Commission
Mao [Zedong] Peng [Dehuai]
Zhou [Enlai]
The Enemy's Defensive Arrangements, and
the Deployment of the Fifteenth Army Group
of the Red Army
(April 2, 1936, 10:00 P.M.)
To Xu [Haidong] and Cheng [Zihua], Liu [Zhidan] and Song [Renqiong]:


1. Yang Yaofang¹ is leading six or seven regiments in the Xingxian and
Lanxian area, obstructing us from moving northward. Li Shengda² is leading two
or three regiments toward the Loufan and Jingle area, obstructing us from moving eastward. In the area around Linxian, Fangshan, Lishi, Zhongyang, and
Fenyang, there are only two regiments of Fang's brigade and one regiment of
Deng's brigade of the Seventy-first Division, so it is very weakly defended.


2. Deployment of the Fifteenth Army Group:
a. Gradually move southward after resting and training for three or four days
at the present location, operate for a period after reaching the Lishi road
and the Xixian area, and after that, depending on the situation, go either to
Fenyang and Wenshui or to Jiexiu and Lingshi.
b. Pay attention to seeking opportunities, fight back when involved in contact
battles, or advance and attack, and wipe out small groups of the enemy troops.
c. With regard to the work as a whole, expanding the Red Army is the first
order of business.
d. Organize secret branches among the masses.


3. During the present period of rest, the Twenty-eighth Army and the Fifteenth Army Group should make every effort to expand the Red Army, and
destroy the enemy's fortifications along the line from Heiyukou to Luoyukou.
While moving southward, the Fifteenth Army Group is to decide according to
the situation and either go back to the Shen[mu] and Fu[gu] area, or operate for a
time east of the [Yellow] River.


Peng [Dehuai] Mao [Zedong]
Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 506-7.



--- Notes

1. Yang Yaofang was at the time commander of the Seventy-first Division of the
Second Route river defense forces under the Guomindang army's Taiyuan Pacification
Office.



2. Li Shengda at the time commanded both the Third Column and the Seventy-second
Division of the Second Route under the Guomindang army's Taiyuan Pacification Office.



3. The reference is to Fang Keyou's 206th Brigade and Deng Bingqing's 216th
Brigade.