 The nationalists were forced to redeploy by dispatching the Reorganized 3rd Division and the 20th Division toward Baofeng (宝丰) and Jia (郏) County, the 124th Brigade of the nationalist Reorganized 41st Division toward Linru (临汝), and the 125th Brigade of the nationalist Reorganized 41st Division toward Xiang City (Xiang Cheng, 襄城) in hope of luring the communists out to fight a decisive battle.However, the enemy would not take the bait and instead, took advantage of the nationalist redeployment by striking regions where nationalist defense was weakened by the redeployment.On November 3, 1947, the communist 27th Brigade of the 9th Column besieged the town of Nanzhao (南召), and launched the assault on the town at 1