*CHAPTER XI*
*War-Look-See*
Schwab is Shocked--Snapshots--The Coming Battle--To Liao-yang--Schwab'sOpportunity--Carpe Diem--Suobensius--Shimose--LastWishes--Stackelberg--Something Accomplished--Rhapsody--Two-Piece Pony
That night Jack shared a tiny room with Hi Lo. The boy had becomeaccustomed to see his master in Chinese dress, but the situation wasentirely changed now that he had to regard him as an equal and addresshim as Sin Foo. Jack impressed on the little fellow that everythingdepended on his caution--Jack's own safety, and the prosecution of hisquest; and Hi Lo showed a quite painful anxiety to behave withdiscretion and yet with naturalness.
Next day Schwab spent several hours in explaining to Jack, not toolucidly, the working of the camera; the development of the negatives hereserved for himself. Then he prepared to sally forth to make a fewexperiments. An American correspondent, standing with his hands in hispockets at the door of the little Chinese hotel, observed Jack as hepassed.
"Hello, Schwab!" he shouted. "Caught a Tartar at last, eh?"
"Yes, Mr. Vanzant--if zat is not a shoke. Zis man is not afraid--he gifsign of modicum of intelligence; I zink he vill do."
"I guess he will do for your camera; well, so long!"
Walking out of the city, Schwab set Jack to take photographs of a fewprominent objects--the Temple of Earth beyond the eastern gate, the Tombof Wen-Hsiang, the statesman who rose from being a table-boy to thehighest official appointments, Dr. Christie's Hospital, where the littleScots doctor had dispensed the blessings of Western surgery and medicineto thousands of grateful patients. Schwab was delighted with Sin Foo'srapid progress; it amazed him.
"Truly I zink ze Manchu is not such a fool as he look," he said.
"My plenty muchee glad masta likee Sin Fool," said Jack gravely.
"Ach! You do so vell zat to-morrow ve go to take var pictures. Zerevill soon be a great battle; ze Russians shall at last do gootbusiness."
In the afternoon they went up to the railway-station to see if seatscould be booked in next morning's train, Jack carrying the camera incase anything of interest should offer. The station was crowded. Formany days troops had been passing towards the south; the platform wasnow thronged with soldiers, surgeons, nurses, camp-followers. Schwabwas amazed, his German sense of discipline was shocked, to see colonelswalking arm in arm with lieutenants; still more when he noticed aplacard stuck up in the buffet, signed by General Sakharoff, threateningwith dire punishment any officer who should presume to criticise hissuperiors or their conduct of the operations. He was disgusted also toobserve, in a siding, a superb dining-room car in which a company ofofficers and ladies were eating and drinking with a light-hearted gaietythat ill matched the occasion, if the rumours of the stupendous battleapproaching were well founded.
"You, Sin Foo," said Schwab, "I tell you zis; zat is not var. Zat isnot ze vay ve Gairmans shall behave ourselves ven ve go to invadeEngland; zen you vill see var zat _is_ var. You understan'?"
Seeing little probability of obtaining a seat in the train, Schwabdecided to return to the hotel and journey south on ponies.
As they left the station a number of Russian soldiers who had justmarched in were lying dead-beat in a sort of trench parallel with asiding. A troop train was being slowly made up, doubtless to conveythese and other men southward to the front. Schwab stood contemplatingthem for a moment. Then he turned to Jack.
"Boy, upfix ze camera; ve vill take schnapshot of zese men."
"Allo lightee, masta," replied Jack, wondering at the German's choice ofa subject. He was to be enlightened on that point later.
It was late in the day by the time they reached the city. Passing alongthe principal street, they saw a crowd of natives hurrying down a sidealley uttering piercing shouts. Jack noticed that two or three of themhad buckets suspended from the ends of a long bamboo pole carried on theshoulder.
"My tinkey house hab catchee fia."
"A gonflagration in Moukden! Zat vill be ver' interesting to zeabonnenten of my baber. Ve vill take it on ze hop."
Schwab led the way, his tall bulky form making a path through the crowd.A pawn-shop was ablaze. The roof had already fallen in. Siberianinfantrymen were trying to keep order in the crowd--hundreds of Chinamenyelling, jostling each other, going hither and thither with theirbuckets, splashing through the mud. Many of them were laughinguproariously; to the Chinaman a fire is purely a spectacle, to beenjoyed without any disturbing sympathy for the victims, whose effortsto save themselves and their goods are greeted as the most enjoyablefarce. Some of the crowd were waving bright-coloured flags; in theglare from the burning house it was like a scene from a country fair.Here and there Chinamen were squirting feeble and futile jets of wateron the house from tiny copper pumps, like the syringes used at home forwatering flowers. An old mandarin in yellow silk forced his way throughthe press, paying no heed to the fire, anxious only to get home withoutsoiling his white socks. But the throng was becoming unwieldy; therewas danger of the whole quarter being set ablaze; and at last a Russiancaptain came up with a squad of men at the request of the ChineseViceroy himself, and set about clearing the street in a business-likeway. For a few minutes the confusion seemed redoubled; the Chinamenscampered this way and that as the Russians came at the double along thestreet. This moment was seized by Schwab, who evidently had a keen eyefor a tableau. At his bidding Jack took a snap-shot of the strangescene--a scene that would have been appropriate to the stage of a comicopera. Then he returned with his employer to the Green Dragon. Thecorrespondents there--French, Italian, English, and American--were inthe bustle of preparation for moving out next day to Liao-yang, where abig battle was expected to take place.
Jack, it must be confessed, was considerably excited at the prospect ofseeing something at close quarters of this terrible war, which hadbrought forth so many surprises for the world. Hitherto he had seennothing but its fringe; and of the many contradictory rumours he hadheard he was not disposed to believe too much. The Russian officerswith whom he had talked were divided into two classes: the partisans ofAlexeieff and those of Kuropatkin. The majority pinned their faith toKuropatkin. If he had been left alone, they said, the war would havefollowed an entirely different course. He would have waited patientlyat Harbin until his army had been raised to overwhelming strength; thenhe would have taken the offensive and driven the Japanese into the sea.But his strategy had been dictated either by Alexeieff or from St.Petersburg. Worse than that, he had not been able to devote his wholeenergies to the proper work of a commander-in-chief. That in itself wasa stupendous task for one man, afflicted with a poor staff. But thegeneral had been compelled to attend to details of commissariat,hospital arrangements, the supply of clothes, the preparation of maps.His was a harassing struggle against corruption, incompetence, anddrunkenness. Once, alighting at a railway-station to make aninspection, he found the platform strewn with intoxicated officers.With a burst of anger, unusual in a man habitually patient and calm, heordered the wretched men to be sent on by the first train to the front.
What had been the course of the war since that memorable May day whenthe invading army crossed the Yalu? General Kuroki's brilliant dash wasfollowed by several weeks of what to the outside world seemedcomparative inaction. But during that period both sides were strainingevery nerve: the Russians to hurry forward reinforcements and completethe great fortified positions along the railway; the Japanese to perfectthe arrangements for the three great armies which were, first, to cutoff Port Arthur, and then to move northwards against the main Russianforces concentrating in the neighbourhood of Liao-yang. GeneralStackelberg having failed at Wa-fang-ho in his forlorn hope against thearmy investing Port Arthur, the northward movement of the Japanese wasslowly resumed, the Russian right being steadily driven back along therailway with occasional half-hearted attempts to stem the Japaneseadvance. Meanwhile General Kuroki on the east had forced the mountainpa
sses at Motien-ling, and General Nodzu, in command of the centre, waspreparing for the attack on the Russian position at To-ma-shan thatresulted in the evacuation of Hai-cheng. The beginning of August foundthe three Japanese armies relentlessly driving the Russian forcestowards the fortified positions south of Liao-yang which GeneralKuropatkin had prepared as the scene of his first serious attempt toroll back the tide of invasion.
It was a warm, dry morning, the 29th of August, when Schwab, Jack, andHi Lo, mounted on hardy ponies, hit the Green Dragon for their fortymiles ride to Liao-yang.
Just before they reached the gate, Jack had an exceedingly uncomfortablemoment when he noticed his father's enemy Sowinski hurrying in theopposite direction in a Pekin cart. The Pole passed without recognizingthe tall figure in Chinese dress, though he gave a nod to Schwab. Jackknew that to the European all Chinamen look pretty much alike; but hedid not wish to come to too close quarters with the Pole, and was gladthat for a time at any rate he would run no risk of being recognized inthe streets.
The rains had ceased some days before; the wind was beginning to dry themud which in the wet season renders all traffic impossible. The othercorrespondents had already gone to the front, and when our riders leftthe mud walls of Moukden behind them they saw nobody on the road excepta regiment of Cossacks marching off behind their band, and a number ofGreek camp-followers going south in the hope of reaping some profit fromthe battle.
As they approached Liao-yang they heard the dull boom of guns in thedistance. For several days the three Japanese armies under GeneralsKuroki, Oku, and Nodzu had been marching through mountain passes and thevalleys opening upon the Tai-tse-ho, and the Russians had been fallingback on the circular line of defences which for three months they hadbeen strengthening. As he heard the thunderous reverberations, Schwabexulted.
"So!" he exclaimed, "I haf vaited long time. At last my obbortunity hafcome. Zis are business. Ze _Illustrirte Vaterland und Colonien_ shallhaf fine bictures taken egsbress by a Gairman viz native assistance onze sbot. Famos!"
Liao-yang is a walled city lying on the direct road from Moukden toNewchang and Port Arthur, and even more picturesquely situated than thecapital. Three miles north of the city flows the Tai-tse-ho, taking anortherly course by the north-east corner of the walls. The railwaypasses at some distance to the west, making an acute angle with thewestern end of the city. Southward the ground rises gradually. Herethe Russians had prepared their defences; the crests of the hills werescored with several lines of trenches, the result of three months'diligent spade-work.
Schwab and his two companions, entering the city from the north, foundthemselves in the midst of great bustle and activity. The streets werethronged with soldiers; long lines of transport wagons were arriving;and the merchants, native and foreign, were plying a brisk trade. Schwabhad some difficulty in finding a lodging; the hotel, kept by a Greek,was full; but he at length secured a small cottage near the wall at anexorbitant rental. It was evening when they arrived; Hi Lo prepared asupper consisting of tinned sausages and biscuit brought from Moukden,and pears purchased from a local fruiterer. The booming of artillery hadceased, but the city was full of noise, and Jack was amazed at thecareless light-hearted mood in which the soldiers, officers and men,were preparing for the struggle.
Before seeking repose on his frowsy k'ang that night, Herr Schwab wentout to prospect for a spot on which to place his camera next day. Hereturned in a state of exaltation.
"Zere shall be colossal combat," he said. "I haf shtood on ze blatformby ze reservoir, and zere I converse viz high Russian officer, hisgloves vite as snow. No more shall zere be evacuation, he tell me; zefight shall now be to ze death. Boy, ve shall see shtubendous zinks.You are afraid?"
Map of Battle of Liao-Yang, Aug-Sept. 1904. Map of Battleof Moukden.]
"My no aflaid this-time, masta; allo-same my tinkey no hab look-seebobbely yet; what-time guns makee big bang-lo, that-time masta talkee'bout Sin Foo he belongey aflaid."
"Vell, you muss screw your gourage to ze shticky place, for vizout doubtve shall be in ze midst of schrapnells. It insbires me: I breeze deep.I zink of my ancestor Hildebrand Suobensius, a great fighter, aLandsknecht, in ze Middle Age. Vun say zat I am ver' like."
Herr Schwab struck his chest, and continued:
"It is in ze blood. Zerefore vake me early in ze morning; ve shall beearly out to secure a goot blace."
But there was no need for Sin Foo to wake his master. Before day hadfully broken, Herr Schwab was shocked from his sleep by the boom ofheavy guns--the opening of a cannonade that broke the paper windows andset the crockery rattling. Springing up, he bade Hi Lo saddle the twoponies, and, stuffing some biscuits into his pocket, set off with Jackand the camera, leaving Hi Lo to guard the house.
He led the way to the north-west of the town, past the reservoir and thebrick-built government offices near the railway-station, which wasalready crowded with officers scanning the horizon through theirbinoculars. On the previous night he had marked a solitary hill, knownas the Shu-shan, some distance south-west of the city, as an ideal placefor a general view of the battle-field. An old Korean signal-towercrowned its summit; it was approached on two sides by easy slopes, buton the north was precipitous, its rocky face cut by ravines dark withoverhanging clumps of firs. At the western base a battery of artillerywas posted.
Arriving at the hill, Schwab saw that it was impossible to ride up itsnorthern face, while to ascend on either side would be to court deathfrom the Japanese shells. But in his zeal on behalf of the _IllustrirteVaterland_ he was determined to gain the summit. Hitching the pony'sreins to a tree, he bade Jack follow him up the steep acclivity nearerthe road, warning him to be very careful of the camera. After a stiffclimb they, panting, reached the top. Just as they appeared there was aprolonged whistle followed by a sharp crack; the new-comers wereassailed with loud shouts; several hands seized upon Schwab and forcedhim into a trench cut in front of the tower, and rough Russian voicesinformed the puffing German that he had narrowly escaped a shrapnel. Hedid not understand what they said; but Jack, who had slipped into thetrench behind him, whispered:
"My tinkey this plenty nasty place. Japanese he shoot too stlaight."
Herr Schwab mopped his face with a red bandanna and glanced somewhatnervously around. But the shock wore off, and finding himself to allseeming well protected, his courage soared into antiquity.
"My ancestor, Hildebrand Suobensius----" he began.
There was a shriek above him; another shell had burst but a few yardsaway. He dropped flat in the trench. Twisting his neck until one sideof its fleshiness was creased with deep furrows, he said:
"Tell me, boy, do you see any more shells goming?"
Jack peeped cautiously over.
"My no look-see no mo'e, masta. He come long-long chop-chop all-same."
Schwab slowly rose to his knees, again mopping his brow.
"Zis is most terrible. Never did I zink zat var vas such a business!Gnaediger Himmel! vy haf I gome? Boy, I haf a bresentiment." His voicesank on a tragic note. "I feel it here." He laid his hand on the lowerbuttons of his ample waistcoat. "I, Hildebrand Schwab, shall vizoutdoubt be killed." He wrung the bandanna out. "Listen, boy, gif notice:ven I am killed you shall send all my goots to Schlagintwert Gompany inDuesseldorf, all egzept ze letter to Schneiders Sohne, vich gontainorder for vun dozen trouser stretchers for General Belinski; zat youshall bost. And listen, boy:"--here his voice sank to a confidentialwhisper--"in my writing-desk zere is a visp of my hair tied up viz binkribbon, and a boem, a boem of lov; zese you vill send to ze Frau JaneBottle, at ze address on ze envelope, and you vill register ze packett.Yes--and insure it--you shall insure it for hundert dollars."
Herr Schwab sighed deeply, at the same time keeping an eye on thedirection whence the last shell had come.
Another shrapnel burst a few yards in his rear. He groaned, lamentingbitterly. The men of Stackelberg's 1st Siberian Infantry paid noattention to him;
in the trench they were secure. General Stackelberghimself was at the other end, grimly peering through his glasses overthe epaulement.
Suddenly the projectiles ceased to pass over them. Jack ventured toraise his head and scan the surrounding country. Before him stretched aplain dotted with villages, the fields covered with the waving greenstalks of kow-liang. On the crests beyond, some two miles away, lay thebatteries of the Japanese; their infantry was swarming in theintervening level, but concealed by the kow-liang. To the left,separated from the Shu-shan hill by the An-shan-chan road, was anirregular line of lower heights, stretching as far as the eye couldreach and out of sight. Here were posted the main forces of the Russianinfantry, ensconced in cunningly devised trenches. In every gap betweenthe rocky hills batteries were placed, concealed by every possibledevice. To the west of Shu-shan the Russian cavalry, with a portion ofthe 1st Siberian Army Corps, was stationed to protect the railway andthe right flank. Behind, between the hills and the town, large forcesof infantry were held in reserve, with the hospital tents and fieldambulances. Temporary lines of rail had been laid from the station tothe rear of the hills, and on these trolleys containing ammunition werepushed along by men.
Jack explained as much of the position as he could see to Schwab, who,in the security of the trench, took diligent notes, for reproduction inthe _Illustrirte Vaterland_ as first-hand evidence.
"But tell me, boy, do you see General Kuroki? I do not lov GeneralKuroki; he ill-use me, he gif me vat zey call beans, ven I vas in Korealast year. Is he in sight?"
"My no can look-see one piecee Japanese. Allo hidee inside kowliang."
"So! I make a note of zat. All ze Japanese hide. Ver' goot."
Jack now became aware that General Stackelberg was standing erect at theend of the trench, fully exposed to the Japanese gunnery. The general,in hooded cloak, wearing white gloves, spick and span as if on parade,was calmly sweeping the plain with his glass, issuing orders, dictatingtelegrams, slowly, deliberately. Shells again began to fly around; butStackelberg, summoned to the telephone installed behind the tower,walked erect towards the spot heedless of a shrapnel that burst within afew yards of him, bespattering his clothes with black dust. Jack felt athrill of admiration; the general was giving the lie to the slandererswho said that at Wa-fang-ho he had skulked in his carriage.
Now the sharp crackle of musketry was mingled with the shrieking of theshells. Long lines of Japanese were threading their way through thefields, endeavouring to turn the Russian right. Stackelberg marked themovement; he gave an order; the Russians in the trenches sprang to theirfeet and ran down the slope to reinforce the threatened position. Rainbegan to fall, and Schwab raised his head from the trench.
"Ach! it rains. Vill it shtop ze battle, zink you?"
"My no tinkey so," said Jack. "Japanese, he fetchee plenty big guns; hecome this-side chop-chop."
"Ach, ich Ungluecklicher!" Schwab hastily dropped back into safety."Nefer shall I leave ze Vaterland again. But I shall not return;Duesseldorf shall zee me no more; no; I haf a bresentiment; I feel ithere."
Jack, following the movement of his employer's hand, made a suggestion.
"P'laps masta he belongey hungly; p'laps he want-chee chow-chow." Heoffered him a biscuit.
Schwab shook his head dismally.
"No, no; I haf no abbedide."
"My eat he."
Nibbling the biscuit, Jack, in a lull of the firing, ventured to leavethe trench. A moment later he called to Schwab.
"My hab catchee one-piecee pictul. Japanese lunning long-side kowliang;littee littee black t'ings inside gleen stalks."
"Gott sei dank! I shall not die vizout agomblishing somezink for zeVaterland. Ach! zere is anozer!"
There was a gentle sound overhead, like the cry of a wounded bird. Anaide-de-camp crossing the hill-top fell with a groan. A bearer-partymarked with the Red Cross appeared from behind the tower and swiftlybore him out of sight.
Schwab flattened himself as much as his rotund form permitted againstthe floor of the trench. The cannonade was resumed with redoubled fury.The din was incessant; shells whistling and shrieking; musketrycrackling; the Russian batteries in their emplacements thundering asthey replied to the Japanese.
Whole ranks of the Japanese were mowed down in the fields; still theypressed on. They were attempting to turn the Russian right.Reinforcements were hurried to the threatened regiments; batteryanswered battery; the ground trembled under the repeated shocks. Theattack was repulsed, and long blood-stained tracks marked the path ofthe bearers as they conveyed thousands of wounded to the rear.Stackelberg had held his own.
Dusk was falling, the rain ceased, and a steaming mist rose over theground. There was a lull in the firing. Jack stood upon the epaulement.To the left he saw a village in flames.
"My hab catchee nuzza velly good pictul, masta," he said.
"Goot boy! Zink you it is now safe for me to shtand opp?"
"My tinkey so. He fightey man tinkee hab plenty nuff."
Schwab got up slowly on his knees, peered over the edge of the trench,then stood upon his feet. He was beginning to regain his spirits.
"So! Famos!" he exclaimed. "I see all ze whole fielt of battle; I seeburning villages, black fielts, hundert or tousand dead men. Zis isvar. Vat a--vat a"--Herr Schwab was at a loss for words--"vat a zink isvar!" He threw out his chest and snuffed the smoke-laden breeze. "ButI muss go and describe ze battle for my journal, illusdraded vizphotographs taken by a Gairman sobjeck on ze sbot. My ancestorHildebrand----"
They were turning to walk down the hill; a belated shrapnel shell burstwithin a few yards of them, peppering the ground in all directions. Asplinter shaved off an inch or two of the leather cover of the camera.Schwab cut short his reminiscence by dropping flat upon the rain-soakedground. When he arose, a pitiable object, after a short period ofself-communing, without further words he hastened towards the path.
Another shell crashed upon the rocks to the left, hurling a loftyfir-tree into the ravine.
"Ach! gome alonk, gome alonk! Ve shall be killed. Let us go to find ourbonies."
Scrambling down to the spot where they had left the animals, Schwabuttered a woeful cry; they had disappeared. A Siberian infantryman waspassing; him the German interrogated. But the Russian shook his head;he knew no German. Jack ventured to question him in broken Russian.
"Yes, I did see two ponies. A Chinaman led them. That was long ago."
"He say-lo China boy hab catchee two-piecee pony, wailo long-time."
Schwab lifted up his voice in bitter lamentation. It was growing dark;the ground had been made a miry swamp by the rain; there was noalternative but to tramp back through it to Liao-yang. They reached themandarin road. Their feet sank ankle-deep in mud; at every step theyalmost left their boots behind. Long stretches of the road were underwater. Carts were passing drawn by long teams of mules. Schwab triedto bargain for a seat, but the drivers refused to listen to him; theirloads were wounded men, who at every jolt uttered heart-rending moans.Jack suggested that they should leave the road and cut across the fieldsto the railway; they would find the embankment easier walking. Thisthey did, pursued, as it seemed, by the whistling bullets of theJapanese. At length, unharmed, untouched, they reached the northerngate, and, entering, made their way all bemired, weary and famished, tothe cottage where Hi Lo awaited them.
Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War Page 12
