Conversation with Liu Xiao and He Changgong[1]

(April 1934)

We must learn from the lessons of the Fujian Incident, skillfully exploit the contradictions between Chen Jitang[2] and Chiang Kai-shek, smash the enemy’s “encirclement and suppression” campaigns, and strengthen our own forces. However, we must also heighten our vigilance—warlords are, after all, warlords. We should “listen to their words and observe their deeds.”

On the whole, we must correctly handle the relationship between “fighting” and “peace.” A peaceful situation is skillfully achieved through fighting. He also said: We cannot act according to the foreign-style methods devised by those book-worshipping gentlemen sitting in their urban buildings—such as matching blockhouse with blockhouse, concentration with concentration. That is like hurling an egg against a rock. To preserve the effective strength of the Red Army and annihilate the enemy, we must proceed from reality and avoid reckless attrition warfare.

Now we should pull back the main forces for reorganization and training, while employing small units to engage in guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare with guerrilla characteristics—leading the enemy by the nose in circles, dragging them until the fat become lean and the lean collapse. At the same time, we must launch a powerful propaganda offensive toward Chen Jitang’s troops and the people in enemy-occupied areas, propagating the principles of resisting Japan and saving the nation, uniting our guns against the external foe, and the idea that Chinese should not fight Chinese.

The countryside is an ocean, and we, the Red Army, are like fish. The vast rural areas are where we recuperate and build our strength. We must cherish the people’s resources. The masses are the true bastion of iron. The unity of soldiers and civilians is the capital for our victory.

[1] Mao Zedong left Ruijin for the southern front of the Central Base Area to conduct investigations and guide work. Upon arriving at Wenwuba in Huichang County, the seat of the Guangdong-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Soviet Government, he met with Liu Xiao, Secretary of the Guangdong-Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, and He Changgong, Commander and Political Commissar of the Provincial Military District. This is part of Mao Zedong’s conversation with Liu Xiao and He Changgong.

[2] Chen Jitang was then Commander of the Southern Route Army of the Kuomintang’s “Bandit Suppression” Forces in the provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, and Hubei.