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blew up the railway bridge, and cut the line between Velestino and Pharsala.

"The defeat of the Greek army was now complete, and the Pass across the mountains to Volo was left open to the Turks. The withdrawal of the artillery on the right front had been begun early in the afternoon, and one full battery of field cannon, as well as a few mountain guns, were safely brought to Volo and transferred to Greek warships in the bay. Searchlights flashing up the mountain side rendered great assistance by showing the road in the intense darkness. Over a dozen cannon were abandoned or captured by the Turks.

"About two hundred wounded were brought down to Volo by a train which escaped half a dozen shells that a big Turkish battery dropped near it; but I am afraid this is not the full account, and that many more wounded were left on the field. No trustworthy estimate can be made of the number killed, but certainly the casualties were much greater among the Turks than among the Greeks, the fire of the latter all through being much more effective until the Turks brought the ten-centimeter guns into action.

"About three o'clock General Smolenski's shattered army was cut in two. The left wing he retired, I do not know in what order, by Persephla, in the direction of Halmyros, where he would have the protection of the Greek fleet.

"The right wing, or what was left of it, came on toward Volo, but it was broken and demoralized. The retreat across the mountains to Volo in the dense night was almost as disorganized as that from Turnavo to Larissa. Just as then, there was a good deal of firing, but happily it was indiscriminate firing; the irregulars on the hills around occasionally blazing away with their rifles, and they fired in the air, not at imaginary pursuers. Volo was the scene of a wild panic during Thursday night and on Friday. The whole population turned out into the streets with their household goods. Peasants from over a score of villages on the slopes of Pelion rushed into the town and increased the confusion. Marau

ders, too, were soon about, and brigandage became common. Five steamers in the bay were speedily filled by thousands of refugees and their baggage, while scores of caiques sailed away to the

islands with poor people. The disorder on the quays and in the streets became so great that the British and French consuls visited the international fleet in the bay and requested that a force of British, Italian, French and Austrian marines should be landed for the protection of the lives of those who could not get away, and to prevent the town being looted by brigands, even before the arrival of the Turks, who were momentarily expected."

CHAPTER XLVI

THE BATTLE IN THE YELLOW SEA

THE STRUGGLE IN THE EAST-CHINA AND JAPAN-THE FIGHT
OFF HAIYANG-THE TAKING OF PORT ARTHUR AND
THE FALL OF WEI-HAI-WEI

A.D. 1894-1895

APAN and China have been old enemies, and there is placed

JA

between them an apple of discord in the peninsula of Corea.

In the spring of 1894 an insurrection broke out in the south of that kingdom. The king appealed to his nominal suzerain China for help, and help was granted. Two thousand Chinese soldiers were landed at the Corean port of Asan. Now by the treaty of April 18, 1885, China was bound to inform the Japanese government of the dispatch of troops, and, as this had not been done, Japan promptly embarked a force of about five thousand men, and landed them at Chemulpho at the end of June.

On July 23 the struggle between China and Japan may be said to have begun with the Japanese attack upon the king of Corea's palace at Seoul. In this attack only troops were engaged and it took place there before any declaration of war. It was followed by what is known as the action off Asan, in which the Chinese vessel "Kowshing" was sunk. In a dozen minor engagements which ensued the Japanese were victorious by land and sea. Then one

after another came the three decisive battles of the war-the naval engagement of the Yellow Sea, the taking of Port Arthur, and the fall of Wei-hai-Wei.

The accounts of them which follow are from the pen of Yamada Yoshi-Aki, the principal of the Chautauquan Association of Japan.

The naval engagement of the Yellow Sea, better known by the style of the Fight off Haiyang-an important island near the scene of the conflict-is unique in the annals of this century. For here, for the first time since the great change in naval construction, two fleets of the most modern and powerful type met in deadly warfare, the result being significant of the tremendous nature of the weapons now employed by "civilized "nations and the fury with which the battle was fought on both sides. It was a deadly grapple between two ancient foes, with all the skill on one side and all the victory; though the Chinese did not fall behind in point of bravery and determined pluck. According to naval experts in this part of the world, the Chinese were defeated primarily because of their execrable tactics, and secondarily because they had no ships so swift as one or two of those on the Japanese side. Moreover the Japanese vessels fought intelligently, as a compact whole; while the Chinese warships, with the exception perhaps of the two great ironclads, failed to work in harmony and at no time brought their full strength to bear on the foe. Yet Admiral Ting, the Chinese commander, was a good sailor and able officer, no whit less brave and energetic than his adversary and quondam friend Vice-admiral Ito. Errors of judgment, the want of absolutely devoted crews, faulty gunnery-these were pregnant causes of the Chinese defeat.

It was on September 16, 1894, that the Japanese fleet left the temporary anchorage at the mouth of the Taidong River. The next day, after a fruitless cruise near the Corean littoral, the fleet made for the island of Haiyang, an island of importance, as already pointed out, and one which commanded the approach to the Kinchow Peninsula. The "Yoshino," "Takachiho," "Akitsushima," and "Naniwa," in the order named, forming the First Flying Squadron, led the van, the flag of Rear-admiral Tsuboi Kozo flying

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THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CHINESE TROOP SHIP

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