(August 3, 1937)¹

Zhou, Bo (and to be transmitted to Ye)2:

1. It would be appropriate for Zhou, Zhu [De], and Ye to go and submit the plan
for national defense in person. It is not appropriate to send it by telegram.
2. We are just now considering the plan. Please inform us today by telegram of
your agreed views on this matter, as well as on the operational guidelines for the
Red Army and the measures to be taken.
3. Telegrams have been sent separately to the soldiers³ and the Secretariat about
the danger of the westward advance by the Japanese invaders, Sino-Soviet relations,
and the need of the Red Army for Soviet coordination in the fight against Japan.4
4. In your present trip to Nanjing, seek to solve the following problems in one
package:
a. Publication of the declaration;
b. Formulation of the political program;
c. Ratification of the plan for national defense;
d. Announcement of the command system of the Red Army and the number of
the initial reinforcements for the Red Army;
e. Guidelines for the operations of the Red Army.

Luo [Fu]
Mao [Zedong]

4. Luo Fu was the pseudonym of Zhang Wentian (1900-1976), a native of Nanhui,
Shanghai. Zhang had joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925, and thereafter spent
four years studying in the Soviet Union. Returning to China at the end of 1930, he became
one of the leading members of the "International Faction" in the Party. In 1934, he supplanted Mao as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet
Republic. In January 1935 at Zunyi, he threw his support behind Mao, and as a result
became "the person with overall responsibility" for the leadership of the Party, although he
did not assume the formal title of Secretary General. At this time he was head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Our source for this text is Wenxian he yanjiu, 1985, no. 4 (pp. 220-21 of the annual volume).

--- Notes

1. It is indicated at the end of this document by a conventional character that this telegram was sent between 7:00 and 9:00 A.M.

2. The reference is to Zhou Enlai, Bo Gu (i.e., Qin Bangxian), and Ye Jianying.

3. A note to the available Chinese text states that the reference here is not clear.

4. Regarding Mao Zedong's emphasis during and after the Long March on the importance of obtaining material support from the Soviet Union, see in particular the resolution of
December 23, 1935, on problems of military strategy, in which Mao wrote: "Fighting a
way through to the Soviet Union' should be taken as the central [strategic] task" (Volume
V, pp. 77-83), and various references to this theme in the Introduction to Volume V.