The Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket, also called the Breakout on the Central Plains () 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. Prelude The communist base in this region was established in the middle of World War II along the border area of the Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, and Anhui provinces after the communists had successfully driven Japanese forces from the countryside and remote mountainous regions. After the end of World War II, the returning nationalists were determined to eliminate the communists in the region. After more than 240 offensives with a mobilized force of 300,000, they had successfully blockaded the communist base and divided it into three isolated pieces. The nationalist headquarters at Zhengzhou was tasked with the job to eliminate the enemy in the region with the help of the nationalist Wuhan headquarters. In mid-June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek issued a secret order to the Liu Zhi (刘峙), the nationalist Commander-in-chief of Zhengzhou headquarters and Cheng Qian (程潜), and the nationalist Commander-in-chief of Wuhan Headquarters, giving the general direction of the operation by mobilizing the nationalist blockade force to launch a decisive assault on the besieged communists. Since both sides were still officially at peace, the nationalist forces under the command of Wuhan headquarters would be transferred to the command of the Zhengzhou headquarters in order to avoid the blame of the general public. At 2:00 PM on June 20, 1946, Liu Zhi (刘峙) issued the order to every unit of the