During the early morning of the 10th our position became yet worse; on the right flank the Japanese drove back Borisoff’s force to Hsiao-kou-tzu and opposite San-tai-tzu, and penetrated as far as the grove of the Imperial tombs. On the east large bodies of them appeared in sight of the Mandarin road. One was opposite Levestam’s force, while another began shelling the Mandarin road near Ta-wa from the heights near Hsin-chia-kou. The orders given on March 5 for the baggage to be sent back in good time had not been carried out, and part of the impedimenta of the 2nd and 3rd Armies, which was stretching along the road near Mukden early on the 10th, blocked the passage of the 5th and 6th Siberians and 17th Corps. On this morning also the Japanese, who had broken through near Chiu-tien on the 9th, began to press our left flank under Meyendorff. The troops sent as reinforcements did not act together, and were driven back north-west. By 10 a.m. Meyendorff was in full retreat—not north-east, but north-west towards the Mandarin road, which he crossed between Ta-wa and Pu-ho. The 6th Siberians now began to retire prematurely, and by so doing exposed the right of the 1st Corps and the left of the 17th. This unnecessarily sudden retirement of more than forty battalions under Meyendorff and Soboleff placed the 17th Corps and the 5th Siberians in a difficult position. Instead of fronting south, they had to front south-east. After a hot fight this force, consisting of thirty battalions, was also obliged to move to the rear prematurely. They did not go to Ta-wa, but west and south of the Mandarin road. This opened out a way for the enemy to that road, and also to the railway north—further on the portion between Mukden and Wen-ken-tun. By seizing this section about 2 p.m., before the rearguards or even the tail of the main body had passed Wa-tzu, they took our troops in flank. We had evacuated the village of San-tai-tzu prematurely, and it was quickly occupied by the Japanese. Between Wa-tzu and this village there is a defile, less than three miles long, through which a large part of the 2nd Army had to force its way under attack from both sides. Portions of the rearguards under Hanenfeld and Sollogub, which tried to get round to the east of it, were captured or destroyed.