 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.