Make Every Effort to Capture Many
Medium-Sized and Small Cities
(August 25, 1945)
To the Plains Sub-bureau:1
The point of our telegram2 of the 24th was that if you can wipe out the enemy
and the puppets in the medium-sized and the small cities, do so. If you cannot
wipe them out, let them concentrate, if possible, in the major cities, so we can
occupy the many small and medium-sized cities to deal with the approaching new
situation.
The Central Committee
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, p. 47, where it is reproduced
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
2.  The Central Military Commission’s August 24 telegram to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei
(Jin-Cha-Ji) Region, the Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Ji-Lu-Yu) Region, the Plains (Pingyuan)
Region, and the Shandong Region stated that the enemy had accepted the restrictions under
the conditions of surrender and was not permitted to surrender to the Communist forces; as
a result, the Central Military Commission had determined that for the time being cities and
major transportation routes in northern China would be difficult to seize and occupy. The
railways were to be sabotaged to besiege the major cities and seize the small cities and to
increase the difficulties for the Guomindang to seize the fruits of victory.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-24

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