Help Xiao Ke’s Advance Army Consolidate the Pingxi Base Area[1]

(March 3, 1940)

He and Guan:

With regard to Xiao Ke’s Advance Army, we hope you will pay constant attention to it and provide assistance in the form of ammunition and cadres (students). That army’s task is to consolidate the Pingxi base area and develop guerrilla warfare in eastern Hebei, which is of considerable strategic significance. If that army can accomplish this task, it will not only directly coordinate with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region, but will also play a major coordinating role in the creation of the Yanbei and northwestern Shanxi base areas. The difficult conditions there are greater, so assistance must be provided as appropriate.

Zedong  Muqiang

March 3

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong and Wang Jiaxiang to He Long and Guan Xiangying, with a copy to Zhu De and others.