Arizona republican., 1905-05-15
Operations Preceding That
 Crushing Russian Defeat
MASTERY OF MANCHURIA
It Was Brought About by Carefully Laid Plans Which Night Have Been Spoiled by More Determined Re- SiStanCe of Port Arthur.

Correspondence of the Associated Press), March 15.-The combination of the most efficient stan with the bravest and most intelligent soldiers to exc cute is plans decided the mastery Of Manchuria. Again the Russians gave a splendid exhibition of the old school of fighting. They were couraeeous al- most beyond criticism. and stubbornly defended their lines. but in generalship and the employment of more modern methods the Japanese surpassed them Their retreat began in as good order as that from LiaO Yang. but when the soldiers realized that they were being surrounded it became a panic with ini cidents which must have been humilf- ating to the officers.
 The battle. like Liao Yang. had for the Japanese some days of suspense when it appeared doubtful if the Rms sians could be forced from their posi- tions. It was full of surprises and the climax, when Kuroki's soldiers. who judged by all standards should have been completely exhausted from ten days of fighting and exposure marched rapidly north in a thick sand storm and appeared across the TfehlinC road be- yOnd Mukden, was decisive surprise 1 The Ru ,sians about Mukden had delay | ed their retreat too long Only on the ninth KurOpatkin appears to have real ized the danger and warned fo-eien officers and correspondents to leave | Those who started that day are vet with the Russian army but the others who delayed UniI he tenh were capur- ed The Russian soldiers expected vic . tory. They were told that the Russians were winning along the Shalhe and at Fushun. When the soldiers found th. enemy approaching from every side ignorant peasants, deluded with tales of Japanese atrocities. scattered and fled like sheep. and being surrounded surrendered III squads to unarmed Jap- anese transport men and cO0lies hss-- ging not to be massacred- Many have been hiding about the country inside Japanese lines and now driven by cold and hunger are coming into camn. Corpses of Russians and even Japan ese lie unburied away from the roads where they were not noticed or We're passed over by the army in it's hurried advance. and no doubt numbers or wounded whO were not discovered died from exposure.
 THE WINTER CAMPAIGN.
 The Japanese stan had long ago re- solved upon a winter campaign They would have launched it sooner but were obliged to await the fall of Port Ar thus for a force large enough tO give reasonable assurance of success IF Stoessel had persisted another month the Japanese would have faced the dff- ficult problem of bridging the rivers to be crossed instead of walking over
 the ice, and the odds against them would have been far greater After Port Arthur surrendered it was neces- sary to partly reOrganize thereby filling the decimated ranks with reserves. and
 fa mo rlaf0T
 heavy seize guns had to be brought north by trains and foundations con
 structed by them. Had the Japanese been driven back from the Shakhe all
 of their twenty-eight centimetre guns
 would have fallen into the hands Of the
 enemy, but a Russian success was not
 contemplated in the plans. These big
 guns proved as effective in field fight
 ing as against forts. The shells tore through the Russian entrenchments
 and the protected huts as though they
 had been paper, leaving he soldiers without shelter or refuge from the fire. } The cavalry and COssacks of which the
 Russians have a great force and which
 they expected to play a leading part in operations on the level country were not q factor in the battle
 THE JAPANESE DISPOSITION. The beginning of the battle found the Japanese forces organized into five
 bodies. Three were along the Shakhe
 and westward to the Hun. NOgfs vet erans were ready to march northward and attack Mukden from the northwest and they executed their part of he plan brilliantly. On the extreme east
 was an untried force which had start
 ed in January from bases on the Yalu and was to make a junction with the Japanese right wing and sweep around
 to the north of the Russian lines of
 defense. Its work was to outflank , Fushun the terminus of the Russian
 branch railway and Kuropatkin's east
 ern stronghold, as NOgi did Mukden
 KuropatNin mistOOk his contingent
 for tie Port Arthur veterans and pad t it the compliment of arraying a great . body of his best organizations agaiust
 it. Thus he was able to check it's ad- t vance with strong entrenchments on 2 the hills south of the town of Bagantan . fifteen miles southeast of Fushun foc ! several days and prevent it from flank :; ing the body of Linevitch's army. Along t the Shakhe the Japanese armies were l the same organizations although with . greatly changed personnel and altered f in details. that met the Russians aJ 7 Liao Yang. Two divisions of Kurobi- s l army were sant eastward as soon as !, the battle begun. indeed they were on l the march before the opening of the = bombardment, to cooperate with the
 right army. There was a break Of al . most twenty miles in the line between = the easternmost division and the others s at one time and the ground was covered | only by cavalry and some infantry re- serves. That division encountered the