Telegram to Zhu De and Zhang Guotao[1]

(November 18, 1936)

The Fourth Army's resistance at Mengcheng[2] has been highly effective. Please encourage them to continue pressing hard to hold back this enemy force, so as to facilitate the assault by the First Front Army and the Thirty-Second Army. The Hu [Zongnan] forces are now showing signs of exhaustion, and their troop disposition is quite dispersed. A single victorious battle would greatly improve the prospects. Only by defeating Hu's forces can we open up the situation; this is the best way to coordinate with the Hexi Corridor.

[1] This is the main content of Mao Zedong's telegram to Zhu De and Zhang Guotao.
[2] The Mengcheng resistance refers to an operation in which the Fourth Army and the Thirty-First Army of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army set an ambush in the Mengcheng area of Yanchi County, Ningxia, on November 17, routing the Second Brigade of the First Division under Hu Zongnan's command and inflicting over 600 enemy casualties.