the daily land bombardment of the town and port made every one extremely jumpy; for after our fleet's return it seemed likely that the japanese would again bombard us from the sea, and then our position would not be enviable. there is nothing worse than uncertainty, and it was horrible work wait, wait, waiting, for decisive events, not knowing how, when, or where they would happen.
on august 11 i again accompanied smirnoff—who was much depressed by the events of the previous day—on his tour of the defences, and witnessed from b battery our second attempt to recapture ta-ku-shan and sia-gu-shan. as before, far too small a number of men were told off for this attack, and, to make matters worse, by the time they had reached the foot of the hill they took the wrong direction. smirnoff watched the failure of this second attack in silence, but his brow was black, for it was indeed a comedy that was being enacted before us. was it wise to attack such high, precipitous hills with the fewest possible men, when the veriest tyro in military science knew that hills of such importance to us would be held to the last by the enemy? while this foolery went on the japanese steadily pounded the town and port.
at daybreak on the 12th the bombardment of angle hill and a gradual advance of the enemy towards it commenced. smirnoff placed kondratenko in command[pg 156] of the western front, while fock was appointed to command the general reserve. he himself, being convinced that the japanese, forcing the points on angle hill, would sooner or later deliver their main assault on the salient angle of the north-east front, turned all his attention to it and to 203 metre hill on the west. meanwhile, general st?ssel seemed to be chiefly impressed with the importance of not tiring the men. his anxiety on this account was evinced by his order of august 12:
'a tired soldier is always sleepy and dull. men are not to be employed on fatigue for more than five hours in the twenty-four.'
at this time the enemy were putting the last touches to the iron ring which was being welded round the fortress, and their batteries were daily growing, while our defences were far from ready. if our men were compelled to work hard, it was necessary. they dug, dug, dug without end in the stony soil, but they did it that they might the more easily be able to repulse the assaults, and that they might get protection from the rain of iron and steel which during the five long months was to be showered on them with such wonderful generosity. this was no time to think of resting: every moment was precious. the men realized it, and delved ceaselessly, willingly, knowing that the deeper the trenches, the better it would be for them. but general st?ssel's order had the evil effect on their spirit that might have been expected; for, after it, when men were urgently wanted for working-parties, their commanding officers took advantage of it to protest direct to st?ssel that they were being overworked.
general smirnoff was much dissatisfied at this period with the fortification and work on 203 metre hill. this hill, which was destined to play such a fateful r?le in the defence of arthur, was in the salient angle of the western[pg 157] front, and its top, commanding the surrounding heights, overlooked the fortress, the inner harbour, port, town outer roads, and the distant sea; yet it was armed only with four 6-inch guns. there were no masonry casements or earth bomb-proofs, and protection against the fire of 6-inch and 11-inch guns was given by sand-bags, stones, earth, and dry cement. the guns had been mounted at the beginning of the campaign, and no strong batteries to protect the garrison from the effect of 11-inch shells had been made; now only one thing could be done—that was to dig caves into the hill.
about midday on the 13th a balloon soared up above wolf's hills, and our nearest batteries at once opened fire on it with shrapnel. whether we made a hit or not it was impossible to say; but after being about half an hour in the air it descended quickly. chinese spies stated that officers of the japanese general staff were making a reconnaissance in it, and had taken some photographs of the fortress, for general nogi was surprised at meeting with opposition at so many points which had not been fortified before the war, and which were not shown so in the plans in his possession. the works which checked him, after smirnoff had been five months in the place, were very probably a considerable surprise.
we had no balloons in the fortress, nor had we pigeons or wireless telegraphy! no station was rigged up there, and therefore communications were not established.
on the night of august 13 the japanese attacked orphan hill, but were driven back.
as i went round the defences almost every day, i marvelled to see the healthy, happy look of the men, who all looked as if the work agreed with them. since the beginning of the strict blockade the officers had ceased to drink as much as they did—that is to say, in the main positions, where i never saw any debauchery. on the[pg 158] advanced positions, on the contrary, drinking had been carried on abnormally. st?ssel and fock had deprived the men of their vodka, but the officers were drunk day and night, which, besides being bad for their own health, had a demoralizing effect on the men. their behaviour may be explained, perhaps, by the fact that they had so poor an example set them by two of their superiors who never had any influence for good. they hated one of the generals, who abused them on parade and played the buffoon with their men (he was known as the 'mad mullah'), and they feared the others. when the strict investment began, and the infantry officers mixed and lived with those of the artillery, who were on a higher plane as regards education and intelligence, all this changed. as soon as the 4th division entered the fortress and fock was appointed to command the reserve, a great change was also noticeable in that division.
on august 14 an artillery duel was waged all day. at night and in the early hours of the following morning the japanese began to concentrate against our left towards angle hill, which they attacked at 3 a.m. in spite of being repulsed, they at dawn made a second attack, which met the same fate and caused them heavy loss. after the failure of this second attempt their guns opened fire with shrapnel all along our line, and under cover of it the infantry, with desperate rushes, tried to get close to our positions, evidently with a view to a general assault.
on the night of the 15th-16th desultory firing went on all along the line. on the morning of the 16th a japanese officer came in with a flag of truce. he bore a letter from baron nogi, which ran approximately as follows:
'the russians have given signal proof of their gallantry, but arthur will be taken all the same. therefore, to avoid[pg 159] useless loss of life and any possible violence, murder or looting by japanese troops fighting their way into the town, which it will be difficult at once to prevent, his highness the emperor of japan suggests a discussion of negotiations for the surrender of the fortress.'
a council of war was at once summoned, at which st?ssel suggested that no answer should be given, as the proposal that the fortress should capitulate was a piece of insolence. smirnoff expostulated, explaining that the elementary rules of military etiquette required that a reply should be sent. st?ssel then said:
'well, if an answer must go, let us send a blank piece of paper or else merely write a joke on it.'
smirnoff insisted that an answer, and a polite one, should be sent, and he drafted one which was eventually signed by both st?ssel and himself:
'the honour and dignity of russia do not allow of overtures of any sort being made for a surrender.'
the morning of the 17th was very unpleasant, with fog, sleet, and mud. the town was already being bombarded, and the shells could be heard bursting in the harbour. with general smirnoff's permission, i accompanied the flag-of-truce party taking out the reply: it consisted of captain golovan, an officer of the general staff, and lieutenant mackalinsky, of the fortress staff. as we went out the passers-by gazed at us with curiosity and wonder, many of them thinking probably this was the end of arthur. at last we reached the fortifications near the cemetery; on this being reported to the commandant, he at once ordered the guns to cease fire: so that exactly at nine o'clock we were able to move on. i was told to ride in front with the flag, with one of the mounted scouts, the rest of the party and escort following a short distance[pg 160] behind. we passed our firing-line and piquets and went on some distance, but seeing nothing of the japanese, i began to get suspicious, for i could not forget how they had fired on our red cross at green hills; perhaps they were now lying in the kiaoling on either side of us ready to pour in a volley. it was jumpy work.
'sir, sir, there they are!' whispered the man riding beside me. i looked ahead, but could see nothing. at last, however, i noticed four japanese dressed in khaki behind a sharp bend in the road on a small pass. they were difficult to distinguish from their surroundings, while we, in our uniform, were very conspicuous. having approached to within fifty yards, we heard in russian—
'halt!'
we stopped.
'advance one!'
we stood as still as statues, and a man, evidently a non-commissioned officer, came up.
'what do you want?'
we answered.
'all right.' he gave some order to one of the men, who quickly moved off.
we stood and looked at one another. the non-commissioned officer, a broad-shouldered, thick-set man, took out a note-book and, with great coolness, wrote something in it. after ten minutes, an interpreter, with a truculent-looking captain, and a young lieutenant, came up. at last major yamoaka, who had brought the japanese message, arrived, accompanied by a mounted orderly with a flag and the corps interpreter, who, in spite of his high rank, spoke russian most atrociously. after we had presented our credentials, he took and gave us a receipt for our letter, and in his turn handed us one, for which we gave him a receipt. the interpreter informed us that 'this was a very,[pg 161] very important letter.'[16] when the ceremony of handing over the letters was finished, a shell whistled past towards ta-ku-shan. major yamoaka anxiously asked:
'they are surely not firing?'
to which lieutenant mackalinsky quietly answered:
'no, it is probably at sea.'
later it turned out that the enemy's infantry could be seen to be on the move from one of the batteries, and the non-commissioned officer on duty, unable to restrain himself, had fired at them—a mistake he had to pay for.
having received the letter, major yamoaka arranged the time and place of meeting for further negotiations. we well knew that further negotiations would not take place, but of course made some pleasant reply. we bowed and parted, and as soon as we reached the fortifications on cemetery hill and lowered our flag the guns boomed out again along the whole line. once inside the line a cossack met us and told me that st?ssel wanted to see me. the general had watched us from jagged hill. mackalinsky proceeded to report to the commandant, and we, with golovan, going on to general st?ssel, found him in a casemate of the battery. he had just breakfasted, and was in a most affable frame of mind, surrounded by the young officers from the nearest batteries. their laughter and jokes could be heard from a long way off, and the array of empty bottles showed that breakfast had not been a dry meal.
'i didn't want to answer those yellow-skinned scoundrels. i wanted to draw a caricature and sent it back. they wanted the fortress? i'll show them the fortress!'
there was general laughter. the youths, under the[pg 162] soothing influence of plentiful liqueurs, forgot their positions as junior officers, and shouted:
'splendid, sir, splendid; quite right. your health, sir.'
'and do you know, gentlemen, they took me for a foreigner—a swiss by birth? by heavens! i am not lying. quite recently i got a letter from austria, from some st?ssel or other who pretended he was proud of his relation in arthur. others write that i only became a russian subject in 1893. i have got the letter!'
again there was laughter. the general was in the best of form. whether he was talking seriously or not i do not know. presently he thought it was time to return to arthur, and told me to accompany him: we rode through the arsenal.
'look what a number of captured guns there are! i took all those in the chinese war.'
all these guns passed into our hands when we peacefully occupied arthur!
