The Fourth Front Army Should Use
Its Main Force to Take Control
of the Major Road Between Longde, Jingning,
Huining, and Dingxi
(September 15, 1936)
Comrades Zhu [De], Zhang [Guotao], and Ren [Bishi]:
1. A compromise has been reached between Chiang [Kaishek] and Guangxi.¹
Li Zongren has become head of pacification and Commander in Chief of the
Fifth Route Army. Bai Chongxi has been transferred to Nanjing.² Hu Zongnan
has been incorporated into the Seventh Route Army.³ The entire First Division
and Seventy-eighth Division reached Xianyang on the 18th. The Forty-third and
Ninety-seventh Divisions are following behind them, later to be deployed along
the Jingning, Huining, Dingxi, and Lanzhou line to coordinate with the troops
from Sichuan and units of Mao [Bingwen] and Wang [Jun] to press on toward
Minzhou.
2. The First Front Army has already moved off in the direction of Haiyuan
and Guyuan. The First Army Group has sent its First Division to the major road
between Jingning and Longde to coordinate plans with the Fourth Front Army.
3. Within five to seven days, the Fourth Front Army should dispatch its main
force to the major road between Longde, Jingning, Huining, and Dingxi to take
control of the advantageous base points centered on Jieshipu (Jieshipu is larger
than Tongwei). Any delay entails the danger that the route might be severed.
Small units should be left to the south of the Wei River to engage in action.
Please give consideration to the above suggestions.
Mao [Zedong] Zhou [Enlai] Peng [Dehuai]
We have translated this telegram from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 585-86,
where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1. This accord marked the resolution of the "Southwestern Problem" mentioned in
several texts translated above.

2. For biographies of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, see below, the relevant note to
Mao's letter to them dated September 22, 1936.

3. Regarding Hu Zongnan, see above, the relevant note to the text of June 16, 1935.