To Peng Xuefeng¹
(December 20, 1936)

Comrade Yufeng:
Please transmit my letter to Mr. Baichuan² as soon as you have read it, and ask
him to reply. Radio communications and messenger communication between
Jixian and Yan'an-Chang'an, and trading relationships between Shanxi and
Shaanxi, must be established right away without delay. In the future most of the
channels of communication to North China must pass through Shanxi, so please
discuss this thoroughly with Mr. Yan and obtain his approval. I am now sending
Comrade Song Shaolin to deliver a letter to Mr. Yan and to give you [a copy of]
this letter. Please give him the letter in response right away to bring back, as
soon as possible. It would be best for the xian magistrate, Qu Xiangxian, to
maintain the contacts between us, if he has permission from Mr. Yan, because he
is already familiar with the situation. In your relations with the outside world,
you must have a sincere attitude, maintain a firm stand, and be frugal in expenditures. With regard to the incident in Shaanxi,³ our orientation has already been
stated in detail in the open telegram of the 19th, and I hope that you will act
accordingly. Send me a report on the course of your contacts with Shaanxi.
Salutations!
Mao Zedong

We have translated this letter from Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 93-94, where it is
reproduced from a manuscript copy.
1. Peng Xuefeng (1907-1944), alternate name Peng Yufeng, a native of Henan,
joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1927. He had been trained at a military school in
Beijing, and served as a Red Army commander or political commissar throughout the
Jiangxi Soviet period and the Long March. Most recently, he had been political
commissar of the Fourth Division during the Eastern Expedition of early 1936. Later in
the year, he was sent by the Party to Shanxi and other places to engage in United Front
work. (See above, the reference to him in Mao's letter of September 22, 1936, to Yu
Xuezhong.)
2. Baichuan was the zi of Yan Xishan.
3. I.e., the Xi'an Incident.