And while she waited the branch road from Harbin moved swiftly down to Mukden, and on through the Manchurian peninsula, and Port Arthur was in _direct line of communication with St.Petersburg_.
In 1900 the anti-foreign insurrection known as the "Boxer war" broke out in China.

Russia, in common with all the Great Powers (now including Japan), sent troops for the protection of the imperiled legations at Pekin.

Nothing could better have served the Government of the Tsar.

Russian troops poured into Manchuria, and the new road from Harbin bore the Tsar's soldiers swiftly down to Port Arthur.

The fort was garrisoned, and work immediately commenced--probably upon plans already drawn--to make of this coveted spot what Nature seemed to have designed it to be--the Gibraltar of the East.
The Western Powers had not been unobservant of these steady encroachments upon Chinese territory, and while a military occupation of the peninsula was necessary at this time, it was viewed with uneasiness; but none was prepared for what followed.