桂系
The intermission caused by heavy rain had provided the opportunity for the Communists to rethink their strategy, but unfortunately, the new strategy formed lead to the eventual Communist defeat in the campaign. On September 4, 1946, Chen Yi provided three options for the next move for his Communist force in Shandong. The first option was to move to Shuyang (沭阳) in the north to face the incoming Nationalist Reorganized 74th Division and 69th Division thus securing the link to southern Shandong, but this would leave only the Communist 9th Column to defend Huaiyin, which was obviously not enough. The second option was to strike the town of Oceanic River (Yang He Zhen, 洋河镇) to fight the Nationalist force of the New Guangxi Clique, which would be at least two divisions strong, but this would not worth it. The third option was to wait, if the Nationalist forces of the New Guangxi Clique came to attack, then they would be ambushed, and if not, then the Communist forces from Shandong under Chen Yi's command would wait until Chiang Kai-shek’s force to begin their eastward push, and then strike north to fight Chiang's forces.