ounter-flanking
operation, suffered defeat with heavy losses. The Japanese took full
advantage of this error, and Kuropatkin, with perhaps excessive
caution, decided to abandon his counter-movement and withdraw from
Liaoyang. He effected his retreat in a manner that bore testimony to
the excellence of his generalship. The casualties in this great
battle were very heavy. From August 25th, when the preliminary
operations may be said to have commenced, to September 3rd, when the
field remained in the possession of the Japanese, their losses were
17,539, namely, 4866 in the First Army, 4992 in the Fourth, and 7681
in the Second, while the Russian casualties were estimated at 25,000.

BATTLES OF SHAHO AND OF HEIKAUTAI

On the 2nd of October, General Kuropatkin issued from his
headquarters in Mukden an order declaring that the "moment for the
attack, ardently desired by the army, had at last arrived, and that
the Japanese were now to be compelled to do Russia's will." Barely a
month had elapsed since the great battle at Liaoyang, and it still
remains uncertain what had happened in that interval to justify the
issue of such an order. But the most probable explanation is that
Kuropatkin had received re-enforcements, so that he could marshal
250,000 to 260,000 troops for the proposed offensive, and that his
news from Port Arthur suggested the necessity of immediate and
strenuous efforts to relieve the fortress. His plan was to throw
forward his right so as to outflank the Japanese, recover possession
of Liaoyang, and obtain command of the railway.

He set his troops in motion on the 9th of October, but he was driven
back after more than a week's fighting. No less than 13,333 Russian
dead were left on the field, and at the lowest calculation,
Kuropatkin's casualties must have exceeded 60,000 men exclusive of
prisoners. There can be no doubt whatever that the Russian army had
suffered one of the most overwhelming defeats in its history, and
that after a fortnight's hard marching and nine days' hard fighting,
with little food or sleep, it had been reduced by terrible losses and
depressing fatigues to a condition bordering on extermination. Such
was the result of Kuropatkin's first attempt to assume the offensive.
Thereafter, fully three months of complete inaction ensued, and the
onlooking world occupied itself with conjectures as to the
explanation of this apparent loss of time.

Yet the chief reason was very simple. The weat