To Yan Xishan[1]

(February 8, 1944)

At present, the anti-Japanese war camp urgently needs unity. The movements of the 61st Army should be restrained to avoid conflict.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong in the name of Zhu De to Yan Xishan concerning the step-by-step advance of the Kuomintang's 61st Army toward Bo Yibo's forces. Bo Yibo was then serving as Secretary of the CPC Taiyue District Committee and Political Commissar of the Taiyue Military Region. Liang Peihuang, commander of the 61st Army under Yan Xishan's Kuomintang forces, led three divisions under his command to cross the Fen River eastward at the end of January 1944 and launch an attack on the Fushan area of the Eighth Route Army's Taiyue base area.