(April 21, 1938)

To Zhu [De], Peng [Dehuai], Liu [Bocheng], Xu [Xiangqian], and Deng [Xiaoping],
and for transmittal to comrades Chen [Geng], Chen [Zaidao], Zhu Rui, Song
[Renqiong], Nie Rongzhen, Peng Zhen, and [Yang] Shangkun:

1. On the basis of our experience since the beginning of the War of Resistance,
and under the two present conditions of a resolute War of Resistance in the whole
country, and the deepening of mass work, it is possible to expand the anti-Japanese guerrilla war on a large scale on the plains of Hebei and Shandong, and also
to persist in guerrilla warfare in the plains.
2. The Party and the Eighth Route Army forces should resolutely adopt the
orientation of expanding and developing the guerrilla war to the greatest possible
extent, and do their utmost to mobilize vigorously the broad popular masses to
take the course of engaging in open, armed struggle against Japan. The secret
struggle against Japan should be the main form of struggle only in the cities occupied by the enemy and in areas near the railroads.
3. In the light of the orientation defined above, the Hebei and Shandong plains
should immediately be divided into several military districts for guerrilla warfare,
and a guerrilla headquarters should be set up in each of these military districts to
expand the guerrilla war everywhere in a planned and systematic way, and to organize extensively self-defense forces which are not detached from production.
4. In the areas that have been recovered, governments should be set up immediately and should try to find a way to restore order to some degree to the anti-
Japanese resistance in those localities. Such governments should either be appointed
by institutions or headquarters at a higher level or be recommended and elected by
the organizations of the popular masses. They should all move with a guerrilla
contingent, issue simple announcements and decrees, organize the mass struggle
to resist Japan, suppress the Chinese traitors, protect the interests of the popular
masses, assist the troops to obtain supplies, and so on.

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 217-19, where it is reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.