(September 19, 1937, noon)

Comrade [Peng] Dehuai:

1. We have taken note of your telegram dated the 18th. Have you received my
long telegram on strategy dated the 17th?¹
2. The enemy is resolved to take Taiyuan. At present we should look one step
ahead when making deployments.
3. Wutai, Dinxiang, and Meng xian are rather narrow. After the enemy enters
Taiyuan, he will be encircled. The present deployment of Lin Biao and Yang
Aiyuan's units in these areas is temporary in nature. There is no possibility of their
staying there for long. It is estimated that that area can only support a guerrilla war
fought by a few thousand people.
4. He Long's unit should be stationed in northwestern Shanxi, located on the
outer flank of Datong and Taiyuan, and engage in guerrilla warfare in the direction
of Datong and Suiyuan. Only in this way will they be able to play quite an effective role in containing the enemy, which is advancing southward toward Taiyuan.
There are the two units of Lin and Yang in the Wutai area. This is quite sufficient.
If He's division goes there, too, it will lose its strategic significance.
5. Therefore, He's division should advance to the northwest of Shanxi and hasten to be the first to occupy that region.
6. In the future, Liu [Bocheng]'s division may move nearer to Lin [Biao]'s
division and be stationed in the Taiyue mountain range and the Luliang mountain
range (between Jixian and the Fenhe River) in the south of Shanxi. It is all right to
transfer some units from northern Shaanxi to support them.

Mao Zedong

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 50-51, where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.

1. The reference is to the preceding telegram.