Liu Bocheng
Su Yu, the acting commander of the Eastern China Field Army proposed an operational plan to the Communist war council. The plan was to encircle the Nationalist Sixth and Seventh Army, which were still stationed in the Shandong province. The council quickly approved this plan and ordered the Central Plains Field Army under Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi (Commander of the Eastern China Field Army and liaison to the Central Plains Field Army) and Deng Xiaoping (Political Commissar of the Central Plains Field Army) to assault the Nationalist garrison in Henan and Anhui to breakthrough to Shandong.