To Comrades Luo Fu and Li De[1]

(December 5, 1935)

I, leading the Thirty-First Detachment, plan to depart for the rear on the sixth of this month. Comrades Dehuai, Lin Biao, and Zihua must attend the victory celebration athletic meet on the sixth and seventh, and are scheduled to come to the rear on the ninth together with Zhu Lizhi[2]. Ansai would be a convenient location for the meeting.

Fully agree with Comrade Li De’s disposition regarding Yanchuan and Yanchang[3]. The First Front Army shall remain concentrated and training in place for the next ten days. After the situation with Yan Xishan becomes clear, we will then decide on the direction, either southward or eastward.

[1] This is the main content of Mao Zedong’s telegram to Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian) and Li De.
[2] Zhu Lizhi was then serving as Secretary of the CPC Shaanxi-Gansu Provincial Committee.
[3] On December 3, 1935, Liu Zhidan, Deputy Commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps of the Red Army, was ordered to lead a portion of his forces to Yanchuan to prevent the Kuomintang troops on the east bank of the Yellow River at Yanchuan and Yanchang from crossing westward, and to seize the opportunity to annihilate the enemy fleeing from Fushi. On the same day, Li De telegraphed this disposition to Peng Dehuai and Mao Zedong.