Telegram to Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao, and Others[1]

(December 10, 1936)

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Ningdu Uprising, we hereby extend our boundless respect to all the heroic commanders and fighters of the Fifth Army Corps, and further hope that under the leadership of Army Corps Commander Dong, you will carry forward the great spirit of the Ningdu Uprising, resolutely coordinate with the main forces of the First, Second, and Fourth Front Armies, smash the enemy’s new offensives, and struggle to establish an anti-Japanese base area in the Hexi Corridor.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram sent by Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and others in the name of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee to Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao, Dong Zhentang, Huang Chao, and all commanders and fighters of the Fifth Army Corps of the Red Army. Dong Zhentang and Huang Chao were then respectively serving as the army corps commander and political commissar of the Fifth Army Corps of the Red Army.