Speech at the Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (October 18, 1935)

The operational policy for entering Shaanxi is mainly to strike at Chiang in the west. We need to understand the situation of the Red 25th Army and the Red 26th Army, as well as the situation in the Northern Shaanxi Soviet Area. We can contact them and meet to determine our policy. Now that we have arrived in Shaanxi, it is still a five-day journey to Bao’an. Upon reaching Bao’an, if there is no special enemy situation, we will turn Bao’an into a Soviet area. It is now decided to make a temporary halt at Bao’an. If the enemy situation permits, we can station the troops at Wuqi Town and Jingbian, and send responsible comrades to the Soviet area. In the past, the enemy pursued us; now they have switched to “encirclement and suppression,” and we must break this “encirclement and suppression.” The headquarters and the political department shall issue a directive: first, consolidate the troops and enhance combat effectiveness; second, establish very good relations with the masses, expand the Red Army, and organize guerrilla units; third, resolve the problems of material resources and equipment, and the problem of clothing, solving them on our own without troubling the Red 25th Army and the Red 26th Army.

[1] On October 18, 1935, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee convened a meeting to discuss issues such as the operational policy for the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment entering Shaanxi. This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech at the meeting.