In the meantime, the Guards' Division, assisted by a heavy bombardment from the batteries below Wiju, was pressing an attack upon Tiger Hill from the Island of Kulido, an attack which successfully diverted the attention of General Kashtalinsky from the advance upon his left, and prevented him from offering it any formidable resistance. The Japanese artillery in particular distinguished itself. Never was superiority of generalship more strikingly displayed than it was by General Kuroki in this case. The position was admirably selected by him; the work of placing the batteries was carried out with such skill that the Russians were kept in entire ignorance of their whereabouts; and finally when they opened fire on the morning of the 30th the heavy character of the guns employed took the enemy absolutely by surprise. On the delta immediately below Wiju was a belt of trees of which the Japanese General had at once seen the potentialities; and behind its screen his engineers had constructed gun pits, in which were concealed several batteries of howitzers. These pieces of ordnance did terrible execution in the Russian lines in the course of the day. [Sidenote: Serpentine Line of Dark Forms] To the onlookers standing on the hills behind Wiju the wide field of battle spread before them presented a highly picturesque spectacle, and as the attack developed the interest became intense. Hardly had the advance of the Guards begun upon the Island of Kulido when a long serpentine line of dark forms could be seen winding in and out of the heights on the right bank of the river to the north of Tiger Hill. They were the men of the 12th Division slowly but surely creeping upon the Russian left. For miles they pressed forward without coming into view of the Russian artillerymen on Tiger Hill, but at last the first detachments, rounding the shoulder of one of the nearer hills, were exposed to the enemy. Instantly a terrific burst of shrapnel fire broke out from General Kashtalinsky's field batteries. Steadily, however, and without a check the brave Japanese advanced from height to height, and at the same time the batteries on the left bank above Wiju came to their aid. The fire of the Russians had unmasked the position of their guns on the hill, and the Japanese artillerymen rained upon them a terrible hail of shells which soon reduced them to silence and effectually covered the advance of the infantry. [Sidenote: Two Thousand Deadly Thunderbolts]