The strategy of the Russian commander in the Far East, General Alexei Kuropatkin was to conduct stalling action, while waiting for enough reinforcements to be brought up to the front via the single-track Trans-Siberian Railway to take the offensive.
On 22 April 1904, Kuropatkin dispatched the "Eastern Detachment" under the command of Lieutenant-General Mikhail Zasulich with 16,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and some 62 artillery pieces to fight a static delaying action at the north bank of the river.