To Li Kenong[1]

(February 28, 1936)

Zhou Jiwu and Zhang Zihua[2] arrived at Wayaobao yesterday. According to their account, within Chiang Kai-shek's circle, Chen Guofu advocates allying with the Red Army to resist Japan, while Zeng Kuoqing advocates allying with Japan to oppose the Red Army. In addition, Sun Ke, Yu Youren, Zhang Qun, Feng Yuxiang, and others all advocate allying with Russia and the Communist Party, and they also say that Chiang Kai-shek himself has a tendency to compromise with the Red Army to resist Japan. The anti-Japanese eastern expeditionary force organized by our side has, in recent days, broken through a 200-li blockade on the eastern bank, annihilated and routed three brigades of Yang Yaofang, Yang Chengyuan, Li Shengda,[3] and other units, and occupied vast areas in five counties: Shilou, Zhongyang, Xiaoyi, Xi County, and Yonghe.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram sent by Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai to Li Kenong, the CCP negotiator engaged in talks with leaders of the Northeastern Army. From this point on, the CCP Central Committee began to put forward the slogan "oppose Chiang Kai-shek and resist Japan," and subsequently gradually and explicitly advanced the slogans "ally with Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan" and "compel Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan."

[2] Zhou Jiwu, also known as Dong Jianwu, was a secret member of the CCP, publicly known as a pastor at St. Peter's Church in Shanghai. At the end of 1935, he was entrusted by Soong Ching-ling and T.V. Soong to travel to northern Shaanxi to establish contact with the CCP Central Committee. Zhang Zihua, at the time dispatched by the CCP's underground organization in Shanghai, accompanied Dong Jianwu to report to the CCP Central Committee on the consultations with Kuomintang representative Zeng Yangfu and others.

[3] Yang Yaofang and Yang Chengyuan were then respectively serving as commanders of the 71st Division and the 69th Division of the Kuomintang's Jin-Sui Army. Li Shengda was then serving as commander of the 3rd Column of the Kuomintang's Taiyuan Pacification Headquarters and concurrently commander of the 72nd Division.