In Campaigns Absolute Superiority Must Be Ensured; No Reckless Attacks[1]

(August 13, 1945)

Central China Bureau:

Your telegram of the 12th[2] received. We agree that you should concentrate your main forces to strike Li Pinxian and He Zhuguo,[3] while using only whatever forces are possible to assist the Eighth Route Army in seizing the Longhai Railway[4] and Xuzhou. When striking Li and He, do not attack recklessly, and do not attack too early, lest the fighting turn into a stalemate or result in merely routing them. You must have sufficient forces to achieve absolute superiority in the campaign, and make thorough preparations for mobilization. Wait until the enemy advances to a point advantageous to us, then encircle and annihilate one of their columns, and thereafter strike the rest.

Central Committee

13th

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] Refers to the telegram of August 12, 1945, from the Central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the CPC Central Committee concerning the concentration of the entire main forces of the Second, Third, and Fourth Divisions of the New Fourth Army to fight the troops of Li Pinxian and He Zhuguo of the Kuomintang’s Tenth War Zone west of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway.
[3] Li Pinxian and He Zhuguo were then respectively commander and deputy commander of the Kuomintang’s Tenth War Zone.
[4] Longhai refers here to the Lianyungang-Xuzhou section of the Longhai Railway.