throughout the following months, the royalists pushed eastward along route 23 towards vietnam to capture laongam. then, on the nights of 14/15 and 18/19 october 1972, communist pt-76 tanks struck four royalist thai mercenary battalions holding laongam. all the thais except the regimental staff abandoned the town on 19 october; however, an ac-130 spectre gunship repelled the communist attack. two thai battalions returned to form a weak defense.