The Nationalist assault was with lightning speed that was completely unexpected by the enemy: on August 10, 1946, the Nationalist Reorganized 28th Division and the Reorganized 74th Division struck the regions of the town of Oceanic River (Yang He Zhen, 洋河镇) and Storage Village (Cang Ji, 仓集) and threatened Huaiyin directly. Chen Yi was forced to readjust his troop deployment again: the Communist 5th Brigade and the 13th Brigade in central Jiangsu were ordered to Huaiyin to help the Communist 9th Column to set up a defensive line along the southern bank of the Grand Canal of China, the Communist forces attacking Hai’an (海安) abandoned their original plan and turned to Huaiyin to reinforce the threatened city. On September 12, 1946, the Nationalist 7th Army crossed the Grand Canal of China and took Siyang (泗阳), approaching Huaiyin. On September 13, 1946, the Nationalist Reorganized 74th Division attacked from the right flank of the Nationalist 7th Army, taking the Yuan Family's Village (Yuan Zhuang, 袁庄) and Xu Family's Village (Xu Zhuang, 徐庄) from the Communist 9th Column. Rao Zijian (饶子健), the deputy commander-in-chief of the Communist 9th Column personally led the Communist 75th Regiment counterattack, but without any success and the defenders’ perimeter was limited to the pier.