At 3 p.m. I set out with Tserpitsky for the west. With our Cossack escort we rode at great speed to the little village of Tapau, north of Madyapu and south-west of Mukden. Tserpitsky s new line ran from Kwanlinpu to Likwanpu. North of him was Gerngross and the brave First Siberian, or at least as much of it as had arrived. South of him was Gershelmann, with the Forty-first Artillery brigade, and Roussanoff. We had now, among others, the fourteenth division. Previously the Japanese had been able to hurl against the numerically inferior Russian right no less than eight divisions, equivalent to the whole Japanese army at the battle of Liao-Yang. Now the fight would be fairer, for, in addition to Gerngross, an independent corps, to operate north-west of Mukden, was formed under Von Launitz, but, alas, it was already too late.
After remaining at Tapau till the evening Tserpitsky started at nightfall for Yangshihtun. There were six huge conflagrations in front of us. As we drew close to them we discovered a long line of our infantry waiting in a field. Tserpitsky, short, red, puffy, but brave as a Paladin, rode impetuously among them. They surged around him with fixed bayonets like frightened children around a father. They pressed close to him, shaken, terror-stricken, as if the sound of his words could confer invincibility. " Men of Minsk! " he began, but this was too formal. M Rebyata! " he said, " children! Russia always conquers! We'll conquer now! Advance and sweep those pagan Japanese to hell! Now! " imploringly, almost tearfully. " There will be no retreat, no coming back! " (A loud cry of " Nyet! nyet! vashe prevoshoditelstvo! ") For a moment the old general was overcome by emotion. Then he mastered himself by a strong effort and recommenced: " Rebyata! molodtzi! " but suddenly his voice broke, and, turning to his staff, he said huskily: " Give them vodka! Give them anything! Send them on! God bless you! God bless you! " and, shaking hands fervently, tearfully, with the colonel of the regiment, who had at the time been standing at attention beside his horse's head, he plunged his spurs into his steed and went off at his usual breakneck pace.
We now approached very near to one of the burning villages, trampling in the darkness over thousands of preserved meat tins, which had probably been carried off from Suhudyapu. On the walls of this burning village figures were outlined against the flames, figures of soldiers, small soldiers with round caps and overcoats of which the skin-lined collars swept upward round the face and ears after the manner of a lotus blossom. Crack! crack! crack! They were firing at us. We had come too near. Increasing our speed we soon left the dangerous village behind and came, in the densest darkness, to another where there was no conflagration, not even a gleam of light, and behind which thousands of Russians were massed in trenches. These men also Tserpitsky addressed, winding up by ordering the colonel to give them one yen each! On hearing this the poor, simple-minded, tow-headed Muscovites, going in hundreds to their death, nearly went mad with delight; but, good heavens! that very morning a Chinese jinriksha coolie had nearly stabbed me in the streets of Mukden for presuming to offer him only three yen for an hour's work!
The General and his staff entered the village, while Rikacheff and I got a soldier to hold our horses. We promised him twenty-five kopecks; and he was delighted. Taking us for Cossacks, he began to expatiate on how differently Cossack officers and infantry officers treated their men. " Why, one of our officers would never think of talking to us so friendly as that," he began, but without waiting to hear the rest of it, we left him hurriedly and joined the General in a Chinese house, where after sleeping somewhere in my boots, as usual, I was awakened toward daybreak by the loudest bombardment I had ever listened to. We were like insects living in a drum which was getting a tremendous whack on both sides every few minutes. The house shook as if from the shock of an earthquake. The paper window-panes bulged out like the sails of a ship in a typhoon and then relaxed with a shiver. We feared that with the next terrific bellow the flimsy structure would fall to pieces. Meanwhile, the rattle-rattle-rattle of the rifles was incessant, close and angry. Hearing that sort of uproar the first thing in the morning, whenit is dark and one is only half awake,
the average person is inclined to imagine that he has died during the night and is not waking up in heaven.