Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket

The Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket, also called the Breakout on the Central Plains (Chinese: 中原突围; pinyin: Zhongyuan Tuwei) by the Chinese Communist Party, was a series of battles fought between the nationalists and the communists during the Chinese Civil War, resulting in a successful communist breakout from the nationalist encirclement. The campaign marked the beginning of the full-scale civil war fought between the communists and the nationalists in the post-World War II era.

The communist victory was largely attributed to their ability to surprise the nationalists with movements and avoid battle in locations with overwhelming Nationalist forces. In a sense, the Nationalists did not evenly distribute their forces, which created pocket holes in their encirclement. The Nationalists were also easily distracted by small Communist forces used to draw attention away from their main forces. The communist was able to locate the relatively weaker defended points of the Nationalist defense and break them. Communists also engaged in close-quarters combat in order to limit the power of the Nationalist artillery and air force, making them less effective than they could have been.