Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/194

 enemy's fleet. In fact, the tactics of the Japanese had undergone a complete change in the interval between the two Mongol invasions. On the first occasion no attempt was made to oppose the landing of the enemy, and in the engagements that ensued on shore the Japanese frittered away their strength by pursuing the disjointed methods of fighting peculiar to their own military canons. On the second occasion, the Mongols, despite their artillery, their catapults, and their great host, never succeeded in setting foot upon land. Held at bay by a series of continuous and desperate attacks, insignificant as displays of national force, but of deadly efficacy and most harassing character, the huge flotilla found nothing better than to lie huddled together, the big ships protecting the small, and the whole incapable of offensive action. No tricks of manuvre came into play. The Japanese simply laid boat alongside boat, and committed the rest to sword and halberd. It was a method very effective against the comparatively inexpert and clumsily equipped Mongols and Chinese, accustomed to fight in phalanx only. From the moment that a skilled Japanese swordsman or halberdier gained a footing on a ship crowded with soldiers of the kind that fought for Kublai Khan, swift carnage followed inevitably. Yet certainly the highest order of valour presided at these onsets when one or two little boats, their occupants armed with bow, hal-