remainder, including twenty officers, were killed, wounded, or
missing.

LANDING OF THE SECOND ARMY

On the very night after the accomplishment of this third blocking
operation, a second Japanese army commenced to land at Pitszewo,
eastward of the Liaotung peninsula. This was precisely the point
chosen for a similar purpose by the Japanese in the war with China,
ten years previously, and such close adherence to the former
programme was condemned by some critics, especially as transports
cannot get close to the shore at Pitszewo, but have to lie four miles
distant, the intervening space consisting, for the most part, of mud
flats. But the Japanese were perfectly familiar with every inch of
the coast from the mouth of the Yalu to Port Arthur, and had the
Russian commanders possessed equally accurate knowledge, they would
have recognized that Pitszewo was designated by natural features as
the best available landing-place, and knowing that, they might have
made effective dispositions to oppose the Japanese there, whereas ten
thousand men had been put on shore before any suspicion seems to have
been roused in the Russian camp.

BATTLE OF KINCHOU

After its landing at Pitszewo, on May 5th and the following days, the
Second Japanese Army, consisting of three divisions under General
(afterwards Count) Oku, pushed westward, driving away the Russian
detachments in the vicinity and securing the control of the Port
Arthur railway. Then, at Kinchou, on the 26th of May, a great battle
was fought. A little south of Kinchou lies a narrow neck of land
connecting the Kwangtung promontory with the mainland. It is a neck
only a mile and three-quarters broad, having Kinchou Bay on the
northwest and Hand Bay on the southeast. On each side the ground near
the sea is low, but along the centre of the neck a ridge rises, which
culminates in a point about 350 feet above the sea. This point is
known as Nanshan, and its commanding position is such that an army
holding it blocks all access to the Kwangtung peninsula.

The problem for the Japanese was to obtain possession of this neck as
the sole road of access to Port Arthur; while General Stossel, who
commanded the Russian troops, knew that if the neck fell into
Japanese hands, Port Arthur would become unapproachable by land. "The
Nanshan position offered unusual advantages for defence, and had been
diligently prepared for permanent occupation during many weeks. Ten
forts of semi-permanent