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In the meantime, operations in other places were being carried out with equal rapidity and thoroughness. Colonel Hirata received a telephone message from Lieutenant-Colonel Shimamoto about 10.40 p.m. to the effect that the South Manchuria Railway track had been destroyed by Chinese troops and that he was about to start to attack the enemy. Colonel Hirata approved his action and himself decided to attack the walled city. The concentration of his troops was complete by 11.30 p.m. and his attack commenced. No resistance was offered, only occasional fighting on the streets, mostly with the Chinese police, of whom 75 were killed. At 2.15 a.m. the wall of the city was scaled. By 3.40 a.m. he had captured it. At 4,50 a.m. he received information that the staff of the 2nd Division and a part of the 16th Regiment had left Liaoyang at 3.30 a.m. These troops arrived shortly after 5 a.m. At 6 a.m. the occupation of the eastern wall was completed; the arsenal and aerodrome were captured at 7.30. The East Barracks were then attacked and by 1 p.m. were occupied without fighting. The total casualties in these operations were 7 Japanese wounded and 30 Chinese killed.
Lieutenant-General Honjo, who had only returned from his tour of inspection that very day, received the first news of what was happening at Mukden by telephone from a newspaper agency at about 11 o'clock a.m. The Chief of Staff received a telegraphic report at 11.46 a.m. from the Special Service Station at Mukden, giving details of the attack, and orders were immediately sent to the troops at Liaoyang, Yingkow and Fenghuangsheng to proceed to Mukden. The fleet was ordered to leave Port Arthur and proceed to Yingkow and the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Garrison Army in Korea was asked to send reinforcements. Lieutenant-General Honjo left Port Arthur at 3.30 a.m. and arrived at Mukden at noon.
The Chinese version.According to the Chinese version, the Japanese attack on the Barracks (Peitaying) was entirely unprovoked and came as a complete surprise. On the night of September 18th, all the soldiers of the 7th Brigade, numbering about 10,000, were in the North Barracks. As instructions had been received from Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang on September 6th[1] that special care was to be taken to avoid any clash with the Japanese troops in the tense state of feeling existing at the time, the sentries at the walls of the Barracks were only armed with dummy rifles. For the same reason, the west gate in the mud wall surrounding the camp which gave access to the railway had been closed. The Japanese had been carrying out night manœuvres around the barracks on the nights of September 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th. At 7 p.m. on the evening of the 18th, they were manœuvring at a village called Wenkuantun. At 9 p.m., Officer Liu reported that a train composed of three or four coaches, but without the usual type of locomotive, had stopped there. At 10 p.m. the sound of a loud explosion was heard, immediately followed by rifle fire. This was reported over the telephone by the Chief of Staff to the Commanding Officer, General Wang I-Cheh, who was at his private house situated near the railway, about six or seven miles from the barracks, to the south. While the Chief of Staff was still at the telephone, news was brought to him that the Japanese were attacking the barracks and that two sentries had been wounded. At about 11 o'clock p.m., a general attack on the south-west corner of the barracks began, and at 11.30 p.m. the Japanese had effected an entry- ↑ The text of the telegram shown to the Commission at Peiping was as follows:
"Our relations with Japan have become very delicate. We must be particularly cautious in our intercourse with them. No matter how they may challenge us, we must be extremely patient and never resort to force, so as to avoid any conflict whatever. You are instructed to issue, secretly and immediately, orders to all the officers, calling their attention to this point."
