At the Fall of Port Arthur Part 33

"_Banzai!_" came the rallying cry from the men, and up the slope they rushed, with Gilbert at their side. Crack! crack! went the rifles of the Russians, and then, without warning, several sh.e.l.ls were sent up. One man of Gilbert's company was killed and two wounded, but they did not waver. Pa.s.sing the brushwood, they ran out boldly on the slope above them.

Many of the rocks at the top of the hill were loose, and as the j.a.panese came closer, the enemy began to send them down in a shower which was highly dangerous to those below.

"Beware of the stones!" cried Gilbert.

He had hardly spoken when he saw that he would have to look after his own safety. The Russians were working over a rock that weighed several hundreds of pounds.

All at once the ma.s.s broke loose. There was a yell of delight from above, and then the big bowlder came rolling straight for Gilbert. Had it touched him he must surely have been crushed to death.

But the young Southerner was as cool as he was quick. Pausing to make certain which way the big stone was coming down, he made a quick leap in the opposite direction. Then the bowlder went bounding past him, to crash into some small trees at the bottom of the hill.

"Are you hurt, captain?" asked his lieutenant.

"No," answered Gilbert. Then he leaped to the front once more. "Come!"

he cried. "_Banzai!_ Forward for the Mikado!" And on the whole company went as before, firing rapidly as they did so. The Russians clung to the hilltop a few minutes longer, and then, as the first of the j.a.panese gained a footing there, they broke and fled in wild disorder down the other side of the hill, and into the woods to the northward. The j.a.panese pursued them for two hours but could not catch them, and at last the chase was abandoned. In this skirmish, called the battle of Po-yang-ling, the j.a.panese lost in killed and wounded four men, and the Russians seven. Three of the Czar's soldiers were also taken prisoners.

After that the powder train had no more difficulty, and four days later reached its destination, which was the village of Fanshen, where the j.a.panese had established something of a base of supplies for that portion of the army which was moving southward to join in the siege of Port Arthur. At Fanshen, Major Okopa's command received orders to go into camp instead of returning to the vicinity of Liao-Yang.

"This looks to me as if we were to be transferred to the army in the south," said the major, after communicating the news to Gilbert.

"Well, I shouldn't mind helping to take Port Arthur," returned the young Southerner. "If you will remember, it was my treatment by the Russians at that place which caused me to take up arms against them."

"So you said before, Captain Pennington. But do not imagine that the taking of Port Arthur will be easy. The Russians have fortified it in every possible manner."

"Yes,--they were doing that before I came away from there."

"For months they have been strengthening their fortifications, and getting in ammunition and supplies in secret. Their chain of forts extend, so I have been told, for twenty miles and more outside of the city, and being in a mountainous country, they will be hard to reduce."

"Don't you think we can capture the place?" demanded Gilbert.

"Capture it? Most a.s.suredly, captain. But it will mean a great destruction of life," returned Major Okopa, gravely.

What the major said about the Russians fortifying Port Arthur was true.

Lieutenant-General Stoessel, the Russian commander at that place, had under him sixty thousand men, the very flower of the Russian army. On the side of the sea the town was fortified at a dozen points, only three of which had been thus far captured under the j.a.panese army led by General Nogi. To the northward and the westward were some twenty defenses, set among the mountains where they were next to impossible to reach.

In a work of this kind, it is impossible to relate in detail all of the many battles fought over the possession of Port Arthur. The first a.s.sault was made in February by Admiral Togo's fleet, and the naval conflict was kept up for almost three months after that. In the meantime a j.a.panese army under General Oku landed at Pitsewo, and after several battles at Kinchow and Nanshan Hill, drove the Russians back to their mountain defenses and took possession of the railroad running to Liao-Yang and Mukden. Thus Port Arthur was cut off from almost all communication with the outside world.

CHAPTER XXV

BOMBARDING A PORT ARTHUR FORT

Larry felt very happy after having met Ben and Gilbert. He had been afraid he should find that his brother or his friend was wounded, even though no mention of such an occurrence had been made in the letter he had received. He knew from experience that Ben was in the habit of making light of things that went wrong.

"I suppose it did your heart good to meet 'em both," said Luke, after the warship was on the way.

"You're right, Luke; it was a regular touch of old times."

"Wish I had seen 'em myself."

"Both wanted to be remembered to you." Larry paused for a moment. "By the way, I wonder where we are bound now?"

"Can't say as to that, lad--secret orders, I reckon," answered the old tar.

The order to sail was evidently an important one, for scarcely was the _Shohirika_ out of sight of land than all steam was crowded on. The lookouts were also doubled, and when night came the strictest watch possible was maintained.

Yet, with it all, several days pa.s.sed without anything out of the ordinary happening. Drills and exercises went on as before, and both Larry and Luke made themselves familiar with all parts of the warship.

Both spent much time in familiarizing themselves with such orders as were given to them in j.a.panese, so that they might not be too "green,"

as Larry termed it, if put to the test.

During those days spent on shipboard matters concerning the great war were moving forward steadily. In the vicinity of Liao-Yang both the j.a.panese and the Russians made several movements to better their positions. This brought on a few skirmishes and one heavy battle, in which the losses were several hundreds on each side. There was also an advance on the outer forts of Port Arthur, and a fair-sized hill was captured by the Mikado's men, who, however held the place only at an enormous loss of life. In moving on the port the j.a.panese found they would have to do a great amount of tunneling and entrenching, all of which consumed time.

On the ocean the two nations were equally active. Both took several prizes of war, and in an encounter with the Vladivostok squadron a Russian warship was hopelessly disabled and a j.a.panese cruiser was all but sunk. Another ship belonging to Admiral Togo's fleet struck a mine outside of Port Arthur and had to be sent back to j.a.pan for repairs.

So far the weather had been warm, but autumn was now at hand and before long the nights became cold and raw.

"This war won't be finished this winter," said more than one. "We are in for another year of it, sure."

The _Shohirika_ had been summoned to join the fleet patrolling before Port Arthur. Two days before that station was reached they fell in with a sister ship which brought the news of an encounter with a Russian battleship carrying some troops from Siberia. Both warships had suffered and become separated in the darkness.

"This war is certainly warming up," said Larry. "I hope we see some fighting before it is over."

"Maybe we'll see more of it than you wish," said Luke, grimly.

"Don't you worry--we'll see a whole lot," put in Steve Colton, who was sitting on a ditty chest, playing checkers with Bob Stanford. "Just wait till we get under Admiral Togo's eye--he'll make us be up and doing."

The chance to see some of the war came the next day, when they were ordered to bombard one of the forts to the north of Port Arthur proper.

As soon as they came within four miles of the fort they received a reception which was as warm as it was exciting.

"Now, here is where we show what we can do!" cried Luke, as the orders came to begin firing, and the whole gun company jumped in to a.s.sist him.

The magazines were opened up, the windla.s.ses set to work, and soon the first real sh.e.l.l--not a mere blank for practicing--came up and was run into the gun. Then the breech-block was swung to and locked, the electric connection set, and Luke sighted the piece with care, after having first received the proper distance from the range-finders in the tops. As soon as the "sight" was "covered" the b.u.t.ton was pressed, and _bang!_ went the gun with a concussion that shook the whole ship. Other guns followed in rapid succession, until Larry had to stuff cotton in his ears to keep himself from becoming deaf. As soon as the gun was discharged, it was opened to let the gases out and then cleaned with wet swabs and flushed with running water to cool the barrel.

The bombardment lasted for an hour, and during that time the fort was. .h.i.t in a dozen places. Sand, dirt, and rocks flew in all directions, and once there came a flash which told of an explosion of a quant.i.ty of powder.

"If we could only hit the magazine it would be good-by to that fort,"

said Larry, but this was not to be.

After the first few shots the fort had remained silent, but now, when the _Shohirika_ was about to retire, the gunners opened up once more, and a rain of shot and sh.e.l.l flew all around the warship. One struck the bow of the vessel, tearing off a few feet of the forward deck and another entered the forward turret, killing one of the gunner's a.s.sistants.

"We can be thankful we weren't in that turret," said Luke, when he received the latter news.

"Yes, indeed!" murmured Larry, and could not repress a shiver. "I can tell you, it's mighty risky work after all!" he added, soberly.

"Well, we've got one advantage over those fellows," put in Colton, after the firing had come to an end, and the warship was fast getting out of range. "We can run away, while they have got to stay right where they are."