(September 1932)
To the Central Bureau, for transmittal to the Central Committee and the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area:
I. Under the conditions created by the enemy's concentrated attacks by converging columns and deep penetration into the soviet area, the Red Army in the
Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area fought three fierce battles in a little more than a
month, but merely defeated the enemy and was unable to wipe out one column
of his forces. Moreover, we suffered great losses, for which it is not easy to find
replacements, and as a result, we had to give up voluntarily Xinji and Qiliping.
This is because strategically we still have not fully grasped the circumstances of
the civil war at present, in which the Red Army still needs to try its best to avoid
suffering excessive losses and should strive to seize the opportunity of wiping
out one unit of the enemy, in order to smash the enemy one by one. After one
fierce combat, we should do our utmost to obtain a considerable amount of time
for rest and replenishment of our forces, in order to avoid being too exhausted,
since this would cause the fighting capacity of the Red Army to be reduced. If
the enemy pursues us closely, we should use guerrilla warfare to exhaust and harass
him, in order to create advantageous conditions for wiping him out. If we rigidly and
tenaciously defend a particular place and are too eager to fight, we will, on the
contrary, end by bringing about disadvantageous conditions in which we suffer great
losses and are unable to destroy the enemy. If the enemy continues to advance, we
will, in the end, lose the place we have: been tenaciously defending.
2. It is correct at present to move our troops to western Anhui. We call upon
you to pay attention to the use of this strategy. You should try your best to
achieve a victory in which one part of the enemy is destroyed, in order to attain
the goal of crushing the enemy one by one and shattering his "Encirclement and
Suppression."
Our source for this document is Mao ZedongjutUhiwenji, Vol. I, pp. 288-89, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives. The date is given as the second ten days
of September 1932.
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3. The number of sick and wounded soldiers totals almost ten thousand, and
the reactionaries are disrupting the hospitals. You should ask the Central Committee to make a great effort to send its own doctors there. Paying attention to
the exhaustion of the soldiers during combat and marching will reduce the likelihood of infectious disease. Rotten-foot illness [lanjiao bing] 1 results entirely
From marching off at dawn, not washing feet on the battlefield, and infection by
mosquitoes. Frequent washing and wiping them dry afterward will reduce the
infection.
Zhou Mao Zhu Wang
At the front
I. Presumably some sort of”trench foot" or fungal infection.