The Nationalists believed that the poorly supplied Communists had not had sufficient time to recover from the last encirclement campaign, so they wanted to strike quickly.

Cui Mei (崔玫) was named as the party secretary of the CCP provisional Hunan–Western Hubei provincial committee, and he was later succeeded by Yang Guanghua (杨光华).

Under the command of Duan Dechang, the Communist Independent Regiment and CCP party apparatus crossed the Yangtze River, and began guerrilla warfare in the regions of Qianjiang, Mianyang (沔阳) and Jianli, deep behind the Nationalist line in the heart of the Nationalist-controlled area.

After two major clashes at regions of Sanweisi (三葑寺) and Songbanqiao (松板桥), the Communist attempt to check the Nationalist advance was crashed.

The Communist force operated on the northern bank of the Yangtze River also attacked the town of Fengkou (峰口) twice, completely annihilated two battalions of the nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade in the process.

The destruction of the two nationalist newly organized brigades caused the total collapse in the new nationalist positions on the north bank of the Yangtze river, losing nearly all of the territories newly taken from the Communists during their earlier success, and the Communists thus successfully reestablished their original base on the northern bank of the river.

The Nationalist Newly Organized 3rd Brigade ceased to function and only existed in names on papers, and after the devastating defeat, regions including Longhaiwan (龙海湾), Xiongkou (熊口), Hanhekou (汉河口), and Dafengkou (大丰口) fell back into Communist hands by late April in a domino effect.

The Communist force on the southern bank of the Yangtze River also made impressive gains in that it retook the Dongshan region, but during the process, their commander-in-chief Zhou Yiqun was killed in action in a battle near Yueyang.