Our Army Should Continue to Carry Out the Three Major Strategic Tasks[1]

(July 27, 1936)

Comrade Dehuai, to be conveyed to Zuo, Nie, Zhu, Xu, Cheng, Wang, Song and Song, Xiao, Li, and Liu Xiao[2]:

Concerning the tasks of the field army.

A. Over the past two months, the Western Field Army, through resolute and flexible command and heroic, self-sacrificing combat, has fulfilled the task of establishing base areas in the west. Guerrilla warfare in the east is being carried on with tenacity, and the united front in the south has been developed. The three major combat tasks set by the Central Committee and the Military Commission[3] have already

[1] This was a telegram from Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, and Yang Shangkun to the leaders of the Western Field Army of the First Front Army of the Red Army and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

[2] Dehuai, i.e., Peng Dehuai, then Vice Chairman of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission, commanding operations at the front. Zuo, Nie, and Zhu refer to Zuo Quan, Nie Rongzhen, and Zhu Rui, who were then respectively Acting Commander, Political Commissar, and Director of the Political Department of the First Army Corps of the First Front Army of the Red Army. Xu, Cheng, and Wang refer to Xu Haidong, Cheng Zihua, and Wang Shoudao, who were then respectively Commander, Political Commissar, and Director of the Political Department of the Fifteenth Army Corps of the First Front Army of the Red Army. Song and Song refer to Song Shilun and Song Renqiong, who were then respectively Commander and Political Commissar of the Twenty-eighth Army of the Red Army. Xiao refers to Xiao Jinguang, then Minister of the Military Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Provincial Committee of the CPC and Commander of the Twenty-ninth Army of the Red Army. Li refers to Li Fuchun, then Secretary of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Provincial Committee of the CPC and Political Commissar of the Provincial Military Department. Liu Xiao was then Director of the Political Department of the Western Field Army of the First Front Army of the Red Army.

[3] After the conclusion of the eastern expedition campaign, the Central Committee of the CPC convened a meeting of Red Army cadres at and above the regimental level in Daxiang Temple, Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province, in May 1936 to review the eastern expedition and plan the western expedition. At that time, the Central Committee assigned the First Front Army of the Red Army and the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet Area three strategic tasks: to attack westward to create a vast Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area and to open up connections northward with the Soviet Union and Mongolia and southward with the Fourth Front Army and the Second and Sixth Army Groups of the Red Army; to persist in guerrilla warfare in the east; and to win over the Northeast Army and other Kuomintang forces that could be won over in the south to move toward resisting Japan.

achieved the requirements of the first stage.

B. The current situation is that Chiang Kai-shek is pressuring the various military factions in the northwest. To prevent the development of our field army, to obstruct the rendezvous of the First, Second, and Fourth Front Armies, and to devastate the Soviet areas, he has directed He Zhuguo, Ma Hongkui, Yang Huchen,[1] and others to launch attacks on our field army, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia, and northern Shaanxi, and has deployed Wang Jun and Mao Bingwen[2] to block the Second and Fourth Front Armies.

C. Our task is to continue carrying out the three major tasks and strive for victory in the second stage of these tasks. In the west, we must break the offensives of Ma and He, vigorously expand the Red Army, and consolidate the base areas. We must carry out united front work among the three groups of Shen Ke,[3] He Zhuguo, and Ma Hongkui, and elevate the task of the united front to a higher political priority compared to other tasks, even though breaking the offensives is the current central task of the field army. In the east, we must also make winning over Tang, Chen, and the two Gaos[4] to join the united front the primary task, while continuing to persist in guerrilla warfare to safeguard the old Soviet areas. In the south, the most important task is to develop the united front among the various units of Yang, Wang, and Liu.[5] By integrating

[1] He Zhuguo was then Commander of the Cavalry Army of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters. Ma Hongkui was then Commander-in-Chief of the Fifteenth Route Army and Commander of the Newly Organized Seventh Division of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters. Yang Huchen, i.e., Yang Hucheng, was then Commander-in-Chief of the Seventeenth Route Army of the Kuomintang and Director of the Xi’an Pacification Office.

[2] Wang Jun and Mao Bingwen were then respectively Commander of the Third Army and Commander of the Thirty-seventh Army of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters.

[3] Shen Ke was then Commander of the Shen Ke Column and Commander of the 106th Division of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters.

[4] Tang refers to Tang Enbo, then Commander of the Thirteenth Army of the Kuomintang. Chen refers to Chen Cheng, then Commander-in-Chief of the Kuomintang’s “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters for the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Suiyuan-Ningxia Border Area. The two Gaos refer to Gao Guizi and Gao Shuangcheng, who were then respectively Commander of the Eighty-fourth Division and Commander of the Eighty-sixth Division of the Kuomintang’s “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters for the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Suiyuan-Ningxia Border Area.

[5] Yang refers to Yang Hucheng. Wang refers to Wang Yizhe, then Commander of the Sixty-seventh Army of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters. Liu refers to Liu Duoquan, then Commander of the 105th Division of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters.

these tasks and completing them in the second stage, we will be better positioned to welcome the northward advance and full rendezvous of the Second and Fourth Front Armies, better positioned to forge a grand northwest coalition and open up connections with the Soviet Union, and thus have all favorable conditions to prepare to thwart Chiang Kai-shek’s scheme of possibly reinforcing his troops in the northwest after the resolution of the Guangdong-Guangxi issue, and to strive for a swift war against Japan.

D. During the period of concentration, the field army should pay attention to the following six points:

(1) Review the achievements in the united front.

(2) Review the achievements in expanding and training the Red Army.

(3) Review the achievements in cadre education.

(4) Review the achievements in creating base areas.

(5) Conduct active training.

(6) Complete all preparations for operations against Ma and He.

(To be conveyed down to the regimental level)

Mao, Zhou, Peng, Yang

July 27