It Is Better to Destroy One Enemy Regiment
Completely Than to Rout Many Enemy
Regiments
(November 25, 1936, at midnight)
brothers should personally take command and inspect the terrain and give
instructions directly to the officers. You must pay great attention to using
concealment. Educate all senior cadres in the use of concealment, in order
to avoid useless sacrifices.


g. Do not fight a battle that you do not expect to be able to win.
h. In sum, it is all right not to fight. If you fight, you must capture booty. It is
better to destroy one enemy regiment completely than to rout many enemy
regiments. Please act accordingly.


Xu [Xiangqian] and Chen [Changhao]:


1. We are in receipt of the Notice to Officers and Men and the telegram on
deployments dated the 25th,¹ for which we are most grateful.


2. Mao Bingwen's eastward withdrawal is beneficial for your development. After you have defeated Enemy Ma [Bufang], your main forces should
prepare to advance a step eastward and offer support by coordinated action
east of the river.


3. Within the next three months, do not count on support from the distant
place.² For the present we must be completely self-reliant, unite, and struggle to
accomplish a breakthrough.


4. As regards operations:
a. Concentrate two armies of our main forces, and use favorable terrain to
attack Ma's forces. This method should be used regardless of whether
there are two or three enemy regiments, or five or six.
b. When the enemy is numerically inferior, our main forces should encircle
him from both flanks and use part of our force to cut off the enemy in his
rear.
c. When the enemy is numerically superior, use part of our force to pin down
one of his flanks, but use our main forces to encircle the other flank.
d. No matter whether the enemy is numerically superior or inferior, do not
use our main forces frontally.
e. When encircling the enemy from both flanks, do not divide our forces
equally. A larger force should be deployed to encircle one of the enemy
flanks.
f. Whenever you are attacking two or more enemy regiments, you two elder


We have translated this document from Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 679-80,
where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.
Zedong

--- Notes

1. For brief summaries of the notice of November 22 to commanders and the telegram
of November 25 from Xu Xiangqian and others to the central leadership, see notes 2 and 3
in Mao Zedong junshi wenji, p. 680.

2. As indicated in a note to the battle plan of November 8, 1936, "the distant place" is
a coded reference to the Soviet Union.