Socialist Youth League in 1923 and studied in Germany and in the Soviet Union. In 1936
he was sent to Xi'an by the Chinese Communist Party as its military representative in the
Northeast.
I Agree with Peng Dehuai's Plan
for the Ningxia Campaign
(October 24, 1936, 12:00 midnight)

To Peng [Dehuai]; and to Zhu [De] and Zhang [Guotao]; He [Long] and Ren
[Bishi]; Xu [Xiangqian] and Chen [Changhao]:
1. I agree with the plan in the telegram of 9:00 A.M. on the 23rd.1
2. Hu [Zongnan], Mao [Bingwen], Wang [Jun], and Guan [Lingzheng] have
occupied the main road,2 and if we continue to move northward the topographic
conditions and problem of supplies may impose basic limitations. Thus we will
find ourselves between the enemy in the south and the enemy in the north, and
cannot move northward without shattering the enemy in the south. At present,
although we judge, on the basis of various materials, that the enemy in the south
cannot hold out very long, the possibility still exists that Chiang Kaishek may
make a desperate effort within a short period of time. Hence the question of top
priority at the moment is how to stop the enemy in the south.
3. Please let me know right away your answers to the above questions.

Mao

We have translated this telegram from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 632-33,
where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1. The reference is to Peng Dehuai's telegram regarding dispositions for the campaign
to take Ningxia, which is summarized in Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, p. 633, note 3.

2. The reference is to the highway between Xi'an and Lanzhou. (See above, the text
of October 14, 1936.)