[Illustration: RUSSIANS COLLECTING WOUNDED ON THE NIGHT AFTER THE BATTLE.] [Sidenote: Co-operation of Gunboats] While this bombardment was engaging the Russian centre and diverting its attention from the enveloping movement of the 12th Division on the left, and from the advance of the Guards upon Tiger Hill, the gunboat flotilla of Admiral Hosoya again operated with great effect against the Russian lines lower down the river at Antushan and Niang-ning-chin. This simultaneous attack along the whole of his front placed General Sassulitch in a position of the utmost difficulty. He was unable to tell from which part of the field the real danger would come. It is clear, however, from the dispatches of his subordinate, General Kashtalinsky, that that officer appreciated the true nature of the Japanese operations, and that he recognized the impossibility of holding Chiu-lien-cheng after his flank had been turned by General Inouye's Division. Early on the 30th he ordered the 22nd Regiment back from Tiger Hill to the right bank of the Ai River and endeavored to strengthen the position on Makau and Yukushau, and his dispatch to General Kuropatkin indicates that he represented to General Sassulitch the difficulty with which even that line of defence could be maintained, and urged a retreat to Hoh-mu-tang. At night, however, he received orders from his superior to remain and accept battle at the hands of the Japanese, and he had nothing for it but to obey. [Sidenote: Miserable Array of Russians] It was with a miserably inadequate force that he was thus compelled to oppose the advance of a foe which had already proved itself so determined and so resourceful. At the ford on his extreme left he stationed two battalions of the 22nd Regiment. The 12th Regiment of the East Siberian Rifles held the hills behind, from Yukushan to Makau, supported by the 3rd Battery of the 6th Brigade of Artillery and a number of machine guns. General Sassulitch himself was in command of the 9th and 10th Regiments occupying Chiu-lien-cheng and the chain of hills stretching down to Antung, and the 11th Regiment was kept in the rear as a reserve. General Mishchenko's Brigade of Cossacks, though in the neighborhood, does not appear to have been actually engaged in the battle at all. [Sidenote: Four Miles of Japanese] On the Japanese side all was in readiness for the great advance by the night of the 30th, and General Kuroki telegraphed to the General Staff at Tokio that the attack would begin at dawn. On the left, the 2nd Division, under General Nishi, occupied the southern end of Cheun-song-do; the Imperial Guards, under General Hasegawa, held the northern end of that island, as well as Tiger Hill; and on their right was stationed the 12th Division, facing the Ai, on a wide front extending for over four miles. In these positions the Army bivouacked for the night. [Sidenote: A Moment of Tense Expectancy]