Operational Deployment of Troops and the Issue of Strict Discipline[1]

(September 18, 1935)

Peng and Peng, Li:

1. The Min enemy[2] is defending the city, and there is no enemy at Hadapu.[3] The Hui and Han people in the area where the First Column is stationed have been greatly mobilized. Our army’s discipline is still good. We have confiscated several hundred thousand jin of enemy grain and two thousand jin of salt. After crossing the Dala Mountain, there are no more high mountain passes. At present, the First Column is stationed at Zhanzha Road and Mazichuan, with the Column Headquarters stationed at Luyuanli.

2. Tomorrow (the 19th), all of your units shall come here. The First and Second Sections of the Central Team shall be stationed at Luyuanli, the Second Column at Xuanwo and Dacaotan, and the Third Column at Hongtupo.

3. Troops must strictly enforce discipline. Confiscations are limited to landlords and reactionaries. Violators shall be severely punished. Announce this during the rest period of tomorrow’s march.

4. Three portable mortars and over a hundred shells have been captured and are still at Dala. Mobilize the soldiers to bring them over; they may discard grain to carry the shells.

Mao

18th, 20:00 hours

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Peng Dehuai, Commander of the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Red Army, as well as Peng Xuefeng, Commander of the Second Column of the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment, and Li Fuchun, Political Commissar.

[2] The Min enemy refers to the units of Tang Huaiyuan’s 12th Division of the 3rd Army and Lu Dachang’s Newly Organized 14th Division of the Nationalist Army, which were then defending Min County in Gansu Province.

[3] Hadapu, a town name, located in the northwest of present-day Dangchang County, Gansu Province.