In face of the rapidly deteriorating military situation in the Northeast, the Nationalist government decided to deploy on both sides of the Tianjin–Pukou Railway to prevent the PLA from advancing south toward the Yangtze River.

[3][page needed] Su Yu, the acting commander of the Eastern China Field Army proposed an operational plan to the CCP war council.

Lieutenant General Huang Baitao of the Seventh Army had to wait for three days before troops from the Ninth Pacification Zone arrived, and consequently several bridgeheads were unsecured prior to the crossing.

However, Chiang Kai-shek and Liu Zhi overruled his plan as being too risky and ordered the Xuzhou Garrison to rescue Seventh Army directly.

The CCP anticipated this move from good intelligence and correct reasoning, and deployed more than half of the Eastern China Field Army to blocking the relief effort.

The Twelfth Army also ceased to exist after nearly a month of bloody conflicts, with many newly taken Nationalist prisoners of war joining the Communist forces instead.

[3][page needed] Only Huang's deputy commander, Lieutenant General Hu Lien, riding in an armored tank, managed to penetrate the Communist encirclement with 8,000 survivors, but was badly wounded in the breakout.

Without effective measures against PLA advance across the Yangtze, the Nationalist government in Nanjing began losing their support from the United States, as American military aid gradually came to a stop.

In 1991, the August First Film Studio released the epic war trilogy Decisive Engagement in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the CCP, the second film of which was centered on the Huaihai Campaign, starring Gu Yue as Mao Zedong, Zhao Hengduo as Chiang Kai-shek, Fu Xuecheng as Liu Bocheng, Liu Xitian as Chen Yi, Xie Weicai as Su Yu, Lu Qi as Deng Xiaoping, Xu Zhengyun as Du Yuming, Xu Huanshan as Huang Baitao and Sheng Zhong as Qiu Qingquan.