Telegram to Peng Dehuai[1]

(January 4, 1936)

In three months the Red Army will undergo a large-scale expansion, and preparations must be made now, with veteran soldiers drawn out to enter the instruction battalions. The argument that with the Red Army Academy there is no need for instruction battalions is incorrect; the Red Army Academy trains company commanders, while the instruction battalions train platoon commanders.

Every soldier of the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment and the 25th Army who has gone through the long expedition should, in principle, be made into a cadre and should not be used up as an ordinary soldier. This is a very important point.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to Peng Dehuai, with notification to Zuo Quan and Nie Rongzhen.