THE CHINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1894—55. 598 Port Arthur garrison by acting on the communications of the Japanese.

He halted for somedays at Fu-chow,a walled town of no great importance, on the western coast roadto Manchuria,about forty miles from Kin-chow, but at the end of November he learned that the Japanese had taken effective steps to turn him out. Nogi'sbrigade, embarked on transportsand escorted by Japanese cruisers, was in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and might at any moment effect a landing in his rear. In that case,if Oyama marched northwiththe restof the army, Sung would be caught betweenhammer and anvil. He evacuatedFu-chowand continued his retreat, and Nogi occupied the town on December 2nd without firing a shot.

Accordingly he left Hai-cheng on November 10th, with 2,000 men. He passed through Kai-ping, thirty-five miles south of that town, and at Hsiung-yao, on the shore of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, he picked up a force of 6,500 men, which had been despatched from Manchuria at the end of October to reinforce the Port Arthur garrison, but, finding they had started too late to getin front of the Japanese advance, had halted at Hsiung-yao. Moving southward along the west coast of the peninsula, with the 8,500mennowunitedunderhis command, Sung heard that tlae Japanese had pushed forward with nearly all their army against Port Arthur, and had left a mere handful to hold Kin-chow. Counting uponPort Arthur making a prolonged resistance,he resolved to destroy the Kin-chow detachment and retake the city before Oyama couldreturn to its succour.

At the beginning of December, while Nogi heldFu-chow, Oyama had transferred his headquarters to Kin-chow,to which he had moved the rest of Yamaji's division. Hasegawa'sbrigade held Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan. The naval base of operations had been transferred to Port Arthur. Admiral Ito was there with some of his heavy cruisers. The rest of the fleet was protecting themovementof convoys ofreinforcements and stores across the Yellow Sea by watching Admiral Ting's fleet, which lay idlein the port of Wei-hai-wei.

It was the best plan he could have adopted under the circumstances, and if the Chinese troops generally had beenin betterfighting condition it might have caused serious trouble to theJapanese. But,unhappilyfor Sung,whilethe defenceof Port Arthur simply collapsed, tlaelittle garrison of Kin-chow made a splendid stand. Tlae guns captured from the Chinese when Kinchow was taken were now manned by a few artillerymenandseamen, assistedby theinfantry.

The riflemen linedthe wall. The very transport coolies volunteered their services as combatants, andduring the attack made by Sung on November 2ist they made aneffective sortie, dispersing a column of Chinese infantry.

The First Army under MarshalYamagata was in the district west of theYalu, at An-tung and Chiu-leng-cheng on the river, with outlying detachments at Feng-huang-cheng to the northwest andTaku-shan to the south-west patrolling the country in front and watching the movements of the Chinese. ThePekin Government was very seriously alarmed at the capture of Port Arthur, which had placed the Gibraltar of theGulfof Pe-chi-liin tlaehandsof theJapanese andopened the way to an attack on the Pei-ho, so that the capital itself might be menaced by invasion. They expressed a wish to negotiate for peace, and were invited by the Japanese Cabinet to send an envoy of rank with full powers to Hiroshima. But when the envoy arrived it was found that he was one of the minor consular officials,and thathis credentials gavehim no power to negotiate. All he could do was to inquire what terms Japan was prepared to grant. TheJapaneseGovernment felt that the mandarins were only trying to gain time, so the negotiations werebrokenoff.

On the morning of the 22nd, Sung had drawn off somemiles to the northward,but theperil of tlae garrison was not yet over. Thousands of fugitives from Port Arthur were streaming northwards towards the city, and, though they were not the best fighting material,Sungmight rally them at his camp and renew the attack.

The garrison brought its guns to bear upon them as they crossed the narrowneck near Kinchow,andmademore than onesortie to disperse and disarm them. Many of the Chinese were taken prisoners and brought into the city. A considerable body of the fugitives reached Sung's "amp,but tlae Chinese general,knowing that if he remained longer near Kin-chow he might have to reckon with Oyama's victorious army, and have his retreat threatened by the Japanese fleet landing troopsinhis rear, drew off towards Manchuria.

From December to March, the shallow water near the shores of thePe-chi-li Gulf issoencumbered withice that all traffic by sea comes to a standstill. The ports and rivers are frozen fast. Thus a few days' delay obtainedby negotiation at the beginning of December would be of real