Although the mortars were far less powerful than the 155 mm guns on armored trains, they were superior in number, denser firepower, and covered a wide area, so the momentum was even more impressive. Although the lethality of the mortar to the fortress is not great, because it is a fortress built of masonry, the lethality is quite limited, but the threat to the trench is much greater, one is that the firepower is more intensive; the other is that the mortar is a large arc ballistic shooting, which can directly fall into the trench to cause damage to the Qing army, although the trench of the Qing army adopts a curved corner structure, which reduces the lethality of the shells after falling into the trench, but the more shells fall, it can still cause a lot of damage to the Qing army.

Originally, at this time, the Qing army had already begun to be psychologically unbalanced, and suddenly suffered such a blow, and it was able to hold on there, so the Qing soldiers in all positions fled one after another. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the People's Army launched a charge on the position of the Qing army, and as a result, it captured the position of the Qing army in one fell swoop and completely defeated the Qing army.

After occupying the position, the People's Army took advantage of the situation to enter Langfang City, and the Qing army was defeated and fled, and at this time the Qing army had no power to resist at all, and the main general Zhang Yongcheng had no intention of refusing to defend, leading his own personal guard army, escaped from Langfang, fled in the direction of Beijing, and finally completely occupied Langfang at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which is also the first city captured by the East China Government since the government sent troops.

In this battle, more than 5,000 Qing troops were annihilated and more than 9,000 prisoners were captured, while the People's Army itself only lost 16 soldiers and another 53 soldiers were wounded, which can be regarded as almost zero casualties.

At this time, Tie Liang had just gotten on the train and was about to leave Beijing, when he received the news of the loss of Langfang, Tie Liang couldn't help but be surprised, and never thought that the Langfang defense line that he had spent more than three months of hard work and painstaking construction of, and there were more than 20,000 defenders, was broken by the People's Army without even holding it for half a day.

At this time, of course, it would be useless for Tie Liang to rush to Langfang again, and if he lost Langfang, he was also duty-bound, so Tie Liang could only get off immediately, and the advanced officials went to Cixi and Guangxu to ask for guilt.

The 21st Division that attacked Langfang stayed behind to deal with the aftermath after the occupation of Langfang, and the 35th Division, which did not participate in the battle this time, continued to advance together with the armored train, and at about 7 o'clock in the evening, it actually broke through to the barracks of the People's Army's Sifang Railway Station in Beijing, which is only about 15 kilometers away from the city of Beijing, and even the 155 mm guns equipped on the armored train can directly hit the city of Beijing, so it can be said that the soldiers are coming to the city.

On the eastern front, the People's Army advanced to the city of Beijing, and on the southern front, it also achieved major results.

The first target of the southern front battlefield was Zhengdingfu, which was guarded by the first town of the Beiyang New Army, commanded by Fengshan, plus other armies, with a total strength of more than 22,000 people.

The defense line of Zhengdingfu and the defense line of Langfang were built at about the same time, and their design and standards were almost the same, but the KPA did not have the fire support of armored trains on this front, so it was impossible to use the over-the-horizon artillery of the Eastern Front

However, due to the close distance between the two sides here, no more than 10 kilometers, the KPA could also be ready for battle in advance, and the military dependents and the artillery units under each division also entered the preset artillery positions before the battle began.

At the beginning of the battle, all kinds of artillery of the whole army opened fire together, and launched a fierce bombardment of the positions of the Qing army, although the People's Army on the southern front did not have the 155 mm artillery equipped with armored trains, but the artillery of the whole army added up to more than 500 guns, plus some mortars, so the fire was fierce, and covered a wide range, even in the world, it is extremely rare.

Although the shelling lasted less than 20 minutes, tens of thousands of shells had been poured into the positions of the Qing army, covering almost every inch of the position, so after the shelling, although there were still many fortresses, most of which were masonry fortresses, were carried down, but the trench positions outside the fortress were dealt a heavy blow and suffered heavy casualties.

Then the People's Army launched an attack on the position of the Qing Army, although the Qing Army still occupied a lot of fortresses at this time, but the trench positions outside the fortress had little resistance force, only a few fortresses, it was impossible to stop the attack of the People's Army, the People's Army adopted fixed-point artillery bombardment, surprise blasting and other means, although it also took some effort, but also paid a certain price of casualties, but gradually cleared all the remaining fortresses, and finally occupied the position of the Qing Army. It also staged an almost textbook-perfect attack victory.

After capturing the positions of the Qing army, the People's Army took advantage of the situation to attack and occupied Zhengdingfu. However, after the occupation of Zhengdingfu, the People's Army was unable to advance for the time being, so it could only be stationed in Zhengdingfu for repairs.

But even so, on the first day of the war, the People's Army won major victories on both fronts in the southeast and south, capturing Tianjin New Town, Langfang, Zhengding and other places, which can be regarded as a fantastic start.

The victory of the East China government was the nightmare of the Qing court, when Zaitao entered the palace to ask Cixi for his guilt, Tie Liangji was one step ahead of him, and he pleaded guilty in front of Cixi because of the loss of Langfang. Cixi was also shocked when she learned the news of the loss of Tianjin New City and Langfang, but it was useless to blame Tie Liang at this time, and now is the time to employ people, Tie Liang's military ability is already rare among the Manchu magnates, not to mention that Tie Liang has always been loyal to the imperial court, and if he is deposed at this time, who else can be found to replace him, so Cixi pondered for a while, and decided to let Tie Liang make meritorious service and continue to defend Tongzhou and resist the attack of the People's Army. Tie Liang was naturally grateful, and vowed on the spot to defend Tongzhou to the death and never let the People's Army take a further step.

After Tie Liang retreated, Cixi also realized that the situation was not good, and had the idea of fleeing Beijing, just at this time Zaitao entered the palace and pleaded guilty to Cixi for failing to arrest the personnel of the Beijing Office of the East China Government. At this time, Cixi was still in the mood to take care of the personnel of the Beijing Office of the East China Government, and when she saw Zaitao, she suddenly had an idea. Although the People's Army has now captured Langfang, Langfang is still more than 50 kilometers away from Beijing, and there is still a Tongzhou card in the middle, so Beijing is still safe for the time being, at least there will be nothing to do tonight, so if you want to leave Beijing, you have to wait until tomorrow morning to leave, and before leaving, you must handle the affairs of Beijing well, at least you can't flee from Beijing in a hurry like last time. So Cixi ordered Zaitao to rush to the Summer Palace overnight, so that he would be able to pick up his party tomorrow.

After Zaitao ordered him to leave the palace, Cixi ordered the recruitment of the Minister of Military Aircraft, announcing that early tomorrow morning, the emperor would move to the Summer Palace to serve as a director. Prince Qing Yixuan, Prince Alcohol Zaifeng, Dai Hongci, and Yin Chang accompanied him, and Zhang Zhidong, Na Tong, Yu Lang, and Xu Shichang stayed in Beijing. In fact, at this point, everyone understands in their hearts that Cixi is preparing to run away again. But no one will say anything, so they each take their orders.

And at this moment, there was news of the loss of Zhengding. Cixi's face was so cloudy that it was about to rain, but she still endured it, didn't say anything, told everyone to retreat, and ordered the people in the palace to pack up their things and prepare to leave early tomorrow morning.

For dinner that day, Cixi and Guangxu dined together, but Cixi's appetite was not good, and Guangxu had no appetite, and the mother and son had their own hearts and were relatively speechless. After a long while, Cixi said: "Ming'er is going to get up early in the morning, and the emperor should rest early." ”

Guangxu also nodded and said, "My father also rested earlier, and my son-in-law retired first." ”

But before Guangxu had time to salute, someone had already come in to report, and the People's Army had already entered the Sifang Railway Station.

When Cixi heard this, she was not only so frightened that her face turned pale, but she subconsciously raised her hand and knocked over a palace maid beside her who was holding a tea tray in her hand, the teacup fell to the ground, shattered, and the tea splashed Cixi's skirt.

The palace maid was so frightened that she fell to her knees on the ground, kowtowed again and again, and her whole body trembled like chaff, but she couldn't say a word. But Cixi was furious and said, "Come on, pull this useless little hoof out and beat it to death." ”

When the palace maid heard this, she was even more frightened, and screamed: "Lafayette is dying... It's a curse..."

At this time, a few eunuchs had already come over, grabbed her arms, and dragged her out of the hall, although the palace maid struggled desperately, but the eunuchs were too many to break free, and were dragged out by the eunuchs.

And the other eunuchs and palace maids, including Guangxu, were so frightened that they not only didn't dare to speak, but they didn't even dare to breathe. There was a dead silence in the entire hall.

In the end, Li Lianying said boldly: "Lafayette, I have to get up early to go to the Summer Palace tomorrow! ”

Cixi was silent for a while, finally nodded, got up and left, and turned back to her own dormitory, and the other eunuchs, palace maids and others hurriedly followed, and no one dared to slack off. And Guangxu hurriedly knelt on the ground, pestle the ground with his head, and waited for Cixi to leave the hall, and did not dare to get up.

I don't know how long it took, someone came over, held Guangxu's arm, helped Guangxu up, and said, "Your Majesty, Ming'er has to get up early, so let's rest early." ”

When Guangxu looked up, it turned out that Li Lianying had come over, and it was only then that he nodded and said, "Kiss her father, she ......."

Li Lianying said: "Lafayette has gone back to the palace, and the emperor should go back to rest early." ”

Li Lianying is now the chief eunuch, it can be said that in addition to Cixi and Guangxu in the palace, even if he is the third person, so he doesn't need to do it himself, but Li Lianying is sleek, although she tries her best to serve Cixi, she also tries her best to take care of Guangxu, and she is not offended on both sides of the mother and son. When the Gengzi country changed, Cixi and Guangxu fled, and he took great care of Guangxu along the way, and later after returning to the palace, Guangxu felt that if there was no Li Lianying, he was afraid that he would not have the opportunity to return to Beijing.

Li Lianying walked out of the main hall with Guangxu, at this time the two eunuchs in the respectful room were waiting outside, and when they saw the two coming out, they hurriedly saluted and said, "Back to the emperor, Mr. Li, the execution has been completed." ”

Guangxu frowned, knowing that the palace maid had been beaten to death, and sighed and said, "Bury her." ”

Li Lianying hurriedly said: "The slave respects his life." ”