Order to Attack Tan Daoyuan'
Order No. VI² of the First Front Army of the Red Army

(Headquarters at Nanlin, 10:00 P.M., January 1, [1931])

1. The main force of Tan Daoyuan's enemy division (the division consists of
six regiments) is at Yuantou. In the area around Shangchao and Xiachao, its
advance party (roughly two regiments) has reached Shupi; Rebel Xu Kexiang's³
troops (two regiments) are still at Luokou, and Rebel Mao Bingwen's vanguard
(four regiments) reached Ningdu xian already on the 30th⁵
2. The Front Army has decided to use its main force to wipe out this division.
3. The Second Route Army [of the Red Army] is responsible for the attack
on the areas north of Guanling, Xialu, and Fengling. Its main force will take a
shortcut through Youzhapi and occupy the areas in the upland north of Liaofang,
before advancing to launch a fierce attack against the enemy in the Yuantou and
Shangchao areas. They are to arrive at the designated areas and begin the attack
at exactly 12:00 noon tomorrow (the 2nd).
The Third Route Army is responsible for an attack on the areas west of Shupi,
and for occupying the 400-meter upland area at the western edge of Butou (using
the sketch map of the vicinity of Xiaobu surveyed and drawn by the Third Army
the second time and by the Third Army Group the first time). It will also launch

an attack on the enemy at Shupi from the Yangshenwo line. They are to arrive at
the designated areas and begin the attack at 10:00 A.M. tomorrow (the 2nd),
luring the enemy's attention toward the main front at Shupi.
The Twelfth Army will carry out an attack on the areas west of Dayuanli. It
should return to Dayuanli from its present location via Bayunting and Shangchayuan
and then move forward to attack in the direction of Xiachao. (One section must
attack along the western edge of Dayuanli and in the uplands of Yangshizhai. It is to
arrive at the designated areas and begin the attack at 12:00 noon tomorrow.)
4. General Headquarters will advance tomorrow to Xishan to exercise
command.

Points for attention:
a. This particular campaign is of crucial importance to the general situation;
all officers and soldiers must not begrudge any sacrifice whatsoever to achieve
the goal of final victory.
b. The Third Army will make special efforts in building fortifications to
support the position at the front.
c. After victory is won, attention must be paid to collecting the enemy's flags
and radios. Radios must not be destroyed; the entire device must be collected,
and radio maintenance personnel and operators must be gathered together. It
must be forbidden to distribute monies taken from enemy soldiers' management
offices, and to burn paper money—all of it must be handed over to General
Headquarters.
d. At the conclusion of the campaign, each army is responsible for taking care
of its respective captives and wounded soldiers.
e. Each army is responsible for handling its own small baggage and medical
teams.

It is so ordered.

Commander-in-Chief
Political Commissar
Zhu De
Mao Zedong

--- Notes

Our sources for this text are Jiangxi dangshi ziliao, Vol. 17, pp. 120-21, and Mao Zedong
junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 196-97. The version in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 9, pp.
347-48, contains a number of wrong or missing characters.

1. Tan Daoyuan commanded the Nationalist army's Fiftieth Division.

2. This and several of the following documents are designated literally as shengzi
("victory word") orders. For the sake of simplicity, we have used V to stand for victory.

3. Xu Kexiang commanded the Nationalist army's Twenty-fourth Division.

4. Mao Bingwen commanded the Nationalist army's Eighth Division. Xu and Mao are
here called respectively "Xu ni Kexiang" and "Mao ni Bingwen," meaning "Rebel (or
Traitor) Xu," etc. Such abuse was regularly employed by both sides in the civil war, and
appears frequently in this volume.

5. It is unclear why the total of regiments listed (eight) is greater than the total number
(six) listed for the entire division. The places mentioned in this document are mostly in
southeastern Yongfeng and northern Ningdu xian.

6. The three place-names just listed, which appear in this form in the Jiangxi dangshi
ziliao version, have been combined into two in the Junshi wenji. On the assumption that
the editors in Jiangxi were probably more familiar with the local geography, we have
followed them here.