Order on the Red Army’s Eastern Advance to Resist Japan and Punish the Traitor Yan Xishan[1]

(January 19, 1936)

Yan Xishan has accepted the orders of the Japanese emperor and secretly sold off Shaanxi[2]. This Council orders our heroic main force of the anti-Japanese Red Army to set out immediately, strike into Shanxi, overthrow the utterly evil Yan Xishan, defend the anti-Japanese base areas, expand the anti-Japanese base areas, open the road forward for resisting Japan, directly open fire on Japan, and drive Japanese imperialism out of China as quickly as possible. It orders the anti-Japanese Red Army and the guerrilla forces, Red Guards, and Young Pioneers in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Soviet Area to resolutely defend the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Soviet Area and expand this base area for the War of Resistance Against Japan; it orders the anti-Japanese Red Army, guerrilla forces, and the popular masses on both banks of the Yellow River to courageously cross the river eastward, develop anti-Japanese base areas east of the river, and coordinate with the main force of the Red Army to win great victories.

[1] This is the “Order on the Red Army’s Eastern Advance to Resist Japan and Punish the Traitor Yan Xishan,” issued jointly by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Council, and Vice Chairmen Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai. In order to maintain strict secrecy of operations, this order was not made public until February 12, just before the main force of the First Front Army crossed the Yellow River eastward.

[2] As in the original text; suspected error.