 On February 27, 1948, the order was formally given to take the city and the commander-in-chief of the communist 1st Column, Li Tianyou (李天佑), the communist commander in charge of last assault on the city nearly nine months ago, was put in charge again for the second time.Similarly, two communist columns participated in the assault on the city nearly nine months ago, the 1st Column and the 7th Column, were tasked to take the city, with the help of the communist 3rd Column, while the communist 2nd Column, 6th Column, 8th Column, and 10th Column were deployed to stop any possible nationalist reinforcement that never came, because the nationalist strength was greatly reduced by this time.On March 4, 1948, the enemy assault on the nationalist positions outside the city begun, and the communist 1st Division of the 1st Column took Haifeng Village (Hai Feng Tun, 海丰屯) and Xu Family's Yaodong (Xu Jia Yao, 徐家窑), while the 3rd Division of the communist 1st Column took Xinlitun.