The 1st Russian Siberian Front outside the city did not launch an attack on the outlying positions of the city after September 13, but retreated to the vicinity of the city of Khaktu and honestly waited for reinforcements led by the commander of the theater of operations, Kuropatkin. Taking advantage of the fact that the Russian army did not attack, the officers and men of the 3rd Division began to continue to strengthen their fortifications in response to the arrival of larger Russian troops.

On September 13, more than 100,000 Russian civilians in the city and the Russian 24th Army defending the inner city of Svobod in the Russian Far East were very chaotic, because outside the inner city of Svobod, a unit of the Dingbei Army had already set up camp and would attack the inner city of Svobold at any time.

This unit of the Dingbei Army was the 14th Division of the Dingbei Army that started from Hailanpao and crossed the border between the two countries to the inner city of Svobod.

In the temporary headquarters where the 14th Division set up camp outside the inner city of Svobod, Yu Lichen, the commander of the 14th Division, looked at the telegram received in his hand with a frown, and said to the brigade commanders of the 3 infantry brigades and 1 heavy artillery brigade of the 14th Division: "The Military Intelligence Bureau has received information that the Russian Army has planned to expand its army by 2 million. And Russia has this 2 million troops, it will definitely carry out large-scale support to the Far East, and the inner city of Swobod is the only way for Russia to increase its troops to the Far East, the principal has ordered the newly formed Division B, the 33rd Division that is about to go to Hailan Pao and the 31st and 32nd Divisions of Heilongjiang, also to the inner city of Svobod, and the 17th to 20th Divisions in Mukden Province, 4 divisions will also go to Hailan Pao in Heilongjiang, ready to support us at any time! The task of our division is to capture the inner city of Svobod as much as possible, and then join the other fraternal units to build fortifications in the inner city of Svobod to block the Russian reinforcements sent to the Far East! ”

When the four brigade commanders of the 14th Division heard that Russia had expanded its army by another 2 million, their brows furrowed, and their faces could not help but show a solemn look.

The commander of the 141st Brigade said: "Division commander, in that case, you can give the order, our brigade is willing to take charge of the main attack on the inner city of Svobod. ”

The commander of the 142nd Brigade said: "The soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, even if the Russian army of 2 million is coming to the Far East, we must also block them in the inner city of Svobod!" Our brigade is willing to take the inner city of Svobod for the whole division! ”

The commander of the 143rd Brigade also said: "What 2 million Russian troops, now we are far from us, the most important thing is for us to take the inner city of Svobod first, and our brigade is also willing to take on the main attack task." ”

Yu Lichen, the commander of the 14th Division, nodded and said: "Our division will take down the inner city of Swobod first, and then study how to defend the inner city of Svobod and block the Russian reinforcements!" The division headquarters decided that your three brigades would attack the three sides of the inner city of Svobold at the same time, encircling three and one, and taking the inner city of Svobo as much as possible. Questions? ”

The three division commanders said at the same time: "Guarantee to complete the task!" Take Svobod Inner City! ”

Yu Lichen said to the brigade commander of the heavy artillery brigade: "The heavy artillery brigade cooperates with the artillery units of each brigade to launch an artillery bombardment of the inner city of Svobod, and after the infantry attacks, the heavy artillery brigade will provide heavy artillery support at any time!" ”

The brigade commander of the heavy artillery brigade nodded and said: "Yes, division commander!" ”

After the arrival of the 14th Division of the Dingbei Army, the inner city of Svobod was very chaotic, and the commander of the Russian 24th Army, Lieutenant General Yemelyanovich, was just 40 years old this year, and he was a young man among the senior generals of the Russian Army, and he had always been known for his bravery in battle.

Yemelanovich was not surprised to see the Dingbei army coming outside the inner city of Svobod, because he already knew from the telegram that the 2nd Far Eastern Front had been completely destroyed, the 1st Far Eastern Front had been defeated, and the rest had retreated to the fortress of Vladivostok. In addition to the fortress of Vladivostok, there are only the inner cities of Svobod and the city of Amur, as well as the main forces of Russia, and the Dingbei Army will definitely attack these two cities.

Governor Alekseev sent a telegram to Yemelanovich saying that if the situation was unfavorable, he could retreat to the Siberian region to the east, but Yemelianovich was not prepared to retreat lightly, and after the declaration of war between Russia and the Qing Dynasty, the inner city of Svobod had been building fortifications to prevent this important communication route to the Far East from being attacked by the Qing people.

Yemelanovich believed that his 24th Army, with nearly 30,000 men, would be able to hold the inner city of Svobod for a long time until Russia sent reinforcements from Europe.

He gathered his 3 division commanders and 6 brigade commanders together and said: "Officers of the Russian Empire, the Dingbei Army of the Qing Dynasty has arrived outside the inner city of Svobod, we must hold the inner city of Svobod, the reinforcements of His Majesty the Tsar are coming to the Far East, our army must hold this only road to the Far East, even if we fight to the point of a single soldier, we must hold the inner city of Svobod!" ”

Yemelanovich paused for a moment and then said: "All troops will immediately enter the position, and gather the Russian men in the city, bring their own weapons, and join the defense of the inner city of Svobod, every Russian in the inner city of Svobold must contribute to the defense of the inner city of Svobod, we must make every inch of the inner city of Svobold become a battlefield, and the inner city of Svobold will become the grave of those Qing Dynasty people!" ”

Under Yemelyanovich's orders, the chaos in the inner city of Svobod was stopped, and nearly 30,000 Russian soldiers of the 24th Army and nearly 20,000 young and middle-aged Russian civilians with various weapons in the inner city of Svobod entered the fortifications that had been built long ago and waited for the attack of the Dingbei Army.

Russian women and elderly people in the inner city of Svobod also helped to deliver supplies to the trenches and formed stretcher teams to rescue the wounded.

At 12:30 noon on the 13th, the artillery of the 14th Division of the Dingbei Army began to shell the Russian defensive positions in the east, south and west directions of the Svobod inner city.

The shelling lasted for 30 minutes, and although the Russian positions also dug a lot of anti-artillery holes, it was still a drop in the bucket in the face of the Russian soldiers and Russian young and middle-aged civilians who had a total of 50,000 people, so that the losses of the Russian troops in the three directions were not small, and the Russian young and middle-aged civilians in the inner city of Svobod, who were temporarily summoned, almost collapsed in this saturated shelling.

At 1 o'clock sharp, when the shelling stopped, three brigades of the 14th Division simultaneously launched a fierce assault on the defensive positions in the east, south and west directions of the inner city of Svobod.

The Russian army on the position put up stubborn resistance to the attack of the Dingbei Army, and the 90 75-mm field guns of the Russian 24th Army also began shelling the infantry attacking the Dingbei Army, but then they were covered by the artillery fire of the Dingbei Army, which muted the Russian artillery fire.

Without the interference of Russian artillery, the Dingbei Army's own artillery fire provided support to the infantry at any time, so that the infantry of the 3 brigades attacked very smoothly, and the 141st Brigade, which was responsible for the eastern attack, rushed into the position of the Russian army during the first charge, and launched a white-knuckle battle with the Russian army in the eastern position.

The officers and men of the 141st Brigade in Dingbei gave full play to the advantage of strong firepower in the close-range white-knuckle battle, and soon the regular troops of the Russian 24th Army and the armed forces of the Russian young and middle-aged civilian organizations on the position could not resist the attack of the Dingbei Army and retreated to the inner city of Svobod.

With the loss of the eastern position, the defensive positions of the Russian army in the south and west directions were also lost under the attack of the Dingbei Army, and the defeated Russian troops retreated into the inner city of Svobod.

The commander of the Russian 24th Army, Yemelanovich, was very shocked by the rapid loss of the outlying positions, and he immediately ordered the soldiers and civilians who retreated into the city to use every street and every house in the inner city of Svobo to resist the Dingbei Army, and at the same time transferred the troops on the northern positions that were not attacked by the Dingbei Army into the inner city of Svobod.

The Dingbei Army's tactics of encircling Sanqueyi were unsuccessful, but it only gave the attacking 14th Division a little more trouble.

Yu Lichen, the commander of the 14th Division of the Dingbei Army, received a report from the front-line troops and knew that the Russian army wanted to fight street battles in the inner city of Svobod, so he smiled contemptuously and ordered the three infantry brigades to enter the inner city of Svobod, fight steadily, compress the space of the Russian army little by little, give full play to the expertise of the Dingbei Army in street fighting, and do their best to solve the Russian army in the inner city of Svobod.

In order to reduce the losses in street fighting, Lin Daxin asked all units of the Dingbei Army to increase the training of street fighting, practice defense in street fighting, and attack in street fighting, so that all departments of the Dingbei Army summed up a set of their own effective methods for street fighting.

Coupled with the strong individual firepower of the Dingbei Army, Lin Daxin even dared to declare to the armies of various countries around the world that the Dingbei Army was invincible in street fighting!

The three infantry brigades of the 14th Division launched attacks from three directions against the Russian soldiers and Russian civilian forces who had retreated into the inner city of Svobod, and the Russian soldiers and Russian civilian armed forces dispersed to every street and every house in the inner city of Svobod by order of the commander of the 24th Army, Yemelanovich, while the soldiers of the Northern Army took the platoon as combat units and cleared the Russian defenders of every house in the path of advance one by one.

More than 30 soldiers of the Dingbei Army in one platoon attacked a small two-story western-style building with a large area, which contained 25 Russian soldiers and 20 Russian civilians with weapons.

The Russian defenders in the small western-style building stretched their rifles out of the window and fired at the Dingbei troops who rushed over, preventing the Dingbei officers and soldiers from approaching the small western-style building.

The officers and men of this platoon found a nearby bunker and began to shoot at the Russian defenders in the small western-style building, and the platoon commander of this platoon turned around and shouted: "Gun grenade, up!" ”

Hearing the platoon commander's order, the three gun grenade bearers aimed the three gun grenade launchers at the window of the small western-style building, and with three "bang-bang-bang-" sounds, the three gun grenades entered the small western-style building from the window of the small western-style building, killing a large number of Russian defenders in the small western-style building.

After 3 gun grenade launchers fired 2 more rounds of gun grenades into the small western-style building, the platoon commander of this platoon shouted: "Machine guns suppress enemy fire, 1 squad!" ”

Then under the cover of machine guns, 1 squad of 10 Dingbei Army soldiers quickly rushed to the bottom of the small western-style building, and then 10 Dingbei Army soldiers first threw grenades into the small western-style building, and then rushed into the small western-style building, a fierce gunfire rang out, and the squad leader of the Dingbei Army who rushed into the small western-style building poked his head out of the window and shouted: "Platoon leader, all killed, no live mouth!" 1 dead and 1 wounded in our class! ”

The platoon commander shouted: "Leave 2 people to send the wounded outside the city, and the others will continue to attack with me!" ”

At the cost of one dead and one wounded, the Dingbei Army of this platoon eliminated 25 Russian soldiers and 20 Russian armed civilians in the small western-style building.

The idea of the Russian 24th Army's commander Yemelanovich wanting to use street fighting to entangle with the Dingbei Army became a joke in the face of the Dingbei Army's powerful firepower and skillful street fighting tactics, and by 6 o'clock in the evening of the 13th, the resistance of the inner city of Svobod basically disappeared, only the sporadic gunfire that came from Dingbei officers and soldiers in the city to clear the Russian army in the city.

Yemelanovich was also captured alive in his headquarters, and the city of Svobod, an important town in the Far East, fell into the hands of the Dingbei army. R1152