Long live the liberation of the Chinese nation!
Convey to Chiang Kaishek the Plan
to Reorganize the Red Army

(July 28, 1937)1

Zhou [Enlai], Bo [Gu], and Lin [Boqu]:

1. Please go to Yunyang immediately to discuss and decide on reorganization.
2. After returning from Yunyang to Xi'an, inform Jiang Dingwen2 of the
following points, based on the views of commanders Zhu [De], Peng [Zhen], Lin
[Biao], He [Long], Xiao [Jingguang], Liu [Bocheng], Zhang [Hao], and Xu
[Xiangqian], and ask him to convey them to Chiang Kaishek:
a. Reorganization to be completed before August 15, setting out for resistance against Japan on the 20th.
b. There must be a general headquarters established if there are more than
three divisions, with Zhu as commander-in-chief and Peng as deputy commander. A Political Department will also be established, with Ren Bishi as
its director and Deng Xiaoping as deputy director (not Kang Ze),3 for the
purpose of facilitating combat command.
c. The total strength of the three divisions is 45,000 men. In addition, there
are 10,000 local troops, and a chief and deputy chief of security are to be
____________________ appointed. Gao Gang4 is the chief and Xiao Jingguang the deputy.
Soldiers’ pay and provisions are to be provided as usual.
d. After setting out, the main force is to concentrate for battle and may not
   disperse.
e. Take responsibility for a line at the Suiyuan front.
f. Replenish the supply of bayonets, tools, bullets, hand grenades, and so on.

Luo [Fu]                               Mao [Zedong]

---

Notes

1. The time of dispatch of this telegram is indicated by a character which signifies
between 9:00 and 11:00 A.M.
19. All members of the Guomindang -> All patriotic members of the Guomindang

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 18–19, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

2. Jiang Dingwen (1895–1974), zi Mingsan, was a native of Zhejiang. In 1924 he
became an instructor at the Huangpu Academy and was closely associated with Chiang
Kaishek thereafter. He served as an intermediary in the negotiations between Zhang
Xueliang and the Nanjing Government following the Xi'an Incident and in July 1937 was
appointed director of Chiang Kaishek's headquarters in Xi'an.

3. Kang Ze (1904–1967), a native of Sichuan, was a graduate of the Huangpu
Academy, and had studied at Sun Yatsen University in Moscow. Following his return to
China in October 1927, he had pursued a career as a military man and as a journalist. At
this time, he was one of the four or five most influential figures in a secret organization, the
Lixingshe, commonly known as the Blue Shirts, which had as its primary aim the struggle
against Communism. It appears that Chiang Kaishek intended at this time, in the context of
the arrangements for bringing the Red Army under the supervision of the Guomindang
military authorities, to appoint Kang deputy head of the Political Department of the Eighth
Route Army. In light of the facts just mentioned, it is not surprising that Mao refused to
accept this proposal.

4. Gao Gang (1905–1954) was a native of Shaanxi and studied at the Zhongshan
Military and Political Academy in Xi’an, where Deng Xiaoping was one of his teachers.
With Liu Zhidan, he had been one of the central figures in establishing a Communist base
in that province and became a leader of the Twenty-sixth Red Army.