Eliminate the Enemy Coming
from the East in Coordination with the Forces
of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng
(December 19, 1936, 11:00 P.M.)

Zhou:¹
1. The situation is evolving. On the one hand, the Japanese warlords, Chinese
traitors, and Nanjing rightists are doing their utmost to create a situation of civil
war; on the other hand, the forces in Xi'an resisting Japan, the Red Army, the
Chinese people, powerful factions opposing Chiang within China, the leftists of
Nanjing, and the peace-loving countries of the world are uniting to oppose civil
war and support the effort to resist Japan.
2. The telegram of the 19th from the Soviet government and the Chinese
Communist Party advocating the convening of a peace conference² is an effort to
strive for uniting with all domestic and international leftist and intermediate
forces to oppose civil war and support resistance to Japan.
3. The forces in Xi'an resisting Japan should also advance under the guidance of this common overall orientation.
4. Resolutely eliminating the enemy, who is on the offensive, is an important
means of putting into effect this overall orientation.
5. It has been decided that the Red Army should move toward Xi'an and
concentrate there, so as to eliminate the enemy coming from the east in coordination with Zhang and Yang as a matter of first priority.
Mao Zedong

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 686-87, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1. As noted above in the Introduction, Zhou Enlai had set out for Xi'an on December
15 and arrived there on the evening of December 17, to serve as the principal Communist
spokesman in negotiations with Zhang and Yang, and later with Chiang Kaishek.
Thereafter, he was in regular telegraphic contact with Mao and the other Party leaders in
Bao'an.

2. Translated above.