The most important section of Manchuria, strategically, namely, that part of the Province of Sheng-king which lies east of the Liao River and the entire Province of Kirin, was to be evacuated, according to the Agreement, before April 8, 1903. As that date drew near, and long afterward, the disposition of the Russian forces appeared incompatible with even the nominal withdrawal which characterized the first period of evacuation. It is true that in the Sheng-king Province, except the regions bordering on the Yalu River on the Korean frontier, the Russian troops began to withdraw soon after the end of the first period, but only “to the railway line.”[445] The important border regions, especially Fêng-hwang-Chêng and An-tung, however, remained in Russian occupation, the former still holding 700 cavalry in June.[446] From March, there had been mysterious movements of small detachments of troops toward this frontier,[447] of which Count Lamsdorff and M. Witte alike professed a complete ignorance,[448] but concerning which M. Plançon, the Russian _Chargé d’Affaires_ at Peking, had made an explanation which seemed utterly unintelligible, that the Russian troops had been moved in order to counteract a threatened Japanese movement. It soon appeared, however, that the Russians had begun to cut timber on both sides of the Yalu River,[449] and, with the consent of Admiral Alexieff, had hired the services of some Russian soldiers,[450] some of whom had gone to Yong-am-po on the Korean side of the Yalu.[451] The detachments outside of Fêng-hwang-Chêng, amounting at first to only five men at Tatung-kao and twenty at Yong-am-po, would have been small enough to be ignored, had it not been for the significant fact that the occupation of Yong-am-po, which will be discussed later on,[452] constituted a menace to the integrity of the Korean Empire similar to one which threatened China when Russia leased Port Arthur; for a railway concession granted in the Russo-Chinese Agreement of March 27, 1898,[453] would bring this port into connection with the entire railroad and military system of Manchuria and the great Russian Empire. Further west, at Liao-yang, except the nominal withdrawal reported in the previous August,[454] there was no indication of its evacuation,[455] and at Mukden, the capital of Sheng-king, 3200 soldiers, who constituted the major part of the forces, were reported to have evacuated,[456] but the remainder, after proceeding to the train, suddenly returned and took up their old quarters,[457] some or all of them wearing civilian dress.[458] It is unknown whither the 3200 men had gone, but the Russian Consul merely moved to the railway outside the town.[459] To the north, it was evident in May that the Province of Kirin had hardly begun to be evacuated even in the nominal sense, as in parts of the Sheng-king Province.[460] So late as in September, the Russian authorities at Peking talked to Prince Ching of leaving 6000 or