Talk with Wang Zhen on the Question of Organizing a Detachment to Go South[1]

(July 1944)

Wang Zhen: This year our unit has reclaimed and cultivated 350,000 mu of land, can achieve “two years’ cultivation with one year’s surplus grain,” and will strive to deliver 10,000 dan of public grain. Recently, comrades He Long, Lin Boqu, Xu Xiangqian, and Xiao Jinguang, and comrades Zhu De, Ren Bishi, Peng Dehuai, and Nie Rongzhen all successively went to inspect the troops and gave instructions. Comrade Ye Jianying also personally guided the regiment-against-regiment training exercises. In accordance with the Central Committee’s instructions, we are simultaneously carrying out production and conducting training and consolidation. Political work and military training have both made marked progress, morale is high, and we are ready at any time to take on new combat tasks.

Mao Zedong: Your troops are indeed strong and your horses robust! You must tell the comrades that there will be battles to fight, and there are still arduous tasks ahead. I have called you here today precisely to discuss this question.

At present, both the international and domestic situations are unprecedentedly favorable for the Chinese revolution. Victories have been won on the European battlefields, the Pacific battlefields, and China’s battlefields behind enemy lines. The doom of German and Japanese fascism is already a foregone conclusion. Only the Kuomintang’s frontal battlefield suffers defeat everywhere—the Central Plains have fallen, Changsha has been abandoned, and vast tracts of southern China’s national territory have fallen into enemy hands. This shows that the Kuomintang is hopeless and is collapsing day by day. The balance of forces between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is undergoing a great change. China

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s talk with Wang Zhen on the question of organizing a detachment to go south. Wang Zhen was then commander and concurrently political commissar of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division. The Detachment to Go South was formed by drawing a portion of the main force from the 359th Brigade and selecting a group of work cadres through the Organization Department of the Central Committee, and was designated the “First Independent Guerrilla Detachment of the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army.” Wang Zhen served as commander of the detachment and Wang Shoudao as political commissar. It bade farewell to Yan’an and set out on the southern expedition on November 9, 1944.

must win victory, the Chinese people must win liberation, and they all place their hopes on us. At present, we are precisely preparing how to welcome victory.

Everyone hopes the war will end quickly. Two years ago, in my article “The Turning Point in the Second World War,” I also said that the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the world anti-fascist war, and Hitler had only a dead end left to walk down. Japanese fascism will also face increasing difficulties day by day. However, the war will still continue, and the war zones may still expand. The powerful U.S. Navy may land in the Philippines, cutting off Japan’s maritime communication lines to the South Seas, forcing the Japanese army to open up continental communication lines. Now, the Japanese forces on the Guangdong–Hankou Railway are advancing from north and south and will soon link up, and they have the intention of opening up the Hunan–Guangxi route. The next step may be to attack Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan, driving Generalissimo Chiang down from Mount Emei. In this way, the war may continue for another three years. Once the U.S. forces press close to the Japanese homeland and land on China’s coast, the Japanese army may withdraw from Indochina, Siam, and Burma, contract its forces from southern China, and fall back to defend Shanghai, Shandong, and Liaoning. At that time, China’s War of Resistance Against Japan will shift to the stage of strategic counteroffensive, Chiang Kaishek will also come down from the mountain, and the danger of civil war will become extremely serious. The more the war expands, the more the revolution develops; the longer the war lasts, the deeper the revolution goes. We must seize this favorable opportunity to go behind the Japanese army’s lines to recover lost territory, mobilize the masses, liberate ourselves, overthrow the brutal rule of the enemy and puppets, and establish democratic political power under the anti-Japanese united front.

Under the current situation, our strategic policy is to consolidate northern and central China and develop southern China, that is, to develop toward Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Zhejiang. Therefore, the Central Committee’s deployments are: First, dispatch a portion of forces from the Hebei–Shandong–Henan area south to eastern Henan; draw two regiments from the Taiyue area to cross the Yellow River and advance into western Henan; draw seven companies from the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army to move north along the Beiping–Hankou Railway into Henan; and have the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army advance west into the Henan–Anhui–Jiangsu area, striving to control the Central Plains, expand the anti-Japanese democratic base areas behind enemy lines, and link the two great liberated areas of northern and central China into one contiguous whole. Second, dispatch forces from the East China New Fourth Army in batches to cross the Yangtze River and gradually develop toward southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, and Zhejiang. Third, have the Dongjiang Column in Guangdong develop forward, and have the Qiongya Column strive to occupy the entire island of Hainan and establish contact with the Dongjiang Column.

Fourth, have your Detachment to Go South escort cadres, advance into southern China, link up with the Dongjiang Column to open up the Wuling anti-Japanese base area on the borders of Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi, and connect central China with southern China. In this way, when the Japanese army retreats to assemble in Shandong and other coastal areas, you can coordinate with powerful counteroffensives on all battlefields across the country to recover lost territory. After victory in the War of Resistance, if Chiang Kaishek relies on foreign forces to impose civil war on the Chinese people, we will also be able to advance or retreat with a secure basis, contain his southern flank, coordinate with the self-defense wars of the various liberated areas, defeat Chiang Kaishek, and build a new China.

There are two possibilities for the future of the southern expedition. The first possibility is that the entire international anti-fascist war, including our War of Resistance Against Japan, will continue for another two or three years. In that case, you can, in southern China, exploit the contradictions between the Japanese and puppets and Chiang’s diehards, boldly mobilize the masses, strengthen the revolutionary armed forces, and consolidate and develop the anti-Japanese democratic base areas behind enemy lines. The second possibility is that the international anti-fascist war achieves rapid victory, Japan surrenders very soon, and the entire situation undergoes a major change. Chiang Kaishek will absolutely not permit this knife of yours to be thrust at his throat; he will first concentrate his forces to devour you. In that case, with your lone army penetrating deep, without base areas, the struggle will be extremely brutal, your situation will be exceedingly difficult, and you may even face total annihilation, including you yourself. You must prepare to meet this severe struggle, carry forward the spirit of fearing no sacrifice and fighting heroically, and strive for a bright future. If this situation occurs and you can still return to Comrade Li Xiannian’s place on the Hubei–Henan border, that too would be a very great victory.

Wang Zhen: With the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, no matter what happens, we will resolutely fulfill our mission.