A Capable and Compact Force Should Be Dispatched to Develop the Wulong Mountain Area[1]

(February 9, 1938)

Zhu and Peng, and inform Hu, Yang, Zhou, and Ye[2]:

A. The area centered on Wulong Mountain[3] has broad prospects for development, but it is a region for independent operations. The force dispatched must be relatively capable and compact, and must not be too small. Military, Party, and political leadership personnel must possess the ability to independently handle new circumstances. Full preparations must be made before departure.

B. In addition to the cadres mainly allocated by Rongzhen[4] and you, the rear is also currently selecting cadres of northeastern and Ji-Re-Cha[5] origin. At the same time, the Northern Bureau is also requested to select and dispatch cadres.

C. Rongzhen cannot leave the Ji-Cha border area at this moment, but preparations should be made to send a high-level leader to Wulong Mountain when the appropriate period of development arrives. This matter is to be considered jointly by the front and the rear.

D. The Xu Brigade[6] is currently engaged only in ordinary guerrilla warfare in that area and can be directly

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.
[2] Hu refers to Hu Fu, i.e., Liu Shaoqi. Yang refers to Yang Shangkun, then Deputy Secretary of the Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Ye refers to Ye Jianying, then Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army and Chief of Staff of the Staff Office of the Yangtze River Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
[3] Wulong Mountain, i.e., Wuling Mountain, located in the northern part of Xinglong County, Hebei Province.
[4] Rongzhen, i.e., Nie Rongzhen, then Commander and concurrently Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region of the Eighth Route Army.
[5] Re refers to Rehe, an old provincial name, encompassing the northeastern part of present-day Hebei Province, the southwestern part of Liaoning Province, and the southeastern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; abolished in 1955. Cha refers to Chahar, an old provincial name, originally encompassing the northwestern part of present-day Hebei Province and the Xilin Gol League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; its jurisdiction was changed in 1949 to encompass the northwestern part of present-day Hebei Province and the northern part of Shanxi Province; abolished in 1952.
[6] The Xu Brigade refers to the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, with Xu Haidong as its brigade commander.

directed by you. Comrade Lin Biao[1] probably need not go.

E. Dispatching a force to Shandong must await the realization of the Wulong Mountain operation before further consideration. At this moment, it is also inadvisable to simultaneously raise the matter with the Kuomintang.

Mao, Jia

[1] Lin Biao, then Commander of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.