A heavy rain on the night of July 26 saved the life of Wu Fengling, the commander of the Fourth Town of the Beiyang Army. The First Infantry Division of the Northeast Army divided his troops to Liuhe Town and Xinmazhuang yesterday evening. Under Cao Kun's persuasion,

Wu Fengling led the Fourth Town to evacuate the horse factory overnight in the rain. The entire army abandoned the baggage and fled to Cangzhou with light and simple clothes.

Zhao Tingzhu's first infantry division also marched for 160 kilometers for 48 hours. In order to prevent the Fourth Town from rendezvous to the west, another infantry regiment was stationed in the Mawangdian area. If the Fourth Town did not escape,

Will attack from three directions at the same time.

The fourth town fled south at night and gave up the idea of ​​rendezvous with the second town.

I heard that after the fourth town fled, Ma Longbiao could no longer sit still. If he continued to defend in Baoding, he might be surrounded by the forces of the two divisions of the Northeast Army. He hurriedly gave up his position and ran south along the Jinghan Railway. He and Duan

Qi Rui took the second town to find his old superior Yuan Shikai.

The Beiyang Army ran one, two, and three consecutive trips, but one of them was not caught. This result made Song Biao very dissatisfied.

If all three towns ran to Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai might have gathered three and a half towns in Henan and Shandong to make a comeback. In addition, Wang Shizhen and Zhang Xun were in Jiangbei and Jiangnan Admiral, it is very likely that the old army led by the admiral of Jiangnan was borne by Wang Shizhen and Zhang Xun.

Yuan Shikai will have a very good foundation.

After receiving the telegram from Zhao Tingzhu, Song Biao immediately ordered Cai E to go south and pursue the second town of the Beiyang Army. Zhao Tingzhu moved to Baoding and returned to the capital. The 20th town stayed in Tianjin and Langfang.

Everything else can run, the first town of the Beiyang Army, the sixth town and the imperial guards of the capital have no place to run.

During the last period when the Qing Dynasty was about to perish, Liu Feng's hesitation really hurt all the Manchus in the capital. In fact, Liu Feng's best choice was to flee south along the Jinghan Railway, and the second town north and south.

Attack the First Cavalry Division of the Northeast Army and break through a bloody road to escape to Shanxi; the second choice is to flee north. The Fourth Cavalry Brigade stationed in Zhangjiakou is not the main force of the Northeast New Army at all. As long as the Aofeng and the Imperial Guards vow to fight to the death

It is very difficult to break through this force.

Liu Feng was too melancholy. After both roads were blocked, he did not choose to break through the siege, but was busy looking for other ways to break through. He even considered taking the mountain road, walking in Chengde, and escaping from Taipu Temple Banner. Then he entered the Nanmo River and detoured into Shaanxi.

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Liu Feng was responsible for arranging the escape matter and fantasized about drawing other troops to the capital for rescue. Liang Bi stepped up the transfer of bannermen, wanting to defend the outer city of Beijing and recruit laborers to dig a large number of trenches outside the city.

It was not until the evening of the 27th that the Northeast Revolutionary Army received the exact information that the Qing Dynasty decided to defend the capital and was stepping up the construction of fortifications.

At this time, the Northeast Revolutionary Army had also completed preparations for a large-scale attack, and the Second Infantry Division was the main force to attack head-on. The Third Infantry Division attacked from the north, and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade took a detour into the southwest, blocking the last person who left the capital.

A road.

Song Biao arrived in Tongzhou on the evening of that day and tried to attack the capital with his own hands. The main attack direction was Dongbianmen.

The Beiyang Army's continuous escape made both Xiang Feng and Liangbi very sad. They also became even more courageous. In order to prevent He Zonglian, the commander of the first town, from escaping, Xiang Feng temporarily reactivated the old commander of the first town, Tieliang, and let Tieliang lead the commander of the first town.

A town guarded the East Gate and dug a large trench outside the city gate, trying to resist the Northeast Army.

Before Song Biao arrived, all four heavy artillery pieces of the Northeast Revolutionary Army had arrived at the Tongzhou County Railway Station, and the first to launch artillery bombardment on the Dongbianmen position was the heavy artillery regiment of the Second Infantry Division, with 32... 105mm Kruel

Bo Qing howitzers and 18 m1902 type 15mm Krupp long-barrel cannons face the city walls and bombard the defense line.

The artillery position is located near Taiping Township. The Second Artillery Brigade has arrived. The artillery position is Wang Siying on the south side of Taiping Township. The First Artillery Brigade is making final preparations in Tongzhou.

When he arrived at the position, Song Biao inspected the position of the Second Infantry Division first. Zhang Hongkui adopted two lines of defense here. Both lines were located within the range of the Qing army's artillery counterattack, and intensively used bulletproof trenches and ear holes.

, the depth line is relatively wide.

Song Biao was basically not picky about fortifications.

Walking on the position, Song Biao did not ask too many people to accompany him. He only brought more than a dozen personal soldiers from the guard battalion. He brought his telescope and wore dark brown training uniforms like normal school officials. He had just gotten off during the day.

There was a heavy rain, and it looked muddy everywhere. He was wearing a pair of rubber military boots and walking around the muddy positions.

The accompanying adjutant Jiang Zhengyuan has been accompanying him.

While walking, Song Biao inspected various fronts, thinking about how to attack the city. This era does not belong to the city wall. For this purpose, he specially prepared four heavy railway artillery and 24 12-cent long-barrel cannons, 8

15 cm long cannon.

In the Jinzhou stockpile, the Northeast Army retained 66 12-cent bronze cannons, and they are currently shipped to Kaiping and will officially arrive at the forefront of the position in two days.

The walls of Beijing could not stop the Northeast Army.

Hearing that Song Biao suddenly arrived at the position, Zhang Hongkui hurriedly ran over with two adjutants. The road was muddy and he ran too fast. He actually fell down a few hundred meters away from Song Biao and fell into a mud puddle.

The soldiers around were laughing, but were denounced by several non-commissioned officers.

Zhang Hongkui was the first to be a school teacher in the Far East Lushi. After returning from the German Staff Academy, he became the head of the Second Infantry Division. His cooperation with Zhang Yahu was very good. This person has always had a good temper and was not angry, but he was very

He continued to run to Song Biao in a panic and saluted.

After Song Biao returned the gift briefly, he asked him, "Where is Zhang Yahu?"

Zhang Hongkui said: "The teacher went to the southern line to patrol the other party's city defenses. I am temporarily responsible for staying in the temporary command post of the division headquarters."

Song Biao nodded, Zhang Yahu, like him, was a person who could not stand loneliness. When he encountered a big battle, he was so itchy that he wanted to rush to the front line. Therefore, he let Zhang Yahu serve as the main attacking division this time.

He and Zhang Hongkui asked, "How is the city defense over the Qing army?"

Zhang Hongkui said: "I have seen it, and Master Zhang has also inspected it several times. To be honest, it is not very good. He probably has little understanding of our side. He has done a poor job in intelligence. We have so many cannons, and they

He was actually ready to rely entirely on the city wall to defend. The front line was poorly deployed, so the trenches could only defend the front line. They were still old trenches and had poor drainage capabilities. A heavy rain fell yesterday. Inside the trenches

It's all water tunnels."

Song Biao said oh, sighing: "Tieliang... can't do it."

Zhang Hongkui said: "I think he is much better than the other commanders of the Beiyang Army, and he is still here at least."

Song Biao smiled and signaled Zhang Hongkui to go to the command post with him. While walking, he said to Zhang Hongkui: "Tieliang is different. He is a Manchu. Most of the first towns are from Manchu's flag soldiers, so he naturally ran away. If you don’t lose it, the Sixth Town will be dragged on the southern line and refused to move. I don’t think that’s good.”

Zhang Hongkui said: "They are afraid they can't escape. Zhao Guoxian's rule cannot make the decision now. Liangbi sent Manchu Tiezhong to take charge of himself, for fear that the Sixth Town would also take the opportunity to run away. The chief seat happened to be here. I There is a joke to tell you here."

Song Biao was quite strange. He didn't know what jokes could be on the position, so he said, "Okay, let's talk."

Zhang Hongkui said: "Wenhua, the military consultant of the Qing Dynasty Army Department, was my classmate at Lu Shi. He probably heard from other channels that I was the head teacher here. He specially sent someone to send me and Zhang Yahu, saying yes We must be willing to surrender to the court, Zaifeng is willing to grant me the Governor of Zhili, Zhang Yahu the Governor of the Three Eastern Provinces, and all of them are given the title of First Class Duke."

Song Biao laughed and said, "This is more favorable than the conditions for recruiting me back then. So, Manchus only knows the benefits to us Han people until the end."

Zhang Hongkui smiled and said, "I gave the letter to Mr. Zhang and asked him to reply. You also know that Mr. Zhang's brush calligraphy has always been not very good, so he wrote the four words "Go and eat shit" by himself. I was watching and laughing at the side, and my stomach hurts."

Song Biao sighed and said, "This guy is such a bastard. It's hard for you to be a teacher for him. At that time, I actually had no choice but to choose you, so I had to pick you out because he was When Lu Shi was studying for the second time, you were the instructor I personally sent to him. He would give you this face at least."

Zhang Hongkui smiled and said, "The teacher and I get along well. He is a carefree person, speaks very straightforwardly and is easy to get along with. In fact, in our Northeast Army, as long as the division commander and the teaching commander cooperate well, there will be basically nothing. trouble."

Song Biao nodded slightly.

The two walked into the temporary command post of the Second Infantry Division together. Zhang Yahu and Zhang Hongkui had more than a dozen maps on the large map table here. After entering the command room, Zhang Hongkui cleared out the large map and explained in detail to Song Biao. The Qing army deployed defenses at Dongbianmen and the entire outer city.

Beijing city is too big. After the Northeast Legion encircled, the Third Infantry Division is in the north and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade takes a detour and passes over. The first brigade of this division is not responsible for the main attack, and only fires artillery, the two troops are responsible for the west. The ring-type defense was arranged on the side and north sides, so that the people were not allowed to run out. Cai E and Zhao Tingzhu's troops exchanged defenses, and there was no time to surround the south side, so only two patrol detachments were arranged to patrol the cavalry of the two patrol detachments.

The army's focus on attacking was on the east side, with the Second Infantry Division as the main attack, Jiang Yanxing's Fifth Infantry Division as the support, and the first and second artillery brigades were responsible for fire support.

Now, everyone still hopes that the Qing army will break from the south. If the Qing army has not broken from the south for the past two days and waits for Zhao Tingzhu's first infantry division to come over, it will be a three-way attack. .

Zhang Hongkui carefully explained to Song Biao the current plan of the Second Infantry Division. Their plan was to first bombard the outer city with artillery fire, and then rush across the moat by laying a ban bridge. Although there were stone bridges here, However, the stone bridge has been blown up by the Qing army, and the moat is relatively wide, so the board bridge may not be able to pass through, so we must also consider the floating bridge or use sandbags directly. The alternative plan currently prepared by the Second Infantry Division is sandbags.

This is a normal plan. The key is that the Second Infantry Division has many heavy artillery, and the First Artillery Brigade and the Second Artillery Brigade gather here, and there are four railway heavy artillery pieces, so there is naturally no big problem.

The Qing Dynasty has been making mistakes over the years, that is, it is to build the defense line around Beijing without any effort, and continue to rely on the traditional model of urban defense plus moat that cannot adapt to the times. Although the Qing army continued to be on the gates of Dongzhimen and Zhengyangmen.

A large number of so-called "shen power cannons", "city gate cannons", and "shen machine and divine cannons" are actually not new types of cannons. They are outdated.

Is the city wall defense line useful?

Of course it is useful, the key is how you use it, otherwise how Song Biao fought the Liaoyang Battle.

Times have changed. The role of the city wall is not to resist the opponent, but to reasonably suppress the opponent's attack. The real defense line still needs to be built around the city. Facts have proved that trenches are much more useful than the city wall.

In front of cannons, all the city walls are slag.

Before the arrival of 66 cannons, the Northeast Army did not launch a full-scale attack. It only continued to use artillery to cover the city walls and the Qing army's defense line. The Qing army completely gave up the defense outside the outer city, which violated modern military affairs.

Logically retreated behind the moat and walls.

From July 27 to 29, 1910, the Northeast Army has been strengthening its deployment and dispatching, preparing for the final strong attack, constantly using heavy howitzers to hit flyers into Beijing. At this time, even the four gates in Liaoyang

The 280mm howitzer was also transported.

The Northeast Army's leaflets were always very distinctive. They directly compared the heavy artillery and howitzer shells with people and printed them on the leaflets. The heavy artillery weighing 14 tons was a very scary thing, which basically scared the Qing Dynasty's courage.

Because the First Staff Bureau was running the entire Revolutionary Army at the command headquarters of Kaiping County, Song Biao has been in the division headquarters of the Second Infantry Division in the past two days, and led the Second Staff Bureau to command the various departments to coordinate the attack on the spot.

In the early morning of the 30th, the Northeast Army completed its siege preparations. The total number of artillery mobilized by the armies outside Beijing reached 700, the cannons were nearly 200, and the bronze mortars were 57.

At 3 a.m., the railway heavy artillery finally opened the first round of artillery bombardment, and the other units fired at the same time five minutes later.

The entire Beijing city seemed to have encountered an unprecedented earthquake, and all the outer walls were shaking violently. 90 12-cent cannons and 26 15-cent cannons bombarded at the same time, destroying Dongbianmen almost instantly.

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The huge sound of artillery shocked the earth, in the front line command post. Even though it was one kilometer away from the nearest artillery position, Song Biao still felt a slight pain in the eardrum. He brought his earmuffs and continued to sit in the front line command post to check today.

Flyers out, and newspapers from all over the country these days.

With the escape of various towns of the Beiyang Army, the Northeast Army began to attack the last fortress of the Qing Dynasty with great ease. They were very angry. They were trained by the lieutenants for five years, but no unit dared to fight with them. Thousands of machine guns

It was silently arranged on the front, but unfortunately it could not find an enemy.

The spies and the liberation meeting in the city were unable to organize a large-scale uprising. They assassinated the Manchus' powerful people in the city in the form of a small group of troops, killing Prince Su and Prince Qing. Other Manchus' ministers,

Any chance of going out may be assassinated.

This madness spread inside and outside the city, leaving the crowd almost unable to breathe.
To be continued...