The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-22
RACE TO TELLING.
Graphic Description of theFlight
From Mukden.
Nearly a Million Men in March
and Fight.
FACING A SAND STORM.
Soldiers We're Without Rest for
Days and Nights.
Japan Now Holds 100000 Rus
sian Prisoners.

Correspondence Of the Associated
Press received for publication
today.)
Headquarters of General Kurolxi's
Army near Telling, March 25-Thel
first realization of the immensely of /
the Japanses forces was brought home /
to the observer when the two central /
armies rolled across the Shakho on /
the morning of the Sth of March in |
the wake of the retreating Russians |
Hitherto during the battle parts OF |
two or three brigades of infantry |
with few battaliOns Of reserves, |
a dozen or more batteries, with pack
trains and filled hospitals, were all |
that one person could see in the |
mountainous country, of the great
armies engaged. But when the whole
array moved northward with its i'm
pediment following, it was an i'm
pressive host. Looking from the
heights where the Russian batteries
had been one could see many khaki
colored professions for miles on either
hand emerging from the valleys and
passes where the japanese had been
| concentrating since October, streaming
/ the narrow channels of ice and wind
| ing away among the bare hills and
sandy plains northward.
It was a business like army sWathed
/ in dark blue and khaki with no spec
/ tacular show of gold braid. nor brass,
and hardly a touch of color except the
scarlet blankets worn over the Shout
/ ders. Most of the ranks were BOYS
yet but they were toughened by year
/ of campaigning into hardy veterans
They plodded on silently, as usual
with no show of rejoicing over victory
without confusion or excited officers
Japanese dominion over Manchuria
was spreading at the rate of two miles
an hour. By the river banks were
fields of kaoliang which had stood I'M
/ harvested since fall between the lines
fF 4
were swarming men, women and chill
/ dren reaping and stacking their crops.
| The Chinaman fritters away no time
/ gaping at victorious armies when a
/ few dollars are to be gathered.
A Week of Sand Storm.
For ten days from that morning the
1 whole country within the area of the
! fighting was covered with a mist of fine
/ dust stirred up by the feet of more than
a million men and animals. 1t never
settled for a minute, it cholxed the
/ throat and blinded the eyes, sifted under
clothing, made food gritty and turned
all water into mud. The flames from
burning houses and stacks of grain
showed through it in the nights like the
moon through the fog. The sand
storms which began on the second day
of the pursuit and continued at inter-
walls for a week came from the north
| directly into the faces of the japanese
| and made the discomfort and hardship
worse. There was great contrast be-
tween the country south of the Shazno
/ and north of it. The villages toward
Mukden were larger and more prosper
| Gus, with better buildings. and the pic
| turesque temples and tombs surrounded
by groves of dark green frs made
| welcome panorama to the eyes of the
men from beautiful Japan who had
spent months among the dreary and
| gathered in front of their houses and
greeted the japanese with shouts.
! Doubtless they were equally ready to
acclaim the Russians, and denounce the
japanese, when it was polite Outside
the larger towns Chinese officials wear
ing their robes of office and buttons on
their caps with banners and officers in
gaudy uniforms received the japanese
generals. and General Kuroki and his
staff rode into the village where his
headquarters are now through double
file of villagers kneeling on both sides
of the road.
The beginning of the Russian retreat
from the Shakho was orderly and they
left a clean field None of their portable
effects worth taking had been abandon
ed, except hundreds of stacks of tin
cases in the trenches and huts contain
ing cartridges.
A Scramble for Safety.
Toward evening of that day Gen.
Kuroki's troops overlook their rear
guards eight or nine miles north of
the Shakho and from that time the
retreat became scramble for safety.
At the various supply stations huge
piles of grain were fired and Smold-
cred for days. The pursuit continued
all through the night of the 8th and
the right division of Kurolzi's army
came to the branch line of railroad
running from Mukden to the mines at
F'ushun. on the morning of the 9th
the sand storm began which threw
both sides into confusion and made
orderly retreat or pursuit on a large
scale impossible. All the telegraph
wires connecting the headquarters
land the different divisions were blown
down. so that each contingent pro-
, ceeded largely on its own response
bility. The left division crossed the
Hun no under cover of the thick dust
clouds without a battle. Apparently
; the Russian commander was afraid
to risk a defense on such day. even
in the elaborate works which should
have made the Hun no the most form
liable line of defense, perhaps because
his own men were in a panic. Prob
5 ably this was the decisive day of the
5 battle for the Japanese forces west
/ of Mukden were being pressed hard
: and the brigade on the extreme left
was almost wiped out. Had Bildering
l rep5flsed Kuroki two or three days at
: the Hun no the Russian reserves
1 might have been able to turn the tide
r at Mukden Good generalship and
Il good fortune made history otherwise
II ISuropatlxin had hurried his reserves
Il from Mukden east to Fushun as the
r japanese had planned that he should
1 and then hurried them back to Muk-
al