Reply to Zhang Yunyi and Rao Shushi[1]

(February 14, 1944)

It is necessary for you to adopt a posture of self-defence. It is also necessary to take encircling and outflanking manoeuvres in order to strike at the attacking diehard troops.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in reply to Zhang Yunyi and Rao Shushi, concerning the New Fourth Army in eastern Zhejiang counterattacking the offensive of the Kuomintang troops.