The Jin-Cha-Ji Troops Should Strive to Expand Toward the Japanese-Occupied Areas

(December 18, 1944)

Comrade Zihua:

Your telegram of the 18th has been received. (1) The enemy is still alternating blows and blandishments toward Chiang, and at present the time for blandishments has come again, but blows may be dealt again in the future. (2) Chiang is unwilling to make any concession in principle to our Party. Our Party should firmly uphold the coalition government, and on this stand, not close the door to negotiations; other matters should not be discussed further, and the result will still be procrastination. (3) The enemy-occupied areas are expanding. If our Party can carry out correct policies, it will be possible to consolidate the existing troops and expand the army in the newly developed areas. (4) There may be great expansion next year in the four provinces of Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, and Zhejiang. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region has already dispatched 6,000 troops and cadres to Henan and Hunan respectively. (5) With the development in Henan and the transfer southward of over ten divisions under Hu Zongnan and Tang Enbo, this area no longer feels threatened, and there is no need to send additional troops. (6) It is hoped that you will strive to expand toward the enemy-occupied areas in Yanbei, eastern Suiyuan, Chahar, Rehe, and eastern Hebei, and enlarge the liberated areas. At the same time, work hard on urban work.

Mao Zedong

Haiqiao

[1] Zihua, i.e., Cheng Zihua, then acting commander and concurrently political commissar of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army.

[2] Chiang, refers to Chiang Kai-shek.

[3] Hu Zongnan, then deputy commander of the First War Zone of the Kuomintang and concurrently commander-in-chief of the 34th Group Army. Tang Enbo, formerly deputy commander of the First War Zone of the Kuomintang and commander-in-chief of the Shandong-Jiangsu-Henan-Anhui Border Area, was then demoted to commander-in-chief of the Guizhou-Guangxi-Hunan Border Area of the Kuomintang army due to his disastrous defeat in the Henan campaign.