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82 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
His troops had hitherto acted nearly exclusively
on the defensive. Their counter attacks in the
night of the 22nd had been only on a small scale,
and the half-hearted way in which they had been
carried out, showed him plainly that the morale of
his men had suffered under the heavy bombard-
ment and the determined assaults of the enemy.
He saw that to restore confidence to them and
brace their courage, it would be necessary to
adopt a resolute offensive. Feeling convinced of
the Japanese intentions and what their next move
would be, he hoped, at the same time, to forestall
events and upset their plans.
He fixed his counter attack for eleven o’clock
in the evening. He would despatch a small force
to make a demonstration against the Japanese
positions in front of the Lungyen redoubt, but he
would direct his main attack against the captured
Panlung forts. Concentrating a strong force in
the valleys behind Wantai hill, he would at the
right moment send them in two columns through
the gullies on either side of the Panlung forts.
The battalion, which was entrenched at the foot
of Wantai, should be crushed under an impetuous
attack by overwhelming forces from two sides.
When his troops had worked past the Panlung
forts, the left column were to engage and drive
back the Japanese troops here, while the right
column worked round to the back of the Japanese
in the captured forts, cut off their retreat, and
carried the forts by assault. He knew the garri-
son could not be large ;
the heavy artillery fire
prevented that.
The night was calm and quiet ;
the moon,
nearly full, shed its pale, dreamy light over hill
and valley, and the stars twinkled brightly in the
dark-blue sky. Far over to the east a powerful
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