To Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yi and Others[1]

(January 18, 1941)

Previously, in order to rescue the Southern Anhui situation, we agreed to the suggestion of Hu and Chen to encircle Han and Shen. Now that Southern Anhui has been lost, Tang Enbo (in the Huaibei area), Li Pinxian (in the Huainan area), Wang Zhonglian (in the central Hubei area), and Feng Zhi'an (in the western Xiangyang area) in central China have begun to attack us. Therefore, our various units in central China and Shandong must make specific deployments to cope with the attacks of the anti-communist troops, all to be determined and commanded by Liu and Chen.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Wang Jiaxiang to Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yi, Zhu Rui, Chen Guang, Luo Ronghuan, and others, concerning the change in the operational plan to encircle Han Deqin and Shen Honglie.