As the nationalists sent their supplies via
Dongjiang River upstream from Heyuan (河源) on November 15, 1948, the enemy set up an ambush in the section from Yellow Field (Huang Tian, 黄田) region to White Horse (Bai Ma, 白马) region. The entire nationalist convoy was lost with over 70 troops killed and over a dozen boats full of supplies having fallen into enemy hands. On November 20, 1948, a group of communist guerrillas staged a feigned attack on Great Lake (Da Hu, 大湖) region, and as the nationalist 1st Security Regiment sent out a company to engage the enemy, the enemy immediately retreated, lured the unsuspecting nationalists into the preset ambush in the Lion's Brain (Shi Zi Nao, 狮子脑) mountains, where the communist guerrilla 3rd Regiment was waiting, and the entire nationalist company was wiped out.
Resupply Effort and Second Ambush Due to the previous loss of supplies in November of the previous year, the nationalists were forced to re-supply. On January 8, 1949, 5 infantry companies and one artillery company of the nationalist 13th Security Regiment totaling 600 troops organized another convoy consisting of three supply boats that went upstream again on the
Dongjiang River. The Communist guerillas concentrated their 3rd Regiment, 5th Regiment, 7th Regiment, and Independent 5th Group totaling 1,000 troops, to ambush the convoy while the Nationalists were stopped at the riverbank. On January 11, 1949, after a fierce nine-hour-long battle that lasted from noon till 9:00 PM, the Nationalists managed to successfully break out, but all of the suppliers had lost to the enemy, in addition to suffering over 190 fatalities. After this setback, the Nationalists canceled any further plans to eradicate the Communist guerrillas and withdrew all their deployed forces. == Reasons for Nationalist Failure ==