For many days the storm clouds had been gathering on the Northern and Western horizons. Port Arthur was struggling in a deadly embrace; the army of the Peninsula was tightening its grip upon the enemy, and we were slowly drawing near to the door through which he must escape. In spite of lyrical outbursts on the courage and patriotism of the Russian soldier, despite plans devised by idle hands in distant countries, in face of hypotheses about what must happen in this and that circumstance, there was only one course open to General Kuropatkin. He must get away as quickly as possible from a situation that seemed without meaning and must end in disaster. If he could not make up his mind to escape, then the Japanese must help him. In their own practical and decisive manner they must show the Russian commander how imminent was the danger menacing his front and flank and rear, on the road between Hai-cheng and Liao-yang. With that object--and incidentally in the hope of saving the Russians from the necessity of continuing an apparently hopeless contest--the order was given for a general attack on Sunday the 31st of July. Military historians are agreed that of all operations the most difficult and hazardous is that which demands simultaneous action by isolated and widely separated bodies of troops. The Japanese, however, are of opinion that the axioms of war are not axioms till they have been proved upon their own persons. Accordingly, with the aid of the telegraph and the telephone, and with confidence born of an unbroken series of victories, they made this concerted attack at three points on a front of sixty miles and added another triumph to their record. The force moving from the South met with no opposition and entered Hai-cheng, while the army landed at Takushan, and operating between the armies of the Peninsula and the East struck the enemy’s retreating flank and left its mark upon it. General Kuroki’s part in these operations was more difficult. In front of him was a force superior to his own, with guns of greater range and calibre, strongly entrenched in mountainous country, directed by General Kuropatkin himself, and animated by the knowledge that upon its valour and determination rested the safe deliverance of the Russian army in Manchuria. To those who judge the strength of armies by their masses the task assigned to the First Army seemed hazardous. But, as in mechanics, the Japanese calculate the strength or momentum of their armies by their mass multiplied by their velocity--that is by the spirit of the troops and their desire to fight. This factor is of greater value than battalions, for men who are as eager to fight as the Japanese, always put themselves in the most advantageous position for fighting. It was therefore without any fear of the issue that General Kuroki made his preparations for the attack.