The First Army Group as Well as
the Fifteenth Army Group Should Expand
Their Occupied Territory
(March 20, 1936, 3:00 A.M.)
To Lin [Biao] and Nie [Rongzhen], Xu [Haidong] and Cheng [Zihua]:
1. The Shanxi enemy remains hesitant and undecided about his new dispositions. Our First Army Group in the south and Fifteenth Army Group in the north
should take advantage of this period of time to expand the occupied territory,
build up a show of strength for an offensive, expand political propaganda, destroy the basis of Guomindang rule, intensify efforts to win over the popular
masses to join the Red Army, and make every possible effort to occupy several
xian towns.
2. Lin and Nie are to pay attention to reconnaissance and surveillance over
the Sixty-ninth Division under Yang Chengyuan,¹ and Xu and Cheng are to pay
attention to surveillance of Shang Zhen's² troops and the enemy's cavalry.
Peng [Dehuai]
Mao [Zedong]

--- Notes

Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 492-93, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

1. Yang Chengyuan was commander both of the First Column and of the Sixty-ninth
Division of the Second Route under the Guomindang army's Taiyuan Pacification Office.

2. Shang Zhen was commander of the Guomindang army's Thirty-second Army.