1947. The 19th Division of the communist 7th Column, in the meantime, took Zhangwu after completely annihilated the local garrison, a regiment of the nationalist 57th Division. The continuous communist offensives in the regions to the east and west of Kaiyuan had forced the Newly Organized 1st Army to divert from its original objective to reinforce Kaiyuan instead, and the Newly Organized 6th Army had to return to Tieling, while the nationalist main forces of Gongzhuling and Village of the Fan Family (Fanjia Tun) were ordered to Siping (city) to strengthen the defense of the city. Well aware that the fortified strongholds were difficult to take, the communists turned their attention to destroying the railways to further hamper the nationalist transportation capacity. Third Stage To reverse the nationalist situation in northeast China, Chiang Kai-shek personally flew to Shenyang on October 8, to provide guidelines for the new strategy. In addition, new nationalist reinforcement totaling six divisions were drawn from China proper, including: The 21st Division of the 92nd Army The 43rd Division of the 94th Army The 10th Division of the 3rd Army The 11th Division of the 3rd Army The 4th Cavalry Division The 54th Division of the 13th Army The communists, in turn, planned to deploy six columns to lure out the enemy from their fortified positions and then annihilate them in the open field where they are most vulnerable by faking the assaults on Jilin City and Kaiyuan, while another three columns were deployed to stop the nationalist reinforcement from China proper. On October 9, 1947, the communist 7th Column attacked Xinlitun, badly mauling the local nationalist garrison, the 57th Division. From October 10–12, the communist 8th Column and the 9th Column secured most of the regions between Jinzhou and Xingcheng (with a few exception of strongholds to the west of Jinzhou ), killing more than 1,200 nationalist troops in the process. On October 15, 1947, Yi County (Yi Xian, 义县) was besieged by the communists. By October 17, Fuxin had fallen into the communist hands after the attacking communist 7th Column had completely annihilated the local nationalist garrison, a brigade and a regiment of the nationalist 51st Division. The success of the communist 7th Column, 8th Column and the 9th Column had prevented any nationalist reinforcement from reaching north of Shenyang. With the newly arrived reinforcement, the nationalists launched a counteroffensive headed by the 21st Division