To Lin Biao and Others[1]

(March 29, 1936)

Lin, Nie; Xu, Cheng; and inform Luo Mai and Zhang Yunyi:

A. Two battalions of our 224th Regiment fought for one day yesterday (the 28th) between Shilou and Yidie. The enemy, assuming that we are concentrating forces to prepare a counteroffensive, has ordered its 4th Column, the three brigades of Feng and Tao, and the Liu Brigade of the 1st Column to concentrate artillery fire for a joint assault on Yidie. Its 1st Column has already assumed its mission; another brigade has one regiment south of Shilou city, and one regiment at Shikou.

B. Our artillery battalion and heavy rearward objects have safely crossed the river mouth. Chief of Staff Ye is leading the 224th Regiment to the northern part of Yonghe today, abandoning Yidie and the ferry crossings along the river, letting them achieve their so-called brilliant plan of blockading the Yellow River.

C. Our Red Army 1st Army Corps and Red Army 15th Army Corps must, in accordance with the previous order, take swift action respectively to clear away the Yellow River blockade line in the northern and southern sections, so that the enemy gains a few dozen li but loses several hundred li.

Peng, Mao

29th, 12:00 hours

[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, its Political Commissar; and to Xu Haidong, Commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps, and Cheng Zihua, its Political Commissar, and others.