Under Mao Zedong's strategy, the communists were determined to hold Siping to the end. In order to fortify the city, everyone was mobilized to build bunkers inside the city, while food, ammunition and other supplies were stacked. Lin Biao and Mao Zedong had personally inspected communist fortifications at important defensive positions such as Pagoda Mountain (Ta Zi Shan, 塔子山) and Three Lines of Groves (San Dao Lin Zi, 三道林子) with Peng Zhen in preparation for a prolonged campaign. Lin Biao also held a conference at Pear Tree (Li Shu, 梨树) county to plan the strategy of the defense: To better coordinate the defense of Siping, the communist formed an urban defense command inside the city headed by the Ma Renxing (马仁兴), the commander of the communist 1st Brigade, while the general headquarters retreated to the suburb at Pear Tree (Li Shu, 梨树) county. In order to boost the morale of defenders, a newspaper titled "Self Defense Newspaper" was created with Chen Yi (陈沂), the deputy director of the political directorate of the communist general headquarters as the chief editor. The communist decided to deploy only two regiments in the city to check the nationalist attacks while the bulk of their force would be deployed in the rear, in the region between Siping and Pear Tree (Li Shu, 梨树) county and the region between Siping and the Eight Sided City (Ba Mian Cheng, 八面城). Once the attacking nationalists were checked by the defensive force of the city in fortification, the communists would then concentrate their force to strike the weakest nationalist 71st Army.