The battle to destroy the Qing court actually started at about the same time from the east and south directions. However, in later historical books, the battle that began in Tianjin was usually regarded as the first battle to destroy the Qing court.

At 12 noon, the 15th Brigade, a subordinate of the 11th Field Army, first launched an attack on Tianjin New City. At this time, in Tianjin New City, the Qing court's negotiating ministers Qu Hongsheng, Shi Xu, and Tang Shaoyi, had just sent the news of the breakdown of the negotiations back to Beijing, and the battle began.

The Qing court arranged 8 battalions of guard troops in Tianjin New City, with a total of more than 3,500 people. Although it was not a new army trained, it was also a military garrison stationed in Beijing. Its daily training and weapons and equipment were not bad. It was also possible for the Qing army. However, Tianjin New City did not build a city wall, and the fortifications were average. After all, it was adjacent to the East China Government, and the Qing court did not dare to promote the army and prepare for war in Tianjin New City to stimulate the East China Government. In fact, the Qing court did not intend to defend Tianjin New City for a long time. As long as it could withstand the People's Army's attack on the 3-5th day and delay the speed of the People's Army's advance.

But before the war started, the People's Army had figured out the firepower arrangement of the Qing army's defense line and drew an accurate map. Therefore, at the beginning of the battle, the artillery regiment directly under the 11th Field Army concentrated all 12 155mm artillery guns and launched a fierce bombardment at the Qing army's defense line by shooting map coordinates. In less than 10 minutes, most of the Qing army's defense strongholds and firepower points were destroyed. The dense artillery fire and the precise shooting were like textbooks.

Since the People's Army's artillery position was between 13-15 kilometers from the Qing army's defense line, it had exceeded the range of sight, the Qing army did not find that the shells were fired from there, and they were beaten to the point of turning in a daze.

Subsequently, the People's Army launched a charge against the Qing army. The morale of the Qing army was not high. After all, it was impossible to be afraid of the Qing army's army that defeated the five English, French, Russian, Japanese and Dutch countries. If there was a defensive position, it might be able to withstand for a while, but before the two sides had even joined the battle, they were bombarded by artillery shells from unknown places, and countless injuries were killed. The remaining Qing soldiers dared to fight with the People's Army at this time. Therefore, after the People's Army launched an attack, they immediately collapsed on the whole line.

After the People's Army broke through the Qing army's defense line, it followed the trend and broke into Tianjin New City to clear the remaining enemy troops. At this time, the Qing army also knew that the general situation had gone, so they surrendered to the People's Army one after another. Therefore, the People's Army soon occupied Tianjin New City.

Qu Hongyi, Shixu, and Tang Shaoyi were still in Tianjin New City at this time. After sending the telegram, they were all relieved and were not in a hurry to leave Tianjin New City immediately. Because the three of them thought that the Qing army was not strong enough, they could withstand 1 or 2 days, so the three of them felt that they didn't have to be so anxious and had time to clean up their luggage and belongings. It would not be too late to leave Tianjin early tomorrow morning.

Although the battle started in the afternoon, the three of them were still not nervous and were still packing their things slowly. The Qing army had not resisted for even two hours and was completely defeated by the People's Army. Tianjin New City was also completely trapped. The three of them were not ready for anything, and together with the others, they were trapped in Tianjin New City.

However, among the three, Tang Shaoyi was not panicked because he and Yuan Shikai had always had good friends. Like Xu Shichang, they were both Yuan Shikai's agents who stayed in Beijing, and they also had frequent contact with the East China Government. However, Tang Shaoyi's contact with the East China Government was relatively low, but this was enough to make Tang Shaoyi feel at ease. Even if he was captured by the People's Army, it would not be a problem.

So Tang Shaoyi also strongly advised Qu Hongxi and Shixu that at this time, he had no other choice but to surrender and never resist stubbornly. At this point, Qu Hongxi and Shixu had no choice but to do anything, and neither of them had the idea of ​​dying for their country. Therefore, when the People's Army entered the inn where the three lived, the three did not resist, but instead ordered the servants to open the door and let the People's Army soldiers come in.

Seeing that the three of them did not resist, and they were negotiating ministers of the Qing court, the People's Army did not make things difficult for them, and they did not even tie them up, but only asked the three to hand over the weapons in the inn. Although the three of them had negotiated ministers, they had some guns to defend themselves. At this time, there was no use to keep the gun at all, so the three of them ordered their subordinates to hand over all the weapons. Then the People's Army searched the inn again, and the three did not stop the People's Army from searching. After all, the three of them did not bring anything invisible to the people's army. Qu Hong's calligraphy was also planning to stuff a few red envelopes to the soldiers who searched, but was stopped by Tang Shaoyi and said that it was useless to stuff money to the People's Army, so Qu Hong's words gave up.

After searching it, it was confirmed that there were no other weapons in the inn. The People's Army only asked the three of them to stay in the inn and not go out for the time being, and then retreated. The other things of the three of them, silver, money, and soft materials were all intact.

After the People's Army withdrew, the three of them felt unsatisfied. They had long heard that the People's Army's military discipline was strict and had no violations. It was true that they met today.

However, just when the 15th Brigade of the 11th Field Army of the People's Army attacked Tianjin Xincheng, the 21st Division and the 35th Division of the 11th Field Army left Tianjin and marched west along the Tianjin-Beijing Railway. An armored train was dispatched with these two divisions.

The Qing court set up two defense lines east of Beijing, the first one was located in Langfang and the second one was located in Tongzhou.

Langfang is generally located in the middle from Tianjin to Beijing, about 65 kilometers away from Tianjin and about 50 kilometers away from Beijing. During the Boxer Rebellion, on June 18, 1900, British Lieutenant General Seymour led an Eight-Nation Alliance to attack Beijing from Tianjin. He was blocked by the Boxer Regiment and the Qing army Dong Fuxiang's troops in Langfang. The two sides fought fiercely for more than two hours. The coalition killed 7 people and injured 57 people, and finally withdrew from Langfang to Tianjin. On the way back, they were attacked by the Boxer Regiment and the Qing army.

When the army fled back to Tianjin on the 26th, a total of 62 people were killed and 232 were injured. Although the victory of this battle was not too great, it was also the rare victory of the Qing court during the Gengzi Reform, so it was known in history as the great victory of Langfang. However, after this battle, it also made all countries realize that the Eight-Nation Alliance's troops were insufficient, so they increased their troops to China one after another. By August when the Eight-Nation Alliance marched to Beijing again, its troops had increased to more than 16,000, and at this time the Qing court was unable to stop it.

The Qing court arranged the first line of defense in Langfang, of course, hoping to take advantage of the great victory of Langfang. The Qing army commander who was responsible for guarding Langfang was Tieliang, and he was also responsible for the entire eastern defense of the Qing court.

When Yuan Shikai went south, he took away the second and fourth towns of the Beiyang New Army, and drew a cooperative force from each of the 5th and 6th towns, leaving behind four towns, and the Qing court had long wanted to get involved in the Beiyang New Army, so of course he would not miss this opportunity. He immediately ordered Liangbi to be the commander of the third town, Tieliang to be the commander of the 5th and 6th commanders, and he also drew troops from other battalions to make up for the troops of these four towns.

In this war, 1 and 3 towns were stationed in the south of Beijing and 5 and 6 towns were stationed in the north of Beijing. Tieliang arranged the fifth town in Langfang and the sixth town in Tongzhou. With other troops transferred, Tieliang's troops now have a total of more than 36,000 troops.

The Langfang defense line of the Qing court began to be built after Yuan Shikai headed south. By this time, it had been more than three months. French military consultants were also hired to help design, and Tieliang personally supervised the work. He built a large number of fortresses and trenches, which were completely incomparable to the defense line of Tianjin New City.

French consultants also built a demolition of the Langfang section of the railway line, thereby cutting off the possibility of the People's Army marching to Beijing by train. However, this suggestion was unanimously opposed by the Military Affairs Office. On the one hand, the Qing court was still negotiating with the East China Government at that time. If the railway line was demolished, it would probably anger the East China Government in advance. On the other hand, the Qing court's transportation was entirely carried by this railway from Tianjin to Beijing. Therefore, wouldn't demolishing the railway line allow Beijing to cut off its own way?

However, Tieliang did not take the demolition of the railway seriously because he was very confident in the Langfang defense line built, and believed that he could hold on for at least one month. If the ammunition supply is sufficient and there is enough troops to supplement it in the future, it would not be impossible to hold on for 2 or 3 months. Therefore, whether the railway was demolished or not would have a great impact.

However, the Qing army did not expect that the People's Army would actually dispatch armored trains.

During the Far East War, the People's Army dispatched a total of three armored trains, all equipped with large-caliber train guns. However, after the war, all three armored trains remained in the Northeast and were incorporated into the Northeast Military Region. After all, the Northeast and Shandong did not have direct territory at this time, and armored trains could only be transferred on a large scale by sea. It was too mobilized and wasted money. Moreover, the Northeast Military Region had the task of suppressing Russia, and it was very necessary to refute the suppression power of armored trains as strategic weapons on land. Therefore, the Military Commission decided that these three armored trains would not be transported back and new armored trains would be rebuilt within the pass.

At this time, the People's Army built two more armored trains, all of which were organized into the Central Military Region, one stationed in Tianjin and the other stayed in Qingdao. However, the newly built armored trains were not equipped with large-caliber train guns, and the weapons were 16 155mm guns, 8 125mm guns, and 8 105mm guns.

Although the caliber of the main gun is only 155 mm, in the army, this caliber is considered a large-caliber heavy artillery. Moreover, the 155 mm gun equipped with an armored train is different from the 155 mm gun equipped with the Field Army Artillery Regiment. The 155 mm gun equipped with the Field Army Artillery Regiment is between 22-28 times, the range is about 12-15 kilometers, the shell weighs about 100 kilograms, and the loading volume is about 15 kilograms; the 155 mm gun equipped with an armored train is a naval gun type, with a diameter of 45 times, and the maximum range exceeds 20 kilometers, the shell weighs 120 kilograms, and the loading volume is more than 20 kilograms; therefore, whether it is range or power, the 155 mm gun equipped with an armored train is greater than the 155 mm gun equipped with the Field Army Artillery Regiment.
Chapter completed!