To Comrade Chen Shaoyu[1]

(August 25, 1936)

In order to avoid conflict with Nanjing, to draw closer to the Soviet Union, and to preserve the existing base areas, the main forces of the Red Army must occupy western Gansu and the areas of Ningxia and Suiyuan. These areas are filled with many fortified cities, strongholds, and walled stockades that cannot be overcome under the Red Army’s current technical conditions. We hope the Soviet side can help us resolve the two principal technical problems of aircraft and artillery. The Soviet areas in northern Shaanxi and northern Gansu are sparsely populated and face extreme grain shortages, making them unsuitable for the prolonged stationing of large numbers of troops. At present, the Red Army’s financial and grain situation has reached an extremely difficult level; only by occupying Ningxia can this situation be changed. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to direct the development of the three front armies toward southern Gansu, southern Shaanxi, northern Sichuan, western Henan, and western Hubei, and postpone the plan for the area west of the Yellow River until next winter. Such an approach would be highly disadvantageous to us and would cause many losses.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong, Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian), Zhou Enlai, and Bo Gu (Qin Bangxian) to Chen Shaoyu (Wang Ming), representative of the Chinese Communist Party to the Communist International.