NODZU'S MOVEMENTS. 627 Japanese were inpossession of the hillwith only triflingloss, moremen having been disabled by the cold thanby the bullets of the enemy. But the battle had only begun. Ma-yu-kun held a group of villagesabout three miles north of the ridge,and was receiving reinforcements hurried forward by Sung, so that at ten o'clock the Japanese estimated that he had 20,000 men in line of battle. He had brought ten fieldpieces into action, and had also some machine-guns.

which were using smokeless powder. The Chinese gunners were making unusually good practice.

north of Hai-cheng. As soon as these were disposed of, he intended to move to Yamaji's assistance, and, with the combined force of ail three divisions, clear the Chinese out of the towns near the mouthof the LiaoRiver. Yingtzu would thenbeuseful when the ice broke up as a place where stores could be landed and an advance base formed for sorther operations towards Mukden or towards Pekin. The 3rd and5th Divisions were accordingly concentrated at Hai-cheng, and the ist Division also sent a detachment northwards from Kai-ping to that place. This detachment was to form the General Yamaji contentedhimself at first with bringing his own batteriesinto action from the ridge against the Chinese artillery. About eleven the enemy ventured on an attack, a column of 8,000 men advancing against the Japanese left. After some sharp fighting the Chinese weredriven back, and thenthe Japanese gunnersgradually got the better of the artillery duel. The entrenched villages held by the enemy were bombarded, and then the infantryadvanced to storm them. The enemy made a stubborn stand on the right in the village of East Shi-li-kow,and there was bayonet fighting in the streets. The infantry attack had begun at three o'clock. By half-past four the villages werein thepossession of the Japanese, and the Chinese were in full retreat. Yamaji's troops were tooexhausted to pursue. They passed the night in the villages, the streets of which were heaped withdead. I garrison whileNodzu with the two divisions was marchingagainst the Chinese.

At 4 a.m.on February 28th, Nodzu marched out of Hai-cheng, and at dawn attacked tlae Chinese and drove them from the hills north of the town. The Japanese lost fifteen killed and 109 wounded, the Chinese about 400. During the next two days (March ist and 2nd) tlae Chinese were driven northwards along the road that leads by Liao-yang to Mukden. But there was no fighting, only a few insignificant skirmishes. Each day Nodzu advanced against the Chinese front withhis main column, while a detached force under General Oseko, moving to his right, threatened the flank of the Chinese. They did not venture to risk a battle, evidently fearing to be cut off from their line of retreat on Mukden, which it was their mission to protect.

if In the forenoonof the 2ndNodzu had reached An-shan-chan. He now gave up the pursuit of theChinese, whom he pushed far enough from Hai-cheng to make the garrison fairly safe. Leaving a detachment to hold An-shan-chan,he turned to the south-west inorder to attack Niuchwang, and then join hands with Yamaji and capture the town and port of Ying-tzu. The garrisonof Niu-chwang had sent out acolumnof 1,500 men on the morning of the 2nd, to try to surprise Hai-cheng, which they supposed had been left without a garrison ; but, on finding out that they had been misinformed, they made a hurriedretreat.

The Japanese had lost thirty killed and 220 wounded, including a large number of officers. But more than a thousand men were disabled by frost-bite, many afterwards dying of their injuries. This was a heavy loss out of a total force of about 10,000 men. The Chinese losses must have been at least 2,000. The Japanese coolies and the peasants were busy till noon next dayburying the enemy's dead, and had a large number of their wounded in the field hospitals. About 800 more wTounded, carried off by Ma-yu-kun inhis retreat, weretaken care of in the Red Cross hospital established by the European and American residents at Ying-tzu, the treaty port at themouth of the Liao,usually known to us asNiu-chwang, though the town of thatname is really a place higher upthe river.

General Nodzu nowordered Yamaji tomerely hold the ground he had won, and observe Sung's army about Ying-tzu and Niu-chwang; while hehimself,with the 3rd and5thDivisions, enden.oured to break up the Chinese armies After a toilsome march through the deep snow, General Nodzu halted on the evening of the 3rd about six and a half miles east of Niuchwang,andmadehis preparations for theattack on thecity. The place had not the old massive wall that usually surrounds Chinese cities, but its defenders had roughly fortified it in a very effective way. They had constructed breastworks at the entrance of the town, loopholed