The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-29

| concentrating since October, streaming | across the dry bed of the river and the | narrow channels of ice and winding
 away among the bare hills and sandy
 plains northward It was a business l like army swathed in dark blue and
 khaki with no spectacular show Of
 gold braid, nor brass, and hardly a
 touch of color except the scarlet blan- | kets worn over the shoulders. Most | of the ranks were boys yet, but they | were toughened by year of campaign
 ing into hardy veterans. They plodded | on silently, as usual, with no show or
 rejoicing over victory. without confu-
 sion nor excited officers. Japanese | dominion over Manchuria was spread | ing at the rate of two miles an hour. | By the river banks were fields of kao- | Hang which had stood unharvested ! since fall between the lines of hostile | cannon. and through these were | swarming men, women and children
 reaping and stacking their crops. The l Chinaman fritters away no time gap | ing at victorious armies when few
 dollars are to be gathered.
 For ten days from that morning the | whole country within the area of the | fighting was covered with mist of | fine dust stirred up by the feet of more | than million men and animals. It | never settled for d. minute, 1t choked | the throat and blinded the eyes, sifted | under clothing, made food gritty and | turned all water into mud. The flames 1 from burning houses and stacks of | grain showed through 1t in the nights | like the moon through fog. The sand | storms which began on the second day | of the pursuit and continued at inter- vals for a week came from the north directly into the faces of the Japanese ana made the discomfort and hardship worse There was great contrast bs- tween the country south of .he Shaho and north of it. The villages toward Mukden were larger and more prosper ous, with better buildings, and tho pie turesque temples and tombs surround ed by groves of dark green frs made welcome panorama to the eyes of the men from beautiful Japan who had spent months among the dreaty and monotonous hills. Chinese families gathered in front of their houses and greeted the Japanese with shouts
 Doubtless they were equally ready to acclaim the Russians and denoun ce the Japanese. when 1t was polite. Outside the larger towns Chinese officials wear ing their robes of office and buttons on their caps with banners and soldiers in gaudy uniforms received the Japa- nese generals, and General Kuroki and his sta ffrode Into the village where his headquarters are now through a
 
 sides of the road
 The beginning of the Russian retreat from the Shaho was orderly and they left clean field. None of their port able effects worth taking had been abandoned, except hundreds of stacks of tin cases in the trenches and huts containing cartridges.
 Toward evening of that day, General Kurokfs troops overlook their rear guards eight or nine miles north of the Shaho and from that time the re- treat became a scramble for safety. At the various supply stations huge piles of grain were fired and smoul- dered for days. The pursuit continued all through the night of the Sth, and the right division of Kurokis army came to the branch line of railroad running from Mukden to the mines at Fushun. On the morning of the 9th. the sand storm began which threw both sides into confusion and made or derly retreat or pursuit on a large scale impossible. All the telegraph wires connecting the headquarters and the different divisions were blown down so that each contingent proceeded largely on it's own responsibility. The left division crossed the Hunho under cover of the thick dust clouds without battle. Apparently the Russian com mander was afraid to risk defense on such a day even, in the elaborate works which should have made the Hunho the most formidable line of defense, per haps because his own men were in a panis, Probably this was the decisive day of the battle, for the Japanese forces west of Mukden were being pressed hard and the brigade on the eX- treme left was almost wiped out. Had Bildering repulsed Kuroki two or three days at the Hunho, the Russian re- serves might have been able to have | turned the tide at Mukdcn. Good gen. eralship and good fortune made his tory otherwise. Kuropatkin had hur- ried his reserves from Mukdcn east to Fushun as the Japanese had planned that he should. and then hurried them back to Mukden, but only too late. The Japanese center army from Kurokls left was pushing past Mukdcn to the north, and Kurokis left division was marching still further north, protecting it's right flank. Having lost the Hunho. the Russians centrad army l left Mukden to its fate and
 continued its now disorderly retreat
 to Fiehling. That all their dead were left where they fell showed what the
 retreat had become. On the morning
 of the tenth the left division again en- countered the Russian rear guard in considerable force northeast of Muk- | den and as the Russian attempted to
 make a stand they were beaten in two | engagements, and in the afternoon the | division arrived at the town of Saii-a | ten miles beyond Mukden on the main
 road from Mukden to Tiehling.
 Until the tenth the army had been | pushed forward day and night in the
 face of every difficulty to draw the at
 tention of the Russians from Mukden,
 and the men were nearly exhausted | by their forced march. The military
 roads from Fushun to Tiehling wound 1 along the plains among sharp hills
 and the division followed this to get l to the north of Mukden while General l Linevitch took most of his men direct 1 ly north trough the mountains with I the Japanese right army pursuing. 1 Several times the Japanese had brush
 es with the rear guard but no import
 ant action until the 14th. when they l approached the range of high steep l hills seven miles southeast of Tieh- l ling which was strtegically the
 strongest defense of the city. There
 was broad level plain in front of the | an attacking force except to cross this
 plain under such cover as could be | found in tahe gullies and behind occa- | sional ridges. Consequently 1t was de- | cided to attempt the night attack with
 the bayonets once more, and thus the
 first line of trenches below the hills
 was gained. For the general advance | in the morning of the fourteenth two l battalions were assigned for frontal | attack one for a diversion on the right
 and the largest force of might, on the | left