History books record that, during the period from the second half of 1900 to the first half of 1901, the land of China was filled with the smell of gunpowder. The fleets of the Eight-Nation Alliance entered major ports such as Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Lushun, and even cruised along the Yangtze River all the way to Chongqing; in the northern provinces of Zhili and Shandong, the Boxers, Qing officials' armies, and the Eight-Nation Alliance were all engaged in fierce battles. These battles resulted in the fall of Tianjin in July and Beijing in August. The imperial court fled westward in a panic with the participating official armies, while the elite forces of the army (Yuan Shikai's troops) in Shandong remained passive spectators.