Facing with the nationalist reinforcement of a total of eleven divisions not counting the nationalist air and naval assets, the communists were well aware the importance of stopping the nationalist reinforcement and deployed a total of eight divisions and an artillery brigade at Pagoda Mountain (Ta Shan, 塔山) with Cheng Zihua (程子华), the commander of the communist II Corps in charge. In order to better assist local commanders, Luo Ronghuan got approval from Lin Biao to send Su Jing (苏静), a senior staff officer at general headquarter of the communist force in Northeast China to Pagoda Mountain (Ta Shan, 塔山).