The battle to destroy the Qing court actually began at about the same time in the east and south directions, but in later history books, the battle that began in Tianjin is usually regarded as the first battle to destroy the Qing court.

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

The guard army arranged by the Qing court in Tianjin New Town has 8 battalions, with a total of more than 3,500 people, although it is not a new army that is trained, but it also belongs to the army establishment stationed in Beijing, and the daily training and weapons and equipment are not bad, which is okay in the army of the Qing court. However, Tianjin New Town did not build a city wall, and the fortifications were mediocre. After all, it was adjacent to the East China Government, and the Qing court did not dare to make a big show of military mobilization in Tianjin New City to stimulate the East China Government. In fact, the Qing court did not intend to hold on to Tianjin New Town for a long time, as long as it could withstand the attack of the People's Army on the 3rd or 5th and delay the advance of the People's Army.

However, before the start of the battle, the People's Army had already figured out all the firepower arrangements of the Qing army's defensive line and drew an accurate map, so at the beginning of the battle, the artillery regiment directly under the 11th Field Army concentrated all 12 155-mm guns and launched a fierce bombardment on the Qing army's defense line by shooting at map coordinates. In less than 10 minutes, most of the Qing army's defensive strongholds and firepower points were destroyed, and the artillery fire was dense and the shooting accuracy was like a textbook.

Since the KPA's artillery positions were between 13 and 15 kilometers away from the Qing army's defense line, which was beyond the line of sight, the Qing army did not even notice that the shells were fired from there.

Subsequently, the People's Army launched a charge against the Qing Army, and the morale of the Qing Army was not high, after all, in the face of the People's Army that defeated Britain, France, Russia, Japan and the Netherlands, whether it was the Qing Army's army, it was impossible not to be frightened. If there is a defensive position, it may be able to resist for a while, but before the two sides have engaged in battle, they were bombarded by shells from nowhere, and countless casualties were killed, and the remaining Qing soldiers dared to engage the People's Army at this time, so after the People's Army launched an attack, it was immediately routed on the whole line.

After the People's Army broke through the defense line of the Qing Army, it broke into Tianjin New City to clean up the remaining enemy troops, and at this time, the Qing Army also knew that the general trend had gone, so they surrendered to the People's Army, so soon the People's Army fully occupied Tianjin New Town.

Qu Hongzhen, Shi Xu, and Tang Shaoyi were still in Tianjin New Town at this time, and after they sent the telegram, they were all relieved, and they were not in a hurry to leave Tianjin New Town immediately, because the three of them thought that no matter how weak the Qing army was, it would be able to withstand 1 or 2 days, so the three of them felt that they did not need to be in such a hurry, and they still had time to clean up their luggage and belongings, and it was not too late to leave Tianjin early tomorrow morning.

Although the battle started in the afternoon, the three of them were still not nervous, and they still packed their things unhurriedly. The Zhiqing army did not resist for even two hours, and was completely defeated by the People's Army, and Tianjin New Town also fell completely, and the three of them were not ready for anything, and they were all trapped in Tianjin New Town along with others.

However, among the three, Tang Shaoyi was not panicked, because he and Yuan Shikai have always been friends, and like Xu Shichang, they are Yuan Shikai's eyes and ears agent who stayed in Beijing, and he often has contact with the East China Government, but Tang Shaoyi's level of contact with the East China Government is relatively low, but this is enough to make Tang Shaoyi feel confident, even if he is caught by the People's Army, he will be fine.

So Tang Shaoyi also strongly persuaded Qu Hongzhen and Shixu that at this time there was no other way but to tie his hands and arrest him, and he must not resist to the end. At this point, Qu Hongzhen and Shixu had nothing to do, and neither of them had the idea of martyrdom, so when the People's Army entered the pavilion where the three people lived, the three did not resist, but ordered someone to open the gate and let the soldiers of the People's Army in.

Seeing that the three of them did not resist, and they were also the negotiating ministers of the Qing court, the People's Army did not embarrass them, and they did not even tie up, but only asked the three of them to hand over the weapons in the pavilion. Later, the KPA searched the pavilion again, and the three of them did not stop the KPA from searching at will, after all, the three of them did not bring anything that was not visible. Qu Hongzhen originally planned to stuff a few red envelopes to the searching soldiers, but was stopped by Tang Shaoyi, saying that it was useless to stuff money into the People's Army, so Qu Hongzhen gave up.

After a search, it was determined that there were no other weapons in the pavilion, and the KPA only asked the three to stay in the pavilion and not to go out for the time being, and then they retreated, and the other things of the three people, such as silver and money, were all intact.

And after the People's Army withdrew, the three of them also felt sorry, they had long heard that the People's Army had strict military discipline and that there was no crime in the autumn.

However, when the 15th Brigade of the 11th Field Army of the People's Army attacked Tianjin New Town, the 21st and 35th Divisions of the 11th Field Army left Tianjin and marched westward along the Tianjin-Beijing Railway.

The Qing court set up two defensive lines to the east of Beijing, the first at Langfang and the second at Tongzhou.

Langfang is roughly located in the middle of from Tianjin to Beijing, about 65 kilometers away from Tianjin, and about 50 kilometers away from Beijing, during the Gengzi National Revolution, on June 18, 1900, British Vice Admiral Seymour led the Eight-Nation Alliance of about 2,200 people, from Tianjin to Beijing attack, in Langfang by the Boxers and the Qing army Dong Fuxiang Department blocked, the two sides fought fiercely for more than two hours, the coalition army died 7 people, wounded 57 people, and finally withdrew from Langfang to Tianjin. On the way back, they were attacked by the Boxers and the Qing army, and by the time they fled back to Tianjin on the 26th, a total of 62 people were killed and 232 wounded. Although the victory of this battle was not too big, it was also a rare victory of the Qing court during the Gengzi National Revolution, so it was known as the Langfang Victory. However, after the battle, it also made all countries realize that the strength of the Eight-Nation Coalition was insufficient, so they increased their troops to China, and by the time the Eight-Nation Coalition Army marched to Beijing again in August, the strength had increased to more than 16,000 people, and at this time the Qing court was powerless to stop it.

The Qing court laid out the first line of defense in Langfang, of course, hoping to take advantage of Langfang's victory, and the Qing army commander who was responsible for guarding Langfang was Tie Liang, who was also responsible for the entire eastern defense of the Qing court.

When Yuan Shikai went south, he took away the 2nd and 4th towns of the Beiyang New Army, and drew a joint force from the 5th and 6th towns, leaving 1, 3, 5, and 6 towns, and the Qing court had long wanted to get involved in the Beiyang New Army, of course, it would not miss this opportunity, and immediately ordered Liangbi to be the commander of the third town, and Tie Liang to be the commander of the 5th and 6th towns, and to draw troops from other battalions to make up all the troops of these four towns.

In this war, the 1st and 3rd towns were stationed in the south of Beijing, and the 5th and 6th towns were stationed in the north of Beijing. Tie Liang arranged the 5th town in Langfang, the 6th town in Tongzhou, plus the other troops transferred, and now Tie Liang's troops total more than 36,000 people.

The Qing court's Langfang defense line began to be built after Yuan Shikai went south, and by this time it had been more than 3 months, and also hired French military consultants to help design, and Tie Liang personally supervised the work, and had built a large number of fortresses, trenches, and the defense line of Tianjin New City was completely incomparable.

On the one hand, the Qing court was still negotiating with the East China government, and if the railway line was demolished, it was only afraid that it would anger the East China government in advance; on the other hand, the Qing court's transportation relied entirely on this railway to transport from Tianjin to Beijing, so wouldn't the demolition of the railway line make Beijing cut itself off?

However, Tie Liang did not take the demolition of the railway too seriously, because he was very confident in the construction of the Langfang defense line, thinking that he could hold on for at least 1 month, if the ammunition supply was sufficient, and there were enough troops to replenish the follow-up, it was not impossible to hold on for 2 or 3 months, so the impact of not dismantling the railway was not very great.

It's just that the Qing army didn't expect that the People's Army would actually dispatch an armored train.

During the war in the Far East, the KPA dispatched a total of three armored trains, all of which were equipped with large-caliber train guns, but after the end of the war, all three armored trains remained in the Northeast and were incorporated into the Northeast Military District. After all, at this time, there was no direct territorial border between Northeast China and Shandong, and the armored trains could only be transferred on a large scale by sea, which was too much to mobilize the army and the people, and the people and money were lost, and the Northeast Military Region still had the task of suppressing Russia, and it was very necessary to use the armored trains as a strategic weapon on land to suppress the power, so the Central Military Commission decided not to bring back these three armored trains, and to build new armored trains in the Guannai.

At this time, the People's Army made two more armored trains, both of which were incorporated into the Central Military Region, one was stationed in Tianjin, and the other remained in Qingdao, but this time the newly manufactured armored trains were not equipped with large-caliber train guns, and were equipped with weapons of 16 155 mm guns, 8 125 mm guns, and 8 105 mm guns.

Although the caliber of the main gun is only 155 mm, in the army, this caliber is already considered a large-caliber heavy artillery, and the 155 mm gun equipped with the 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 diameter and distance, the firing range is about 12-15 kilometers, the shell weighs about 100 kilograms, and the charge is about 15 kilograms; while the 155 mm gun equipped with the armored train is a naval gun, with a diameter of 45 times, a maximum firing range of more than 20 kilometers, a shell weighing 120 kilograms, and a charge of more than 20 kilograms, so both the range and the power, the armored train is equipped with more 155-mm guns than the field army artillery regiment is equipped with 155-mm guns.

It is precisely because of this that the 21st and 35th divisions of the 11th Field Army, which were attacking along the railway line, did not carry artillery units, and even did not bring much ammunition and supplies, all of which were carried by armored trains, and both divisions could go into battle lightly.