Letter to Zhou Yili, Tan Zhenlin,
and Others
(June 28, 1931)
To Comrade Yili, for transmission to the Border Area Working Committee, and
Comrade Zhenlin, to be transmitted to the Army Committee of the Twelfth
Army:
The working districts of the Twelfth Army have been divided up inappropriately
this time. Qingliu and Liancheng should be assigned to the Twelfth Army as a
working district for the second phase. The central task of the Twelfth Army
should not be to raise funds, but rather to establish and deepen the work in the
three xian of Ninghua, Shicheng, and Changting. The Twelfth Army will take on
the task of these three xian, the Thirty-fifth Army will take on the one xian of
Ruijin, and the Third Army will take on the two xian of Yudu and Huichang.
Within a time limit of two months (July and August), all are to finish redistributing the land and to establish local armed forces, temporary local governments,
and temporary party headquarters. Truly resolving these four problems will unite
into one area the six xian of Yu[du], Rui[jin], Shi[cheng], Ning[hua],
Hui[chang], and [Chang]ting. This is our central task. For the Twelfth Army to
complete the work in three xian within two months will not be easy. After the
first campaign, the Twelfth Army did the work in all of Shicheng xian and the
southern half of Ning[du] xian in four months. Now southern Ningdu is a half-
Red area and Shicheng is an all-Red area. This is what was accomplished in the
past, and now to complete the work of three xian in two months would assuredly
be difficult. It can definitely be done only if the working period is extended. If
activities are extended into the two xian of Qing[liu] and Lian[cheng], and the
Twelfth Army's main force, the Thirty-fourth Division, is deployed in those two
xian, then the work of the Twelfth Army will again be totally ineffectual. Therefore, the Kangdu resolution' must be modified so that the Thirty-fourth Division
We have translated this letter from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 234-36, where it
is taken from a handwritten copy held in the Central Archives. It also appears in Jiangxi
dangshi ziliao, Vol. 19, pp. 40-42.
1. The Provisional General Front Committee of the First Front Army of the Red Army
held its ninth meeting in Kangdu, Nanfeng xian, on June 20-22, 1931 (see above, the
minutes of the session at 8:00 P.M. on June 22). After a discussion of the situation and the

is rapidly transferred back to take on the whole of Ninghua xian, the Thirty-fifth
Division takes on the whole of Shicheng xian, the Thirty-sixth Division takes on
all of Changting xian, and the units directly under army command operate
among the three xian. It is expected that such arrangements will be resolutely
made.

Viewing the situation as a whole, the plan put forward earlier of having the
Third Army Group go to Erchong² and the Fourth Army to Ning'an³ would not
only objectively aid Chiang Kaishek in attacking Guangdong and Guangxi,
which is Chiang's heart's desire, but would also rapidly draw Guangdong and
Guangxi into action against the Communists. It would amount to our own obstruction of the anti-Chiang line of vision of Guangdong and Guangxi, and make
them focus their attention on us. This would inevitably promote a process of
compromise between Chiang and Guangdong to deal with the Communists. We
should not be so foolish. Going north of Nanfeng is not only impossible given
the present circumstances, but it is also inappropriate in the light of overall
strategy. The reasons are (1) that there is no possibility of consolidating political
power and (2) that the threat from the Yangzi would be too great. The west,
south, and north are all impossible, so only the east is a good area. First, as
Chiang's sphere of influence, it does not have the disadvantage of posing a direct
threat to Guangdong and Guangxi. Second, it is a remote area where we would
not encounter danger, or at least less than would be the case if we were to go to
Nanfeng and Yihuang. Third, it is crisscrossed by mountains, with no rivers and
streams as barriers, and therefore most suitable for creating new battlefields.
Fourth, there are funds to be raised, and there would be no need to worry about
provisions within the army.⁴ Fifth, the masses are numerous⁵ and can offer
tactics for opposing the Third Encirclement and Suppression Campaign, a resolution was
adopted according to which the Third Army Group should proceed toward Jiangle, take
Jiangle and Shunchang xian, and raise 600,000 yuan; the Twelfth Army would divide its
forces to work in Ninghua, Qingliu, and Tingzhou and raise 150,000 yuan; the Fourth
Army (minus one division) would speedily advance toward Shaxian, Guihua, and
Yong'an and raise 400,000 yuan; and the two divisions of the Third Army would advance
and take Nanfeng, going only as far as Litaxu. If the enemy did not retreat, they would
leave only one division on the Xingguo-Yudu border.

2. The editors of Mao Zedong junshi wenji note that "Erchong" "probably refers to"
Shangyou and Chongyi in Jiangxi. The Jiangxi dangshi ziliao version, however, gives the
two places as "Yihuang and Chongren." Given the location of these various places and the
area of operations of the major Red Army units at this time, the latter version is more
plausible.

3. The editors of Mao Zedong junshi wenji indicate that this "probably refers to"
Dingnan and Anyuan. The Jiangxi dangshi ziliao text has "Xunwu and Anyuan" instead.
As Xunwu's former name was Changning, the latter version is more likely correct in this
case.

4. Here instead of "within the army," the Jiangxi dangshi ziliao text reads "within the
year."

5. The Jiangxi dangshi ziliao text reads "excellent" here instead of "numerous."

recruits to expand the Red Army. Because of these conditions, we should make
plans for long-term work in this area.⁶ The Third Army Group should take
Jianning, Taining, and Jiangle as working areas and Shunchang, Shaowu, and
Guangze as fundraising areas. The Fourth Army should take Guihua, Qingliu,
and Liancheng as working areas, and Shaxian, Yong'an, and Youxi as fund-raising areas, and raise funds in the three *xian* to achieve self-sufficiency. The
Thirty-fifth Army has Ruijin as its working area, [from which] it is to raise funds
to support itself. The Third Army will take Yudu and Huichang as its working
area and raise funds to support itself. The central working area for the Eastern
Jiangxi Independent Division is Guangchang, and is to be linked up with Jian-ning and Shicheng. In all so-called working areas, land is to be redistributed and
political power established. In fund-raising areas, local tyrants are attacked and
propaganda is conducted, but land is not redistributed and political power is not
established. The working period is tentatively set for two months, and may be
extended to a period of six months.⁷ If the enemy comes, forces will be gathered
to fight nearby. If the enemy does not come, we continue to work in this area.
Working in Ninghua, Changting, and Shicheng, the Twelfth Army should make
every effort to avoid the kind of failure that occurred in Shicheng in the second
phase⁸ and recently in the work in Jianning (the guerrilla forces in Shicheng
were full of vagrants and rich peasants and they all defected). A thorough transformation needs to be effected, and opportunism in mass work resolutely opposed. If the work in the three *xian* remains the way it has been in Shicheng and
Jianning in the past, the Army Committee and the three⁹ division committees
will bear a heavy responsibility.

General Front Committee Mao Zedong
June 28, 10:00 P.M., in Jianning

The working period for Shicheng given in the letter as three months must be
shortened by a month because of the pressures of enemy attacks.

6. These comments about the advantages of expansion to the east into Fujian are
interesting in light of Mao's later raid into Fujian in 1932 (see discussion in the Introduc-tion).
7. The *Jiangxi dangshi ziliao* text has "three months" instead of "six months" here.
8. The *Jiangxi dangshi ziliao* text reads "first phase" here instead of "second phase."
The references are to the encirclement campaigns.
9. The *Jiangxi dangshi ziliao* text has "two" instead of "three" here.