At this time, it was Ye Wencheng of the 1st Division of the Hunan Army who rushed into the city as the vanguard.
As the commander-in-chief of this siege, Liu Zhi naturally believed in his old troops, so he sent his First Army, the most powerful 1st Division, as the front vanguard.
And Ye Wenchen did not disappoint Liu Zhi's expectations. After he broke into the city gate, he quickly spread out in all directions, fighting for the streets and alleys near the city gate, and also securing strategic positions for future troops.
But at this time, thousands of people led by Zhang Biao were already here and waiting.
Therefore, if the soldiers of the First Division were not paying attention, dozens of them were mowed down by bullets raining down from the opposite side.
As soon as the soldiers of the 1st Division saw a sniper attack ahead, they immediately fell to the ground in accordance with the tactical requirements and exchanged fire with the enemy on the opposite side, waiting for reinforcements from the rear.
And now the reinforcements to the 1st Division are not the platoon-level artillery units in the rear, but the dozens of tanks at the city gate.
It turned out that the tank battalion saw that the army had entered the city, and it was useless for them to guard the city gate, so they divided into several units and marched to several streets to reinforce the Hunan Army units that were blocked.
What happened next was very simple. Facing the attack of these steel monsters, as a self-improvement army that had hastily deployed a few simple defense lines on the streets, there was no way to resist them.
With the continuous firing of tanks and the firing of coaxial machine guns, the first obstacle was soon broken through, and the self-strengthening army fled to the rear in embarrassment.
Where there is first, there is second. With the addition of tanks, Zhang Biao's defense near the city gate was quickly broken through.
At this time, the reinforcements Zhang Biao expected did not arrive at all.
It turned out that the soldier who was delivering the order was conveying his orders to the various ministries, but the generals of the ministries did not carry them out at all.
Because these people have already seen that the Ziqiang Army is now at the end of its war effort and is no match for the Hunan Army outside the city. What's more, the enemy has already invaded the city. If we go to the front and fight the enemy desperately, we may end up in despair.
A good ending would be better than opening the city gate and escaping to save one's wealth and life.
Li Yuanhong and Yue Siyi, as the two most important generals in the Self-Strengthening Army, are now rushing towards the west gate of Taiyuan with their ten or twenty thousand people.
As for their leader Zhang Biao, no one among these people cared about him at all.
In this way, Zhang Biao led thousands of people and fought hard against the Hunan Army's First Division near the city gate, hoping to hold on until reinforcements arrived, but their reinforcements never came.
As the tanks advanced, more and more generals and soldiers were behind them, and the thousands of Wu Dianying's men were quickly depleted. The fight only lasted for more than 20 minutes, and only about 1,000 people were left around Zhang Biao.
Seeing this situation, Zhang Biao knew that there was no point in continuing the fight, so he could only order his men to surrender with white flags.
Ye Wencheng, commander of the 1st Division, led his guard company and had already rushed to the forward position. Not far away, he saw the white flags of enemy soldiers appearing in the telescope, and knew that his continuous charge had broken the enemy's fighting spirit.
.
"The other side is ready to surrender. Send a few people over to take a look at the situation. If the other side really surrenders, let them put down all their weapons."
While Ye Wencheng was giving these instructions, he ordered his soldiers to approach the center of Taiyuan City from other places.
Zhang Biao's side surrendered very simply. After the other party came to send people to inquire, he immediately ordered his men to surrender.
After that, things became simple. As the troops quickly entered the city, the resistance in Taiyuan City became weaker and weaker. By about two o'clock in the afternoon, the entire Taiyuan City was already under the control of the Hunan Army.
.
Li Yuanhong, who escaped from the west city gate, and twenty to thirty thousand people led by Yue Siyi were ambushed shortly after leaving the city.
Because this group of people rushed away in a hurry, they only carried light weapons and did not carry heavy weapons at all. Therefore, they were blinded by overwhelming artillery fire in just one charge. Then they faced the killing cries of countless Hunan Army soldiers.
It will soon wilt.
After another hour of fighting, these fleeing self-improvement troops lost their fighting spirit and surrendered one by one with their guns above their heads.
At this point, the Battle of Taiyuan, which was related to the life and death of the Qing Dynasty, ended like this.
Although the big battle has ended, the small conflicts have not stopped. Gunfire can still be heard from time to time in Taiyuan City.
It turned out that Zhang Zhidong knew that the enemy was strong and we were weak, so he recruited many ordinary men from Taiyuan City as supplements.
In the past few days, Zhang Zhidong even distributed some old-fashioned weapons to these strong men.
It is easy to send out these weapons, but it is difficult to take them back. In addition to some honest men who ran home when they saw that the situation was over, there are also some local ruffians holding guns and trying to make a fortune on the streets.
.
And these people will naturally become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the Hunan soldiers who maintain order.
But these people had guns in their hands and would not surrender to the general easily, so some small-scale conflicts occurred.
In this way, the Hunan Army soldiers spent the whole afternoon in the city to clear out the remaining bandits. It was only in the evening that the entire Taiyuan City calmed down.
At this time, under the protection of many guards, Liu Hai entered Taiyuan City and came to the governor's office that had been cleaned up long ago.
After Liu Hai entered the Yamen, he immediately held a summary meeting of the war in the lobby of the Governor's Yamen.
At the meeting, Liu Zhi, as the actual commander of the war, spoke first.
"Commander, colleagues, although our Hunan Army achieved a great victory in this battle, many problems were also exposed."
"For example, we did not attach great importance to the role of tanks in combat and did not make full use of new weapons such as tanks in many wars, thus causing many casualties in vain."
Liu Hai in the center nodded repeatedly when he heard this. He had insufficient experience in this battle, so he did not fully use tanks. In many cases, tanks were not the first to charge.
Liu Zhi continued: "The second question is that the firepower at the company and platoon level in our troops is not sufficient. Now that the companies and platoons are concentrated, except for some light machine guns, there is no other heavy firepower. If we face the enemy's solid
Defensively, the losses at the company level will be huge."
Liu Hai nodded when he heard this, then stood up and said: "This matter is very important, and it is also an oversight on my part. But don't worry, I will be linked up in the next period of time to add some firepower so that they have
A certain ability to attack difficult situations.”
Liu Hai's promise was not nonsense. Thinking that the war would be over this time, he went back to buy some light rockets to supplement the lack of firepower at the first level of the company and platoon.
After Liu Hai made his promise, Liu Zhi said nothing else. He just bowed his hands to everyone and said, "I'm done." and then returned to the class.
Liu Hai looked at the people under his hands, and then said: "Do you have anything else to say?"
The people below looked at each other and shook their heads together. Although there were still some minor problems, they did not hinder the overall situation.
Moreover, even the two bosses above have nothing to say. They are asking questions. Isn’t this a slap in the face of the two bosses?
Liu Hai saw that the generals below had nothing to say, so he continued: "Now below Taiyuan, there is no big obstacle to moving westward. Our goal now is to conquer Xi'an and welcome the Emperor and the Empress Dowager back to the capital."
When Liu Hai led the army to leave the capital, he discussed with his staff what to do with Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi.
These people under his command have all banned Liu Hai. No matter what the reason is, they are all using the Qing Dynasty brand.
Therefore, we cannot treat these two people too harshly.
Although Liu Hai was unwilling in his heart, he was still able to listen to others' advice on important matters.
Therefore, the day before Liu Hai left Beijing, he asked Emperor Xingqing for an imperial edict to confer Emperor Guangxu as the Supreme Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi as the Empress Dowager.
With these two titles, Cixi and Guangxu's side should not resist desperately if they get the news.
The generals below listened to Liu Hai's words and thought about it. Then Ye Faguang stood up first and said: "Commander, although the enemy has lost all its elite troops, judging from the intelligence, there are still tens of thousands of new troops in Xi'an. If the enemy
If he colludes with outsiders and flees westward, we may not be able to catch him."
When Liu Hai heard what Ye Faguang said, he felt it was very reasonable.
The Empress Dowager Cixi is a veteran at escaping. Now that the critical moment has come, she naturally has to think about her retreat first. Now, the Empress Dowager Cixi's retreat options are one to go to Western Tibet and the other to Western Xinjiang.
Compared with the semi-independent forces in Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, which was under the control of the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty, was the best way out for Empress Dowager Cixi now.
For the sake of future peace, Liu Hai must not let Empress Dowager Cixi continue to be so carefree.
Liu Hai thought for a while and then asked: "In your opinion, what should we do?"
After hearing Liu Hai's inquiry, Ye Faguang immediately said confidently: "I humbly ask for orders to continue leading the mechanized troops and immediately go from the northwest of Shanxi through Mongolia to Lanzhou. As long as the Empress Dowager Cixi's retreat is cut off, she will have no place to escape even if she wants to."
In the end, I can only accept the conditions of Marshal Ning obediently and live in peace in the palace for the rest of my life."
After hearing this, Liu Hai felt that this method was not bad, "Okay, as you said, you continue to lead 300 tanks and 20,000 soldiers to form a mechanized assault group, set off immediately, and attack Lanzhou, Gansu in a roundabout way."
Judge Ye was overjoyed after hearing this and immediately clasped his fists and raised his hands, "The final general will definitely live up to the commander's high expectations."
Liu Hai nodded and said to Liu Zhi standing aside: "Give him a letter of appointment and let Ye Faguang leave immediately."
Liu Zhi nodded after hearing this and left the house next to Lobby Lane. After a while, he returned to Datang with a letter of appointment and handed it to Ye Faguang's hand.
Ye Faguang took the appointment letter, saluted Liu Zhi and Liu Hai and wanted to go out.
But this time Liu Zhi said something behind her, "Master Ye, I hope you can take care of yourself."
After Ye Faguang heard this, his body trembled, and finally he left the lobby.