about eight
o'clock
This success was followed up by the capture , on 16th October , of an immensely strong Russian position on Hashimakayana Hill . Ten days later , the Japanese troops stormed and took , after hours of sanguinary fighting , the two important positions of Erhlung and Sungshushan , on the northern and north-western salients of the old Chinese Wall ; and these successes were considered to have cleared the ground for the general assault which had been ordered from headquarters in Japan . For four days -- 27th , 28th , 29th , and 30th October -- the Russian works were subjected to such a terrific bombardment as , up to then , mortal eyes had certainly never beheld . It reached its height about eight o'clock on the morning of the 30th , and continued until about one o'clock in the afternoon , during which the din was terrific and indescribable . Shell and shrapnel fell upon the Russian works at the rate of one hundred per minute , the forts resembled volcanoes in eruption , from the continuous explosions of the shells which fell upon them , and the entire landscape became veiled in a thick haze of smoke . At one o'clock the preparation was thought to be complete ; and ten minutes later the great assault began -- to end in complete and disastrous failure ! The Russian forts , supposed to have been silenced by those four days of terrific bombardment , were as formidable as ever ; and as the stormers dashed forward they were met by so furious a rifle and artillery fire that they were literally annihilated .