54° BUGLER KIGUCHI, MORTALLY WOUNDED, CONTINUING TO SOUND THE ADVANCE (From a Japanese Sketch.)

CHAPTER III THE CAPTURE OF ASAN. ON July 25th — the day on which the Kowshing was sunk— General Oshima marched from Seoul to attack the Chinese force at Asan. The Japanese were anxious to dispose of this detachment as soon of the class woretwo swords,one for battle, the other a shorter blade, destined to takeits owner's life whenthe fatalday arrived.

When it wasmade known that the Japanese army was not merely impressing transport,but wasready to pay the peasants good wages, the Koreans came freely into camp, and the transport was got into working order. On the 28th Oshima's brigade came in sight of the enemy's camp. General Yeh, whocommanded at Asan, had advanced about ten miles towards Seoul and taken up a position on a low ridge at Song-hwan. The Chinese hadentrenched themselveson the ridge, and the reconnaissance made in the afternoon by Oshima's staff was much facilitated by the number of banners that the enemy had stuck upon all their works. Some of the Japanese officers disguised themselves as Korean peasants, and had a nearer look at the position and its approaches. The marshy rice fields in front of the low ridge made a direct attack difficult. It was therefore decided to movein twocolumns; the smaller, about 1,100 strong, under Colonel Takeda, was to make a demonstrationagainst tlae front of the Chinese "tad keep them occupied, while a stronger as possible, as its presence was a dangerous source of encouragement to the Korean party hostile to Japanese influence, and if it held Asan till the Ping-yang army was ready to advance, Oshima with his small force would have to face an attack from two sides.

Oshima left about half his force to hold Seoul and advanced towards Asan with the rest— between three and four thousand men. At the outset the march was seriously delayed by the difficulty of obtaining beasts and coolies for the transport. Major Koshi, who commanded the advanced guard, was so depressed by his failure to get forward on account of the lack of transport that on rhe 26th he committed suicide. A curious feature of Japanese campaigning was the number of suicides of officers who had failed or incurred censure. The custom was an unfortunate inheritance from the old days, when a Japanese noble wassupposed to be dishonoured ifhe outlived failure or disgrace, and every-SEi