Concentrate All Your Forces to Fight
a Contact Battle Against the Enemy Troops
Coming from the East and West
(March 31, 1936, 8:00 P.M.)
Xu [Haidong] and Cheng [Zihua], Liu [Zhidan] and Song [Renqiong]:
1. The Fifteenth Army Group should gather all its forces to seek an advantageous opportunity to fight a contact battle against the enemy coming from the
east and west, wipe out another enemy regiment, stop pursuing the enemy, and
disperse to carry on its work. But at this moment it certainly must not disperse.
When it is not appropriate to engage in fighting, one unit should keep watch on
the enemy while the main forces concentrate and rest, and prepare to engage in
fighting.
2. Liu and Song are in charge of eliminating the enemy's fortifications from
the south to the north, and wiping out the enemy's garrison troops.
3. Liu and Song should tell the Special Committee to make ten more large
boats and ten more small boats and distribute them amongst the five ferry stations within a few dozen li north and south of Luoyukou.
Peng [Dehuai]
Mao [Zedong]

--- Notes

Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 502-3, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.