On the front lines of Donggangpo, Gaolan Mountain, Shenjialing and Gouwa Mountain in the south of Lanzhou, Zhang Zhaoguan's direct troops entered this area, and were more nervous than the Gansu army on the north bank of the Yellow River. This was the front line of the People's Liberation Army's offensive, so Zhang Zhaoguan paid more attention to the further reinforcement of the fortifications in the mountains in the south of the city. On the one hand, he ordered the troops guarding the mountain positions to strengthen the fortifications, and on the other hand, he sent logistics troops to first ensure the supply of arms and materials in the front lines of the Nanshan.

Zhang Zhaoguan and Kong Fanjin knew that it was a critical moment of life and death, and had no scruples at all. Not only did they forcibly requisition cars and carriages in Lanzhou City, but they also requisitioned a large amount of labor. Although both officials and gentry complained, they could not resist the strong guns, and vehicles and laborers were successfully incorporated into the logistics force. Along the hillsides, cars were carried, carriages were pulled, and people carried horses and horses. The roads and paths on the hillside were crowded with people and vehicles carrying heavy loads, and food, grass and ammunition were continuously transported to the Nanshan Fortifications.

Although the Gan army soldiers entering the Nanshan position knew that the fortifications on the mountain were very strong, they still felt uneasy. Seeing that the People's Liberation Army was advancing westward, they were all invincible to attack cities and villages. Now they are heading straight to the city of Lanzhou, they already know that this sudden army is really difficult to deal with. Therefore, they continue to strengthen the fortifications. In addition to the original fortifications, they also dug various trenches and bunkers all over the mountains. Starting from Donggangpo in the east and ending at Gouwa Mountain in the west, on the mountain that is dozens of miles long, they were dug to trenches and tramples, riddled with holes.

Although the Gan army soldiers were fierce and strong on the surface, they were posing as if they were to stand firm and fight against the People's Liberation Army to the death, they were actually very panicked inside. Everyone was worried that the position would be lost and that they would end up in a burial mound. If it weren't for Zhang Zhaoguan, Kong Fanjin would have been in a tight control, the deserter would have appeared long ago.

After the People's Liberation Army arrived in the southwest of Lanzhou, it was also making final preparations before the attack. The First Division, Third Division and the Security Division had a brief rest in Yuzhong, but Yu Dacheng, Li Zhang, and An Bingchao led the Second Division, Fourth Division and Fifth Division, who traveled day and night to conquer Weiyuan and Didao. Only after joining the People's Liberation Army in Yuzhong, they only had a few hours of rest. It can be said that the soldiers were still very tired.

However, from Wu Anping to ordinary soldiers, everyone understood that the battle in Lanzhou was of great significance and would never be relaxed. Moreover, in this battle, even if the Gansu Army and the People's Liberation Army were not evenly matched, the intensity of the battle between the attack and defense and the arduousness of the war were far from comparable to any previous battle or war.

Whether intentionally or not, since the battlefield is located in Lanzhou, Zhang Zhaoguan and Kong Fanjin have forced themselves into a dead end, there is no need to ask how big their determination to fight back and forth. You can imagine how big it will be. For the People's Liberation Army, the Lanzhou Battle may be just an extremely hard battle, but for Zhang Zhaoguan and Kong Fanjin, it is a life-or-death blocking battle.

The Gansu Army was adjacent to the Yellow River in the north, and the mountains and steep mountains on the lines of Donggangpo, Gaolan Mountain, Shenjialing and Gouwa Mountain in the south, and there were strong fortifications at the top of the road. In addition, it was sufficient ammunition to wait for the effort. The People's Liberation Army wanted to attack from the bottom of the mountain, seize the mountain fortifications that were dozens of miles long, clear the obstacles on the southern periphery of Lanzhou, and set the road to Gansu to attack Lanzhou.

To be honest, Wu Anping and others were very sure of capturing the Nanshan position, but no one expected how much casualties they had to pay for. It has been less than a month since Dong Zhiyuan swears to raise the army, but several leaders of the People's Liberation Army have unconsciously developed a habit of paying special attention to the life and death of their soldiers. How much the enemy dies depends entirely on their luck. Although the soldiers are still brave and tenacious, Wu Anping and others have learned to care more and more.

After Wu Anping observed the Nanshan position of the Gan army, his face immediately became serious. He handed the telescope to Zuo Chun'an and said with some concern: "The terrain here is too dangerous and the firepower is limited. We will not be as easy as we imagined to break through the Nanshan defensive front of the Gan army."

Zuo Chun'an carefully observed the mountains and peaks and said, "I have to say that it is reasonable for Zhang Zhaoke and Kong Fanjin to choose to fight in Lanzhou. If they did not pull the army back to Lanzhou in one step, in Huining, Dingxi, Yuzhong, Longxi, Tongwei, and Didao, we could destroy most of the Ganges army, and it would be much easier to attack Lanzhou. Now there is some trouble. From Donggangpo to Gouwa Mountain, the Ganges army relies on the dangerous mountain and has built the fortifications densely, which has brought great resistance to our attack."

Yu Tiepeng said: "It depends on how determined we are. If we don't care about casualties, no matter how dangerous the position is, we cannot block our offensive."

This sentence came to the point. Not only Wu Anping and Zuo Chun'an nodded in agreement, but Yu Dacheng, Li Zhang and An Bingchao also expressed the same view. From this point, it can be seen that the leaders of the People's Liberation Army have already gained absolute confidence in the combat power of their troops through a series of victories.

Li Zhang suddenly smiled and said, "With such a narrow attack surface, tanks may be threatened by Gansu artillery fire, especially by medium-caliber mountain field artillery, but we still have more than a dozen fighter jets to use. If the flight detachment is not allowed to perform at this time, Tan Gen will probably throw the bomb directly on our heads."

Everyone laughed. Indeed, since Tan Gen moved the Flight Detachment to Pingliang, he had telegrams requesting to dispatch fighter jets to bomb the enemy almost every day and sent them to Wu Anping's headquarters. However, the troops could win cleanly and neatly with the ground troops alone, and there was no need to dispatch fighter jets to bomb. In this case, despite his anxiousness, Tan Gen could only let the Flight Detachment focus on high-altitude reconnaissance and could not say anything.

An Bing nodded and said, "Although the vanguard fighter jets have a small ammunition load, they can also play a great role in joining the battle suddenly. The Gansu army hides the artillery positions on the mountain. Due to angle problems, it is difficult for us to destroy them with long-range artillery fire. However, the Gansu army does not have air defense firepower. The flight detachment can unscrupulously search and bombard the bombing to clear obstacles for us."

Yu Dacheng added: "Zhang Zhaoke and Kong Fanjin saw that the situation was not good, and they were likely to flee to Qinghai or Hexi. If the flight detachment followed and bombed, they might have unexpected gains."

Although Yu Dacheng didn't say it very clearly, everyone heard what he meant. It doesn't matter to the Gan army soldiers, but it's best not to let them escape, so as not to cause any storm in the future.

After observing the Nanshan defense line of the Gansu army, Wu Anping and others came down from the mountain ridge and assigned the offensive tasks to each division. Among them, the First Division was responsible for attacking Guchengling and surrounding positions, the Security Division and the Third Division were responsible for attacking Shenjialing and Gouwa Mountain positions, the Fourth Division was responsible for attacking the positions along Gaolan Mountain, the Fifth Division was responsible for attacking the Doujiashan position in the southeast barrier of Lanzhou, and the Second Division was missing a regiment, so it was deployed in the Qilihe area west of the city to block the enemy's retreat.

On the afternoon of June 27, the People's Liberation Army launched a tentative attack. The sound of cannons from the peripheral positions shook the silent mountains, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled with gunpowder. The Gansu Army deployed 10,000 people here, and the commander was Song Youcai. Among the ten thousand people, there were more than 2,000 soldiers brought out from Didao's garrison. Relatively speaking, Song Youcai's two thousand direct troops were even more elite.

The Jin Dahu Regiment of the First Division was the first to attack Guchengling, the main position of the Gansu Army, at the intersection of Bujia Road in the southern foot of Majia Mountain. Under the suppression of long-range artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army, the soldiers quickly rushed to the front of the enemy's position through the fire blockade area. At this time, the vanguard was advancing rapidly, but the explosion exploded from under his feet. Two soldiers were caught off guard and died on the spot, and more than a dozen soldiers were slightly injured.

Jin Dahu didn't expect that the Gansu army had buried mines here, so he quickly ordered the soldiers to retreat to the safe area first, and then pulled out more than 20 mortars to clear the minefield. The mortars repeatedly plowed the minefield twice with shells. The bombs exploded and caused a chain explosion of surrounding mines. After two rounds, all the mines were basically detonated. The soldiers continued to advance and soon rushed to the first outer trench in the Gansu army's position.

While the vanguard of the People's Liberation Army was not yet firmly established, nearly a hundred enemies suddenly rushed out from the flanks. Some of them were holding machine guns, some waving ghost-headed knives, and howled at the soldiers. The soldiers held submachine guns and fired wildly in a flash, and occasionally threw out rows of grenades. After dozens of enemies were killed and injured, they fled in a panic and their offensive was suppressed.

But after a moment of stopping, these outlaws who might belong to the suicide squad were shouting and continued to rush up. The soldiers fired at the enemy without mercy, killing most of the enemy in an instant, but the remaining enemies still fought to the death. After the soldiers fired bullets, they did not have time to change the magazines, so they bravely brought the bayonets to face them, engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and quickly eliminated the remaining enemies.

But just after the counterattack was launched, another group of Gansu troops surrounded the two wings, and the enemy also concentrated firepower this time. Although the soldiers had the advantage in the battle situation, they could not break through the enemy's frontier positions for a while. Seeing this, Jin Dahu ordered the transfer of snipers to come forward. With the assistance of dozens of snipers, the vanguard quickly wiped out most of the enemy and rushed into the first outer trench.

But then the accident happened again. The Gansu army actually buried a lot of wooden pickets in the trenches. Some soldiers rushed very hard and did not pay attention to their feet. When they jumped into the outer trenches, they were accidentally stabbed and injured by wooden pickets. At this time, the enemy began to counterattack continuously with one platoon to one company.

The enemy was condescending, the fortifications were hidden, and the firepower was dense. The People's Liberation Army had a narrow front of the attack, exposed terrain, inconvenient movement, and inconvenient firepower advantages. Various factors made the Jin Dahu Regiment unable to advance quickly. However, this was not without benefits. The casualties of the soldiers were very small, and most of them were accidentally injured by various traps arranged by the Gansu Army.

The soldiers fought one after another, and fought repeatedly. The sniper rifles and rocket launchers showed their power continuously, and finally firmly occupied the first outer trench of the enemy. Then they made a concerted effort to break through the second and third outer trenches. When approaching the fourth outer trenches, the enemy finally counterattacked violently. In order to avoid casualties, the vanguard retreated back to the third outer trench.

The fierce battle continued until night, and the Jin Dahu Regiment was firmly nailed to the third outer trench position of the Gansu Army like a nail.
Chapter completed!