Again, owing to the general course of events and other reasons over which I had no control, our corps organization had to be broken up before the operations at Hei-kou-tai, but was restored as soon as possible. It also occurred during the February fighting round Mukden, where the circumstances, indeed, did not in every case warrant it. After General Grippenberg’s disastrous operations at Hei-kou-tai our strategical position was altered much for the worse. Four army corps, which had until then been standing in reserve, were sent up into the fighting-line, and three of them became hopelessly mixed up in the process. At the time I thought it only possible to keep one corps (the 1st Siberians) in reserve, but the 16th Army corps, the 72nd Division, a brigade of the 6th East Siberian Rifle Division, and the Tsaritsin Regiment were available, as it turned out. This made a total reserve of eighty-two battalions. With such a strong main reserve I hoped to be able to meet the enemy successfully, if, on being reinforced by Nogi’s army from Port Arthur, they took the offensive. According to our estimates, the fall of Port Arthur might reinforce the Japanese field army by some fifty battalions altogether, but we thought that the greater portion of Nogi’s army would be sent to operate against Vladivostok, or via Possiet towards Kirin, so as to take us in the rear. The possibility of this made us extremely sensitive, both as to our rear and as regards Vladivostok. The first thing we did, therefore, on Nogi’s army being set free, was to strengthen the garrison of the latter place, which was very weakly held for the extent of the defences. I sent there from all three armies cadres of a strength of six battalions, which were to expand into four regiments so as to form the 10th East Siberian Rifle Division. It was thought that, upon a general assumption of the offensive, the Japanese would simultaneously try to bring about a rising of the local native population, and to destroy the railway bridges behind us. To give colour to our fears, a whole series of reports, each more alarming than the last, were received from General Chichagoff. In these he described the large numbers of the enemy that had appeared behind us with the intention of seizing Harbin as well as of destroying the railway. I mentioned (Vol. III.) how this officer calculated the strength of the enemy in our rear at tens of thousands, and how persistent he was in his demands that the troops guarding the line might be strengthened. As a proof of the urgency of the circumstances, he reported the defeat, with a loss of guns, of some Frontier Guards sent out by him to reconnoitre east of the Kuan-cheng-tzu station. Later information corroborated these reports in so far that parties of the enemy, accompanied by bands of Hun-huses, had penetrated far in rear, broken through our line of posts between Kuan-cheng-tzu and Bei-tu-ne, and were threatening the latter point, which, being our central corn-supply