the onset of winter did little to slow the intensity of the battle. nogi received additional reinforcements from japan, including 18 more armstrong howitzers, which were manhandled from the railway by teams of 800 soldiers along an eight-mile (13 km) long narrow gauge track that had been laid expressly for that purpose. these howitzers were added to the 450 other guns already in place. one innovation of the campaign was the centralization of the japanese fire control, with the artillery batteries connected to the field headquarters by miles of telephone lines.