Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

by Herbert Strang

  *CHAPTER XXI*

  *The Battle of the Yalu River*

  The Impossible--Stage Properties--Outwitted--The Battle Opens--Russiansat Bay--Yamaguchi's Experiences

  "It is clear, Mr. Fawcett, that you have the bump of locality."

  "I am not sure of that, sir. What I remember of these hills is due tothe Manchu Chang-Wo. We were continually looking back, expecting to seehim on our track."

  "At any rate you seem to have brought away a remarkably vivid impressionof the country--fortunately for us. This path, bad as it is, has savedus an immensity of labour, and--what is more important--time."

  General Inouye pulled up his horse as he spoke, and looked back upon thelong line of troops zigzagging up the face of the mountain. The blueuniforms of the Japanese soldiers showed up clearly against the bareochreous rocks of the hillside, offering a conspicuous mark to theenemy, had the enemy been there to see. But these rugged, precipitoushills had always been regarded as impracticable for troops; the Russianshad no fear of attack from this quarter, and had made no attempt tooccupy them.

  There was an unusually large prospect from the spur overhanging the deepgully on which General Inouye and Bob stood side by side. Above themthe road disappeared abruptly round the face of the mountain; below, itwound erratically down the boulder-strewn slope, here and there plungingout of sight in a hollow, to emerge again, it might be hundreds of yardslower down, as a narrow ledge on the face of a perpendicular crag, onwhich the Japanese troops seemed in the distance like an army of ants onthe march.

  These were the hills through which Bob and his party had made theirperilous journey some weeks earlier. They lay on the left flank of theRussian army drawn up around Kiu-lien-cheng, and on the banks of theYalu, to hurl back the Japanese when they attempted to set foot inManchuria. General Sassulitch fondly hoped that these hills would afforda complete protection to his flank: as the event was ordered, it wasfrom them that he sustained his most crushing blow. The TwelfthDivision, known to the Japanese as the Sampo Shidan in consequence ofits large equipment of mountain-guns, was chosen to make the hazardouspassage, and to any troops of less endurance than the Japanese, the taskmight well have proved impossible; for they were not only required tocross a series of steep mountain ridges, but to do so within a verylimited time, and to bring their guns with them. Bob watched the steadyprogress of the column with many a thrill of admiration, and with pridethat he was privileged to bear a small part in this momentous movement.Burdened with its artillery, ammunition, and supplies, the column movedsteadily forward; now crawling with infinite pains up almostperpendicular slopes, the willing little soldiers pushing, hauling, attimes almost carrying the wretched horses and ponies groaning underguns, gun-carriages, or boxes of shell; then with no less strainstaggering, slipping, sliding down the opposite face of the hill, tobegin another climb in this unending series of bluffs and chasms.

  The march had begun early in the day; it was now late in the afternoon,and Bob more than once saw General Inouye looking anxiously westward.They rounded the shoulder of a steep hill; half a mile or more ahead asmall body of cavalry thrown out in advance had halted, evidently indoubt as to their further course.

  "To the left," said Bob, answering General Inouye's unspoken question,"across that small spur, and straight up the farther slope."

  The general translated the instructions to an aide-de-camp, whoclattered down the hill at the imminent risk of his neck.

  "You say, Mr. Fawcett, that in another hour we should open up the Ai-horiver?"

  "Yes, sir. As far as I remember we sighted the river from the crest ofyonder hill." Bob pointed, as he spoke, to a conical hill about twomiles ahead, behind which the sun was now setting in a blaze of glory.Within the hour General Inouye and his staff had gained the crest of thehill, and were looking down on the noisy little river hurrying through anarrow valley to join the Yalu some miles below. On the far side of thestream was another range of hills, upon which, as General Inouye wasaware, the main Russian force was concentrated. It was against thesehills that the Twelfth Division would hurl itself at dawn on thefollowing day.

  Approaching the Ai-ho the hills became somewhat less rugged,facilitating the deployment of General Inouye's force along the leftbank of the river. The Twelfth Division had arrived in good time at theappointed place; with guns unlimbered for action, it waited only for theword.

  "Good-night, Mr. Fawcett," said General Inouye when they separated;"good-night, and thank you. You have rendered us a most valuableservice--how valuable the events of to-morrow may show."

  Bob spent the night in the bivouac of the staff. Even the prospect ofthe coming struggle failed to disturb his sleep. He had gone throughtoo many experiences of late not to take full advantage of any chance ofrest.

  The position of the two armies that lay facing each other through thelong summer night was in many respects an extraordinary one. The riverYalu is joined nearly opposite Wiju by the Ai-ho; above and below theconfluence its channel is dotted with numerous large islands, betweenwhich the stream threads a tortuous and at times impetuous course. Atthe angle formed by the two rivers is Tiger Hill, a steep bluff juttingfar out into the channel. Just below the hill runs the Mandarin roadfrom Seoul to Pekin, passing from Wiju on the south bank, across twosandy islands connected by a ferry, and thence to Kiu-lien-cheng, on theManchurian side, a short distance to the north of the river.

  The Battle of the Yalu River Showing the flankingmovement of the 12th Division]

  The Russian front, before the development of General Kuroki's attack,extended from a point opposite Yongampo at the mouth of the Yalu toSukuchin, some thirty miles up the river, and above Wiju. The main bodywas massed around Kiu-lien-cheng, the left wing having its outposts onTiger Hill and the islands in the river above that point, while theright had outposts on the larger islands opposite Wiju. A strong forcewas held in reserve at Antung.

  On his ride up from Wiju Bob had been greatly puzzled by a series ofhuge screens of brushwood, matting, and stalks placed along or acrossthe roadway. What object, he wondered, could they serve? It was notuntil he reached the high ground near the Yalu that their purpose becameclear to him. He saw then that the heights on the Russian side of theriver completely overlooked the lower hills on the Korean bank; inordinary circumstances every movement could be observed from the Russianlines; the numbers and dispositions of troops, the construction offortifications and batteries, could all be noted with the aid of strongfield-glasses. From the Japanese point of view this was a seriousweakness of the position. Secrecy is so essential a condition of theJapanese system of conducting warfare that General Kuroki was led toadopt a novel and somewhat extraordinary method of baffling thecuriosity of the enemy. Looking back from a point of vantage near theriver, Bob saw a force of blue-coated Japanese infantry marching to thefront along the Mandarin road. Suddenly they disappeared behind a leafyscreen, and though he watched carefully, expecting to see them emergeagain farther along the highway, he was unable to detect any furthersign of their presence. The incident recalled a conjuring trick of Mr.Maskelyne; and to the Russians beyond the river it must have been bothpuzzling and irritating. Thanks to this system of screens they couldneither form an estimate of the strength of the Japanese opposed tothem, nor make any likely guess as to the probable point of attack.Their position was one of extreme strength; but uncertainty regardingGeneral Kuroki's movements largely discounted the advantages theyenjoyed as a defensive force entrenched among rugged hills. Here andthere, indeed, General Kuroki allowed them to obtain a hint of hisarrangements; they snapped at the bait--with what result is now writtenin history.

  It was nearly ten years since the Japanese Field-marshal Yamagata hadforced the passage of the Yalu in the face of a Chinese army supposed tobe impregnably entrenched in the positions now held by the Russians. Themain crossing had been made opposite Wiju, but the principal movementwas greatly assisted by the passage of a col
umn higher up the river atSukuchin. General Sassulitch must anxiously have asked himself whetherthe Japanese would or would not repeat this operation. Patrioticself-complacency probably suggested the answer. Was it likely that theJapanese would dare to repeat against a trained and disciplined Russianarmy the manoeuvre, necessarily hazardous, which they had risked againstraw Chinese levies? Emphatically no. And in arriving at this conclusionthe Russian general was assisted by an ingenious feint on the part ofhis opponent. With an openness that should have inspired distrust,General Kuroki collected a large amount of bridging material on theKorean shore at Yongampo and higher up the river opposite Antung, whilea strong naval flotilla, comprising torpedo-boats, destroyers, andgun-boats, fought its way some distance up-stream, as though in supportof a projected crossing in the lower reaches. To meet the expectedattack in this quarter the Russian general kept a large body of troopselaborately entrenched in readiness at Antung, and allowed his attentionto be diverted from the point thirty miles higher up, at which the firstcrossing had been made ten years earlier.

  General Kuroki had completely taken the measure of his adversary.Having persuaded General Sassulitch to disperse his troops over anunnecessarily large front, he made careful dispositions to ensure asuccessful passage of the river at Sukuchin, and under cover of a flankattack from this quarter he proposed to pass the main body of his armyacross the island-strewn channel opposite Wiju. The Twelfth Division,entrusted with the flank movement, had easily driven away a smallRussian force stationed on the right bank opposite Sukuchin, thrown apontoon bridge across the river, and established itself on the rightbank almost without opposition. The Russians made no attempt to correcttheir mistake, so convinced were they that the real danger lay towardsthe mouth of the river. Besides, were they not sufficiently protectedby the chain of impassable ridges that stretched far inland between theYalu and the Ai-ho? Yet it was across these impassable ridges that theTwelfth Division had orders to make its way, and establish itself on theleft bank of the tributary stream in readiness for a general attack onthe Russian position. This movement, as we have seen, was duly carriedout. It was the eve of May-day.

  A fierce artillery duel had meanwhile been fought between the Japanesebatteries near Wiju and the Russian positions around Kiu-lien-cheng. Inthis battle of the giants the Russians were completelyoutmatched--another triumph of Japanese secrecy and prevision. Unknownto the enemy the Japanese had brought by sea to the Yalu a large numberof quick-firers and heavy guns, and, most important of all, severalhowitzers. To these the Russians could only oppose a limited number offield-pieces. A movement of Japanese infantry towards the crest of thehills on the Korean side drew the fire of the Russian batteries anddisclosed their position. They were at once answered by an appallingcannonade from the Japanese batteries. From the islands in the river,from the heights north and south of Wiju, the Japanese rained amurderous fire of shell and shrapnel upon the luckless Russian gunners.There was no escape, for they had not reckoned with the howitzerscunningly placed in pits on the islets beneath, and able to search thewhole Russian position with high-angle fire. The hills seemed to wiltunder the storm; the earth was riddled, the very rocks were rent withthe hail of lead and steel scattered by the bursting charges of theterrible Shimose powder. A thick pall of poisonous smoke hung over thedevoted Russian batteries; nothing could live under this shatteringbombardment. The Russians stuck to their guns like heroes; nevercertainly did soldiers deserve better of their country. But graduallytheir fire slackened, then died away: the gunners lay dead at theirposts.

  That night the Guards and the Second Division of the Japanese army werepassed by two bridges across the river, and took up a position on theright bank, sheltered under the bluffs or in the hollows in the sandybed of the stream. The Second Division had crossed somewhat below Wijuto an island on the far side of the channel, the Guards immediatelyopposite Tiger Hill. The Russians were now threatened with a frontalattack by these two divisions--the Second operating direct from theYalu, the Guards across the mouth of the Ai-ho--while the TwelfthDivision, higher up the Ai-ho, was ready to attack them in flank.

  Bob was tingling with excitement when he awoke on the auspicious morningof May-day. The air was crisp and keen, but spring had come at last;spring, and with it the dawn of a new era for Japan. General Inouye'scamp was early astir; the sturdy little soldiers, in their trim blueuniforms, went about their morning duties with quiet cheerfulness, readyto launch themselves at the word upon the grim hills opposite, wheredeath, they knew, awaited some; glory, they hoped, all.

  Too late the Russian general had realized his fatal error in allowingthe Twelfth Division to march unopposed across the hills. Too late hehad taken such feverish steps as were now possible in the attempt toretrieve it. He had withdrawn in haste a considerable force from Antungto hold the bluffs on the right bank of the Ai-ho, and hurriedly begunto throw up entrenchments. General Inouye smiled when he learnt ofthese tardy efforts to stay him; plans carefully thought out for yearswere not likely to be foiled by bustle at the eleventh hour.

  Hardly had the sun risen when the battle was begun by a general outburstof artillery fire along the whole of the Japanese lines. There was noresponse from the enemy; it almost seemed as if the position werealready deserted. But soon the order was given to the Japanese infantryto advance to the assault. The three divisions moved forwardsimultaneously. Bob could not see what the other two were doing, but hewatched with tense eagerness as the Twelfth Division dashed down thehillside to the bank of the Ai-ho. A murderous rifle-fire was openedupon them from the Russian trenches. But never a man faltered.Springing on nimbly, some taking what cover the ground afforded, othersdisdaining precaution, they reached the stream. They plunged in,holding their rifles and pouches above their heads, and forcing theirway against the rapid current that swept along breast-high. They hadnow entered the zone of fire; the surface of the river boiled under thehail of Russian bullets; the turbid waters were red with Japan's bestblood; but to Bob, watching intently from the hill above, the sound oftheir war-song came floating upon the morning breeze--

  "Oh! it is easy to cross the Yalu river!"

  and, with sublime and happy indifference, they struggled on.

  Look: they are gaining the farther bank. At last--it seems aneternity!--the river is crossed. Up, up they scramble, scaling thebluffs in grim silence now. The air rattles with the crack of rifles,throbs with the thud of heavy guns. Men are falling fast, but thesurvivors are still pressing on, up the murderous heights, ever drawingnearer to the enemy on the crest. Bob, his whole body a-tingle, canbear his inaction no longer. He turns to a senior officer of the staff:

  "May I follow them up, sir? I have nothing to do now."

  "You had better stay with us," replied the officer with a smile,lowering his field-glass; "still, if you wish--"

  Bob does not wait for second thoughts. He races down the hill, wadesthe river, and springs up the bluff in time to overtake the rear of theadvancing line. What impels him he knows not; all he feels is that hemust be there--there, at the supreme moment of the conflict. He gainsthe crest and looks eagerly ahead. Ah! the Russians are falling back,and back, and back; not in rout, but sullenly retreating to the nextridge, turning there at bay, occupying every post of vantage, andpouring thence their terrible fire. They will not wait, then, for pushof pike? No; and when they have discharged their rifles they run again.Nothing stays the advance. The Japanese swarm up and over every newposition, the enemy scurry like rabbits before them, and now, as thepace quickens, and the victors drive the fugitives up hill and down daleacross these rugged pathless hills, the retreat becomes a rout, and thelittle soldiers raise a great shout of joy.

  While the Twelfth Division had thus triumphantly performed the greatoperation entrusted to them, their comrades of the Second and GuardsDivisions had pressed home their attacks on the Russian front. Thewhole of General Sassulitch's army was in full flight on Homatan andFeng-huang-cheng. General Kuroki
had only a small force of cavalry topursue the retreating enemy; he had to rely largely on the speed andendurance of his infantry, and they pressed on the heels of the Russianswith a relentless activity which, in this mountainous country, nocavalry could have equalled. The guns, even the mountain batteries,specially equipped for speedy transit, were left miles behind, and threeof the leading Japanese companies, having outstripped the rest of thepursuing infantry, found themselves terribly outmatched when theRussians at last turned at bay on the plateau of Homatan. The threecompanies of Japanese were suddenly confronted by a battalion ofinfantry and two battalions of artillery, strongly posted on theplateau; but with magnificent determination they stuck like bull-dogs totheir grip, and engaged the enemy, holding them in fierce fight untilreinforcements should come up. The Japanese had only their rifles tooppose to the combined artillery and musketry fire of the Russians. Inthe company to which Bob had attached himself three out of every fourmen were either killed or wounded, yet the gallant survivors stuck totheir posts. Bob marvelled how he came unscathed through the hail ofshot and shell; it seemed that the little force must be annihilated.Still the gallant remnant held on; and at length, when they were attheir last cartridge, help came. Other companies of Japanese infantryswarmed up to the plateau. The Russian gunners, seeing that all waslost, wrenched the breech-blocks from the guns, hammered the sights, andbroke the levers. Then came a terrible three minutes' melee, in whichthe bayonet did its murderous work. Most of the Russians died at theirposts; three hundred were captured, together with the guns of the twobatteries. It would be hard to say whether the fight at Homatan wasmore glorious to the victors or to the vanquished.

  This was the last stand of the Russian army. The pursuit from thispoint was taken up by the small force of Japanese cavalry, and thewearied infantry, after an action almost unparalleled in militaryhistory, bivouacked on the field.

  The officers of the company extended to Bob a hearty welcome to theirmess; the menu consisted of the usual rations of the rank and file:rice, dried fish and pickles, washed down in water from a neighbouringmountain stream.

  Bob was eating as heartily as the rest when he was startled by afamiliar voice behind him.

  "How do, Bob?"

  He sprang up, and almost choked himself in the eagerness with which hewelcomed no other than his friend Yamaguchi.

  "Well--I'm--blowed!" he ejaculated, shaking hands so vigorously thatYamaguchi at length laughingly protested. "How in the world do you comehere?"

  "You don't bear me a grudge, then? I was very sorry; but I had to leaveyou with those Cossacks, you know."

  "Don't mention it; I'm only too glad you got away safely--though, intruth, your dastardly desertion of me has landed me in a pretty pickleof fish. But I'll forgive you; I'd forgive anybody to-day. Isn't thisglorious, old fellow? Did you see the fight?"

  "I had a little part in it. We've been working in the lower reaches ofthe river. General Kuroki deluded the Russians into the belief that ourmain crossing was to be effected there. Sassulitch swallowed it whole.I had to land some men yesterday on a small island above Yongampo. Wewere stormed by the enemy. I withdrew the survivors in boats, andunluckily my boat sank and I was knocked over by a splinter from aRussian shell. They picked me up and carried me off to Antung, and thentowards Feng-huang-cheng, but our cavalry came up and released me, andhere I am."

  "Got a bad knock?" asked Bob, noticing that his left arm was bound up.

  "Oh no! a bit of the muscle torn away, that's all. But come, I'm sureyou've more to tell than I have. I want to know what you've been aboutsince you deserted the _Kasumi_."

  Bob's story necessarily occupied a long time in the telling, butYamaguchi listened with growing excitement, never interrupting until Bobcame to the point where Kobo had rescued him from the tower.

  "Ah!" said the Japanese. "You came across Kobo? I put you off thescent, didn't I? Of course it was he I was in communication with onthose night expeditions from the _Kasumi_. But go on; your story'squite a romance."

  Bob proceeded with his narrative. When he told how Kobo had beencaptured almost within sight of safety, Yamaguchi looked distressed.

  "That's a national loss," he said. "We can't spare a man like Kobo San.That monster Chang-Wo will torture him--to wrench information out of himif he can--of course he can't--in sheer devilry at any rate. And theworst of it is nothing can be done for him--nothing."

  "I'm going to try," said Bob quietly.

  "You! You've had enough adventure, I should think, to last you alifetime. You'll be made mincemeat of yourself if Chang-Wo gets hold ofyou."

  "Nevertheless, I'm going to try. Kobo saved my life. I should be anungrateful beast if--Well, it won't bear discussion. I shall seeGeneral Kuroki as soon as I can, and get his leave."

  "You're a good fellow--upon my word, you are. I wish you luck. Ifanother than Kobo were concerned I'd do my best to hold you back, butfor him--I'd do it myself if I could. He's worth it. But I have to beoff to Antung to-morrow, and then rejoin my ship. Shall we see you onboard again?"

  "I don't know. Perhaps--if I find Kobo."