Central Plains War

Central Plains War
Part of the Warlord Era
Map showing the province of Henan and two definitions of the Central Plain (中原) or Zhōngyuán
Date March 1929 – November 1930 1st main phase: March – November 1929[4] Autumn War: September 1929 – summer 1930[2] 2nd main phase: May – November 1930 Location Central, Eastern, and Southern China Result Nationalist government victory Resignation of Yan and Feng Resumption, then end, of the Warlord Era
Belligerents
Nationalist government of China Material support:  Germany[1]  Czechoslovakia[1]  Japan[1]	Warlord coalitions of Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren Minor factions: Zhang Fakui's army[2] Tang Shengzhi's army[3]
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Han Fuju Liu Zhi Hu Zongnan Chen Cheng Tang Enbo Ma Hongkui Ma Bufang Max Bauer[5] Zhang Xueliang (from September 1930)	Yan Xishan Feng Yuxiang Li Zongren Bai Chongxi Fu Zuoyi Zhang Fakui[2] Tang Shengzhi[3]
Units involved
National Revolutionary Army Chiang loyalist armies "Basic Army"[1] Allied warlord armies Yunnan armies[6] Guangdong armies[6] Guizhou armies[6] Northeastern Army (from 1930)	Warlord coalitions Guominjun New Guangxi clique "Protect the Party, Save the Country Army"[5] Shanxi Army "Ironsides"[2]
Strength
Chiang: 240,000+ (1929)[7] 295,000 (1930)[8] Allied warlords: Hundreds of thousands[9] Northeastern Army: 409,000 (1930)[9]	c. 650,000 (1929)[7] c. 700,000 (1930)[8]
Casualties and losses
30,000 killed, 60,000 wounded (Nationalist gov. claim)[10] 150,000 (modern estimate)[10]	150,000 (Nationalist claim)[10]
High civilian casualties[10]

The Central Plains War (traditional Chinese: 中原大戰; simplified Chinese: 中原大战; pinyin: Zhōngyúan Dàzhàn) was a series of military campaigns in 1929 and 1930 that constituted a Chinese civil war between the Nationalist Kuomintang government in Nanjing led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and several regional military commanders and warlords who were former allies of Chiang.

After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge the legitimacy of the Nanjing government. The war was the largest conflict in the Warlord Era, fought across Henan, Shandong, Anhui and other areas of the Central Plains in China, involving 300,000 soldiers from Nanjing and 700,000 soldiers from the coalition.^[11]