Northern Bureau, Shandong Branch Bureau, 115th Division, and inform Central Plains Bureau, Peng Xuefeng, Xiang Ying, Chen Yi [1]:

A. On December 9th, the Central Committee sent a long telegram, requiring you to develop hundreds of thousands of troops and organize millions of self-defense forces in the entire Shandong and Central China regions.

The Central Plains Bureau has understood and is proceeding. The Shandong and 115th Division have not yet replied. Do you agree? Can it be done? B. The development of the situation fully proves that only by greatly developing revolutionary armed forces to coordinate with the national work can we prevent surrender and anti-communism, consolidate the united front, and strive for a turn for the better in the situation.

And the areas where armed forces can be developed at present are mainly Shandong and Central China.

C. Therefore, please pay serious attention to this matter and make the development of armed forces the center of all work.

Within this year, the Shandong Branch Bureau and the 115th Division should develop armed forces (including guerrillas) to at least 150,000 rifles (the 115th Division should allocate cadres and troops to the entire Shandong region), and the Central Plains Bureau should develop at least 100,000 rifles, and realize this general goal in concrete stages.

According to people from Shandong, there are many civilian rifles in Shandong, which should be able to achieve this number. According to Hu Fu's [2] telegram, the Central Plains can develop to 100,000 in half a year, but the specific plan should be decided by you.

D. Without the extensive development of self-defense forces, it is impossible to extensively develop the army and establish consolidated base areas.

Therefore, the organized and trained anti-Japanese self-defense forces must be at least ten times the size of the regular army and guerrillas.

For example, if Shandong has 150,000 troops, it must have at least 1.5 million to 2 million organized and trained self-defense forces; if Central China has 100,000 troops, it must have at least 1 million to 1.5 million self-defense forces.

Your self-defense forces are still too small.

E. To establish such a large armed force, it is impossible without political power.

Therefore, it is necessary to strive with a resolute and gradual plan to bring the majority of political power in Shandong, eastern Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu into the hands of us and progressive people.

F. Striving for such an army, self-defense forces, and political power is a serious struggle process, so it is inevitable to have reasonable and advantageous frictions.

We must resolutely counterattack all reactionary forces and stubborn elements that hinder the development of anti-Japanese progressive forces and attack us. In principle, we must not make any concessions to such people.

And we should strive to win over and jointly establish anti-Japanese base areas with all progressive and relatively progressive forces.

For intermediate forces such as Yu Xuezhong and Li Mingyang [3], we should adopt a policy of neutralizing them.

G. The Kuomintang has a plan to send more troops into the Lu-Su war zone, so you should accelerate your own deployment and consolidate your positions in general before they arrive.

H. Only by making all party cadres understand this correct development line can we create a vigorous and forward-looking style and realize this plan.

Concentrating all forces to fight for the development of armed forces and the establishment of base areas is your most important and most important task.

Cadres must understand that without a great revolutionary armed force and a great revolutionary base area, victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan is impossible.

Printed by the Secretariat of the Central Committee on January 28th based on Mao Zedong's manuscript.

Notes [1] Peng Xuefeng was then the commander and political commissar of the Sixth Detachment of the New Fourth Army.

Xiang Ying was then the secretary of the New Fourth Army Branch of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China and the deputy commander of the New Fourth Army.

Chen Yi (1901-1972), from Lezhi, Sichuan, was then the commander of the Jiangnan Headquarters of the New Fourth Army.

[2] Hu Fu, namely Liu Shaoqi.

[3] Yu Xuezhong (1890-1964), from Penglai, Shandong, was then the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army's Lu-Su war zone.

Li Mingyang (1890-1978), from Xiao County, Jiangsu (now part of Anhui Province), was then the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army's Su-Lu-Wan Border Region Guerrilla Headquarters.