Our right flank, including the Lime Mountain, began to operate at dawn. The enemy moved his infantry battalions as well as the batteries rather closely. Simultaneously operated variegated guns. The fire is – amplified, then calmed down. Apparently, while some batteries were active, others moved closer. From the very beginning of the artillery duel, the Japanese guns began to hammer ours. About thirty Russian field-firing guns till ten o’clock in the morning were almost inactive. The places chosen for them were unsuccessful. The first battery of Lieutenant Colonel Sablukova, when trying to drive on the Lime Mountain, was fired upon by the enemy.
Podkovin could not tear himself away from the exciting picture unfolding before him. The Japanese chains advanced confidently and pushed on the right flag. “They will break through – and all is lost. Will not ours hit them?”
– Look look! On the hill, which is to the right of us, the flags are shown, “said Gunner Pavlov, who rose after Podkovin in a whisper,” They are spies!” We go down.
The soldiers of the artillery convoy revived, they waited for orders to transfer the battery to a new location.
“The big fight has begun,” the rider Borodkin said hoarsely, frail and small.
– They say, on one of our projectile ten Japanese arrives.
– Where is the shoe? The senior fireworker shouted.
– Here.
– Sit on the left prong of the reserve carriage and immediately ride with the bag to General Fok or Nadein. They should be at Nanguin Station. After receiving written and oral instructions, return here. Be sure to find the generals.
– Yes, Mr. Fireworks.
Podkovin spurred his horse and hid in a ravine, on which there was a path to the railway. The horse ran fast. Feeling the bag behind the overcoat cuff, Podkovin breathed a sigh of relief: the sounds of cannonade here in the hollow were less sharp.
The sun was shining brightly, it was warm. The guns still thundered threateningly, but only those that were far away. Suddenly, in front, a little to the left, sharp cannon strikes swept through the mountains, exactly the same that awakened Podkovina at dawn.
– Is there really enemy fleet here?! – He exclaimed and, driving the horse, rushed to the village.
On the country road from the battlefield to the station, the train of the fifth regiment was stretching, and after it the sailors dragged the bolt from Cana’s gun.
– The gun is good. It would give heat to Japanese gunboats, but did not have time to install it, the sailors explained Podkovin. Suddenly the train stopped.
“General Fok is going to the position,” the message ran from one soldier to another.
“Yes, it seems late,” the sailors grinned. – Slept the old man.
Fock pranced around the gig and shouted:
– Who ordered the movement of the regimental convoy? Colonel Tretyakov?! Immediately return the gigs back. Cartridges are needed only for positions.
Podkovin drove off to the side, waiting for the moment to get closer to the general. Fock spun in the saddle. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips quivered, his hands nervously fingered the reins. He was losing his temper. The main phases of the battle went without him. It turns out that almost all the guns shot down. The gunners, wounded and healthy, left their batteries on the orders of Colonel Tretyakov.
“How did this all quickly happen? – thought the general. – Damn it! Letters and telegrams of Kuropatkin made a decay. Nobody cares about maintaining their positions, about restoring the battle… Everyone is thinking about retreating to the fortress, And what about the Far One? What are we going to do with the damned miscarriage, with the toy Witte?”
Fock abruptly turned the horse and saw the shoe standing at him.
– Come here, what is it?
– From the commander of the second battery of the fourth rifle East-Siberian artillery brigade, Colonel Laperov.
– How are you doing on the left flank? Far Japanese?
– Very far.
– Far away, you say? I knew it would strike in the evening. Tell the colonel to keep a keen eye on the shore and not leave the Tafashi heights until further notice. Moving to the village of Modza is not worth it. Let him choose a safe position in this area.
Podkovin repeated word for word the order of the general.
“I’ve already seen you somewhere.” Do you want to smoke?
– I do not smoke, Your Excellency.
“Write what I said,” the general said to the adjutant, “and add that reinforcement to the left flank will be sent immediately.”
2
The hottest battle was in the morning on the right flank. The third battery of Lieutenant Colonel Romanovsky, who was injured in the battle of May 3, drove to a closed position at a height near the village of Ludyuten. On this day, both the battery servants and the command staff behaved very carefully. The hollow hid the cannons, and from the slide, which was somewhat to the right, Japanese moving regiments and guns, arrogantly advanced along the eastern shore of the Hunueza Bay, were clearly visible.
The morning rays of the sun very well illuminated the folds of the terrain and the accumulation of the enemy in them.
“Today is a holiday on our street,” said the bombardier Erofeev, who was wounded during the skirmish on May 3.
Gunner Petrov came running from the observation slide, supporting the connection between the battery and the slide.
– Military vessels enter the bay!
At the same time there were sharp shots of nine inch ship guns. The battery maid crouched in fear. But after a minute, everyone was cheerful. Heavy shells fell on the enemy. This was shot from the gunboat “Beaver” and with two destroyers. Our nearby batteries, forgetting caution, joined the battle even more fiercely. The Japanese columns could not stand it and quickly rolled back to the villages of Madjaten and Yandyaten. A servant of the Japanese batteries, located along the line of the old Chinese fortifications on the eastern shore of the Hunueza Bay, threw down the cannons and took refuge in the nearest ravines.
“Damned, damned,” shouted the gunners and the gunners. – Spies did not help either.Erofeev, in the intervals between the shots, said:
– Japanese cowards, not like our gunners. See what is being done in our positions. From dawn to this day, shells fall there, and the cannons all respond and respond.
– Rapid fire! – commanded the officer. – Three seconds – a shot!
The slopes of Samson began to be bordered with white clouds of our shrapnel. They were torn where the fiery enemy tongues glittered from gunfire and where companies and battalions moved from.
3
The officers of the first battery corrected their shooting from the height of number 37. The Japanese paid little attention to the Russian field guns placed on the Tafashi heights. They were fully engaged in the defeat of Nanshan and attacks on him.
An employee of the newspaper Noviy Kray Nozhin approached a group of officers.
“The picture of the battle is amazingly beautiful,” said Lieutenant of the second battery, Mikhailov, who had arrived at a height for communication and clarification of the situation.
“I have to admit, I didn’t expect such agility from the Japanese,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sablukov. – See which columns, and in plain sight. Today there is no void on the battlefield. The gunboats stand in the bays, and on their decks even the naked eye can see people. Sorry, killed Vereshchagin. He would have immortalized this fight and, perhaps, the last beautiful fight.
– Why?
– Our artillery is more and more improved and soon there will be no such day attacks. Even now, if we had more riflemen, had we set up Kana in time, it would have been possible to destroy the entire Japanese army advancing on Kinzhou.
Reason, Nozhin thought. “Everyone is covered in painful loquacity.”
Meanwhile, our field batteries with accurate shots drove away the enemy’s left-flank columns from the lower trenches.
– Hot go to Kinzhou. We miscalculate – sighed the lieutenant. – More than two hundred enemy riflemen, and large caliber, against Chinese junk, installed on our batteries. General Fock went to Kinzhou. There is trouble. They say that Colonel Tretyakov dismisses the artillerymen to Arthur during the battle, and the general catches them and returns them.
– incomprehensible, Lieutenant. Not a single long-range cannon. We could have an armored train…
“Could, it would be necessary,” Nochin chuckled to himself. “What did you think before?” The youth are dandy, and the high command is in the hands of pig-like Stesley. They see spies in Russians, and the terms are hundreds of people hostile to Russians.”
Nozin winced at unpleasant thoughts. He terribly disliked Stoessel. The general of the last days pursued him intensely.
By eleven o’clock in the afternoon all the attacks of the Japanese were repulsed. Enemy artillery fell silent. The chains of attackers lay down a thousand steps away from our trenches, supporting gunfire.
Arriving at the station Tafashin, General Fock took over the leadership of the battle. Field batteries fired poorly. Only from Izvestkovaya Mountain, our batteries still strenuously fired left-flank Japanese guns, abandoned by servants. “Beaver” and destroyer went to the Far. From the side of the Ker Bay, fresh enemy columns appeared.
The orderly arrived from Colonel Tretyakov:
– In the Kinzhou position, all the batteries were hit, the servants were killed. Colonel Tretyakov is afraid for the right flank and is waiting for reinforcement…
– I know! The general exclaimed, frowning. – How do the Japanese behave? What is there for advanced trenches?
“Hundreds of guns, Your Excellency.” At altitude number 75 is the highest Japanese command, openly watching and sending in all directions its orderlies.
– Nonsense! Can not be.
– Yes, Your Excellency.
“Well, we’ll show them to the bitch children,” the General shook his hand. He was strangled with malice. – Oh, scoundrels! Oh, scoundrels!
One thought terribly oppressed Fock: he, the Russian general, the division commander, the cavalier of St. George, by his absence at the beginning of the battle had actually entrusted the command to the little-known general Nadein, who had confused the direction for the reserve units. The two battalions of the thirteenth regiment were not sent to their position, but to the village of Tunselafan.
“Everything, everything messed up. I forgot everything in the hottest minutes of the battle. Rustling Baba!”
Fock spat in the hearts. He could not calm down. He was introduced to the height number 75, which is so close to the main fire, and on it the Japanese generals. They are there, despite the imminent danger, and he, Fock, was twenty miles away… This will be shouted over the course of long centuries.
“Nonsense! Who knew that the offensive would begin precisely at night, Fock comforted himself. ‘But they, of course, knew… However, suppose that I was on one of the batteries and would have killed me there.’ They would laugh again. ‘Why did the old fool get, envied Skobelev’s laurels?!’ You have to look around. I will go to the arrows and Colonel Tretyakov. The Japanese are unlikely to launch an open attack by nightfall.”
Inspection of the area adjacent to the railway track, confirmed the plight of our troops, deprived of support artillery.
The cannonade fell silent, and Fock headed for Kinzhou. A few dozen fathoms from the station Tafashin, he met with three artillery officers.
– Where are you going, what’s new? – asked Fock.
“To Port Arthur, Your Excellency.” Now on Kinzhou we have nothing to do, the guns have been hit.
– The colonel is very kind. But at such a critical moment each officer should be closer to the fire ring, where soldiers suffer and where brave officers die… It’s far from evening, and there may be an acute need for you. Come back.
The officers moved aside.
– What are we going to do there? – asked one of them.
– Talk with him. And where did he go? – officers turned to the adjutant.
– On Kinzhou.
The arrivals sadly hung their heads.
The attention of the general drew rowan Yanov.
– Again from Colonel Tretyakov? Who are you?
– Yanov, engineering foreman, Your Excellency.
– God knows what! – shouted Fock. “They are linking military affairs with civilian officials… If you see the commandant of the position, then tell him that he is not the commandant, but a woman!” Sits in the trenches and requires reinforcement. I will not give him a single person.
Fock waved his hand, turned round, and went to Tafashin.
“Nits,” the general grumbled to himself. – How soon panic and demobilized! And this is the colonels! What to expect from the younger composition? Does Mr. Tretyakov think that the order will follow to clear the positions? This will not happen!
Fock called the orderly and handed him a package with the following letter: “On May 13, 11 o’clock 50 minutes in the morning. I propose to stand in position until my order to retreat; about retreat not to think, to defend to the last man.”
The orderly rode away. For a moment, the general calmed down.“Do not retreat before my order, in no case do not retreat! – he thought. – Do not retreat… Oh, why did I put in this unnecessary word at the moment? It gives hope and there they will prepare for a retreat… They will tear off repulsed attacks! You can not do it this way”.
The General sat down at the station hall and wrote: “May 13, 11 hours 55 minutes. I suggest to stand to the last person; about retreat not to think. Ammo send. I met gigs with ammunition going to Nanguin, returned them.”
On the positions there was a lull. Reassured, the general went to inspect the location of the Japanese. Seeing the captain-engineer von Schwarz on the road, Fock frowned: “Where are you going?” Why are you here?
– Colonel Tretyakov sent with a report to you about the difficult situation on the front lines. We need reinforcements, Your Excellency.
– And he sent you, because he finds that you have nothing to do in the position? Strange and annoying! And you panicked! You, who do not tear landmines, when they need to break. You are running from positions, instead of really understanding what is the matter, and by night to correct what remains in our hands. My God, what can be done with such commanders?!
five
General Fock passed in the rear of the position to Kinzhou Bay. Wounded soldiers walked along ravines and roads, and often stretchers came across. General; frowned, but hurried forward, in order to properly understand all that had happened in the first half of the day.
His steps were hard, his eyes gleaming feverishly.
“The position is covered,” thought Fock, “and so quickly…”
He keenly felt his deepest mistake.
“We must by all means fix the matter. Not everything is missed. The Japanese are tired and shot shells. There are a lot of them. And I have all the parts in combat readiness. I will remove the fifth regiment, let it rest, and here the shelves are on the counterattack. We must find Tretyakov soon. I will inspire him with my personal example. What kind of tactlessness on the part of Kuropatkin is to write demobilizing letters. And me too! Why was to talk about them. And Stoessel is good at announcing orders. The isthmus must be in our hands, otherwise the Far Far Kaput.”
The general wrote to the Tretyakov a note: “12 hours 35 minutes. For the right flank, do not be afraid – there are two regiments. Look at the left flank, where the case can be solved.”
The wounded arrows that met the general looked at him inquiringly. As far as they could go, they stood up to the front and saluted him.
– How are you? The general shooter asked, with his right hand bandaged.
– All the trenches ruined. Their guns are beating, and ours are silent. Machine guns would be more. Dense wall go, creatures. – Fock’s face remained calm.
“What a tactic! And I was not. Two or three deft maneuvers under the cover of trenches – and it was possible to surround them, “thought Fock and turned to the arrow:
– You want to smoke, take a cigarette.
The soldier stretched out as far as he could, went up to the general and extended his hand to the silver cigarette case. Fock also got himself a cigarette, struck a match and offered it to the soldier.
– Smoke.
– I humbly thank, Your Excellency.
Rising up the hill to the battery number 10, General Fock all the time received reports from Colonel Tretyakov:
“I don’t have any part at hand that I could restore the fight to.” All in their places, and one hope for the boldness of the soldiers and the courage of the officers.”
– Well well. “Everything is in its place,” Fock grinned. – And those that are dead. Childishness Lyrics. Nothing efficient. I would have looked good in the trenches.
Fock immediately sent the Tretyakov a reply: “I thank for the boldness. You have enough strength. On the left flank, in reserve, I send two more companies to the battery number 15.”
When he finished writing, the general straightened up, furrowed his forehead;
– And I forgot about General Nadein! I will write to him:
“To General Nadein. May 13, 1 pm Send immediately to the ravine north-west of Tafashin two companies to the battery number 15.”
“We must prepare for the night, we must prepare for the night,” the general repeated. Colonel Savitsky approached him:
– What are you, your Excellency?
– The matter is fixable. General Fock is not a fool, “Fock continued aloud his thought,” he knows what he is doing. General Fock will always be right no matter what happens. General Fok is wounded in the head, and in the wounded and contused forged brains…
Colonel Savitsky shuddered and walked away to the orderlies, but Fock called out to him:
– Colonel, send to the position of the eight giggles of cartridges at the disposal of the commandant Tretyakov. He reports that there are no bullets. What’s the matter? He himself recently sent two gigs, and now he is asking. It must be relieved from the heart. In addition, assign two companies at his personal disposal. I go uphill, mouths follow me.
“The devil will disassemble this person, mumbles something incoherent, looks like a madman, and gives sensible orders… But still, he overslept the fight. Sat in the rear. Now it is difficult to do something substantial, – thought Savitsky. – The results of the battle would be in our hands if there was one spare division on Tafashin. The enemy goes berserk, advancing during the day in such thick columns. And we have nothing to beat…
The enemy gunboats were silent.
The companies of Russian soldiers stretched along the road. The general rode on horseback. The higher up the hill, the more came across the wounded.
Fok stopped and gave him a new report Tretyakov:
“On the left side of Samson (between the height number 75 and Samson) there are 25—30 mouths. Half – in a column, half – in a deployed system. From the left flank of the position, bypassing it, there are two companies on the water. A large mass of versts in four from us. On the left flank there are about 10—12 companies and twelve guns.”
“What do you say to that, Colonel?”
Sawitsky, listening to the report, counted: “Twenty-five plus two, plus ten, a total of thirty-seven mouths visible, so what the hell knows how many invisible ones. And we have: two plus two, a total of four.”
– By evening, Your Excellency, are grouped.
“Immediately inform the Laperov battery, which is on the left flank, about the enemy moving through the water,” Fock ordered. – Hurry to Colonel Tretyakov.
The general spurred the horse, but immediately besieged it:
– Again report. Read, Colonel.
“From under Samson near the height of number 75 two 7—8 mouths go in two columns. Artillery also moves. Redoubt number 9 is completely cut off from the left flank by shells; the trench is also spoiled, but people still hold on.”
– Forward, follow me! – Fok shouted and rode away.
Savitsky wanted to follow him, but he was stopped by a train soldier:
– Your Excellency, two horses killed.
The colonel let the horse gallop to catch up with the division commander.
– Your Excellency, two horses harnessed in cartridges, loaded with cartridges, killed. There is a danger for others.
– To deliver cartridges to the Tretyakov in public.
– Why ammunition for the position, there is their warehouse. – What do you think the head of the position is lying and the warehouse does not burn?
– Cartridges are burning with a bang, Your Excellency, like fireworks.
– Investigate. If there are cartridges in stock near Battery No. 10, send the gigs to the rear.
Climbing onto the highway, Fock walked slowly. The general threw uneasy glances at the foothills of Samson, in the nearest ravines, at the railway track, looking for the location of the enemy’s batteries and chains. Looking around and crouching a little at the whistle of bullets, he considered the batteries maimed and already abandoned by the Russians.
Behind the battery number 10, the road went through completely open terrain, and there were at least four hundred steps to the nearest trenches. The general sat on a stone. The enemy shells now fell solely on the trenches and the ravines adjacent to them. Clouds of dust and smoke hung over the heads of the defenders. Lead balls and sharp fragments poured thickly on top, abruptly whipping along the walls of trenches and wooden shelters. It was impossible to stick your head out. Shrapnel rain was replaced by explosions of shells.
“Find Colonel Tretyakov, I need to see him,” Fock ordered and immediately wrote a telegram to Stossel:
“Now I am in position; examined left batteries. They are literally bombarded with shells. The enemy sent his artillery and rifle fire to the northern front. As the arrows hold, I can not imagine, but keep well done. Almost all the guns are silent, ‘the division commander wrote further,’ therefore the 5th regiment will not be able to keep another day in this position. One thing remains – to withdraw the entire detachment and attack hand to hand, as our artillery currently cannot assist the northern front, or use the night and retreat …”
– But where is the Tretyakov?
The general lowered his head.
“You understand, Your Excellency, the head of the division, the commander of all the land forces of the Kinzhou Isthmus… You understand, the esteemed General Fock… You didn’t have control of the battle, you don’t have it now! And at this moment there is no, you old fool… You were demobilized by Kuropatkin’s letter… You fell under the influence of a sleek commander. Oh you are a genius, a genius”…
Fock lowered his head even lower.
A sharp shot from enemy gunboats made him wince and straighten up:
– Again this is unforeseen. But where is the Tretyakov?
6
When the Belly returned, he was immediately called to the commander of the battery.
– Saw the division chief? How on the right flank? Tell me more.
– From a position the wounded go, only them a little. The fortress guns shoot single-handedly, but the third battery of our brigade, the Beaver gunboat and the battery on Izvestkovaya Mountain shot down the enemy’s left flank, so that the Japanese
guns abandoned and sitting in the ravines. – Having told in detail about everything he had seen, Podkovin added: – Now everyone is afraid for the left flank, there the Japanese gunners help.
– What do the soldiers say? You talked to the wounded.
– Trenches thickly fall asleep with shells. Their cannons are two versts from our shooters. Shrapnel is thicker than rain, but so far there is no great harm. In the trenches visors are arranged, so that the bullets slap uselessly.
Colonel Laperov exchanged glances with staff captain Yasensky.
“The commandant of the city of Kinzhou, Captain Eremeev,” continued Podkovin, “he turned out to be a brave man.” It was hard for him with a handful of soldiers in the city. But he retreated only on orders. Now he is again on the left flank in the most advanced trenches. Brave captain, and still safe and sound.
– What else did the soldiers tell?
Podkovin hesitated.
– Speak, do not be shy.
“They learned that I am an artilleryman, and they ask: why were there so few good cannons in such a formidable position as Kinzhou?.. Why are they poorly sheltered?” Why are there few shells? Asking where you hid your firearms? They say that they would get closer to the trenches… Davit, they say, a Japanese with machine guns and light shells…
– OK, go! Keep your horse ready. There may be urgent orders.
7
Captain Eremeev remained at the tenth company in the advanced trenches of the northern line. It was the “forehead” of a fortified position. The arrows saw the hordes of the Japanese approaching them. The enemy shells, continuously falling from above, forced them to hide. Acrid smoke covered the field of fire. Its artillery beat occasionally. Reinforcements did not fit.
– What is it that our generals have forgotten us? – the noncommissioned officer of the fifth company addressed to Yeremeyev. – Look, behind the riverbed, at the very water there is a reinforced movement of Japanese infantry. Shields some expose.
– No, do not forget, – smiled Eremeev. – Waiting. What is the use of filling people in trenches now? It is necessary to save reserves, and then in the twilight – to counterattack. Of the entire division in position, read, one-fifth of the regiment. Japanese shields will consider and report to headquarters.
It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. With binoculars, Yeremeyev saw a row of wooden dummies on the shallows.
“Shields for averting eyes,” he guessed, “they want to deceive our artillery.” Who is lightly wounded, that and send with the report.
Under the cover of shields, the Japanese soldiers were moving along the chest in the water.
“Fire over the heads of the enemy, to the left of the shields,” Yeremeyev ordered.
Along the seashore from Tafashinsky heights, a shell boomed and hit the shields. After five seconds, the first pair of shrapnels exploded to the left, just above the heads of the attackers. Three seconds later, eight shrapnels were showered with lead bullets by the entire enemy force. The sea was boiling up, the shields stood intact, like dumb witnesses to the shooting.
Soldiers of the fifth and tenth companies clearly saw the death of the front ranks of the attackers. But the back came new forces. The enemy soldiers held their guns and cartridge belts high above their heads. From a distance it was difficult to determine the accuracy of the shooting of our gunners, but the Japanese guns falling into the water spoke eloquently of this.
The wounded and surviving Japanese crawled ashore, but they were shot from the lower trenches by hunting teams of the thirteenth and fourteenth regiments.
A whole battalion of cannons advanced on the water. Laperov’s field battery, having shot, hit the enemy. The Japanese could not move quickly on the water: the living stumbled over the dead, the wounded floundering. Waves of the tide, flying ashore, captured more and more land areas. Arrows advanced trenches were delighted. Despite the suffocating smoke, not only healthy, but also the wounded cheered up. There were jokes, the soldiers encouraged each other.
Captain Eremeev walked around the trench and said:
– If only to hold on until dusk. Fresh companies will come, will replace us, and the battalions will rush to the attack. Field batteries cleverly cleaned. Break the enemy.
“Eh, if only four dozen of such cannons,” the soldiers spoke with excitement.
– The battery already hits the Japanese cruisers! Cried the noncommissioned officer.The shooting of the Japanese battalion, aptly hit by the shells of the second battery in the Japanese gunners made confusion in the advancing enemy columns. In the trenches it became somewhat easier. The gunboats and part of the Japanese batteries directed their fire on Tafashi heights. The orderlies began bandaging the seriously wounded and carrying them to the rear. The dust has settled. From the sea a breath of coolness. The tired defenders remembered that they had not eaten all day.
– There is nothing worse than to sit and fight back from the enemy. And who came up with these fortresses?! To advance is much better, said the sergeant-major. – First of all, you yourself choose where to strike you. The enemy does not know about this and is waiting for an attack along the whole front. Second, you move your guns, and they are screwed to one place from the enemy.
“And third,” the corporal snatched up, “the man will go on the attack full. Oh, and I want to eat, brothers!
The sun went down. The foundation of Samson plunged into a light haze. The ravines stood out. The top of the mountain was exactly copper. Sunset glints glided over vzdeblennoy dust mixed with powder gases. Below, very close to the advanced trenches, there was a ring of enemy batteries. The fiery tongues of the shots with the drowning bottom seemed long and sinister.
eight
Colonel Tretyakov immediately, at the beginning of the battle, tried to determine as precisely as possible where the enemy would send his main attack. The flanks are most vulnerable: the right – from the shallow water of the Hunuez Bay, the left – from the channel of the river that flows south of the city of Jinzhou. Especially disturbed right flank. In the case of his breakthrough, the entire value of the position was reduced to zero. But the enemy, on the left, leaving the city with its thick walls, could concentrate reserves there, and use the riverbed as offensive sap.
“It’s a shame that it was not Kondratenko who commanded, but Fock,” thought the colonel. “It’s hard to understand what this old man needs.”
Lieutenant Gleb-Koshansky went down into the dugout.
“All the main attacks are on our right flank,” he said.
– I knew it! – exclaimed Tretyakov. – Write to General Nadein, to give reinforcements people.
– The placement of shooters in the trenches is now dangerous. We fall asleep with shells. Kanonerki cut off the parapet of the lunettes.
“Send for reinforcements.” I’ll go take a look.
Samson – so beautiful at sunrise and sunset – now looms over the Nanshan hill a heavy boulder. Every enemy cannon salvo, the fiery tongues of which were clearly visible, every chain of enemy troops openly advancing, forced the colonel to suffer deeply. And not because he was a coward. He annoyed himself. The paint of shame flooded his beautiful face. More than three months ago, he participated in the position survey commission. He was entrusted with the improvement of the fortifications, but he reacted rather calmly to his duties. It was necessary to shout, to prove that Nanshan required long-range cannons and concrete structures, the shores of Hunuez Bay should also have heavy and long-range artillery, and Tafashi heights are no less, and perhaps more important, in protecting the isthmus than Nanshan high ground. Cana’s wonderful cannons roll around and fall into the hands of the enemy. Can it be that Fock and Kondratenko will not come to the rescue, they will not think of anything against the Japanese?! The soldiers behave well, you can hope for them.