From the above it can be seen that Kaulbars’ dispositions, his inaction, and his misunderstanding of the whole situation, could not lead the 2nd Army to Poltava. On the contrary, on March 8 and 9, 1905, it was nearly a case of Tsushima. It only remains for me to conclude with a few pages out of the short report on the war which I submitted to His Majesty the Emperor. “Of the many causes contributing to the disastrous issue to the Battle of Mukden, I will only mention the following: “1. The fall of Port Arthur liberated Nogi’s army, the whole of which took part in the battle. The formation of the new divisions in Japan was completed at the same time, and, judging by the prisoners we captured, two of these also took part in the battle. The immediate making good of wastage in their ranks presented no particular difficulty to the enemy, owing to the relative proximity of Japan to the theatre of war, and the resultant ease with which she was able to transport her troops by sea. Judging by the muster rolls found on the dead and wounded, the effective strength of their companies was between 200 and 250 rifles, and all casualties were at once replaced. “The liberation of Nogi’s army and the landing of troops in Northern Korea compelled us to increase the force detailed for the defence of the Primorsk district and Vladivostok, and the appearance of bodies of Japanese cavalry, together with artillery and numerous bands of Hun-huses in Mongolia, coupled with the raids on the railway, which were becoming more frequent, necessitated steps being taken to increase the railway guard along its 1,350 miles’ length in Manchuria. “These two measures took fourteen battalions and twenty-four _sotnias_ from the field army, and also a large number of the 80,000 reservists then being sent to the front as drafts. “All these things combined enabled the Japanese at the battle of Mukden to be as strong as, if not stronger than, we were in the number of rifles. “2. The tardy discovery by our cavalry of the enemy’s movement round our right flank, when ‘strong columns of Japanese infantry’ had already appeared at Ka-liao-ma. “3. The complete lack of energy displayed by the officer in command of the 2nd Army in repulsing Nogi’s force which was moving round us, with the result that we lost seven most important days (March 1 to 8). “4. His complete ignorance of the strength and whereabouts of the enemy moving round his right. The lack of information and the inaccuracy of what was received rendered some of my own dispositions not only unnecessary, but wrong. As a particular instance, I may mention that I only knew for certain when it was too late that the enemy were not making (as had been reported) a wider turning movement on both banks of the Liao towards Tieh-ling.