*CHAPTER XX*
*The Battle of Moukden*
Reservations--The Cupboard--Perfidious--"The Little More"--WinterQuarters--More Perfidy--Russians Concentrating--Captured Maxims--AMissing Messenger--The Battle Ground--Nogi dashes North--Hemmed In--Nogicuts the Railway--The North Road--A Carnival of Blood
"You have sold us completely, Ivan Ivanovitch," said Borisoff as theywalked back towards the inn. "I suppose that rascally guide of ours ledus into this trap."
"All's fair in war, you know. He is Wang Shih, Ah Lum's principallieutenant."
"He deserves to be hanged!" growled the captain. "So do you, Mr. Brown."
"We seldom get our deserts, Captain. But I think Lieutenant Borisoffhad better make a round of the houses and tell your men of thesurrender. I will send word to our man outside bidding him keep hisChunchuses in hand for the present. In a few minutes I will rejoin youat the inn."
As the lieutenant visited house after house he recognized how hopelessresistance would have been. At the given signal every dwelling wouldhave been rushed, and before the Cossacks could have realized what washappening they must have fallen to a man. The crestfallen troops wereparaded and disarmed in the street; then by the light of flares theconvoy was got ready, and an hour and a half later it set off from thevillage up the hillside, escorted by the Chunchuses, to join Ah Lum somefifteen miles away. Jack stood at the door of the inn beside CaptainKargopol as the convoy and prisoners filed past. Nearly a hundredpack-mules heavily laden with ammunition, winter clothing, andprovisions, and a hundred and fifty Cossacks, formed the prize of hisingenuity.
Several mules and their loads were left behind for the benefit of thevillagers who had assisted in the plot.
"You had better hide them," said Jack to the headman. "There is a largeCossack force only ten miles away: they may be down upon you at anymoment."
He learnt later that hardly were the last of the ponies and their loadssecured in caves and hollows among the hills when, shortly after dawn, asquadron of Cossacks galloped up--the advance guard of the twelvehundred men whom Captain Kargopol was to have joined with his convoy.The commander was furious when he heard the news, told him with muchsympathy by the headman, who reserved none of the details save only theparticipation of the villagers. Finding the track followed by theChunchuses, the commander sent a galloper back with the news and himselfpushed on in pursuit. But after three hours' hard riding his squadronwas effectually checked by a handful of men in a defile, and by the timehe had received sufficient support to force the pass the convoy hadreached Ah Lum's encampment, and nothing but a battle could recover it.
During the northward march Jack rode between Captain Kargopol andLieutenant Borisoff. They were eager for the promised explanation ofhis partnership with brigands. Jack had already made up his mind to bechary of details. He would give no hostages to fortune in the shape ofinformation that might be used against him later; nor would he sayanything about the friends whose assistance had been so valuable to him.Of Gabriele Walewska and the missionary, of Herr Schwab and thecompradore's brother, he therefore said never a word. The gist of hisexplanation was that, being uncertain and suspicious in regard to hisfather's fate, he had resolved to stay in the country, and found that hecould only do so safely in disguise. This being penetrated bySowinski's acuteness, he had perforce taken refuge with Ah Lum, one ofwhose lieutenants was an old friend of his.
"That rascally guide of ours, I suppose," said Borisoff. "Well, ithappens that I can give you a little information----"
"About my father?'
"No, I know nothing about him. A few weeks ago a curious thing happenedto that fellow Sowinski, a man I loathe. Kuropatkin received a telegramfrom Petersburg asking for particulars of the charges brought againstyour father, and for information as to his whereabouts. Your ForeignOffice had apparently been making enquiries. Kuropatkin knew nothingabout it, of course; after some delay he discovered that Bekovitch haddealt with the matter. Bekovitch produced a number of letters found inyour father's office conclusively showing that he had been intreasonable correspondence with the Japanese----"
"That's a lie!" said Jack.
"Well, there were the letters," said Borisoff with a shrug. "Kuropatkinasked if there was any independent evidence. Bekovitch at once sentSinetsky for Sowinski. He couldn't find the man, and though he left anurgent message he didn't turn up. So he went to his house again earlynext morning. There was nobody about, the door was wide open, and hewalked in. The house was empty, but he thought he heard a strangerustling in a big press in the dining-room; Sowinski had appropriatedyour house, by the way. He opened the door, and there was the Pole,gagged, tied hand and foot, and nearly dead from exhaustion. Sinetskycut him loose; the poor wretch couldn't speak for half an hour, histongue was so much swollen. He'd been tied up by a Chinese servant, itappeared, though the job must have taken more than one man."
"Yes--I was the other."
"You!" The officers laughed heartily. "You're a perfect demon ofingenuity, Ivan Ivanovitch. Why didn't he say it was you?"
"He had his reasons, I suppose. What happened then?"
"He went to Kuropatkin and swore to all manner of things against yourfather. The information was telegraphed to Petersburg, and that's all Iknow about it."
"But where is my father?"
"I don't know. Bekovitch didn't know, or professed he didn't. I fancyhe had taken care not to know, in case any unpleasant questions wereasked."
"But someone must know. Confound it, Lieutenant, is the whole Staft aconspiracy of silence?"
"It appears that Bekovitch sent your father to Kriloff, and Kriloff isdead. I suppose enquiries were made, but so far as I know nothing hascome to light."
"I never heard of such villainy!" said Jack, his indignation getting thebetter of him. "I had always believed the Russian officer was agentleman."
"Oh, come now!" said Captain Kargopol, "you English haven't a monopolyof the virtues. You can't throw stones, after the dirty trick yourgovernment has played us."
"What do you mean?"
"You haven't heard? I forgot: I suppose your Ah Lum doesn't subscribeto the _Manchurian Army Gazette_. The Baltic Fleet was attacked byBritish torpedo-boats in the North Sea; Admiral Rozhdestvenski veryproperly fired and sank one or two. Some trawlers got in the way andwere rather knocked about: unfortunately a few men were killed, and yourcanting press of course set up a howl and clamoured for war. But it'swe who are the injured party: you may be the ally of Japan, but that'sno excuse for an unprovoked attack on our fleet."
"Really, Captain, pardon me, but the story's absurd. When did thistorpedo attack take place?"
"At night, of course; you don't suppose they'd dare to attackbattleships in broad daylight."
"Then depend upon it there was a mistake. Someone was scared by thesight of a trawler. It's ridiculous to suppose that our government senttorpedo-boats on such a silly errand as that."
"Well, they might have hired Scandinavian boats, to save their face."
Jack repressed a smile. It was evidently of no use to argue with thecaptain.
"Time will show," he said. "By the way, Mr. Wang," he added, seeing theChunchuse a few paces away, "what did you do with Hu Hang?"
"I am very sorry, sir," said Wang Shih with a look of sincere penitence."It was quite a mistake--I was excited, and I squeezed too hard."
"You strangled him?"
"Yes. It is a pity--a great waste. I fear the chief will be angry. Huwas a strong man--he would have lasted for days."
"Oh!"
Understanding what he meant, Jack thought it just as well. He doubtedwhether his influence with Ah Lum and the band would have been enough topreserve the informer from the most gruesome and lingering torturesChinese inventiveness could devise.
"And what became of Ch'u Tan?"
"He stabbed himself."
"Anticipating a worse fate," Jack explained
to the officers.
"We are aware of our good fortune in falling into your hands, IvanIvanovitch," said Borisoff gravely; "and if, when we are rescued, I cando anything----"
"Thanks, Lieutenant! I don't owe much to the Russians," he addedbitterly, "my father less. When he is righted I shall hope perhaps topick up my old friendships again."
Towards the close of the day the convoy reached Ah Lum's mountainfastness. The chief's little eyes gleamed when he saw the great haulmade by his son's tutor.
"You are bold enough to stroke a tiger's beard," he said. "Where thereis musk, there will of course be perfume."
The supplies captured were very welcome. Ah Lum had found it necessaryto lie low, to avoid the forces on the hunt for him. But after a fewdays he learnt that the troops from the Korean frontier had beenrecalled, and the only Russian column now in the mountains was nearly ahundred miles away. He could therefore afford to live on his gains fora time.
The band settled down to a period of quiet camp life. The Cossacks weredistributed over the settlement and carefully guarded. Jack proceededwith the education of Ah Fu, and the further training of his men. Therewas considerable competition among the Chunchuses for enrolment in hiscorps; he was looked upon as lucky, a special favourite of heaven. Forhimself, he regarded his position differently. Harassed with anxiety asto his father's fate; among uncongenial surroundings; an exile, withoutanyone to confide in as a friend; he felt anything but lucky. As weekafter week passed he grew terribly weary of his life; winter had settleddown upon the hills; the snow lay inches thick, and even the warmclothing captured from the Cossacks--the fur caps, thick gray overcoats,felt-lined boots, ear gloves, and what not--proved but insufficientprotection against the intense cold. He volunteered for what active workwas going; but there was little, and he did not covet the command of anyof the parties that went out from time to time to replenish the larder.Ah Lum was punctilious in giving receipts for the supplies herequisitioned from the country people, but Jack felt that they werelittle likely to be paid for: it was a mere form at the best. And thevillagers could ill afford the contributions demanded, though after allthey were better off than their countrymen living in the main current ofthe war. To all except the few merchants and contractors, who made hugeprofits by supplying the rival armies, the war had brought blank ruin.
Occasionally news of the progress of the war filtered through thecountry. Jack learnt that Admiral Alexeieff, after continual wranglingwith Kuropatkin, had been recalled; that the combatants had gone intowinter quarters on opposite sides of the Sha-ho, both Russians andJapanese living in dug-outs, called by the Russians _zemliankas_; thatPort Arthur was still holding out, though from Chinese reports it seemedinevitable that the end must soon come; that fresh troops werecontinually arriving from Europe. One day a dirty copy of the_Manchurian Army Gazette_ was brought into the camp; the Chinese arealways loth to destroy anything written or printed. The mostinteresting item of news it held for Jack, and one on which he had abattle-royal of argument with the Russian officers, was the statementthat the _Ocean_, a British battleship on the China station, had beensold to the Japanese, and would appear in the next naval fight as the_Yushima_, which the Russians declared had been sunk by a mine whileblockading Port Arthur. Captain Kargopol stoutly maintained that thiswas another instance of British perfidy, and came very near to losinghis temper when Jack refused to take the report seriously, and banteredhim on his anti-British prejudice.
At last, one bright cold January day a Chinaman came in with the newsthat Port Arthur had fallen. Jack could not but sympathize with thecaptive officers. Personally they were the best of comrades; theirdistrust of England did not alloy the cordiality of their relations withJack; and their air of hopeless dejection was distressing to one whobore neither to them nor to their nation any enduring ill-will.
A few days afterwards Ah Lum learnt that the Russian column which hadbeen watching him had suddenly decamped. The inference was obvious.The fall of the great fortress had released a large number of Japanesetroops, and Kuropatkin was concentrating against the forward movementnow to be expected. This information had considerable importance for AhLum. He had been canvassing the desirability of moving towards Kirin,leaving only a small force in the hills to watch the Russians. Theirsudden retreat, however, caused him to change his plan. He resolved tofollow them. There was more chance of safety for him if he kept to thehills within a few marches of the combatant armies than if he wascompletely isolated and likely to be cut off by several mobile columnsoperating against him. It was hardly likely that the Russians would nowspare any troops from the fighting line to interfere with him. He wasonly a mosquito after all, though his sting had more than once provedextremely irritating. His only concern was to be near enough withoutbeing too near. In the last resort he could go over to the Japanese;but he disliked the Japanese only less than the Russians, and preferredto keep aloof. It would be time enough to approach the Japanese whenthey were well on the road to Harbin and the area of his possibleoperations became more restricted.
The camp was therefore struck. By easy marches the band came to withineighty miles of Moukden. Then, having made complete arrangements forthe approach of any Russian force to be signalled to him from point topoint, Ah Lum encamped and awaited a favourable opportunity of cuttingacross the Russian line of communications.
To none was the change of scene more welcome than to Jack. He had beenworrying for some time past at the absence of news from the compradore;that he had sent no message made Jack fear that the man had returned toMoukden and been made to suffer by Sowinski or General Bekovitch for hisyoung master's escape. Growing more and more restless, disappointedalso that no news of his father had been gleaned by any of Ah Lum'sagents in different parts of the country, he at last made up his mind toventure once more into Moukden. It was necessary to ask leave of AhLum; and Jack, in his present state of mind, was not disposed to befobbed off with maxims and proverbs.
As he expected, the chief looked very solemn and endeavoured to dissuadehim from his purpose.
"It is like a blind fowl picking at random after worms," he said. "Itis like attempting to carry an olive on the pate of a priest. You havealready had a very narrow escape. You may not be so fortunate nexttime."
"I must insist, Mr. Ah," said Jack. "Anything is better than suspense."
"I will send a man for you. A wise man never does himself what he canemploy another to do for him."
"Yes; but if one will not enter a tiger's lair, how can he obtain herwhelps?"
He cited the proverb with the utmost gravity. Ah Lum was taken aback.Were his own maxims to be turned against him? He pondered for a moment.
"All things are according to heaven," he said with a resigned air."Still, I will send a man with you; let him go before you into Moukden;then you must act as you think best on receipt of information. To dieor to live is according to fate."
When it became known in the camp that Jack, or Sin Foo as he was thereknown, was about to leave, many of the Chunchuses were eager toaccompany him. He found his popularity, and the extraordinary belief inhis luck, rather embarrassing. He thanked these willing volunteers, butdeclined their company: Hi Lo and the man selected by Ah Lum were to behis only attendants.
Soon after dark on a bitter February night Jack, with his twocompanions, rode up to the farm of Wang Shih's people, some fifteenmiles from Moukden. They were overjoyed to see him, and to hear news oftheir son and brother. Old Mr. Wang, when he learnt that his son wasnow Ah Lum's chief lieutenant, rubbed his hands with delight andforetold that he would die a mandarin. It would not be the first timein the history of China that a successful brigand had been bought backto the cause of law and order by the bribe of high official rank. Mrs.Wang was garrulous about a second visit paid them about Christmas-timeby Monsieur Brin, who had consoled himself for his failures as a warcorrespondent by studying Chinese social arrangements at first hand.The simple folk readily agreed to put Jack up
for a few days; it wouldhave been impossible to find more comfortable quarters during his periodof waiting.
Next morning Ah Lum's man went into Moukden. By mid-day he hadreturned. The compradore had never been seen in the city since he leftfor Harbin on the morning of Jack's departure. But the Chunchuse agentMe Hong had learnt one trifling fact about Mr. Brown; he was surprisedthat his chief was still in ignorance of it. The English merchant hadbeen seen and recognized among a gang of convicts at Kuan-cheng-tzue.Me Hong had sent off the news at once by a messenger to Ah Lum; therunner had vanished. He had not returned to Moukden; certainly he hadnever reached the Chunchuse camp. Sowinski was still in the city; so,the messenger believed, was the "Toitsche war-look-see man"; but therewere so many of the fraternity living in Moukden that he was not surethat his information on that point was correct.
He brought other news. Another great battle was evidently impending.The Japanese had for weeks been steadily pushing forward. They had cutthe railway-line south of Moukden; two regiments of their cavalry hadcrept round the Russian left, and had been seen within a few miles ofHarbin; and it was reported among the Chinese that Generals Nogi and Okuwere preparing a great turning movement on the right. The city was fullto overflowing with refugees; many were streaming northward; theRusso-Chinese bank had packed up its chests and decamped; and theChinese viceroy was in a terrible state of anxiety for the safety of thepalace and the ancient tombs of the Manchu emperors.
This news almost tempted Jack to venture again within the city. But onsecond thoughts he decided to run no risks of meeting Sowinski. Theimminence of another great battle, however, perhaps to prove thedecisive battle of the war, created a keen longing to witness the scene;and next day, taking leave of his kind hosts, he set off with Hi Lo fora little village lying between the Moukden railway-station andSin-min-ting. Hi Lo had relatives there with whom they could safelystay.
The battle-ground was in essentials a repetition of that of Liao-yang,though on a much larger scale. The Russians had thrown up an immenseline of entrenchments extending in a rough semicircle from Sin-min-tingon the north-west of the city to Ping-ling on the east, with Moukden asthe centre. Comprising a range of low hills for the greater part of itscourse, the position was naturally strong, and it had been fortified formonths with all the devices known to the military engineer--pits,abattis, barbed-wire entanglements, forts of solid masonry bristlingwith huge guns. Snow lay upon the ground, frozen so hard that thepassage of cavalry across it raised clouds of white dust. The plain tothe west and south of the city was one vast whiteness: yet that peacefulscene was the arena on which three-quarters of a million of men werepreparing to spill their blood in blind obedience to duty--to contendwith desperate earnestness in one of the decisive battles of the world.
The Russian right wing was composed of the Second Manchurian Army underGeneral Kaulbars, resting on an arc between Sin-min-ting and Moukden.The centre, south of the city, was held by General Bilderling with theThird Army; the left, thrown out as far south-east as Tsin-khe-chen, wasentrusted to General Linievitch and the First Army. It was here thatthe first attack was made. On February 19 General Kawawura threw hisright flank detachment against the Russian works, and, after a fightprolonged over five days, drove the Russians back towards Fa-ling.Meanwhile General Kuroki moved forward upon Kao-tu-ling, and succeededin forcing his way northward, and General Nodzu, from his position onthe Sha-ho, opened a furious bombardment on the exact centre of theRussian lines. By these movements General Kuropatkin was led to expectthat the brunt of the fighting would fall upon his centre and left; inreality they were designed to hold his attention while more formidableoperations were developed on his right.
It was on the last day of February that General Oku's army deployedbetween the Sha-ho and the Hun-ho, and General Nogi started withincredible rapidity on his northward march. By the time GeneralKuropatkin became aware of the danger threatening his communications onthe right, Nogi had made such progress and so skilfully disposed hisforces that to crush him was out of the question; all that Kaulbarscould do was to fall back towards Moukden and oppose as stubborn aresistance as possible. The assaults of Kuroki and Nodzu on the centrewere so fierce and persistent that Kuropatkin had no troops to spare forthe reinforcement of his jeopardized right flank. Doggedly, intrepidly,the indomitable Japanese pressed home their attack. The Russians clungheroically to their positions, and rolled back charge after charge; butstill the enemy returned, seeming to gain in vigour and enthusiasm aftereach repulse. They charged with bayonets, with grenades, with shovelsand picks; sometimes, when they penetrated the Russian entrenchments,flinging down their weapons and going to it with their fists. Thetrenches were filled with corpses; the frozen ground all around was dyedred with blood; there was no respite day or night; men fell, theirplaces were filled, and foe met foe over the bodies of the slain.
For ten days the issue was in doubt. Then, on March 5, Kuroki wasacross the Sha-ho; Nogi had swept through Sin-min-ting towards therailway; Marshal Oyama's huge army was flinging its octopus tentaclesaround the Russian position, vast as it was. Kuropatkin, mostunfortunate of generals, on March 8 found it necessary to withdraw hiscentre and left behind the line of the Hun-ho, and collect every unitthat could be spared by Kaulbars and Bilderling to stem the advance ofOku and Nogi.
Meanwhile the Russian left had opposed a bold front to Kuroki andKawawura. Unable to make a successful offensive movement, Linievitchstubbornly retreated in good order beyond the Hun-ho, and entrenchedhimself in a new position there. But around Moukden the plight of theRussian army was becoming desperate. As the terrible enemy crept ontowards the city from all sides save the north-east, the Russian troops,packed into a constantly diminishing space, and exposed to a convergingfire, fell in thousands. More than once the Russians attempted to breakthrough. The gallant Kuropatkin in person led a terrific attack on Okuat the head of sixty-five battalions, and his splendid men fought withsuch courage and determination that for a while it seemed the Japaneseadvance must be checked. But at this critical moment, when the Russianswere at least holding their own on the right centre and left, and Oyamawas concentrating to hurl them back, an event had taken place at theleft centre that proved to be Fortune's cast of the die. Early on themorning of March 9, Kuropatkin received the news that Kuroki had drivena wedge between Bilderling and Linievitch. Those generals in fallingback on the Hun-ho had temporarily lost touch: and the Japanese general,who had never made a mistake throughout the war, was quick to seize thisopportunity of breaking the enemy's line. On the same day Nogi gotacross the railway between Moukden and Tieling; nothing but instantretreat could save the Second and Third Russian armies from annihilationor capture; and at nightfall on that fifteenth day of the battle theorder to retreat was given.
Next day at ten in the morning the Japanese entered the city, and withtheir entrance burst the bubble of Russian domination in Manchuria.Scattered parties of Russians fought on for several days in theneighbouring villages; but with Nogi astride of the main line of retreatand every northern road, the Russians were forced to abandon everythingand take to the hills. Two days afterwards the Japanese had chasedtheir enemy full thirty miles to the north; Kuropatkin's great army,broken, routed, had well-nigh ceased to be.
Jack is never likely to forget that terrible fortnight. During the firstfew days he witnessed nothing of the fighting; he heard thereverberations of the guns, and saw crowds of natives hastening from thevillages in the line of the Japanese advance, bearing with themeverything portable that could be saved from the impending ruin. Atnight, standing on the broken mud wall, he beheld in the far distance adull glow in the sky that told of houses burning, and thought of theuntold misery inflicted upon a peaceable and industrious people by thegreed of rival governments. But as the tide of battle rolled northward,and the roar of the guns grew louder, other evidences of the terrificstruggle came within his ken. Ever and anon a train would rumblenorthward along the line, with wagon-loads of wounded.
The darkness ofthe nights was now illuminated with bursting star-shells, and the redflare of burning villages nearer at hand. One morning, in the twilightbefore dawn, he saw an immense column of smoke rise over the Russiansettlement by the station. It was in flames. Venturing out with Hi Lo,he soon came upon stragglers from the army, and by and by upon a hugeblock of horse and foot and artillery, field-telegraph wagons, messcarts, ambulances--all in inextricable confusion, jammed in theirfrantic efforts to escape. Trains rolled along, crowded to the roofs ofthe carriages, even to the engine itself, with soldiers; carts layoverturned, broken, wheelless, on the roads and fields; the air wasloaded with the acrid fumes from piles of blazing goods, clothing, andforage, burnt to prevent their falling into the hands of the conquerors.
The retreat from Liao-yang had been orderly and not uncheerful; theretreat from Moukden was an orgy of riot and misery. There was no orderin the ranks: the officers made no efforts--made, they would have beenin vain--to check the insubordination of their men. Some as they fledhad looted the sutlers' carts and roamed at large, defenceless,intoxicated, singing wild songs, dropping to the ground, to be frozenstiff in a few minutes. Others tramped along, moody, taciturn, mad,going blindly they knew not whither, they knew not why. Here a horse'shead could be seen above the crowd, its eyes bloodshot and haggard, itsnostrils dilated. There a horse fell; the throng thickened around it;harsh voices were raised in imprecation; then the movement recommenced,and nothing was heard but the tramping of feet and the crunching ofwheels. Wounded men dropped and froze in their blood; others staggeredthis way and that, having lost all power to govern their limbs; andstill in the distance artillery boomed, flames crackled, and the smokeof burning homesteads rose into the sky.
Sick at heart, Jack returned to the village. That evening the Japaneseentered it, bringing with them a number of Russian prisoners andwounded, these having been carefully tended by the Japanese ambulancecorps. Jack lent what assistance he could in finding cottages where themore seriously injured could remain. "Strange," he thought, "that war,which brings out the worst in men, should bring out also all that isbest."