Telegram to the Comrades of the Central
Bureau of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu) Region1
 (October 17, 1945)
Under your leadership, we have fought a victorious Shangdang Campaign,2 which
has created the possibility for our troops to win a similar or an even greater victory next time. Of all the forces under your command, apart from using all the
forces of Taiyue District to fight the campaign along the Tongpu railway and
win a well-deserved victory, you must muster all your strength in the Taihang
and Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Ji-Lu-Yu) regions to obtain a victory in the Pinghan
Campaign.3 The forthcoming new Pinghan Campaign is for the purpose of opposing an attack by the main forces of the Guomindang and to achieve a peaceful
situation. Whether we win or lose, this campaign will be of critical importance to
the overall situation. You should be prepared to strive to wipe out half or more
of the 80,000 diehard enemy troops through consecutive battles over a period of
a month and a half or more. Only in this way can we resolve this problem. We
hope you will use the experience of the Shangdang Campaign, mobilize all the
forces in the two regions of Taihang and Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Ji-Lu-Yu), put
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenxuan. Neibuben, pp. 375–76. It also
appears in Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 60–61.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
2.  See the note in “Seizing Victory in the Pingsui Campaign is of Great Significance,”
October 16, 1945, in this volume.
3.  In September 1945, Guomindang troops advanced on Handan, the central city of the
Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Liberated Area to quickly disable the [Bei]Ping-Han[kou]
railway. On October 24, the main forces of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military
District surrounded the Guomindang forces south of Handan, including the Thirtieth, Fortieth, and New Eighth armies. On October 30, Gao Shuxun (1897–1972, born in Zhili),
deputy commander of the Guomindang’s Twelfth War Zone and commander of the New
Eighth Army, led an uprising by his troops and some 10,000 Hebei troops. On November
2, the campaign ended. More than 20,000 Guomindang troops were killed, and Ma Fawu
(1894–1992, native of Hebei), deputy commander of the Eleventh War Zone and commander of the Fortieth Army, was captured.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-45

them under the direct command of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping,4 carefully
and accurately organize each and every one of the battles, and achieve victory
in a second Shangdang Campaign. Of the 80,000 diehard enemy troops, several
armies have a strong fighting capacity, and you should not underestimate them.
But since the diehard enemy troops have just arrived in a strange place, they are
not familiar with the geography or the local situation, they belong to different
units, and they will have difficulty with logistics. They are eager for victory and
are inclined to underestimate our army. All these factors provide us with a very
good opportunity, which must be seized. We sincerely hope that you will encourage our troops and the people to unite as one, miss no opportunities, and guided by
the spirit of the Shangdang Campaign, achieve victory in the Pinghan Campaign.
4.  Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were the commander and political commissar,
respectively, of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military District.