps in the close ranks and strewed the valley with dead and dying. To this destructive bombardment was added the distant fire of a battalion of rifles on the extreme right.