CHINO-JAPANESE WAR. 398 
Japanese. ‘This fire caused almost the whole of the loss sustained by 
the 2nd division during the day. Surgeon-Colonel Taylor, who was 
fortunately in this part of the field, saw this episode; and he speaks 
most highly of the way in which the wounded men were picked up by 
the bearer company. 
A last gallant attempt was made by a party of Chinese sailors to 
land and disable the guns in Rokakushi fort, but they were too late. 
They did just land, but the Japanese infantry were there and drove 
them back and the two last forts were occupied at a quarter to one. 
The Rokakushi fort was occupied bya party of Japanese sailors who 
had been brought from Yungcheng for the express purpose of manning 
the guns in the forts. There were four 24 c.m. guns in Rokakushi, 
and the Japanese were able to prepare three of them for action, and 
whilst looking for stores and ammunition one of the men was just in 
time to extinguish a bundle of lighted joss sticks stuck into a powder 
barrel in the main magazine. 
About a quarter-past one fire was rather rashly opened from 
Rokakushi fort against Nito fort. I say rather rashly because the 
sailors had not properly mastered the working of the guns and the fire 
was consequently very wide of the mark and only served to show the 
Chinese fleet that the guns were still serviceable. There had been an 
attempt made by the Chinese to disable all the guns, and this opening 
fire showed that the attempt had not been successful. Three ships ac- 
cordingly, together with the island forts, concentrated their fire on 
Rokakushi and did a lot of damage, one enfilading shot from the Ting 
Yuen (the Chinese ironclad) cutting 10 feet of the chase of No. 2 gun 
clean off, killing two men and wounding two others. I have a small 
photograph of that gun showing what a clean cut was made. The 
Japanese ceased firing at 4 o’clock and 20 minutes later the Chinese 
also ceased. 
The next day was a quiet one, but about noon the weather, 
which had been fine on the 30th, suddenly changed. A gale sprang 
up from the north, with rain at first and then snow, and it became 
bitterly cold. 
On the Ist February the 2nd division began to move round towards 
Wei-hai-wei town, keeping inland so as to be out of sight and range 
of the Chinese ships. The left flank-guard had a fight in a snowstorm 
with a large Chinese force at Sonkaton and was in some difficulty, 
but reinforcements came up in good time and the Chinese were driven 
off. It appears that the Chinese were the rear-guard of a force 
retreating from the western forts towards Chefoo. The weather was 
so bad on this day that the Japanese fleet had to run for shelter to 
Yungcheng bay. 
On the 2nd February not only Wei-hai-wei town, but all the western 
forts were found to have been abandoned. ‘The guns, however, had all 
been rendered unserviceable. 
The Japanese fleet again put to sea, but in the words of Admiral Ito 
“the cold was so intense that the ships were covered with ice, and 
blocks of ice from three to five inches thick were frozen into the 
muzzles of the guns,” 
