Telegram to Peng Dehuai[1]

(August 13, 1936)

It remains advisable for the First Front Army to focus on training, rest, and recuperation from August to mid-September, while simultaneously seeking to expand the Red Army in part, consolidate the existing base areas, and form a powerful central force. Prepare to move one step westward after mid-September, still with the objectives of rest, training, Red Army expansion, and enlargement of the base areas, and devote full efforts to united front work with the two units of the Northeast Army under He Zhuguo and Dong Yingbin[2]. When the Second and Fourth Front Armies have completed their tasks in southern Gansu and move northward between September and October, the First Front Army shall then, with a fully disciplined and imposing military posture, join forces with the Second and Fourth Front Armies in the Guyuan-Haiyuan area.

[1] This is the main content of Mao Zedong’s telegram to Peng Dehuai.

[2] Dong Yingbin was then Commander of the 7th Column of the 2nd Route Army of the Kuomintang’s Northwest “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters and Commander of the 57th Army of the Northeast Army.