ABSTRACT
On the third day of August, 1894, war was formally declared between China and Japan in consequence of disputes regarding the kingdom of Corea, and the battle of Phyõnyang, on the 15th of September, and the naval engagement of Hai-yang, two days later, in both of which the Japanese military and naval forces were victorious, opened the way to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by land and sea. Following up their successes against the Chinese troops in Corea the Japanese crossed the Ya-lu, the boundary of Corea and Manchuria, and occupied the city of Fêng-huang Ting—usually called Fêng-huang-ch’êng—on the 30th. From Fêng-huang T’ing they pushed on to Hsiu-yen Chou and Hai-ch’êng Hsien, which were taken on the 18th November and 13th December respectively. Some time was occupied in entrenching themselves at Hai-ch’êng and in repelling four different attempts made by the Chinese to retake the city, and it was not till the 4th of March, 1895, that the most desperate struggle in Manchuria was decided, and the inland town of Niu-chuang fell into the hands of the Japanese. These were the achievements of the First Army Corps. In the early days of November, 1894, the Second Army Corps landed at Fi-tzǔ-wo and Hua-yüan-k’ou, on the east coast of the Liao-tung Peninsula, north of Ta-lien-wan Bay, and took Chin-chou Ting on the 6th, while next day the Japanese fleet occupied Ta-lien-wan Bay itself, the Chinese escaping to Port Arthur, which in turn was 40successfully assaulted and occupied on the 21st of November. On the 10th of January, 1895, two columns of the Second Army Corps took the city of Kai-p’ing Hsien, and the port of Newchwang (Ying-kow) was occupied on the 6th of March, the Chinese, with the exception of the troops in the forts who fled overnight across the frozen Liao, having evacuated the latter place the previous day and fallen back on Tien-chuang-tfai. The First and Second Japanese Army Corps now joined hands, and on the 9th of March, three days after the occupation of the port by the First Division of the Second Army, three divisions of the combined armies dealt a final blow at the Chinese forces at the town of Tien-chuang-t’ai, on the right bank of the Liao, thirteen miles north of Newchwang, where the Chinese made their last stand in Manchuria. After the battle the Chinese retreated westwards, and the Japanese, leaving a few scouts to watch the movements of their beaten foe, withdrew to the left bank of the river. Japan had now overrun and occupied the whole of the Liao-tung Peninsula, and when the day of reckoning arrived it formed part of the territorial concessions by China. Article II. of the Treaty of Peace between China and Japan, signed at Shimonoseki on the 17th of April, 1895, contains the following: “China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the following territories, together with all fortifications, arsenals and public property thereon:—
