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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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these being the orders of the general, nothing should detain
us for a single moment, and that we would leave the fort
instantly. The hospitable old colonel, however, insisted upon
our finishing our tea, and I hope he never got into trouble
owing to the slackness of discipline of his men in letting us
into the fort.
This fort would absolutely bar the passage of the Sungari
if the guns could be trusted, for they were of far larger
calibre than any which would be likely to be brought against
them ; and I marvelled at the perseverance and energy which
the Chinese must have shown in bringing them up here, for
they had had to be transported some hundreds of miles by
land, and over hilly country. Field guns and even siege
battery guns might have been transported fairly easily ; but
it must have been a very heavy task indeed to carry these
huge pieces of ordnance, six or seven tons in weight, right
across Manchuria. But with the Chinese there is always a
doubt as to whether their guns will go off at the critical
time, for they are so utterly careless with them and with the
delicate machinery connected with them, and allow it all to
go to rust and ruin with such perfect disregard for conse-
quences, that one can never be sure that at the hour of need
the guns which they must have brought up with so great
an amount of labour will not fail them entirely.
After a couple of days' rest at Sansing, we turned southward
and ascended the Hurka river to Ninguta. The road was
execrable. We still had our carts, and how we, or rather the
drivers, managed to get them along a road really fit only
for pack-animals was a marvel. There was a constant
series of ascents and descents of spurs running down to the
river. These were nearly always steep, and the road narrow
and rocky. More than once our carts fell down the side, and
on one occasion a cart and its team turned two complete
somersaults as it rolled down the hillside. And yet, when
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