Arizona republican., 1905-05-29
One of the Most Dramatic
 Phases of the War
A GIGANTIC MOVEMENT
An Associated Press Correspondent With KurOki's Army Describes in a Graphic Manner a Pursuit Almost Without Parallel.

Headquarters of the General Ka-
 rol1i's Army. Near Tienng, March s5.- | (CorreSpondence of the AsSociated Press.)-The first realization of the immensity of the Japanese forces was | brought home to the observer when the two central armies rolled across the Shakhe on the morning Of the eighth of March, in the wake of the
 retreating Russians. Hitherto. durine
 the battle, parts of two or three bri- gades of infantry. with a few battalions | of reserves, a dozen or more batteries. with pack trains and field hospitals. were all that one person could sec in the mountainous country of the great armies engaged. But when the whole array moved northward, with it's i'm pedimenta following, it was an i'm pressive host Looking from The heights where the Russian batteries had been, one could see many khaki l colored processions for miles on either | hand emerging from the valleys and passes where the Japanese had been 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 nOthward. IL was a business like army. swathed in dark blue and khaki, with no spectacular show or gold braid nor brass, and hardly a touch of color except the scarlet | blankets worn over the shoulders. Most of the ranks were boys vet but they were tOughened by year of cam
 paigning into hardy veterans They plodded on silently. as usual. with no show of rejoicing over victory. with out confusion or excited officers. Jap anese dominion over Manchuria was spreading at the rate of two miles an
 hour. By the river banks were fields , of koaliang, which has stood unhar- vested since fall between the lines of hostile cannon, and through these were swarming men. women and children.
 reaping and stacking their crops The Chinaman fritters away TO time gap
 ing at victorious armies when a few
 dollars are to be gathered.
 A DISTRACTING DUST. For ten days from that morning the
 whole country within the area Of the
 fighting was covered with a mist of
 fine dust, stirred up by the feet Of
 more than million men and animals
 It never settled for a minute: it choked
 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
 sandstorms which began on the sec
 ond day of the pursuit and continued at intervals for week came from the north, directly into the faces of the Japanese, and made the discomfort and hardship worse. There was great con trast between the country south of the Shakhe and north of it. The villages
 toward Mukden were larger and more prosperous, with better buildings. and the picturesque temples and tombS surrounded by groves of dark green frs made a welcome panorama 10 the eyes of the men from beautiful Japan. who had spent months among the dreary 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 de- nounce the Japanese. when it was pol itic. Outside the larger towns. Chi nese officials wearing their robes of offices and buttons on their caps. with banners, and soldiers in gaudy uni forms received the Japanese generals. and General Kuroki and his staff rode into the village. where his headquarters are now, through a double file of vil- lagers kneeling on both sides of the road.
 The beginning of the Russian re- treat from the Shakhe was orderly and they left a clean field. None of their portable effects worth taking had beer abandoned. except hundreds of stE
 of tin cans in the trenches and
 containing cartridges.
 A REAR GUARD FIGHT.
 Toward evening of that day General KurokTs troops overlook their rear guard eight or nine miles north of the Shakhe, and from that time the re- treat became a scramble for safety At the various supply stations. huge piles of grain were fired. and smOuldered for days. The pursuit continued all through the night of the Sth, and ths right division of Kuroki's army came to the branch line of railroad running fl om Mukden to the mines at FUshun- On the morning of the 9th the sand storm began. which threw both si1es into confusion and made orderly re- treat ol pursuit on a large scale im- rossible. All the telegraph wires con- meeting the headquarters and the diff ferent divisions were blown down. ss that each contingent proceeded largely on it's own responsibility. The left division crossed the HunhO under cover Of the thick dust clouds without bat t,e. Apparently the Russian cOmman- der was 2Ir1tlu 10 FISK S ucASllS~ riA such a day. even in the elaborate works W hich should have made the Hunho the most formidable line of defecse. perhaps because his own men were la a panic. Probably this was the de- oisive day of the battle, for the Jana nese forces west of Mul>den were b1- ing pressed hard and the brigade on the extreme left was almost wiped out Had Bildering repulsed Kuro-Si two or three days at the HunhO the Russian
 Continued on Page 3.