The beacon of youth

Bullets flew across the sky, sporadic shells fired from the city exploded in the charging troops from time to time, and some people fell down under the impact from time to time, lying silently outside Lanzhou City, lying on the city that was about to be liberated piece of land.

Looking out from the gaps and positions of the Qingma Army guarded by the city wall, the large troops of the People's Liberation Army all over the mountains and plains overflowed like mercury leaking to the ground. A strange gray sea-like wave.

The light and heavy machine guns of the soldiers of the Qingma Army kept firing, and the barrels of the guns were reddened by continuous shooting, but there were no shortage of soldiers from the People's Liberation Army who charged over, and the bullets shot out as if they had no effect.

It's time for the final decisive battle with the Qingma Army. With the combat effectiveness of the Northwest Field Army, once the two armies come into contact, it will be easy. Commanders at all levels understand that as long as the troops can rush to open the breakthrough, they can control the victory in their own hands. .

But the breakthrough is not so easy to open. The Qingma Army not only has a large number of light and heavy machine guns, but also some small-caliber artillery that has not been completely resolved, especially the battalion-level small mortars that move with the troops. Mostly preserved.

Now, it is these weapons that are causing a lot of losses to the charging soldiers. The flat open land has no houses, no trees, no stones, and no hidden objects to rely on. In the past, all the obstacles that could affect the performance of firepower were used to clear away all the obstacles that could affect the performance of firepower. The bare surface, the machine gun firepower was a cloud of smoke, and our army had no tunnels, no tunnels, and no weapons that could cover the infantry's charge. The soldiers only had Use your own flesh and blood to charge forward, and every time you rush a certain distance, a large number of soldiers will be sacrificed or injured.

In the south of Lanzhou City, in the attack area of ​​the Independent Brigade, in order to facilitate the command of the battle, brigade commander Li Yong and political commissar Wang Chengde moved the headquarters to the forefront. Together with the brigade command post, there are artillery battalion headquarters, tank battalion headquarters, and machine gun battalion headquarters. In other words, this is a temporary joint headquarters that gathers all the heavy weapons units of the brigade. This can effectively command the firepower of troops at all levels, minimize the contradictions in coordination and the losses of soldiers. Li Yong I don't want a lot of casualties to appear on my troops. .

The artillery preparations for the independent brigade began at the same time Commander Luo Yuanfa gave the order. Battalion Commander Gao Xiang and the soldiers of the Artillery Battalion almost used all their strengths to bombard Lanzhou's city defense fortifications, because the soldiers knew that their own brigade's Comrades are about to launch an attack. If they destroy one more firepower point, the soldiers in the infantry battalion are likely to lose a group of people. It is a group of people, so every shell they fire is very important.

Bombardment, bombardment, non-stop bombardment, time-delayed fuzes are used to deal with the fragmented armor bombs of city walls and firepower points, anti-personnel triggers or air-explosive shrapnel bombs, and specially left incendiary bombs. The entire area attacked by artillery was beaten into pieces. There was a sea of ​​flames, and batches of various types of ammunition were fired non-stop, batch after batch repeatedly.

Battalion Commander Gao Xiang took out all his wealth and prepared three bases of ammunition. While attacking the forward positions, he also kept attacking the enemy's in-depth defenses.

The staff in the command center kept looking at their watches, because the time for the independent brigade to prepare artillery fire was half an hour, and after half an hour the infantry would start to attack. The brigade commander Li Yong took the first and second battalions as the first For the assault echelon, the third and fourth battalions are the second assault echelon, and the fifth battalion, the reconnaissance battalion and the brigade headquarters are the third echelon.

The hands of the watch were ticking, and the expressions of the personnel in the brigade were also different. Gao Xiang, the battalion commander of the artillery battalion, was directing the battle nervously, and Wei Gang, the battalion commander of the machine gun battalion, was excitedly lying on the observation hole to watch the bombardment effect of the artillery fire. Only the battalion commander Jiang Tiexiong and the instructor Li Yuming of the tank battalion were a little nervous, and they bowed their heads and muttered together from time to time.

Li Yong, the brigade commander, was a little strange. What are these two guys doing secretly together: "Jiang Tiexiong, Li Yuming, what are you two talking about? Can you speak louder about something?"

Seeing the Brigadier asked a question, the two had no choice but to raise their heads, and Li Yuming, who was easy to talk to, answered: "Hey, Brigadier, we are both thinking about something, thinking about something big."

Li Yuming's answer was a bit funny, and Wang Chengde, the political commissar, also asked curiously: "Haha, what big things are you thinking of? Tell us about it and let us listen. Wouldn't it be better for everyone to give you an idea together?"

Li Yuming straightened his body, and answered loudly and confidently: "Political commissar, you also said that after the battle of Lanzhou, there may not be any major battles. This is the last chance to make meritorious service. If you miss this village, you will not be able to keep up with this shop, so We are discussing how to make meritorious service, or how to make great meritorious service. Today we have been bored all day. We originally wanted our tank battalion to cooperate with the first battalion in combat, but our battalion did not fire a single shot after the battalion leaders were taken down. What is this? Cooperative combat ? How can we make any contribution if we continue doing this? Li Jiangguo has left us cold, and I will never end with him."

Li Yuming's words made everyone in the headquarters burst into laughter. Wei Gang, the battalion commander of the Machine Gun Battalion, almost laughed, and this guy added fuel to encourage Li Yuming and Jiang Tiexiong: "Yes, I just want to have an endless relationship with Lao Li. This guy is not a good person at all. , You don’t know, let alone your tank battalion, I was so anxious at the time, I thought this kid was going to eat alone, but then he used our battalion anyway, my little heart, I kept plopping, plopping , jumping around, almost jumped out."

The conversation between Li Yuming and Wei Gang swept away the tense atmosphere in the headquarters. Even Gao Xiang, who was directing the artillery bombardment, grinned and laughed non-stop. The nose said: "Look at your success, isn't it just that you didn't lead the camp? What's the big deal? After a while, your battalion will start the assault after the artillery fire stops. It's not easy to make meritorious deeds. It just depends on your performance.

Li Yong ignored Li Yuming and Wei Gang's nonsense together, but turned his head and asked Gao Xiang: "How are the big guys in your battalion ready?"

Gao Xiang: "Don't worry, Brigadier, it's been prepared a long time ago. The soldiers have said that this is the first battle for the big guys, and it may be the last battle, so even if it's a game of death, they have to fight it." Go, it will definitely surprise the enemy.

The big guy Li Yong and Gao Xiang talked about is the one that the Independent Brigade has been reluctant to use. There are only five 150mm German-made heavy-duty howitzers. This is the largest caliber artillery in the Chinese battlefield during the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation War. It is a secret weapon in the Independent Brigade. Since the establishment of the Artillery Battalion, it has been hidden by the brigade commander Li Yong like a treasure. A single shell has never been fired. It’s not that Li Yong doesn’t want to use them. It’s just that the ammunition is not easy to solve. Since the arrival of these big guys, the battalions and companies of the Independent Brigade began to collect the shells of these artillery pieces, but no matter how they tried, the collected ammunition was only more than 200 rounds, that is to say, the entire Independent Brigade only had more than 200 rounds The shells of this artillery, on average, are only forty rounds per gun.

This was seized from Hu Zongnan and various Kuomintang Central Army. Since confronting the army of the Northwest Second Horsemen, the Independent Brigade has never even caught shells of this caliber, so Li Yong has been keeping these few The cannons are hidden in order to be used at the most critical moment. What is the most critical moment?It is now.

The sharp weapon for siege is artillery, especially large-caliber artillery, which can sometimes play a decisive role. For example, now, if you want to open a breakthrough, you must blow up the city wall. How to blow up the city wall?If you think about it with your heels, you can know that as long as you get near the city wall, the grenades of the Qingma Army will definitely rain down like heavy rain. The soldiers who deliver the explosives will inevitably suffer casualties. The idea is that when the troops are attacking the city, push these heavy-duty howitzers away, the closer the better, use the cannons to aim and shoot directly at the city wall, and use these more than 200 rounds of 150 mm shells to blow up the city wall of Lanzhou. Gap, as long as a gap can be blasted, the next thing will be easy to handle.

Only then did the soldiers of the Artillery Battalion know the purpose of the brigade commander not allowing the use of these cannons. It turned out that it was to deal with the Lanzhou city wall. The soldiers admired Li Yong to the extreme. The brigade commander was brilliant. I knew a long time ago that our brigade would attack Lanzhou in the future, so we won’t be able to win the battle with just this brain! !

In fact, this is because the soldiers overestimated Li Yong. The general trend of the Northwest Field Army is to liberate Lanzhou in the future, and the liberation of Lanzhou will definitely be a fierce battle. What Li Yong has done is just some preparations for a rainy day.

Half an hour of artillery strikes passed in a blink of an eye. After the artillery fire extended, the Independent Brigade used a platoon of soldiers to blow the charge horn. The sound of dozens of charge horns made people's blood hot. After Li Yuming and Under the leadership of Jiang Tiexiong, dozens of tanks from the tank battalion rushed out with a bang. Taking the platoon as a unit, several vehicles and one combat unit rushed towards the city of Lanzhou, starting with a tank platoon led by the battalion instructor Li Yuming.

Behind the tank units are the infantry battalions of the first and second battalions. Among these infantry are the five [-]-plus howitzers of the artillery battalion. The soldiers push these cannons forward for fear of being pulled behind by the infantry. Go, in the words of these artillerymen, don't look at us as artillery, we can also be infantry at critical times, and cannons can also bayonet.