Concerning the Organization and
Preparation of the Red Army
(July 16, 1937)
To Peng [Dehuai] and Ren [Bishi], and to be transmitted to Ye [Jianying], Liu
[Bocheng], and Zhang [Hao]:
Concerning the organization and preparation of the Red Army:
1. Under the condition that the main force of the Red Army is permitted to
take part in combat, it is proposed that the original First, Second, and Fourth
Front Armies be mobilized, with the front army reorganized as a division, the
army as a brigade, and the division as a regiment. The five units totaling five
thousand men and composed of the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, Twentyninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Armies, together with local forces, will be reorganized as the Fourth Division and stationed in the rear to defend the soviet base
areas. If and when it is necessary and permitted, some more units may be sent to
the front to augment the forces there. Organization in such a fashion facilitates
taking care of both the front and the rear.


2. Under the condition that the main force is not permitted to take part in
combat but some units are allowed to do so, the more than three thousand men of
the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, and Thirty-second Armies, along with the
cavalry regiment, are to be reorganized into a guerrilla division and sent to
maneuver between Rehe, Chahar, and Hebei. In addition, more cadres from the
Red Army University should be sent to follow along so as to expand the
volunteer army movement. The organization of the main force of the Red Army
is to be as above. The shortcoming of this plan, however, is that the main force
may take part in combat afterward, so that with the guerrilla division already
gone to the front, there may be too few troops left in the rear. Hence caution is
required. Or it would be appropriate to send only a few hundred men as seeds for
the creation of a volunteer army, relying mainly on sending more cadres. No
matter what, reorganization shall be done in accordance with point 1.


3. All of Chen Xianrui's units and the main force of Wang Zhaoxiang's
units¹ will be turned into regiments and will be prepared to be sent out and used
as detachments.

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 5-6, where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

1. Chen Xianrui was at this time the commander of the Seventy-fourth Division.
Wang Zhaoxiang was commander of the Second Independent Division of the Shenfu
Special District in northern Shaanxi.