After setbacks outside Siping, the nationalists believed that the situation in Northeast China depended on the successful capture of the city, and after Siping was taken from the enemy, the overall situation for the nationalist in Northeast China would immediately be improved significantly, and thus the city must be taken at all costs. The elite nationalist New 6th Army under the command of Liao Yaoxiang (廖耀湘) was first airlifted by the United States Army Air Forces to Northeast China, and made its move to Siping from Kaiyuan, Liaoning, Xifeng County, Liaoning, and the Town of Yehe Nara (Ye He Zhen, 叶赫镇). With the arrival of new reinforcements, the nationalists planned to concentrate their forces to take Siping and then take the city of Eternal Auspiciousness (Yong Ji, 永吉) and Changchun. In preparation, the 14th Division and the 22nd Division of the nationalist New 6th Army was deployed to Kaiyuan, Liaoning from Liaoyang and Benxi, the nationalist 93rd Army was also deployed to Northeast China from Beijing. In addition, the nationalist air force concentrated all of its available aircraft in the region to support the offensive on the ground.