Zhang Rao Lai [1], together with Luo and Li, reported to Chen and Li [2]: (1) According to a telegram from Chen and Li Ge [3], our Shandong Eighth Division has occupied Zou County, secured more than forty li of railway line, annihilated over two thousand diehard puppet troops, and is preparing to destroy any further enemy reinforcements.


In addition, our Shandong Third and Fourth Divisions have captured Dawenkou and taken control of another twenty li of railway.


(2) It is hoped that our New Fourth Field Army will expand its railway-occupying zone between Bengbu and Xuzhou, concentrating its main forces to wipe out the enemy.


(3) As long as we hold a section of the railway, the enemy is bound to attack, and the fighting will only grow larger and more intense. Therefore, first, our forces must extend the occupied area northward and southward, creating a battlefield conducive to mobile warfare; second, we must concentrate powerful field armies—Shandong and Central China each needs at least one field army of thirty-five to forty thousand men—and we must factor in replenishment after successive battles, mobilizing militia to assist in combat, with local Party and government leaders personally taking charge to aid operations. Both Shandong and Central China should set the goal of successively annihilating forty to fifty thousand enemy troops in each campaign; third, for the purpose of concentrating forces to destroy the enemy, Shandong and Central China should each have only one primary axis of operation, with all other directions serving as secondary axes, so as not to disperse our strength.


(4) In the Shangdang Campaign in Shanxi [4], using a main force of thirty-one thousand men and fifty thousand militia assisting in combat, over a period of forty days I conducted several successive engagements. As a result, Yan’s [5] band of thirty-eight thousand troops, save for a few thousand who escaped, was virtually wiped out, with more than thirty-three thousand killed or captured, and vast quantities of spoils seized—this serves as a model.


At present, Liu and Deng [6] have assembled a field army of sixty thousand men, preparing to destroy at least forty thousand of the eighty thousand enemy troops advancing north from Xinxiang. Meanwhile, Nie and He [7] have gathered a field army of fifty thousand to annihilate the majority or even the entire force of fifty thousand enemy troops operating in eastern Suiyuan [8].


If you can conduct several successful annihilation battles in Shandong and Central China, it will have a major impact on the overall situation.


Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript under the direction of the Military Commission, Youyang edition.


Notes: [1] Zhang Rao Lai refers to Zhang Yunyi, Rao Shushi, and Lai Chuanzhu, who at the time served respectively as Deputy Commander, Political Commissar, and Chief of Staff of the New Fourth Army.


[2] Luo refers to Luo Ronghuan (1902–1963), from Hengshan, Hunan, formerly Commander and Political Commissar of the Shandong Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, who was then preparing to go to Northeast China for work. Li refers to Li Zuopeng, born in 1914 in Ji’an, Jiangxi, formerly Chief of Staff of the Shandong Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, also preparing to go to Northeast China. Chen refers to Chen Yi (1901–1972), from Lezhi, Sichuan, who at the time was Commander of the New Fourth Army and Commander of the Shandong Military Region. Li Yu (1906–1986), from Guoxian County, Shanxi (now Yuanping), was then Deputy Political Commissar of the Shandong Military Region.


[3] Ge means the twentieth day.


[4] The Shangdang Campaign is mentioned in Note [8] on page 35 of this volume.


[5] Yan refers to Yan Xishan, who at the time served as Commander-in-Chief of the Nationalist Army’s Second War Zone.


[6] Liu and Deng refer to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, who at the time were Commander and Political Commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Hebei-Luyu Military Region.


[7] Nie refers to Nie Rongzhen, who at the time was Commander and Political Commissar of the Jin-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. He refers to He Long, who at the time was Commander of the Jin-Sui Field Army.


[8] Suiyuan is mentioned in Note [3] on page 17 of this volume.