nogi directed the first infantry assault against the hill on september 20, but found its fortifications impenetrable to japanese artillery and was forced to retreat by september 22 with over 2500 casualties. he then resumed his attempts to break through the fortifications at port arthur in other locations, cumulating in a six-day general assault at the end of october, which cost the japanese a further 124 officers and 3611 men. news of this defeat inflamed japanese popular opinion against nogi. general yamagata urged his court-martial, but nogi was saved from this only through the unprecedented personal intervention of emperor meiji. however, field marshal oyama iwao found the continuing unavailability of the 3rd army's manpower to be intolerable, and sent general kodama gentarō to compel nogi to take drastic action, or else relieve him of command. kodama returned to visit nogi again in mid-november, but decided to give him one last chance. after arduous sapping work and an artillery assault with the new armstrong 11-inch siege guns, mines were exploded underneath some of the russian fortifications on the main defense perimeter from november 17–24, with a general assault planned for the night of november 26. coincidentally, this was the same day that the russian baltic fleet was entering the indian ocean. the assault contained a forlorn hope attack by 2600 men (including 1200 from the newly arrived ija 7th division) led by general nakamura satoru, but the attack failed, with direct frontal assaults on both fort erhlung and fort sungshu once again beaten back by the russian defenders. japanese casualties were officially 4,000 men, but unofficially perhaps twice as high. russian general roman kondratenko took the precaution of stationing snipers to shoot any of his front line troops attempting to abandon their positions.