Basic Guidelines on the Elimination of Bandits
(July 6, 1937)
To [Liu] Jingfan and Li Lin,¹ and to be transmitted to the subdistrict [Party]
Committee:
We have taken note of your telegram.
1. The victory in eliminating bandits is very good; please make further
efforts. The scattered bandits in northern Shaanxi have already been eliminated.
Li Qingwu's bandit gang has surrendered.² Five out of six gangs of local bandits
in Guanzhong have been wiped out. Therefore we ask that you hasten to complete the task of eliminating bandits.
2. On the basis of experience in eliminating bandits, the basic orientation
should be to use military force actively to strike back at the threat from bandits
and, at the same time, to carry out the tactics of politically winning over, splitting, reforming, reorganizing, and dismantling them, so as to achieve the goal of
eliminating bandits.
3. Military attacks on Old Zhao Number Five's³ bandit gang may be halted
temporarily, and instead the work of actively carrying out political winning over
and dismantling may be done. Particular attention should be paid to mass work
around the Tianshuibao area so as to achieve the goals of winning over, splitting,
dismantling, and eliminating the bandits. At least they should be temporarily
neutralized so that our side may concentrate on getting rid of the worst of them
first and then eliminating them altogether by catching them unprepared.
4. There are no bullets right now. Please send people to get them when
needed in the future.
Mao [Zedong]
Zhu [De]

Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 1, pp. 797-98, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

1. Liu Jingfan was the head of the military department of the Third District Special
Committee; Li Lin was the head of the military department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Provincial Committee.
2. Li Qingwu was a bandit leader in Yichan xian in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region.
3. This was the popular name for a local bandit chief by the name of Zhao Sizhong,
who was active in Yanchi xian and Huan xian in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border
Region.