577 CHAPTER VITI.

OYAMA'S LNVASION OF THE LIAO-TUNG PENINSULA, AS soon as the naval victory off the Yalu L\ River had secured for the Japanese the "*-command of the Yellow Sea, it was resolved to send an army to effect the capture of Port Arthur. For this purpose the First Division (troops of the Tokio district) and a portion of the Sixth were ordered to mobilise and concentrate at Hiroshima onthe Inland Sea, where the transport fleet date Oyama hadbegun the invasion of the Liaotung Peninsula.

This peninsula is a tract of hilly country, jutting out between the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. For thelast seventy or eighty miles of its length the peninsulafurther narrows into the longstrip of landknown to the Chinese as " the Regent's sword.-' Half-way down this promontory it is nearly- cut in two by the deep bay of Ta-lien-wan, which was used as the rendezvous for the British and French allied expeditionsagainst China in 1860. The town of Kinchow commandsthe narrow neck of land between Talien-wan Bay on the east coast of the peninsula and Society Bay on the west. South of Ta-lien-wan and close to the extreme point of the peninsula the almost land-locked harbour of Port Arthur opens on the Yellow Sea. Surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills and with would be ready to receive them. The concentration wascompleted onSeptember 27th. General Yamaji commanded the First Division, and General Hasegawa the troops of the Sixth. The combined force wasofficially known as the " Second Army," and its command was given to Marshal Count Oyama. Until the date of hisappointment Oyama had been acting as Minister of War, and in that capacity he had a principal share in the planning of the general scheme of operations I-TELD-MARSI1AI. OYAMA, that were to result in the conquest of Korea.

Sufficient transports were not available to embark the whole army. Hasegawa'sbrigade,with the artillery and cavalry attached to it, was sent off first, and was landedat Ping-yang Inlet, the mouth of theTatungRiver inKorea, which was to be used as the secondary base of the expedition. On October 15th the First Division andOyama's headquartersstaff embarked. The Japanese Parliament was then sitting at Hiroshima; the members of both Houses escorted the Marshal to the quay. On the 19th the Marshal reached Ping-yang Inlet,and next day the wholeofhis army wasassembled there. To make clear the sequence of events, it may be well toremind the reader that at this time the First Army underMarshal Yamagata wasclosing "n upon the left bank of the Yalu,of which it forced the passage on October 25th. By that its entrance opening between two rocky points, it is well fitted for defence. The harbour, a great basin nearly three miles long, is wellsheltered,and might afford anchorage to all the navies of the East, The Chinese had, with the help of European engineers, fortified the surrounding hills and the harbour entrance and constructed a graving dock, well provided with machinery and workshops and a large arsenal. The place was known to its Chinese masters as Lu-shun-kou. Port Arthur is its European name. It was surveyed during the preliminaries of the allied expeditionof 1860 by Commander Arthur of the British Navy, now Rear-Admiral Arthur on the retired list. At that time there were neither forts, docks, nor workshops on the shores of the land-locked sheet of water. Near the entrance there was a Chinese fishing village, and a few junks were 37