At the end of April 1949, after the Battle of Taiyuan, the 18th and 19th Corps of the North China Military Region received orders from the Central Military Commission, and the troops were transferred to the leadership of the First Field Army to participate in the operation to liberate the Great Northwest. Why? Because the strength of the First Field Army is too small, only 150,000 people, due to geographical restrictions, the weapons and equipment are also very poor, and the 18th and 19th Corps of the North China Military Region, the two corps combined, there are more than 200,000 people, moreover, the weapons and equipment are also good, the liberation of the Great Northwest, relying solely on the First Field Army, it is not enough.
Shan said that the 19th Corps, the commander of the Corps, was Yang Dezhi, which was a fierce general, and the task given to them by Ichino was to fight Lanzhou. Lanzhou is not easy to fight, why? Because, stationed in Lanzhou, is the fierce Ma Jiajun. This force destroyed the entire army of the Red Army's Western Expeditionary Force. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he came to the Jianghuai area to fight the devils, and although the fight against the devils was also brave, it also caused heavy casualties to the New Fourth Army of more than 5,000 people.
On the first day of the battle, on August 21, 1949, Commander Yang Dezhi ordered the 63rd and 65th Armies to mobilize their elite forces to clear the enemy outside Lanzhou. The two armies sent 7 regiments to attack, but after a day of fighting, they did not even capture a single position, and they suffered heavy casualties.
Seeing this situation, Commander Yang Dezhi ordered the attack to stop and study countermeasures. This study lasted three days. During these three days, all units of the 19th Corps were promoting military democracy and allowing commanders at all levels and backbone soldiers to make suggestions and opinions. But in three days, a good countermeasure was not developed.
Commander Ichino Lao Peng felt that it was really difficult to handle, and personally came to the 63rd Army to hold a meeting of cadres at and above the division level to study countermeasures. After studying and studying, he still couldn't come up with a good solution, which angered Zheng Weishan, commander of the 63rd Army. Zheng Weishan looked thin and thin, as if he was weak and could not help the wind, but he was a famous general of the former Red Fourth Front, who had fought many hard battles, and he stood up and said that there was no other way now, the only way was to concentrate all the cannons of the corps and blow up the outer positions.
This suggestion was approved by General Peng, and after mobilizing all the artillery of the corps, Commander Zheng Weishan was worthy of being a famous general, and he ordered the troops, after the artillery fought for a while, to stop, and the infantry only blew the charge horn and shouted loudly, but they were not allowed to advance and stay still. Why? Because the Ma family army built many tunnels on the outskirts of Lanzhou, as soon as the artillery fire of our army sounded, they drilled into the tunnels, and as soon as the artillery fire stopped, they drilled out of the tunnels, and because of this, in the battle on August 21, our army suffered a heavy loss.
Commander Zheng's style of play, the Ma family army was unlucky, they waited for our army's artillery fire to stop, heard the sound of our army's charge, immediately drilled out of the tunnel, who knows, our army's cannon sounded again, so, repeated several times, Ma Jiajun suffered heavy casualties, our army took the opportunity to launch a real charge, and finally, liberated Lanzhou.