Xu Xiangqian
To overcome these defenses, the Communist commander Xu Xiangqian developed a strategy of engaging positions on the outskirts of Taiyuan before besieging the city itself. The first hostilities in the Taiyuan Campaign occurred on 5 October 1948. By 13 November the Communists succeeded in taking the area around the eastern side of Taiyuan. The Nationalists suffered serious setbacks when entire divisions defected or surrendered. In one case, a Nationalist division led by Dai Bingnan pretended to surrender, but then arrested the Communist officers who entered Dai's camp to accept. Yan Xishan mistakenly believed the leader of the arrested group, Jin Fu, was the high-ranking Communist leader Hu Yaobang (who the Nationalists believed was active in the region). Yen airlifted the captured group to Chiang Kai-shek, who executed them after they failed to produce important information. Dai himself was rewarded with a large amount of gold for his actions, but was not allowed to be airlifted out of Taiyuan. After the city fell he was captured, tried in a well-propagandized show trial and publicly executed.