It Is Essential to Develop Zhengzhou,
Xuchang, and Other Places1
(July 14, 1945)
We would like Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping] to consult with Peng
[Dehuai] and Teng [Daiyuan] and reply. It is essential to choose capable
personnel from Hebei, Shandong, and Henan to lead the majority of troops across
the river westward and to take responsibility for opening up base areas in the
large area between Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Yancheng, and the New Yellow River.2
Mao
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 2, p. 804, where it is reproduced from Mao
Zedong’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.
1. Instructions Mao Zedong added to a telegram sent by Yu Keqin, commander-in-chief of the Twelfth
Sub-area of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Area Command of the Eighth Route Army, and some
others to Teng Daiyuan and Yang Lisan, chief and deputy chief, respectively, of the General Staff of the
Front Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
2. On June 9, 1938, Chiang Kaishek ordered the National army to breach the levees of the Yellow River at
Huayuankou north of Zhengzhou in an attempt to stop the advance of the Japanese army. As a result, the
Yellow River changed its route. The waterways that the Yellow River passed through after the change of its
route were collectively called the “New Yellow River.”