Battle of Te - li - Ssu The Battle of Te - li - ssu ( ) , also called Battle of Wafangou ( ) after the nearby railway station , was a land battle of the Russo - Japanese War . It was fought at a hamlet some north of Port Arthur , Manchuria . The hamlet is known today as " Delisi " , and is located just north of Wafangdian , Liaoning Province , China . It was fought on 14 – 15 June 1904 between the Japanese Second Army under General Yasukata Oku and the Russian First Siberian Army Corps under Lieutenant General Georgii Stackelberg . Background . After the loss to the Japanese at the Battle of Nanshan , the Russia n Viceroy Yevgeni Alekseyev came under extreme political pressure to make a military advance to prevent the complete encirclement of Port Arthur . The Commander - in - Chief of the Imperial Russian Army in Manchuria , General Alexei Kuropatkin , disagreed vehemently to this plan , which he felt to be both foolhardy and dangerous , and he preferred to wait in Mukden for the Trans - Siberian Railway to bring him the reinforcements he felt necessary for an offensive . The matter came to head on 27 May 1904 , when Viceroy Alexeiev summoned General Kuropatkin to a conference in Mukden . The two men wound up shouting at each other , and the matter was referred to St . Petersburg for a decision . The Tsar decided in favor of the Viceroy , and General Kuropatkin was reluctantly forced to mount an offensive from Liaoyang in the general direction of Port Arthur , but it is clear that he had no expectation of reaching that port . Lieutenant - General Georgii Stakelberg commanding 27 , 000 infantry , 2 , 500 cavalry ( under the command of Lieutenant General Simonov ) and 98 guns in the First Siberian Corps , was chosen for the mission . They were later supplemented by 3 , 000 riflemen and two guns , which arrived just as the frontline troops were withdrawing . After the Battle of Nanshan , Japanese General Yasukata Oku , commander of the Japanese Second Army , occupied and repaired the piers at Dalny , which had been abandoned almost intact by the fleeing Russians . On 5 May , General Baron Nogi Maresuke arrived at Dalny to assume command of the new Japanese Third Army , consisting of the 1st and 11th Divisions . General Oku ' s Second army was restructured into the 3rd , 4th and 5th Division s and an under strength 6th Division , with a total strength of 36 , 000 infantry , 2 , 000 cavalry and 216 artillery pieces . Leaving the 3rd Army to lay siege to Port Arthur , and having reports of the southern movement of Russian forces confirmed by cavalry scouts , Oku started his army north on 13 June , following the line of the railway south of Liaoyang . A week before the engagement , Kuropatkin sent Stackelberg southwards with orders to recapture Nanshan and advance on Port Arthur , but to avoid any decisive action against superior forces . The Japanese army had been moving slowly north since 30 May . Both sides continued to build up their forces and used infantry skirmishes and artillery exchanges to test each other ' s strength . The Russians , believing the Japanese Second Army ' s objective to be the capture of Port Arthur , moved their command facilities to Telissu . Stakelberg entrenched his forces , positioning his troops astride the railway to the south of the town , while Lieutenant General Simonov , commanding the 19th Cavalry Squadron , took the extreme right of the front . Oku intended to attack frontally with the 3rd and 5th Divisions , one on each side of the railway , while the 4th division was to advance on the Russian right flank down the Fuchou valley . Being the superior force and having the definite purpose of fighting his way north , Oku began to move on the morning of 14 June . The battle . On 14 June , Oku advanced his forces northward toward the entrenched Russian positions near the village of Telissu . Stackelberg had reasonable prospects for victory that day . The Russians had possession of the high ground and field artillery . However , rather than cooperating with the defenders by charging straight up the valley into the Russian defenses , Oku advanced the 3rd and 5th Divisions along the center as a feint , while maneuvering the 4th Division rapidly to the west in order to envelop the Russian right flank . Although Russian outposts detected this move , misty weather prevented them from using their heliograph s to warn Stakelberg in time . The battle began with an artillery engagement , which demonstrated the superiority of the Japanese guns not only in number but also in accuracy . The new Russian Putilov M - 1903 field gun was first introduced in this battle , but it was ineffective due to lack of training of the crews and the outdated conceptions of the senior artillery officers . The better Japanese artillery seem to have had a significant effect throughout the battle . As the Japanese divisions in the center commenced skirmishing , Stakelberg judged that the enemy threat would come against his left flank , rather than his right flank , and thus committed his main reserve in that direction . It was a costly mistake . Skirmishing continued until late night , and Oku decided to launch his main assault at dawn . Likewise , Stackelberg had also determined that the morning of 15 June was the time for his own decisive counter - stroke . Incredibly , Stackelberg issued only verbal orders to his field commanders and left the actual time of the attack vague . Individual commanders , not knowing when to launch the attack , and without any written orders , did not take action until around 07 : 00 . As only about a third of the First East Siberian Rifle Division under Lieutenant General Aleksandr Gerngross committed to the attack , it surprised the Japanese 3rd Division but did not prevail , and soon collapsed in failure . Before long Stackelberg received panicked reports of a strong Japanese attack on his exposed right flank . To avoid envelopment , the Russians began to fall back , abandoning their precious artillery as Oku ' s 4th and 5th Divisions pressed their advantage . Stakelberg issued the order to retreat at 11 : 30 , but fierce fighting continued through 14 : 00 . Russian reinforcements arrived by train just as the Japanese artillery was targeting the train station . By 15 : 00 , Stackelberg was facing a major defeat , but a sudden torrential rainstorm slowed the Japanese advance and enabled him to extricate his beleaguered forces towards Mukden . The only Russian offensive to relieve Port Arthur thus came to a disastrous end for Russia . Result . Total Russian casualties totaled around at least 3 , 500 ( 477 killed , 2 , 240 wounded , and 754 missing ) , although some estimates give figures as high as 10 , 000 ; 3 , 500 per official records . Japanese casualties totaled only 1 , 163 ( 217 killed and 946 wounded ) . The danger of any attack by General Kuropatkin ' s forces having been removed by the victory at Telissu , the Japanese advance against Port Arthur began in earnest . On the same day as the Battle of Telissu , Russian cruisers based at Vladivostok sank two Japanese troop transport s off the coast of Japan , killing over 2 , 000 men and costing the Japanese several batteries of siege guns that were badly needed for the stalled Siege of Port Arthur .