sentences:  The enemy planned to launch a surprise attack on the nationalists in the town under the cover of darkness and bad weather by concentrating a total of four communist columns.On the night of July 24, 1947, the communist 2nd Column reached the suburb of Linqu while the communist 9th Column managed to cut off the defenders' escape route by first taking Dragon Hill (Long Gang) and then Northern Pass (Bei Guan), wiping out two nationalist battalions in the process, and the town was thus besieged.On July 25, 1947, the communist 2nd Column attacked the town from the southwest while the communist 9th Column attacked the town from the northwest, and by July 26, 1947, a regiment of the communist 2nd Column managed to breach the defense at the city wall and penetrated into the town, and the defenders' morale begun to shake and many defenders begun to abandon their posts to flee.