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266 THE SIEGE OF .PORT ARTHUR
new means they had adopted to gain their
ends.
After the severe reverse on November 26th
the Japanese realized the futility of their methods,
and recognized that they would have to proceed
still further along the path by which the logic of
events had led them step by step. In August
they had tried to attack the forts as they had
assaulted ordinary fortified positions at Nanshan,
Kensan, Ojikeisan and elsewhere, by a direct
frontal attack across open fields from sheltered
positions many hundreds of yards away. In
October, having been taught by bitter experiences
the hopelessness of such proceedings against
permanent forts, they sapped their way up to
the foot of the glacis and tried to cover the last
bit up to the forts with a rush ;
but this little
open space also proved fatal, costing them
hundreds of lives, so they decided to carry the
saps right to the top of the counterscarp. Arriv-
ing here, they were stopped by the moats, and
their experiences from the terrible fighting in the
caponiers of North Kikuanfort made them realize
that their work of sapping and digging was not
yet at an end. In November they had tunnelled
their way into the moats and attacked from here
over the rampart ;
but even this proved too difficult
a task against the machine guns and hand-
grenades of the defenders securely ensconced
behind their sandbag walls. Thus, step by step,
the Japanese had been forced to dig their way
further and further forward against the forts,
until now, as the final and necessary conclusion
drawn from their bitter experiences, they carried
their saps or tunnels right into the interior of the
forts.
It is easy enough now to say that this is what
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