1933.7 Relying on the Party’s correct offensive line and the Soviet government’s vigorous leadership, on the Red Army of Workers and Peasants and the masses’ heroic fighting and ardent support, and on the daily struggles of workers and peasants in the White Areas as well as the unprecedentedly intense upsurge of the anti-imperialist and anti-Kuomintang mass movement, we have, through the Battle of Eastern Huangpi, fundamentally shattered the enemy’s fourth “encirclement and suppression” campaign. In this unparalleled, glorious, and momentous victory at Eastern Huangpi, our valiant Red Army dealt Chiang Kai-shek—the chief warlord of the Kuomintang and the most powerful pillar of the landlord-bourgeois class—a mortal blow! In his tearful “personal instructions” and letters, Chiang himself pathetically acknowledged: “This is the hidden pain of their entire lives” (Chiang Kai-shek to Chen Cheng); it was an unprecedented defeat and collapse of their army. Consequently, despite several subsequent attempts to counterattack, they were ultimately unable to mount any effective resistance. The reasons for this crushing defeat of the Kuomintang warlords and their subsequent impotence to counterattack are as follows: First, the Red Army of Workers and Peasants has grown steadily stronger and more battle-hardened; the great victory at Eastern Huangpi provided it with substantial reinforcements, further bolstering its ranks. Meanwhile, the Soviet areas were greatly consolidated and expanded. As a result, the majority of Kuomintang soldiers became deeply demoralized and unwilling to attack the Red Army, while even many reactionary Kuomintang officers were utterly cowed—mere mention of the Red Army would send shivers down their spines. Hence, although Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly sought to launch counteroffensives, he ultimately found himself powerless. Second, China’s national crisis continued to deepen: Japanese imperialism had occupied Rehe and eastern Jehol, steadily advancing toward Beiping and Tianjin, while the Kuomintang persisted in its shameless capitulation. Under these circumstances, the revolutionary tide of the working people throughout China—anti-imperialist, anti-Kuomintang—reached its zenith, forcing the Kuomintang to both sign a humiliating surrender treaty with Japanese imperialism, effectively handing over North China and Beiping–Tianjin, and to institute an unprecedented reign of White Terror in order to suppress the roaring masses rising up against imperialism and the Kuomintang. Third, the total collapse of the national economy plunged hundreds of millions of workers and peasants into an unprecedented catastrophe, reducing their living standards from that of oxen and slaves to a hellish abyss of hunger, death, and displacement. This led to a massive outbreak of workers’ strikes and peasant uprisings, which rapidly evolved from everyday struggles into political confrontations against imperialism and the Kuomintang. These revolutionary struggles severely hampered our enemies, throwing them into panic and disarray. At the same time, the Kuomintang government’s fiscal position deteriorated further as tariff revenues plummeted and vast numbers of workers and peasants in the Soviet areas broke free from its exploitative grip. Faced with such a grave defeat and a hopeless situation, the only “strategy” left to the Kuomintang warlords was to surrender even more disgracefully to imperialism: they secured large loans and military supplies from international imperialist powers in order to organize a fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign against the Soviet areas and the Red Army. The signing of the North China Armistice Agreement and Soong Tse-ven’s mission to Europe and America were part of this sinister scheme. By now, a new deal between the Kuomintang and the imperialists had been struck. The Kuomintang handed over more than four million square li of Chinese territory, along with numerous undisclosed gifts, in exchange for tens of billions of yuan in loans and vast quantities of arms. Utilizing these funds and munitions, under the direct command and coordination of various imperialist powers, the Kuomintang is redeploying its forces from North China and other regions, while simultaneously training new recruits and hastily manufacturing poison-gas shells. All available resources are being concentrated to launch the fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign—an all-out, desperate, and doomed offensive against the Soviet areas and the Red Army. We now stand at the threshold of a new revolutionary situation. In this new phase, our task is to mobilize and concentrate every possible force to crush the imperialist-Kuomintang alliance’s fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign. This is a pivotal moment in history: two opposing regimes—the Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Soviet regime and the landlord-bourgeois Kuomintang regime—are poised to determine the outcome of an impending, larger-scale war. For us, the Soviets, this means achieving ever greater victories and development; for them, the Kuomintang, it spells further decline and ultimate collapse. To accomplish this, we must first strengthen ourselves, pool all our resources, raise our confidence in victory, and devote everything to the war effort. Above all, we must ensure the continued expansion of the Red Army, aiming to increase its strength by fifty thousand men within the next eight to nine months. At the same time, we need to significantly enhance the political education and military skills of our red soldiers and expand and reinforce the organization of the Red Guard Young Pioneers. Secondly, we must guarantee an ample supply of provisions for the Red Army and essential necessities for the masses. To this end, we should broadly launch a land-reform campaign, intensify class struggle in both rural and urban areas, firmly consolidate the Soviet regime, systematically develop the national economy, universally establish people’s cooperatives, issue bonds for economic construction, regulate grain distribution, expand foreign trade, break the enemy’s economic blockade, and secure the material conditions necessary for the revolutionary war. These constitute our immediate and critical combat tasks. Finally, in order to successfully wage war and decisively defeat the enemy’s fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign, we must oppose any underestimation of the current revolutionary situation, any weariness or reluctance to fight, and especially those opportunists who, faced with the enemy’s fifth encirclement, succumb to panic and flee. At the same time, we must also reject the empty rhetoric of the ultra-left and the fatalistic belief in inevitable victory. Such right- and left-wing opportunists are the most vicious enemies of war mobilization; they unwittingly aid the class enemy. Standing at the threshold of a new revolutionary era, we must sacrifice everything and shoulder this great historical mission! Comrades! An even fiercer and more brutal fifth campaign lies ahead. If we thoroughly smash this fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign, the revolution in Jiangxi and the neighboring provinces will surely triumph first.