THE CHINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1894—95. 554 guns, mostly of small calibre, were mounted in these new fortifications.

marched by the other road. A third column under ColonelSato was to advance from Gensan.

All three columns were to be in the neighbourhood of Ping-yang by September 14th. Nodzu would then leave Oshima to make an attack next day on the southern defences of Ping-yang, while he with the main body, having crossed the Tatung below the town, would attack the place from the eastward, and Sato would attack from the north,assisted by Tachimi, who was to cross the river above the town. He hoped that he would thus not merely get possession of Ping-yang,but also capture the whole of Yeh's army.

The best troopsin the force assembled for the defence of tlae city were 3,500 partly-drilled Manchus under General Tso. Besides these, there was another corps of 1,500 men from Moukden city, 6,000 men from the province of Pe-chi-li under General Wei, 2,000 from Port Arthur, and about 1,000 more whom General Yeh had brought from Asan. On the strength of his alleged success over the Japanese, Yeh was given the chief command.

Meanwhile,the Japanese army in Korea had been largely reinforced. At the beginning of the crisis a small detachment had been landed at Fusan in the extreme south of the peninsula to protect the Japanese trading colony in the port. On August 6th General Nodzu arrived there with tlae greater part of the 5thDivision, and next day began to march northwards to Seoul, which was held by Oshima's brigade. Nodzu's force could have reached the Korean capital much more quickly by going by sea to Chemulpo;but at this stage of the war, while the Chinese fleet was still intact, it was not considered advisable to send all the transports into the YellowSea. Besides, it was felt that a marchthrough SouthernKoreawoulddiscourage the local adherents of the Chinese faction and establish Japanese influence in the district. Nodzu reached Seoul on the 19th, and took over the supreme command of the Japanese forces. Two other small detachments were landed at Gensan on the east coast. One of these pushed on to Seoul. The other marched towardsPing-yang to co-operatefrom the eastwardin the comingattack on that place.

Against a better-organised and better-trained force than that whichheld Ping-yang this combinedmovement of several columns converging by widely separated roads upon the fortress would have been a risky business. If Yehhad been a European commander, he would have fallen upon Sato's column before Nodzu and Tachimi wereable to give it any help. But in adopting this plan the Japanese commander acted on the knowledge he possessed of his opponent's character, and his daring acceptance of a theoretical risk was justifiedby the result.

Yeh pushed some small detachments along the roads towards Seoul to delay the Japanese advance, and there were consequently some unimportant skirmishesin whichOshima's brigade played the chief part. It occupied Chung-hua on September 10th, Nodzu with the main body turning to the left at Hwang-ju, ten miles further south,inorder to cross theTatungRiver near its mouth. As Oshima's men approached Chung-hua they found the road strewn with the oil-papercap-covers wornby the Chinese troops in wet weather. The Korean peasantsexplained that these and other minor articles of equipment had been thrown away by a Chinese force, whichhadjust retreated towardsPing-yang after a night alarm,in which the variousregiments in camp had fired into each other in the dark.

Oshima had sent two of his officers with a small party of cavalrynorthwards to reconnoitre Ping-yang. These werecut off and killed to a manby a much strongerdetachment ofChinese sent out from the city by General Yeh, who reported the incident as a great victory over a large force of the invaders. On the 12th Oshima's brigade came in sight of the southern forts of Ping-yang, and during this and the next two days it did its best to mislead the Chinese into the belief that it had the main body behind it and was preparing to rush the southern defences and force the crossing of the river just below the town. Reconnaissances were pushed close up to the enemy's works, and there was some sharp skirmishing. The artillery opened on the forts in order to draw their fire and ascertain how they were armed, and a party of daring By the end of August General Nodzu was ready to begin active operations against Yeh and tlae Ping-yang garrison. Two roads, or rather tracks, run through the hillv country from Seoul to Ping-yang, one near the sea, the other further inland through the town of Sakriong. A column of all arms under Geneial Tachimi had already been pushed forward to Sak-riongby tlae inner road. Nodzu's plan was that Tachimi should continue his advance by this line, while he himself with the main body