The plan of attack was simple and resembled that of the Japanese on the Yalu. General Mistchenko was to turn our right flank in the mountains near Ponchiho, and crossing the Tai-tsu to threaten us in the rear at Liao-yang. A strong force was to engage our centre East of the coal mine at Yentai, while our left flank on the railway was to be held and prevented from giving help. Against our right wing, from Ponchiho to the coal mine, were hurled nine divisions of infantry with one division of cavalry and a detachment of mounted infantry under General Renenkampf; four divisions confronted our centre and left flank and three divisions were in reserve. The assault was made with energy and determination on our extreme right, and until the morning of the 14th the force defending that flank was in serious danger, General Mistchenko having succeeded in isolating it from the main body and crossed the Tai-tsu with a brigade of infantry and a regiment of cavalry. The failure of General Kuropatkin’s plan may be ascribed to the obstinate courage of the brigade on our extreme right, who fought for days against overwhelming numbers, and to the fact that, as on the Tang-ho before Liao-yang, General Kuroki drove a wedge into the heart of the enemy’s front. At noon on October the 9th I left Tong-kin-ryo, the Tomb of the Eastern Capital, a village four miles East of Liao-yang where ancestors of the Emperor of China sleep in the shadow of pine trees and marble tablets recording their virtues. The tide of war had swept over the hamlet, leaving it silent and deserted. From the Temple of Buddha, which had been my solitary abode since the Japanese entered Liao-yang, I heard the sound of rifles in the hills two miles away and learned that mounted bandits or Hunghutse had encountered the Chinese troops and were being driven into the mountains whence they had emerged on the departure of the Japanese. At Taiho, a squalid collection of houses South of the coal mine, where I arrived in the afternoon, were evidences of the battle. That morning the brigade on our right had been attacked from three sides by a great force, and a brigade of the enemy’s infantry with a division of cavalry and two guns, had crossed the Tai-tsu and was threatening Ponchiho from the South. Our right wing was practically surrounded, and a division was ordered East to reinforce the garrison. At the same time the enemy appeared on our front. They occupied Shaliuho, a hamlet North-east of the coal mine, and Pachiatsu, further to the East, and strengthened their force at Ponchiho.