The 3rd, 4th, and 6th Siberian and the 1st and 17th Army Corps were at full strength—distributed along the first lines and in reserve. The 2nd and 5th Siberian Corps had each only three brigades, one brigade of the latter having been left on the right bank of the Hun Ho to protect our extreme right. A brigade of the 5th Division holding Putiloff Hill was left, at the special request of the officer commanding the 1st Manchurian Army, on the positions which had been captured by the splendid regiments of this brigade (19th and 20th East Siberian Rifle Regiments). As soon as the 8th and 16th Army Corps arrived they were posted to my main reserve; the three Rifle Brigades were formed into a Composite Rifle Corps. Early in January, 1905, I concentrated all three corps of the 2nd Army—_i.e._, the 8th, 10th, and Mixed Rifle Corps in reserve, and I had in my main reserve the 1st Siberians with a division of the 16th Army Corps (the other was still on the railway). We had altogether 128 battalions in reserve, and our position was most favourable. It might, however, have been still better if I had insisted on strong army reserves being formed in the 1st and 3rd Armies. My proposal to move the 17th Army Corps back from the advanced lines met with a strongly worded request that the distribution of the 3rd Army might be left as it was. In the 1st Army I might have insisted on the whole of the 4th Siberian Corps being sent to join the reserve after the transfer of the Rifle Brigade from Putiloff Hill to the strong Erh-ta-ho position. I made a mistake also in forming three Rifle Brigades together into one corps. If I had kept them as independent brigades, it would have been unnecessary to take brigades from army corps whenever independent brigades were required. Although the Japanese had fewer battalions than we had, these were much stronger than ours; they also had more independent units than we had. Their divisions were not organized in corps, their small armies being made up of divisions and independent brigades, and our corps organization was not sufficiently flexible to meet the thirteen to fifteen Japanese divisions, and a similar number of independent brigades. The enemy were able to take divisions and brigades from the advanced positions and transfer them, without upsetting their existing organization, and with far greater ease than we could move our corps. When an independent brigade operated against us—as, for instance, on the line Sai-ma-chi–An-ping—we were obliged to break up our corps organization in order to meet it with one of our brigades; this happened in the 10th Army Corps.