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KEHRAUS 87
marched against the entrenchments at the foot of
Itzeshan and the Shuishi lunettes. The Russian
searchlight from Itzeshan soon detected the mov-
ing troops, and we saw that, instead of seemingly
flashing erratically all over the ground, it suddenly
became fixed and immovable. Star shells bursting
and lighting up the underlying country showed
us the whereabouts of the Japanese troops.
Their advance was slow and cautious. The
light blinded and confused them, and where they
were exposed to its rays the Russian bullets fell
fast and furious. With no means of retaliation
against their enemies, hidden behind a stream of
light, they had to take cover during the advance
in declivities in the soil or behind small mounds
or hillocks, where the rays of the implacable light
could not reach them.
The Japanese artillery tried to destroy the light.
We could see small clouds of smoke and dust
springing up in front of it and for a moment draw
a thin veil across it, and from our angle of obser-
vation we saw shells burst nearer and nearer.
Suddenly the light went out. A shell which burst
right in front of it had been lucky enough to hit it,
we thought, and the night seemed doubly dark
after. Taking advantage of this darkness, the
Japanese advanced rapidly. There was no longer
any need for caution ;
it was all-important to come
to close quarters with the enemy before another
light was turned upon them.
They had advanced to some 400 or 500 yards
from the Russian positions—the star-shells told us
that—when, suddenly, the light flashed out again.
And not that alone, but the light from Golden
Hill and another light from somewhere behind the
Erhlung forts, which we had not seen until then,
concentrated on them, and in the combined glare
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