enemy. Trusting, as we do, that, as you hold dear the
honor of civilization, you will not be betrayed into such base
conduct, we beg you, however, to announce to us your own view as
mentioned above.

(Signed) "The Besieging Army."

It is needless to say that the enemy's plea was not heeded. By
November 6, 1914, only spasmodic fire from widely scattered positions
answered the Allies' bombardment. That night the Japanese and English
charged across open ground and took the middle fort in the first line
of defense with surprising ease, capturing 200 prisoners. The charge
was led by General Yoshimi Yamada at the head of companies of infantry
and engineers. At one point they surprised a squad of Germans in
charge of a searchlight. To have fired upon them would have betrayed
the advance to the defenders of the adjacent fort; so, the story says,
the Germans were quietly and quickly dispatched by the engineers with
picks and shovels.

CHAPTER X

CAPTURE OF TSING-TAU

Tsing-Tau fell early on the morning of the next day, November 7, 1914.
Encouraged by the unexpected successes of the night, the Japanese
commander gave the order for a final grand assault. Nobody was more
surprised than the Japanese themselves. They had expected a last-ditch
resistance and feared they would have to sacrifice a thousand men
before gaining these positions commanding the city. But the Germans,
their ammunition almost gone, stunned by the continuous rain of shells
and broken by long fighting, had decided that further resistance was
useless.

The Japanese infantry occupied the central positions on the main line
of defense soon after midnight. Just before dawn they captured the
north battery on Shaotan Hill, then the east battery of Tahtungehin
and the Chungchiawa fort on the west. The heaviest loss suffered by
any of the Japanese detachments in the final assault fell upon a
company that was caught by machine-gun fire in an attack upon Redoubt
No. 2. Out of 250 men only 87 escaped. The total Japanese casualties
in the final assault were 450 killed and wounded. The British
casualties were slight.

Daylight found the Japanese and British in possession of every
position commanding the city and nearly 20,000 men were awaiting the
signal to charge the last line of defenses when a white flag appeared
on the Tsing-tau military observatory. Within the next hour flags of
surrender were flying from all the o