forced the river to channel its flow into the lower Huai River tributary. The region became barren thereafter due to persistent flooding, nutrient depletion and salination of the once fertile soil.
The area was the site of the final critical battle in the Chinese Civil War, the Huaihai Campaign in 1948-49. The capitulation of Chiang Kai-shek to Chinese communist forces at Suchow eventually led to the fall of the Nationalist Chinese capital Nanking
