Under remorse, Duan Qirui finally decided to stick to the rescue, because now that he is breaking through, Duan Qirui is really not sure in his heart, in the process of breaking through, the Qing army is likely to collapse under the siege of the volunteers, and if he sticks to it, he can hold on for a few more days.

Of course, if you choose to stick to it and wait for reinforcements, you need reinforcements, otherwise it will be a dead end. However, Duan Qirui thought that if he wrote another letter to Tie Liang and Liangbi, and explained the stakes to them, after all, they were the main generals of this attack, and once they failed, both of them would be to blame, so if the two received their own letter, they would definitely send troops to rescue themselves, and at the same time, Duan Qirui wrote a letter to Wang Yingkai, the commander of the second town, asking Wang Yingkai to see the friendship of his colleagues and send troops to rescue him. Although the Volunteers have now completed the encirclement of the Qing army on all sides, there are still some gaps that a few people can still use to escape, and it can also be said that these two letters carry all the hopes of Duan Qirui.

In addition, the current Duan Qirui also has a bit of a self-defeating mentality, he would rather stick to the spot and wait for help, rather than risk breaking through, if Tie Liang and Liang Bi do not send reinforcements, he will be wiped out in this army, and he will die in his post, which will also make this attack a complete failure, so Tie Liang and Liang Bi will not be able to escape responsibility.

After sending the letter, Duan Qirui also ordered the whole army to strengthen the garrison and prepare to meet the attack of the volunteers. And Duan Qirui also estimated that it would take three days for reinforcements to arrive at the earliest, and it was difficult to say the slowest, ten days and half a month were possible, but Duan Qirui thought that he could hold for 5-6 days, not because the Qing army's combat effectiveness was not enough, but because there was only so much ammunition carried. At present, the total strength of the Qing army is about 27,000, of which there are about 10,000 troops in the three towns of Beiyang, more than 7,000 logistics auxiliary soldiers, and nearly 10,000 other troops.

And the next day, the Volunteers launched an attack on the positions of the Qing army. First of all, in the frontal position of the Qing army, all 72 75-mm field guns of the 75-mm field artillery regiment were concentrated, as well as six 125-mm field guns urgently supported by the East China government before the war, and launched a fierce artillery bombardment of the Qing army's positions.

Although the Beiyang New Army is an army that has been organized and trained in accordance with the style of the modern army, and it also attaches great importance to the use of artillery, after all, it lacks actual combat experience, and the concept of artillery tactics is still the backward thinking of Europe 10 years ago; first, the tactical drill of the Beiyang New Army is mainly a reference to the German Army, and what Germany teaches the Beiyang New Army is only some daily training subjects or ordinary tactics, and the latest artillery tactics are of course impossible to teach to the Beiyang New Army; second, the tactics of this era are also constantly changing, and after each local war, a large number of military experts in various countries will analyze, study, and summarize and constantly revise and improve the established tacticsIn this regard, the Qing court obviously did not do enough homework. Although the artillery equipped by the volunteers is not much, the tactical idea of using artillery is undoubtedly the most advanced in this era, and this time it is to concentrate firepower and carry out covering artillery bombardment, so as to form superior firepower in some parts of the battlefield.

The firepower of the volunteers covered almost the entire front position of the Qing army, and the sound of explosions basically did not stop, and the smoke and dust raised completely submerged the front position of the Qing army. The Qing troops guarding the position did not expect that the artillery attack of the volunteers would be so fierce, and the Qing army's position layout obviously did not consider the design of anti-artillery bombardment, so it caused a large number of casualties, but there were still quite twice as many Qing soldiers who were afraid of the fierce artillery bombardment, fled from the position, and were killed by the shelling.

Duan Qirui sat in his headquarters, listening to the sound of shelling and explosions outside, and the teacups on the table fell to the ground and broke two, never thought that the shelling of this gang of bandits would be so fierce and intensive, although Duan Qiduan is known as the Tiger of the Beiyang, in fact, the battles he has fought so far are only some small battles such as the elimination of bandits, what big battles have been seen there, such an amazing momentum, even the usual training has not had such a large-scale shelling, so at this time Qirui's face was pale, and the hand holding the teacup was still trembling.

The artillery bombardment of the Volunteers lasted for more than 30 minutes, and a total of more than 6,000 shells were fired, and in order to prepare for this war against encirclement and suppression, the Volunteers prepared only more than 10,000 shells in total. By the time the shelling was over, the Qing army's frontal positions had been blown up beyond recognition.

Then the Volunteers officially launched an attack on the positions of the Qing Army from all fronts, and because the frontal position of the Qing Army was basically destroyed by the artillery bombardment of the Volunteers, the defenders suffered nearly half of the casualties, and the remaining soldiers had no intention of fighting again, after the soldiers of the Volunteers rushed into the positions of the Qing Army, the Qing Army was simply unable to fight again, and they were defeated and retreated.

However, at this time, the morale of the volunteers was like a rainbow, and the fighting spirit was high, so everyone was brave and competed for the first, and the Qing army was at this time the bottom of the army's heart, not to mention that the military quality and combat experience of the two sides were almost the same, and the Qing army was not much stronger than the volunteers.

At this time, Qirui only had his own guards in his hands, and he arranged a defensive line in front of the headquarters, preparing to meet the volunteers who had broken through the frontal defense line of the Qing army. After the volunteers broke through the frontal position of the Qing army, they immediately divided their troops into three routes, two to support the volunteers on both sides, and one continued to attack, smashing the headquarters of the Qing army, and launched a fierce battle with Duan Qirui's guards.

And other positions of the Qing army were also fiercely attacked by the volunteers, although the other positions of the Qing army were not shelled by the volunteers, but the attack of the volunteers was still very fierce, and the volunteers were equipped with mortars, grenadiers, General-purpose machine guns, although the proportion of assembly is much worse than that of the People's Army, but for the Qing army, these weapons are still powerful fire support, and can even suppress the firepower of the Qing army, so it also causes huge pressure on the Qing army's position, and it is impossible to send troops to reinforce the frontal position, and some positions even come to the rescue of Duan Qirui.

Duan Qirui is also anxious now, he didn't expect the battle to be like this, he originally thought that he could hold on for 3 or 5 days, then he knew that he would not be able to hold on for even 1 day, even if Tie Liang and Liang Bi sent troops to help him, he was afraid that it would be too late, so Duan Qirui couldn't help but secretly regret in his heart, if he had known that sticking to the wait for help would be such a result, it would be better to risk breaking through.

Although the volunteers who broke through the frontal position of the Qing army had divided their troops into three routes, so Duan Qirui's guard team could still avoid strong support, but it was estimated that it would not last too long, so the captain of the guard asked Duan Qirui to immediately transfer the headquarters. Although before the start of the war, Duan Qirui still had some self-abandonment, if he couldn't wait for reinforcements, he would rather die here, but the progress of the war did not follow the script that Duan Qirui expected, and I don't know if there are reinforcements, but the position can't be defended. Moreover, at this time, Qirui had a strong desire to save his life in his heart, so Duan Qirui also hurriedly ordered to immediately transfer the headquarters.

At this moment, the other positions of the Qing army were also lost one after another, first, the attack of the volunteers was very resolute, and the firepower of the attack was also very fierce, and the Qing army was already a little unable to parry; second, the loss of the frontal position also caused a considerable impact on the Qing troops in other positions, after all, the frontal position was lost, and there was little point in holding on to other positions; third, the volunteers who attacked the frontal position also divided part of their forces to support other battlefields, so the other positions of the Qing army naturally could no longer hold on, and the Qing army soon collapsed completely, scattered and fled。

However, at this time, the Qing army was completely surrounded by the volunteers, and the volunteers also organized more than 15,000 militiamen to assist the volunteers in defense, although it can not be regarded as a drain, but there is not much room left for the Qing army to move, if there are few people can escape some, but it is impossible to break out of the formation of the formation, and the volunteers were beaten back by a burst of artillery and machine guns, so most of the Qing army can only run back and forth in the position, rushing around like headless flies, and Duan Qirui with the command headquarters, is also coerced by the chaos, running around in the position, although I also want to organize the chaos, but unfortunately no one pays attention to Duan Qirui now。

And the volunteers of all walks of life are also gradually advancing, shrinking the encirclement, squeezing the space of the Qing army step by step, leaving less and less space for the Qing army, and finally being divided into several parts, concentrated in a few small mounds and villages, of course, many Qing troops were annihilated in the process of advancing the volunteers, and some Qing soldiers trampled each other to death in the squeezing and rushing.

At this time, some of the remaining Qing troops saw that they were encircled and cornered, so they had no choice but to surrender to the volunteers, and the volunteers immediately withdrew a gap from the encirclement, allowing the surrendered Qing soldiers to lay down their arms, come out of the encirclement, and gather at the designated place;

At this time, Qirui was wrapped up in the Qing army that was ready to surrender, and wanted to pull out his gun to commit suicide, preferring to die rather than surrender, but was stopped by his subordinates and took Duan Qirui's pistol. But this commotion naturally attracted the attention of the volunteers, so someone immediately came to interrogate, and it turned out that it was Duan Qirui, the chief general of the Qing army, who caught a big fish, so he immediately arrested Duan Qirui and some staff officers, and then reported to the headquarters.

After statistics, the volunteers annihilated a total of 8,475 Qing soldiers, captured 18,547 people, and escaped less than 1,000 Qing soldiers, while the volunteers lost 1,136 people and wounded 1,893 people, which can be said to have achieved a perfect victory. Moreover, after this battle, although there were still three Qing troops, the Qing court's encirclement and suppression of the river and lake base areas basically failed.