Directive on Expanding Anti-Civil War Propaganda and Establishing Rural Strongholds in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan[1]

(July 22, 1945)

Xu, Zhang[2]:

All of Chiang’s deployments are preparations for opposing the Communists, and the crisis of civil war is unprecedentedly grave. It is required that: (1) You endeavor to disseminate the Yan’an anti-civil war news in the Great Rear Area. The wording of these news items will strike the middle factions as too sharp, but in the future it will prove the correctness of our views. (2) You must devote the greatest attention to laying out rural strongholds in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, in preparation for waging guerrilla warfare in the future, so that our Party will not be placed in a position of being completely beaten and helpless when the Kuomintang launches a civil war. People should be sent now to lead the popular uprisings in Guizhou and other places.

Mao Zedong

July 22

[1] This is a directive telegram from Mao Zedong to Xu Bing and Zhang Ming on expanding anti-civil war propaganda and establishing rural strongholds in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.

[2] Xu refers to Xu Bing (1903–1972), a native of Nangong, Hebei; Zhang refers to Zhang Ming, i.e., Liu Shaowen (1905–1987), a native of Xinyang, Henan. Both were responsible persons of the Work Committee of the Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.