Talk with Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping[1]

(August 25, 1945)

Our slogans are peace, democracy, and unity. Above all, we must strive for peace and avoid civil war. Among the conditions we have put forward, recognition of the Liberated Areas and our army is the most central one. There may be a situation in which fighting alternates with negotiations, forcing them to recognize these conditions. From now on, we must advance into the Japanese-occupied territories, expand the Liberated Areas, and secure a favorable position for ourselves in the negotiations. When you return to the front, just go ahead boldly and fight, and do not worry about my safety in Chongqing. The better you fight, the safer I will be and the better the negotiations will go. There is no other way.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong's talk with Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping just before they returned to the Taihang Mountains on a U.S. military observer group plane. Also on the same plane to the Taihang Mountains were Chen Yi, Bo Yibo, Chen Geng, Xiao Jinguang, Li Tianyou, Deng Hua, Chen Xilian, Chen Zaidao, Song Shilun, Teng Daiyuan, Zhang Jichun, Yang Dezhi, Lin Biao, and others. On September 9, Nie Rongzhen, Xiao Ke, Liu Lantao, and Luo Ruiqing boarded a plane traveling from Yan'an to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei area to bring back rescued U.S. pilots and returned to their posts. Because the Soviet Union's entry into the Northeast had not been communicated to the CPC Central Committee, the principal leading cadres of several major strategic areas who had attended the Seventh National Congress of the CPC had not yet left Yan'an when the general counteroffensive began. Wang Ruofei was then serving as Secretary of the CPC Central Committee's Chongqing Work Committee, responsible for overseeing the daily work of the Southern Bureau.

On August 26, 1945, a group photo was taken at the airfield before Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, Lin Biao, and others departed for the Taihang base area on a U.S. military observer group plane.