After defeating the second batch of reinforcements of the Russian army, Li Lixin led the army and approached Harbin, and there was a fierce battle with the Russian army's defending army in Baijia Oil Mill, which was less than 20 kilometers away from Harbin, after more than 2 hours of firefighting, the Russian army retreated, but the People's Army did not continue to pursue, after all, the People's Army now only has 2 regiments of troops, and the original defenders of Harbin have nearly 30,000 people, and now they have withdrawn 1 division, compared with Li Lixin's current only 2 regiments, there is a very obvious advantage in strength, so Li Lixin does not dare to rush forward easily。

Fortunately, the reinforcements of the Russian army have now been cut off, so the People's Army does not need to rush to the army, so Li Lixin sent a large number of scouts to reconnoiter the movements of the Russian army.

And on the next day, the scouts reported that there were no formed Russian guards along the way from Baijia Oil Mill to Harbin, and now there is a lot of chaos in the Harbin urban area, although the scouts did not go deep into the urban area, but they can hear gunshots and cries from time to time in the city from a distance, and many residents have escaped from the urban area, obviously there is a big turmoil in the urban area.

After receiving this intelligence information, Li Lixin did not act rashly, but ordered the scouts to move to the west of Harbin to reconnoitre, and at the same time sent one battalion of troops to carry out a tentative attack on Harbin in three directions with companies as units.

In the afternoon, the scouts who reconnoitred on the west side of Harbin sent back a report, at this time there were a large number of troops and residents in Harbin City were evacuating to the west, and two scouts who ventured into the Harbin area reported that at this time, at the Harbin Railway Station, a large number of people, mostly foreigners, were frantically competing for two trains. In addition, there were a lot of robberies and brawls in the city, and there was basically no one to maintain order.

The other three KPA units that tried to attack also broke through the urban area of Harbin very smoothly, and did not encounter a large force of Russian resistance, only occasionally sporadic Russian soldiers, and even one of the KPA encountered a gang robbery incident, according to the confession of the rescued Russian businessmen, the Russian army began to retreat from Harbin early this morning, and now these three people's armies have established temporary positions in the area east of the urban area of Harbin to maintain order, shelter refugees, and wait for the next order of the division headquarters.

It turned out that after learning that the second batch of reinforcements was defeated by the People's Army, Linnevich was shocked and knew that the general trend of Harbin had gone, and the People's Army was too powerful. Although there are not many People's Army troops rushing to Harbin now, in the long run, it is only a matter of time before the People's Army arrives in Harbin, and Linnevich is basically not confident that the Russian army in Shenyang can break through the interception of the People's Army and rush to the rescue of Harbin, because Linnevich has received a report from Shenyang and knows that the People's Army is launching a full-scale attack on Shenyang。

Of course, there is no danger in staying in Harbin now, but it will not be easy to leave after the KPA brigade arrives, because the tactics of the KPA are so unpredictable that it may go around to the west side of Harbin and cut off its own retreat, so Harbin must not stay for a long time, and must leave as soon as possible and withdraw to Manchuria.

Since he decided to give up Harbin, Linnevich no longer hesitated to arrive, and left as soon as he said to go, so early this morning, Linnevich first took a train and left Harbin. And the Russian army also pulled out from Harbin one after another and retreated in the direction of Manchuria. In fact, although there are not many troops in Harbin, the general logistics base of the Russian army, so it has a large amount of materials, and if you want to move all of them to Manchuria, even if there are trains, it will take more than 10 days, and it will not be able to carry them at all, so you can only take some of them, and you can only give up all of them if you can't take them away.

Harbin area is one of the birthplaces of the Jin and Qing dynasties, at the beginning of the founding of the Jin Dynasty, the capital was built here, called Shangjing, after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the Alchuka deputy capital was set up, which was under the jurisdiction of General Jilin. However, the rise of Harbin City, or driven by the Middle East Railway, before the construction of the Middle East Railway, there were a large number of villages in this area, about 30,000 residents, and with the construction of the East China Railway, transportation, trade, industry and commerce and other economic factors began to expand, and the population is also gathered in a large number of Harbin area. Russia took advantage of the Qing court Gengzi National Change, invaded and occupied the northeast region of China, and set up the Far East Governor's Office in Harbin, and also carried out large-scale construction of Harbin, and Harbin's transportation hub status also provided a lot of convenient conditions for urban development, so Harbin has been the current size of the city at this time.

At this time, the permanent population of Harbin has reached about 250,000, and the Russians are about 30,000, mainly Russian businessmen, technicians, soldiers, students, missionaries and their families who do business and work here, and it is the largest gathering place of Russia in the Far East, mainly because the main work capacity of Vladivostok and Lushun is still a military fortress, and the space for commercial development is limited, so most of the Russians choose to settle in Harbin.

The city was instantly plunged into a huge chaos, first of all, the Russian soldiers rushed to buy ropes, requisitioned vehicles, packed luggage, and some Russian soldiers even openly robbed shops and banks on the streets, and did not hesitate to shoot and kill.

In fact, in the past few days, people in the urban area of Harbin have been panicked, because they are Russians, including some Chinese, they have sold houses and assets, and hurriedly left Harbin. There is a long queue in front of the train station, and the price of a train ticket to Manchuria can be more than 10 times the original price, but it is still difficult to find a ticket. Carriages and horses were also the most sought-after goods, because the Russians with carriages fled in their own carriages, the shops were already closed, and the stragglers and hooligans ran rampant in the streets, burning and looting, and no one kept order, so that no one cared about the dead, and the whole city was in a situation where the end was coming.

Of course, not all Russians are fleeing Harbin, and many people still have illusions about the situation, after all, their careers and assets are in Harbin, and once they leave, they will have nothing, so some people still hope that the Russian army can defeat the People's Army or hold Harbin. But as soon as Linnevich left, these Russians who were still watching suddenly fell into despair, dragging their families with them, or leaving their homes with simple cleaned packages, some going to the train station to try their luck, and some walking directly to the west, forming a huge flow of people. Even some of the troops who had withdrawn from the rear were blocked by the flow of people, and the speed was seriously reduced.

After learning about these circumstances, Li Lixin made up his mind and ordered to send the 3rd Regiment and the Cavalry Regiment to immediately and quickly go around to the west side of Harbin to intercept the retreating people and persuade them to return to Harbin, and ordered the 2nd Regiment to immediately enter the Harbin urban area to maintain order in the urban area, and at the same time reported to Luo Yue, asking the follow-up troops to arrive as soon as possible, after all, relying only on the strength of his own division, and also departing a regiment to block the army in the direction of Shenyang, it is difficult to completely control the Harbin urban area.

Sure enough, after the 3rd Regiment and the Cavalry Regiment went around to the west side of Harbin, they not only intercepted a large number of evacuated residents, but also stopped a train, and the residents who could not evacuate had to return to Harbin City, and at this time the city had been taken over by the People's Army, and severely killed several groups of thugs who looted and smashed in the city, basically controlling the situation of the entire city.

Li Lixin also ordered that troops should be sent to guard the main traffic intersections in the Harbin urban area, such as warehouses, banks, railway stations, the governor's palace, and military barracks, and the troops should be mobilized to patrol the streets in turns.

After Luo Yue received Li Lixin's report, he immediately ordered the 6th Division of the 1st Army to march lightly and quickly, and rush to Harbin as soon as possible to help the 1st Division. By the time Luo Yue led the team to Harbin, it was already five days later, and the order in Harbin had been completely restored, with nearly half of the shops open for business, and there were pedestrians on the streets. The railway station was also restarted, but all passenger traffic was stopped, and freight was also in the service of the People's Army. The Governor's Palace was converted into the headquarters of the KPA, and several trading houses were evacuated and requisitioned by the KPA as dormitories or offices.

This time, the People's Army occupied Harbin, and there was no large-scale fighting, so the People's Army basically had no casualties, and of course it did not annihilate or capture many Russian soldiers, but the harvest was still very huge, and the Russian army left a large number of materials in Harbin, including flour, canned food, dried bottles, meat, wine, salt, and oil products totaling thousands of tons, in addition to a large amount of forage, tents, medicines, clothing, leather, etc.

Although Russia had vast land in the Far East, before the Russo-Japanese War, Russia had only three core cities in the Far East, Vladivostok, Lushun, and Harbin, which were either transportation hubs or ports, and were connected by rail, maintaining Russian rule in the Far East. And now Harbin has also been lost, which means that Russia's three core cities in the Far East have all been lost, and Russia's other cities in the Far East, whether it is Boli or Miaojie, can not be compared with these three cities, so strategically speaking, Russia has actually completely lost its foothold in the Far East, and as far as this war is concerned, Russia has completely lost.