Then one army division crossed the Yalu with three converging lines, moving toward Mukden, pressing a retreating army before them.

Then, still moving in the grooves of the last war, there was a landing of troops at Pitsewo, threatening Dalny and Port Arthur, the latter already isolated, with railroad and telegraphic lines cut.

Seeing the capture of Dalny was imminent, without a pause the Russians mined the harbor, docks and defences which had cost millions of dollars, and the city created by fiat was by fiat doomed to destruction.
Behind this life and death struggle with a foreign foe, another struggle nearer home was being profoundly affected by these unexpected calamities.

An unpopular war cannot afford to be an unsuccessful one.
This clash with Japan was distinctly the outcome of bureaucratic ambitions and policy.

It had not one single issue in which the people who were fighting its battles and bearing its burdens were even remotely interested.