Send Some People to Find Out About
the Situation of the Enemy Troops
in Ningxia and Suiyuan
(October 5, 1936, 3:00 P.M.)
Luo Mai, Song [Shilun], and Song [Renqiong]:1
1. Send some people at once via Ningxia in two groups (disguised as businessmen) directly to Dingyuanying, base area of Da Wang of the Alashan Ban-ner,2 to find out precisely about the situation of the building of the airport and the
storing of airplanes of the Japanese, the height and thickness of the fortresses and
castles in this area, the number of mounted Mongolian troops and that of the
infantry of Da Wang, as well as circumstances such as the distance, buildings,
and narrow passages from Ningxia to here.
2. Please also send some people to find out whether the Japanese in Ningxia
and Suiyuan have built airports and set up intelligence agencies in these places.
3. I must be informed of the above two items by November 5.
4. Zhang Xinyu3 must reach Dingbian on November 5th and await further
orders. Please also write to Zhang at once and ask him to tell you in advance
everything he knows about the roads, buildings, and narrow passages between
Ningxia and Dingyuanying, as well as everything about Dingyuanying.
Mao

We have translated this letter from Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 78–79, where it is
reproduced from a manuscript copy.
1. See below, the document dated October 11, 1936.

We have translated this telegram from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 618–19,
where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.
1. Luo Mai was the pseudonym of Li Weihan (1896–1984), a native of Hunan, who
had gone to France in 1919 on the work-study program and helped organize the Socialist
Youth League. In 1927, at the August 7th Emergency Conference, he became head of the
Party’s Organization Department. In 1928–1930, he supported Li Lisan. After the Fourth
Plenum of January 1931, he was sent to Moscow; in 1933 he returned to China and went
to the Jiangxi Soviet Area. During the Long March, he was a political commissar. His
name is grouped here with those of Song Shilun and Song Renqiong, who were,
respectively, commander and political commissar of the Twenty-eighth Army because
these three constituted a committee charged with devising a strategic plan for taking
Ningxia.
2. Da Wang (Darijaya) was the ruling prince of the Alashan Banner, and
Guomindang commander of the area.
3. Zhang Desheng, alternate name Xinyu (1909–1965), was a native of Shaanxi,
where he had worked underground during the years 1930–1934. At this time, he was
secretary of the Third Border Region Special Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.