While the special forces were conducting airborne operations in the Imperial Palace, the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the People's Army were also outside the city of Beijing and launched an attack on the walls of Beijing. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

One regiment was responsible for attacking from the southern city of Beijing, that is, the southern wall of the outer city. There are three city gates here, arranged from left to right, namely: Zuo'an Gate, Yongding Gate, and You'an Gate. Among them, Yongding Gate is located on the central axis of Beijing City, leading directly to Zhengyang Gate, Tiananmen Gate and Wumen Gate.

Before the war, the 1st Regiment formulated an operational plan with Yongdingmen as the main direction of attack, and the regimental headquarters, the 2nd Battalion, the Artillery Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion's firepower reinforcement company were arranged in the direction of Yongdingmen, which can be said to be the main force of the regiment. The tactics of the club are: first concentrate the artillery and bombard the tower and gate of Yongdingmen, because the city wall of Beijing is too thick, unless it is bombarded with heavy artillery of more than 150 mm caliber, it is possible to bombard the city wall of Beijing, and the artillery battalion of the regiment has only 18 1896 type 77 mm field guns, it is obviously impossible to bombard the city wall of Beijing, so it can only attack the relatively weak city gate of the city wall, and after the city gate is opened, the firepower reinforcement company is used to suppress the firepower on the city tower, and send ground troops to charge, break through the city gate in one fell swoop, and capture Yongding Gate。

The first battalion and the third battalion each brought the battalion's firepower reinforcement company to attack Zuo'anmen and You'anmen respectively, because even if the city gate was blown open, the width of the passage was also limited, and if the three battalions were all concentrated in Yongdingmen, the strength could not be fully deployed, so the first battalion and the third battalion respectively went to attack Zuo'anmen and You'anmen, one was to give full play to their own forces; the other was to disperse the forces defending the city. You'anmen made a breakthrough, and then reinforced Yongdingmen from inside Beijing; while the Eight-Nation Coalition Army dispersed its forces to defend each city gate, it could concentrate its main force and go all out to conquer Yongdingmen, and then divide its troops to support Zuo'anmen and You'anmen.

Because the city wall of Beijing is too long, with the strength of the Eight-Nation Alliance, it is impossible to hold all the city walls, and can only be arranged based on the city tower, and the military camp of the defenders is also located next to the city tower, the reason is that the city of Beijing is too big, once the overseas Chinese attack, the reinforcements may not have time to rush to the city gate to set up defense, so it is better to let them live by the city gate.

At 4:50 a.m., all the troops of the regiment had advanced into their respective positions, the artillery battalion had set up artillery positions about 4.5 kilometers from Yongdingmen, and the positions of the rest of the troops were about 700-800 meters away from the target, at this distance, it was the limit of rifle fire in this era, but at the same time, it was within the range of the 47-mm machine guns and Maxim machine guns of Haqikais, which was enough to suppress the fire of the towers. Although the Eight-Nation Coalition also had machine guns and artillery, it basically did not pose any threat to the KPA because of the lack of artillery shells and shells.

At exactly 5 o'clock in the morning, the 18 Type 1896 77-mm field guns of the artillery battalion were divided into two batches and opened fire in turn, bombarding the city tower of Yongdingmen, which also officially opened the prelude to the attack on Beijing, because at this time, the helicopter had just taken off from the Tongzhou railway station.

Although the rate of fire of the German-made Type 1896 77mm field gun was not very high in this era, it was divided into two groups to fire in turn, and the rate of fire was also considerable, and the target was concentrated, and it was only necessary to fire at the tower. Although the artillery was fired in the dark and could not be aimed, the artillery battalion was equipped with night vision equipment, and there was also drone monitoring in the air, which could provide correction units for the artillery battalion, so after several rounds of calibration, the artillery battalion also calibrated the unit parameters of the shooting, so the fire was full and launched a fierce bombardment of the tower of Yongding Gate.

And the city tower of Yongding Gate, and the nearby city wall, immediately sounded a series of explosions, because the artillery battalion has calibrated the shooting parameters, so the accuracy of the artillery is very high, only a few shells jumped over the city tower, fell into the city or fell to the open space in front of the city tower, but most of the shells successfully hit the target, of course, most of the shells that hit the target hit the city wall of the city tower, but there are also a small number of fall on the city tower or hit the city gate.

If the cannonball hits the city wall, it will basically not cause any loss to the city tower or the city wall, because the city wall of Beijing is too thick, and the city tower is to highlight the city wall, more thick, but it falls on the city tower, and the cannonball on the arrow tower will cause a lot of damage to the defenders, after all, the wall of the arrow tower is not as thick as the city wall, and the cannonball that hits the city gate can cause considerable damage to the city gate, although the city gate of Beijing is based on a solid wooden board of about 300-400mm, and the outside is made of a layer of 5-7mm thick iron plate, which is almost impossible to break through for weapons in the era of cold weapons, even if it is a collision weapon such as a collision wood, it is quite a strong defense. But against medium-caliber shells, it is beyond its power.

After nearly 15 minutes of shelling, the artillery battalion fired nearly 1,000 shells at Yongdingmen, and the city walls of Yongdingmen were uneven and pitted, and dozens of soldiers were killed and injured on the city tower and arrow tower, and the city gate was also blown open with two big holes.

The Eight-Nation Coalition guarding Yongding Gate is the British army, and now the British army of the Eight-Nation Alliance is only more than 1,600 people, so among the 13 city gates in Beijing, the British is responsible for garrisoning one, which is Yongding Gate, in addition, the British are also stationed in the city of Zhengyangmen, Tiananmen, Shenwumen, all of which are located on the central axis of Beijing, which can also be seen that the British are shrewd and cunning, although their own troops are not much, but all the control is the strategic point of Beijing, so as to achieve a great right to speak.

Although there were only more than 100 British soldiers on the night vigil, there was no need to call the police when the shelling caused such a big movement, and the British soldiers living near the city gate were awakened and immediately realized that Yongdingmen had been attacked by the enemy. Originally, as soon as Tongzhou was lost, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army in Beijing was vigilant and was on guard against the crossers attacking Beijing at any time, so the British army also acted quickly, immediately got up, took up arms, caught up with the city wall, and increased the defense on the city tower. Many soldiers did not even wear their uniforms or helmets. The British soldiers who climbed the tower found their own battlements, immediately set up their rifles, and then shot outside the city.

In fact, at this time, looking out from the city wall, it was basically pitch black, nothing could be seen clearly, and it was impossible to aim, and everyone knew that the position of the artillery was actually far beyond the range of the rifle, so it was impossible to pose any threat to the enemy outside the city, but at this time, the main purpose of shooting was to make yourself feel better psychologically, showing that you still had the strength to fight back.

The Eight-Nation Coalition Army is not without artillery, and now there are about 40 artillery pieces of various kinds in Beijing, but the artillery is not evenly distributed to each city gate, but who has who uses it, but the British army now does not have 1 artillery, so it is impossible to use artillery to counterattack at all, and can only rely on rifle shooting to bring some comfort to itself.

However, just as the defenders on the city wall began to counterattack, the fire reinforcement company directly under the battalion also opened fire, and three Haqikaisi 47-mm rapid-fire guns and six Maxim machine guns opened fire in the KPA position, and launched heavy fire on the tower. Although these weapons are not as powerful as artillery, they are dense and more accurate, and all of them are fired at castle towers and arrow towers. Although most of the bullets hit the battlements or the side walls of the turrets, the flying debris shattered by the bullets could still injure many British soldiers.

Although it cannot penetrate the thick bricks at the entrance of the battlements, as long as it can hit the battlements, it will inevitably be able to splash out several flying stones, and a considerable number of British soldiers are in a hurry to go into battle without helmets.

Now the defenders of Yongdingmen are less than 1,000 people, such a small number of people, guarding the city tower is enough, but to be in charge of the city walls on both sides, it will not be able to guard much place, after all, even if 1,000 people stand in a line, how much place can they hold, not to mention the enemy's artillery bombardment is fierce, the fire is fierce, even the city gate has been broken, so the British officers guarding Yongding Gate hurriedly asked for help from the left and right sides of the Zuo'an Gate, the Right Gate, and the Zhengyang Gate behind.

Zhengyangmen garrisoned about 300 British troops, and Zuo'anmen, You'anmen are garrisoned by the Japanese army, now the relationship between Britain and Japan is just right, so the British efforts to try to let the army garrison these two gates, but also to make up for their own lack of troops, after all, the Japanese army is still the largest number of troops in the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the Japanese army also hopes to strengthen the relationship with the British army, the use of Britain's international prestige, to enhance their international status, so the two sides learn from each other's strengths, each takes what they need, to achieve a win-win situation.

The two sides fought for about 20 minutes, and the losses of the British army were not large, with only about 100 soldiers killed and wounded, while the city tower and arrow tower were still standing, but the city gate could not withstand the continuous shelling, and a large gap of 4 or 5 meters wide was blown up. Fortunately, the reinforcements of Zhengyangmen, Zuo'anmen, and You'anmen arrived at Yongdingmen one after another, and some of them climbed the city tower to strengthen the defense of the city, and the other part immediately lined up at the city gate to defend, just waiting for the enemy to charge at Yongdingmen.

However, the People's Army did not take the liberty of launching an attack on Yongding Gate, but still used long-range strikes, and the artillery fire was still concentrated near the city gate, and the fire of the three Haqikaisi 47 mm rapid-fire guns was also concentrated on the city gate, so it did not take long for the three Haqikaisi 47 mm rapid-fire guns to pour nearly 100 shells into the city gate. Although the defenders piled sandbags in front of the gate to form a bunker, they could not stop the shells of the 47mm rapid-fire guns of Habekais, and dozens of defenders stationed at the entrance of the city gate were killed. At the same time, it also brought great pressure to the defenders of the city, in such darkness, the army of overseas Chinese can still shoot so accurately, and continue to guard the entrance of the city gate, isn't it looking for death?

And it was only at this time that a regiment began to charge towards Yongding Gate.