Longhai Campaign

Part of the Chinese Civil War

Date	August 10, 1946 – August 22, 1946
Location	Central China
Result	Communist victory

Belligerents

National Revolutionary Army

People's Liberation Army

Commanders and leaders

Xue Yue

Sun Liangcheng

Liu Bocheng

Deng Xiaoping

Strength

165,000

75,000

Casualties and losses

16,000

unknown

Longhai Campaign (陇海战役), also known as the Campaign along the Longhai (Lanzhou – Lianyungang) Railway (陇海路战役), was a campaign launched against the nationalists by the communists during Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era. The campaign was a coordinated offensive in support of the other two campaigns the Communists launched against the nationalists, namely, the Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket and the Central Jiangsu Campaign. Longhai Campaign resulted in the communist victory, achieving the Communists objective of relieving the pressure on their comrades in the other two campaigns this one supported, enabling those in the Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket successfully escape from the nationalists and those in the Central Jiangsu Campaign to also score a huge victory over the nationalists.

In the early August, 1946, over a dozen army-sized nationalist (reorganized) divisions were tied down in western Henan and southern Shaanxi in the Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket, and thus causing the offensives against the Communists in other theaters to fail due to insufficient strength. Only three nationalist armies were deployed to guard a vast area covering the region along the section of Longhai (Lanzhou – Lianyungang) Railway from Kaifeng to Xuzhou, and the region to the south of this section bordered by the northern shore of the Yellow River. Nationalists were not worried, however, because they were already to deploy additional troops for a preemptive strike to wipe out the Communists in the area. Unbeknown to the nationalists, the Communists were planning a preemptive strike of their own, before the much greater nationalist reinforcement could be ready, thus forcing the nationalist reinforcement to remain in the region after the campaign, hence relieving the pressure faced by the Communists in other campaigns.

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