In regret, Duan Qirui finally decided to stick to the ground for help, because Duan Qirui was really unsure of breaking through now. During the breakout, the Qing army was likely to collapse under the siege of the Volunteers, and if they stick to the ground, they could hold on for a few more days.

Of course, if you choose to stick to the support, you need reinforcements, otherwise it will be a dead end. However, Duan Qirui believes that if he wrote another letter to Tieliang and Liangbi to explain his interests to them, after all, they were the main generals of the attack this time, and once the attack failed, both of them were to blame. Therefore, if the two received their letter, they would definitely send troops to rescue him. At the same time, Duan Qirui wrote a letter to Wang Yingkai, the commander of the second town, asking Wang Yingkai to send troops to rescue him because of the friendship between his colleagues. Although the volunteers have now completed the encirclement of the Qing army, there are still some gaps, and a few people can still use these gaps to escape. It can also be said that these two letters embodies Duan Qirui's full hope.

In addition, Duan Qirui now has a somewhat self-deprecating mentality. He would rather stick to the place and wait for assistance than take the risk of breaking through. If Tieliang and Liangbi did not send reinforcements, he would be wiped out and died for the lineup. This would also lead to a complete defeat in this attack. In this way, Tieliang and Liangbi would not be able to escape responsibility.

After sending the letter, Duan Qirui also ordered the entire army to strengthen its garrison and prepare to face the Volunteer attack. Duan Qirui also estimated that it would take as long as three days to arrive, and it would be hard to say that the slowest reinforcements would be. It would be possible to have ten or half a month. However, Duan Qirui believed that the time for him to defend for 5-6 days was not that the Qing army was not capable of fighting enough, but that he carried only so much ammunition. Now the total strength of the Qing army is about 27,000, of which the army in the three towns of Beiyang still has about 10,000 people, and there are more than 7,000 logistics auxiliary soldiers, and nearly 10,000 other troops. Compared with the Volunteer Army, the disadvantage of the number of people is not very obvious.

On the next day, the Volunteers launched an attack on the Qing army's positions. First, on the front position of the Qing army, all 72 75mm field artillery regiments were concentrated, as well as the six 125mm field artillery pieces that the East China government urgently supported before the war, and launched a fierce shelling on the Qing army's positions.

Although the Beiyang New Army was organized and trained in the style of modern army and attached great importance to the use of artillery, it lacked practical experience after all, and the concept of artillery tactics was still the backward ideas of Europe 10 years ago. Firstly, the tactics of the Beiyang New Army were mainly referenced by the German army. What Germany taught the Beiyang New Army was only some daily training subjects or ordinary tactics, and the latest artillery tactics were of course impossible to teach the Beiyang New Army; secondly, the tactics of this era are also constantly changing. After each local war, a large number of military experts will analyze, study and summarize, constantly modify and improve the established tactics. In this regard, the Qing court obviously did not do enough homework. Although the Volunteer Army did not have many artillery equipped, the tactical ideas of using artillery were undoubtedly the most advanced in this era. This time it was to concentrate firepower, carry out cover artillery bombardment, and form advantageous firepower in the local battlefield.

The firepower of the Volunteer Army almost covered the entire front position of the Qing army, and the sound of explosions had basically not stopped. The smoke and dust of the raised gunpowder drowned out the Qing army's front position. The Qing army guarding the position was never expected that the artillery attack of the Volunteer Army would be so fierce, and the Qing army's position layout obviously did not consider the anti-aircraft bombardment design, which caused a large number of casualties. However, it was still quite double the Qing army was afraid of the violent artillery attacks, and escaped from the position, but was killed by the shelling.

Duan Qirui sat in his command center, listening to the sound of shelling and explosions outside, and the teacups on the table were shattered to the ground and two were broken. Unexpectedly, the shelling of this group of bandits would be so fierce and dense. Although Duan Qiduan was known as the Beiyang tiger, the battles he had fought so far were just small battles such as fighting bandits and destroying bandits. He had seen some big battles there, with such amazing momentum, and even the usual training did not have such large-scale shelling. Therefore, Duan Qirui's face was pale at this time, and his hands holding the teacup were still shaking.

The Volunteer Army's artillery lasted almost 30 minutes, and a total of more than 6,000 artillery shells were fired. In order to prepare for this anti-encirclement and suppression war, the Volunteer Army prepared only more than 10,000 artillery shells. After the artillery shells were over, the Qing army's frontal position was bombed into disgrace and unrecognizable.

Then the Volunteers officially launched an attack on the Qing army's positions from each front. Since the Qing army's frontal positions were basically destroyed by the Volunteers' artillery bombardment, nearly half of the defenders were injured and killed and the remaining soldiers were not interested in fighting again. After the Volunteers rushed into the Qing army's positions, the Qing army was unable to fight again and retreated one after another. Fortunately, Duan Qirui had not given up on the battle at this time, sent the reserve team to reinforce and launched a hand-to-hand combat with the Volunteers who attacked the Qing army's positions. This was considered as the temporary blocking of the Volunteers' attack.

However, at this time the Volunteer Army was full of morale and high fighting spirit, so everyone was brave and everyone was fighting for the first place. However, the Qing army was at the bottom of the army. Moreover, the military qualities and combat experience of both sides were almost the same. The Qing army was not much better than the Volunteer Army. As a result, after the bayonets and the cold light flashed, six or seven out of ten fallen soldiers were all Qing soldiers. As a result, after the fierce battle between the two sides for more than 20 minutes, the Qing army finally couldn't stand it and retreated.

At this time, Duan Qirui had only his own guard. He arranged a defense line in front of the command center and prepared to fight the Volunteer Army that had already broken through the front line of the Qing army. After the Volunteer Army broke through the front position of the Qing army, it immediately divided its troops into three groups, two groups to support the Volunteer Army on both sides, and one group continued to attack forward, directly attacked the Qing army's command center, and launched a fierce battle with Duan Qirui's guard.

Moreover, other positions of the Qing army were also attacked by fiercely by the Volunteers. Although the other positions of the Qing army were not bombarded by the Volunteers, the Volunteers' attack was still very fierce. Moreover, the Volunteers were equipped with mortars, grenade launchers, and general machine guns. Although the assembly ratio was much worse than that of the People's Army, for the Qing army, these weapons were still powerful firepower support and could even suppress the firepower of the Qing army. Therefore, it also put huge pressure on the Qing army's positions, and it was impossible to mobilize troops to reinforce the front positions. Some positions even rescued Duan Qirui.

Duan Qirui is also in a state of great anxiety now. He didn't expect the battle to be like this. He thought he could hold on for 3 or 5 days. But then he knew that he would not be able to hold on for even one day. Even Tieliang and Liangbi sent troops to help him, it would be too late. Therefore, Duan Qirui couldn't help but regret it secretly. If he had known that the result of staying at the aid club would be like this, it would be better to take the risk of breaking through.

Although the volunteers who broke through the front position of the Qing army divided their troops into three groups, Duan Qirui's guard could not be strong enough to support it, but it probably wouldn't last long. Therefore, the guard captain asked Duan Qirui to transfer to the command center immediately. Although Duan Qirui was still a little self-deprecating before the war began, and if he could not wait for reinforcements, he would rather die here in battle. However, the progress of the war did not follow Duan Qirui's expected script. It was unknown whether there were reinforcements or not, but the position could not be defended. Moreover, Duan Qirui felt a strong life-saving heart, so Duan Qirui hurriedly ordered to transfer to the command center immediately.

At this moment, other positions of the Qing army were also gradually lost. First, the Volunteers' attack was very resolute and the firepower of the attack was very fierce. The Qing army could not resist it anymore; second, the loss of the frontal positions also had a considerable impact on the Qing army in other positions. After all, the loss of the frontal positions, and it would not be meaningful to hold on to other positions; third, the Volunteers' attacking the frontal positions also divided some troops to support other battlefields, so the other positions of the Qing army naturally could not hold on, and the Qing army quickly collapsed completely and fled in all directions.

However, at this time, the Qing army was surrounded by the Volunteers, and the Volunteers organized more than 15,000 militias to assist the Volunteers in defense. Although it cannot be considered a waste of water, there is not much room for the Qing army to move. If there are few people, it can still escape. However, it is impossible to break out in an established manner. It was fired back by the Volunteers' artillery machine guns. Therefore, most of the Qing army could only run back and forth in the position, rushing around like headless flies. Duan Qirui led the command center and was also surrounded by the chaos army and ran around in the position. Although he also wanted to organize the chaos army, it was a pity that no one should pay attention to Duan Qirui now.

The volunteer army from all walks of life are gradually advancing forward, shrinking the encirclement, squeezing the space of the Qing army step by step, leaving the Qing army less and less scope. It was eventually divided into several parts, concentrated in several small hills and villages. Of course, many Qing army was annihilated during the promotion of the volunteer army, and some Qing soldiers trampled on each other and died in the squeezing and colliding.

At this time, some remaining Qing troops saw that they were surrounded and had no way out, so they had to surrender to the Volunteer Army. The Volunteer Army immediately retreated from the encirclement, allowing the surrendered Qing soldiers to put down their weapons, come out of the encirclement, and gather at designated locations. With one leader, there were naturally some followers, so the other Qing troops also surrendered to the Volunteer Army one after another.

At this time, Duan Qirui was entangled in the Qing army that was about to surrender. He wanted to pull out his gun and commit suicide, but he would rather die than surrender, but his subordinates stopped him and seized Duan Qirui's pistol. But this trouble naturally attracted the attention of the Volunteer Army, so someone came to interrogate him immediately. It turned out that it was Duan Qirui, the chief general of the Qing army. This caught Duan Qirui and some staff members immediately and reported to the command center.
Chapter completed!