rom Seoul, the other striking westward from
Yuensan. Forty days elapsed before the Japanese forces came into
action, and one day's fighting sufficed to carry all the Chinese
positions, the attacking armies having only seven hundred casualties
and the defenders, six thousand.

The next day, September 17th, Japan achieved an equally conspicuous
success at sea. Fourteen Chinese warships and six torpedo-boats,
steering homeward after convoying a fleet of transports to the mouth
of the Yalu River, fell in with eleven Japanese war-vessels cruising
in the Yellow Sea. The Chinese squadron was not seeking an encounter.
Their commanding officer did not appear to appreciate the value of
sea-power. His fleet included two armoured battle-ships of over seven
thousand tons' displacement, whereas the Japanese had nothing
stronger than belted cruisers of four thousand. Therefore a little
enterprise on China's part might have severed Japan's maritime
communications and compelled her to evacuate Korea. The Chinese,
however, used their war-vessels as convoys only, keeping them
carefully in port when no such duty was to be performed. It is
evident that, as a matter of choice, they would have avoided the
battle of the Yalu, though when compelled to fight they fought
stoutly. After a sharp engagement, four of their vessels were sunk,
and the remainder steamed into Weihaiwei, their retreat being covered
by torpedo-boats.

By this victory the maritime route to China lay open to Japan. She
could now attack Talien, Port Arthur, and Weihaiwei, naval stations
on the Liaotung and Shantung peninsulas, where strong permanent
fortifications had been built under the direction of European
experts. These forts fell one by one before the assaults of the
Japanese troops as easily as the castle of Pyong-yang had fallen.
Only by the remains of the Chinese fleet at Weihaiwei was a stubborn
resistance made, under the command of Admiral Ting. But, after the
entire squadron of torpedo craft had been captured, and after three
of the largest Chinese ships had been sent to the bottom by Japanese
torpedoes, and one had met the same fate by gunfire, the remainder
surrendered, and their gallant commander, Admiral Ting, rejecting all
overtures from the Japanese, committed suicide.

The fall of Weihaiwei ended the war. It had lasted seven and a half
months, and during that time the Japanese had operated with five
columns aggregating 120,000 men. "One of these columns