Inscription for the Oath-Taking Rally of the First Counter-"Encirclement and Suppression" Campaign[1]

(December 1930)

The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy halts, we harass; the enemy tires, we strike; the enemy retreats, we pursue: in guerrilla warfare, secure the winning hand;
Advance and retreat in great strides, lure the enemy deep, concentrate our forces, destroy them one by one: in mobile warfare, annihilate the enemy.

[1] On December 25, 1930, in order to smash the Kuomintang's "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Area, a rally of nearly ten thousand soldiers and civilians of the Soviet Area was held beneath the Mazici Rock on the Xiaobu riverbank in Ningdu County, Jiangxi Province, to pledge to annihilate the enemy. Mao Zedong wrote this couplet for the rally, and it was hung on the pillars on either side of the rostrum.

In October 1930, Chiang Kai-shek amassed 100,000 troops to launch the first military "encirclement and suppression" against the Central Revolutionary Base Area. The photograph shows the Kuomintang army attacking the base area.