Wipe Out Diehards and Puppets,
Mobilize the Popular Masses, and
Establish Consolidated Base Areas1
(February 11, 1945)
The attached telegram2 is being forwarded to you for reference. Taking into
account the bureaucratism of the Guomindang and the insufficient troops
allocated, Hu Zongnan’s plan may not be fully carried out. Nonetheless, under
the unified command of Wang [Shusheng] and Dai [Jiying], the three units under
Wang [Shusheng] and Dai [Jiying], Pi [Dingjun] and Xu [Zirong], and Liu
[Zijiu] and Han [Jun]3 should wipe out all the diehards and puppet [troops] in
western and central Henan, mobilize the popular masses, and establish relatively
consolidated base areas within the next few months. Then you can choose the
appropriate opportunity to march south to establish contact with the Fifth
Division in order to guard against attacks by Hu’s Army.
The Military Commission
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 757–58, where it is reproduced from
1. These are instructions written by Mao Zedong in the name of the Military Commission of the Central
Committee to the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army, the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee,
Wang Shusheng, Dai Jiying, Liu Zijiu, and the Taiyue Military Area Command of the Eighth Route Army

when transmitting a secret telegram sent by Hu Zongnan to Chiang Kaishek.
2. Referring to the telegram sent by Hu Zongnan, the acting commander-in-chief of the First War Zone of
the Nationalist army, to Chiang Kaishek in early February 1945.
3. Wang Shusheng and Dai Jiying were at this time the commander-in-chief and the commissar of the
Henan Military District of the Eighth Route Army, respectively. Pi Dingjun and Xu Zirong were at this time
the commander-in-chief and the commissar of the Western Henan Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment
of the Eighth Route Army (the First Detachment), respectively. Liu Zijiu was at this time the deputy
secretary of the Henan Region Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the deputy commissar of the
Henan Military District. Han Jun was at this time the commander-in-chief of the Second Military Subdistrict
of the Henan Military District.

Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.