the wall. The main defence of the city was a'strong line of trenches on {op of the wall, The Shansi men lived as historic clift dwellers in small individual caves like dugouts ut into the wall. Each unit was Sssigned a sector and they fought, billeted "themselves andre: matricd....
In spite of heavy artillery fre, which was mitigated by the inferiority of some of the ammuni~ tion, the defenders managed to avoid casualties owing to the completeness of the system of defence. 'The cessation of artillery fire indicated the impending advances of the besiegers; the defenders! quickly took up their positions and' directed a withering fire on the advancing troops. Such of the besiegers as reached the wall were driven off by hand-grenades and field guns were fired from the security of trap ports, according to' an eyewitness on the spot. Nevertheless, the bombardment did heavy damage in the town itself. Three hundred civilians were killed and the main streets and buildings were wrecked as if by an earthquake. The strength of the defences Justified the belief that General Fu Tso-yi might have held out for an even longer time than he did, since the attackers were in those days without any powers of serial observation, but the failure to detect the launching of a night attack proved the turning point in the operations. This night attack gave the besiegers such an advantage that the surrender was! Inevitable.
Although the defences were so strong, the failure of the Fengtien army to take Chochow by storm was considered in Peking at the time to be highly discreditable and consequently many legends were current to justify that discomfiture, Chochow was the home of two of.
China's national heroes, Liu Pei and Chang Fei, of the period of the Phrce Kingdoms, and it was easily credible that the ghosts of those two heroes had appeared in Chochow to encourage the defenders and bulk the efforts of the tackers. The Fengtien troops declared that night after night on. the city wall two giant figures were seen patrolling the ramparts, one red-faced and one black-faced. The city pagoda was also the subject of superstitious rumour and it was declared that the shots fired against it were innocuous, for, when a shell exploded, the pagoda sent out a vast cloud of steam and obscured itself.
Although it was said to have borne marks of 400 direct hits at the end of the siege, it was still standing, apparently as firm as ever, and could be ascended by the undamaged stairs. The story is also told of some besiegers in charge of six-inch howitzers, determined to finish the stubborn city walls by gun-fire one night, but, confronted by a dignified old lady in antique costume, they were advised to sist because, if they destroyed one wall, another would rise to take its place. The apparition so startled the artilleryman that they abandoned their plan. However that may be, the student of military affairs will be more inclined to regard
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.