Reply to Zhou Enlai and Others[1]

(April 27, 1943)

Regarding the two incidents in Longnan and the Ih Ju League, we had absolutely no prior knowledge of them, and not a single person on our side was involved afterwards. Everything Liu Weizhang has alleged is entirely slanderous. We have now heard that the Longnan Incident has expanded, with armed rebels numbering up to 20,000, and that the seven banners of the Ih Ju League are supporting the Shab Lord against the tyrannical policies of Chen Changjie and He Wending, who have been killing people, seizing land, and plundering cattle and horses. As for the battle in the Taihang Mountains, our 129th Division was also a target of the "mopping-up" campaign. Jiang and Pang[2] were previously bent on dealing with us, but now that they are under enemy attack, our army will by no means bear old grudges and seize the opportunity to seek gain. As for the so-called Hengshan Incident, it was a case of the Kuomintang secret service agencies dispatching over 200 men of the so-called Anti-Communist Allied Army, disguised as bandits, to infiltrate the border region in separate groups. Our army merely suppressed the bandits within our own territory, and absolutely not a single soldier or a single man crossed the border. What Liu Weizhang has said completely contradicts the facts.

[1] This is the main content of the telegram sent by Mao Zedong and Zhu De in reply to Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao concerning several questions raised by Liu Fei.

[2] Jiang and Pang refer to Jiang Dingwen and Pang Bingxun.