locate and operate directly against Combined Fleet, in order to prevent the Japanese from intercepting the convoy. However, the appearance near Weihaiwei of the Japanese cruisers Yoshino and Naniwa, which were on reconnaissance sortie, thwarted these plans. The Chinese mistook them for the main Japanese fleet. Consequently on 12 September, the entire Beiyang Fleet departed Dalian, heading for Weihaiwei and arriving near the Shandong Peninsula the following day. The Chinese warships spent the entire day cruising the area, waiting for the Japanese. However, since there was no sighting of the Japanese, Admiral Ding decided to return to Dalian, arriving there in the morning of 15 September. The Japanese victory at Pyongyang had succeeded in pushing Chinese troops north to the Yalu River, in the process removing all effective Chinese military presence on the Korean peninsula. Shortly before the convoy's departure, Admiral Ding received a message concerning the battle at Pyongyang. Although it was rather inaccurate, it informed him about the defeat and subsequently made the redeployment of the troops to near the mouth of the Taedong River unnecessary. Admiral Ding, who then correctly assumed that the next Chinese line of defence would be established on the Yalu River, decided to redeploy the embarked soldiers there. On 16 September, at about 1:00 am, the convoy of five transport ships departed from the Dalian Bay under escort from the main force of the Beiyang Fleet which included the ironclad battleships and , the small coastal defence battleship , the cruisers , , , and , the small cruisers , and , torpedo gunboat Guangbing, the gunboats Zhennan and Zhenzhong as well as the torpedo boats and Zuo 1. They reached the mouth of the Yalu River at about 14.00pm. The transports, escorted by Pingyuan, Guangbing, Zhennan, Zhenzhong, together with both torpedo boats, immediately steamed up the river and dropped their anchors approximately from the mouth of the Yalu. The troops were disembarked and the landing operation lasted until the morning of 17 September. Meanwhile, the remaining warships of the Beiyang Fleet anchored in shallow waters about from the shore, south-west of the mouth of the river, where they remained for the rest of the day and the entire night. On 17 September, at 9:20 am, the fleet left its position and conducted a one-and-a-half-hour training exercise before returning to their previous anchorage. Soon thereafter, at 11:28 am, observers on board the Chinese