Promptly Promote Cadres before the Eastward Crossing[1]

(February 13, 1936)

Comrades Lin and Nie:

The cadre question is a question of decisive effect. We have repeatedly raised this question with you, not merely from the standpoint of developing the First Army Corps, but from the standpoint of developing the revolutionary armed forces in the north and even the whole country, and we require you to pay greater and more concrete attention to it in principle and in practice. Once the troops have crossed eastward, it will be difficult to carry out this kind of organizational work. Therefore, please make use of these few days to earnestly resolve the following problems:

1. Check on the personnel who have been demoted and promote them (in the Ganguan battle[2] there were still two battalion commanders serving as company commanders who became casualties).

2. Select veteran fighters to set up a training battalion (it must have three to four companies).

3. In addition, the graduates of the current Red Army Academy should in principle be retained and continue their training.

Peng and Mao

February 13

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai, Commander of the First Front Army of the Red Army, to Lin Biao, Commander of the First Army Corps of the First Front Army, and Nie Rongzhen, Political Commissar.

[2] This refers to the battle in which the Red Army besieged the county town of Ganguan in northern Shaanxi. In late September 1935, the Fifteenth Army Corps of the Red Army began besieging the Kuomintang garrison in Ganguan county town. After the Battle of Zhiluo Town, the First Front Army of the Red Army intensified the siege of Ganguan city. Because the Red Army lacked siege weapons and explosives, several assaults on the city were unsuccessful.