The Kuomintang was determined to dislodge the Communists from their newly gained territory and planned an offensive that would significantly boost the KMT's bargaining chips in peace negotiations.

They planned to annihilate the KMT in the Fuyang (滏阳) region north the Zhang River and south of Handan.

The strategy was to proceed in several phases: First, Communist units would destroy railways from the north of Yellow River to Anyang, and harass the enemy and buy time.

By October 20, 1945, the KMT advance guards had occupied the positions at shore of Zhang River, providing cover to the troops building the bridges at the crossing point.

On October 22, 1945, the KMT force crossed the Zhang River, where they were met head on with the Communist 1st Column deployed south of Handan, and the first shot of the campaign had been fired.

By October 24, 1945, all three KMT armies had cross the Zhang River, and under the heavy artillery bombardment, the 106th Division of the KMT 40th Army assaulted the position of the 1st Brigade of the Communist 1st Column, succeeding in breaking through after a day of fierce fighting, penetrating the Communist defense at region between Cuiqu (崔曲), Jiati (夹堤), and by the evening, had successfully pushed to the Gaozhuang (高庄)—Nanpozi (南泊子) line.

Realizing that they were surrounded, the besieged KMT force retreated toward North and South Zuoliang (左良) and Cuiqu, and directly appealed to Chiang Kai-shek for help via radio.

The KMT units were again besieged in the region along the line of the villages Qigan Zhang (旗杆漳), Xin Zhuang (辛庄), and Ma Ying (马营).

Kuomintang resistance ceased completely by the next day, while the KMT reinforcements on the road immediately withdraw back to their fortified positions behind the city walls upon hearing the news.

It significantly slowed the KMT's deployment along the railway from Beijing to Hankou and thus provided cover for other Communist forces to seize northeast China.

The most obvious KMT mistake was Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to reduce the power of the warlord armies by using them to eradicate the Communists.

As Chiang had soon painfully realized, the Nationalist Government regime did not have enough resources to deploy its troops in a very short time span over the vast regions of China.

The KMT's second echelon failed to rescue their besieged comrade-in-arms because they were too far away, and the reinforcement sent by the 92nd and 94th Armies from Beijing did not even meet any enemy before the campaign was finished.