(October 18, 1936, 3:00 P.M.)

letters should consist of earnest exhortations, without any self-aggrandizement.
While being serious and proper, they should raise morale and not dwell on
failures. We look forward to your response as to how you are dealing with these
matters.

Luo [Fu] Mao [Zedong] Zhou [Enlai]

To Zhu [De] and Zhang [Guotao], and to Peng [Dehuai], He [Long], Ren [Bishi],
Xu [Xiangqian], and Chen [Changhao]:

Our Party's letter to the Guomindang has already had an enormous impact
throughout the country and among the Guomindang troops, and has evoked
widespread sympathy within the Guomindang and in all strata of society. The
constantly increasing Japanese aggression, too, cannot help but affect the
cadres of the Guomindang army. The concentration of our three front armies
also worries the other side. Just now, in the talks with the Guomindang, the
other side does not want to cause a stalemate in the negotiations. Zhang
[Xueliang] originally planned to fly to Nanjing to see Chiang [Kaishek] in
person, with the request that Chiang send a deputy to the soviet areas to
arrange a ceasefire. Chiang replied the same day that he would come to
Shaanxi, mainly to deal with two matters, us and Japan. Yesterday, Hu
[Zongnan], Wang [Jun], Guan [Linzheng], Mao [Bingwen], Shen [Ke], Li
[Mo'an], Zeng [Wanzhong], and Tang [Weiyuan], all of whom are pro-Chiang commanders, sent a joint telegram to Chiang and Zhang, which, using
the excuse of the obstacles to communication and the difficulties of transportation, first of all dealt with improving supplies and transportation, and also
suggested that they do not want to press us too hard and want to delay their
advance. Following an agreement between the two sides, Li Yi had the White
regiment at Liwangbao play out a fake attack and we let the White regiment
escape. Tang Enbo is prepared to assist in resisting Japan, and Nanjing has
adopted a hard attitude toward Japan. Looking at the overall conditions on all
fronts, the present situation is just at a crucial turning point, and we must not
lose the opportunity. If we use it well, we can achieve domestic peace and
turn toward the war of resistance against Japan. Along the lines of
yesterday's telegram, please let Commander Zhu [De] send letters to Wang
Jun and Mao Bingwen, Comrade [Xu] Xiangqian send letters to Hu Zongnan
and to other Huangpu graduates, and Comrade He Long send letters to the units
of He Zhuguo and Hu's troops, to expand our influence. To be effective, the

--- Notes

We have translated this text from the 1985 annual compendium of Wenxian he yanjiu, pp.
192-93.