Central Plains War (simplified Chinese: 中原大战; traditional Chinese: 中原大戰; pinyin: Zhōngyúan Dàzhàn) was a civil war within the factionalised Kuomintang (KMT) that broke out in 1930. It was fought between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the coalition of three military commanders who were previously allied with Chiang: Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren. The war was fought across the Central Plains, a core region of China on the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the cradle of Chinese civilization.
In consolidating power for the Kuomintang in the Northern Expedition of 1927–1928, Chiang had forged alliances with the warlord armies of Yan, Feng, and Li, but relations soon soured, resulting in the war. The war almost bankrupted Chiang's Nationalist Government and cost over 300,000 total combined casualties, but allowed the victorious Chiang to further consolidate power as the undisputed leader of most of China.
But China was still in turmoil; cliques and factions within the Kuomintang was not cemented in the following retaliation of house arrest of Guangdong clique leader Hu Hanmin by Chang Kai-shek, and the opposition of southern KMT key leaders that forced Chiang Kai Shek's resignation for the second time,[1] in addition with the Communist Uprising in China's hinterland, and lack of fortification towards Japanese invasion in southern China of January 28 Incident following the creation of Manchukuo in Northeast China and Mukden Incident in North China.