Transfer Our Forces to the Northeast as
Rapidly as Possible
 (October 25, 1945)


To Chen [Yi] and Li [Yu], Luo [Ronghuan] and Li [Zuopeng]:1
	 1.	 Crossing the seas and fighting in the field2 are equally important, but crossing
the seas is more urgent. We request that Chen and Li please evaluate the situation regarding the arrival of the New Fourth Army and the circumstances
of the obstinate enemy. If the New Fourth arrives in larger numbers than
expected and the situation of the diehard enemy is not very acute, would it
be possible to send troops ahead for the crossing and to let them go first?
	 2.	 Luo and Li, please organize the crossing of the seas carefully. You must
keep crossing every day without interruption and continuously transfer the
soldiers northward. The soldiers promised by Shandong should set out by
both land and sea. They must all be transferred by next month and arrive in
Liaoning Province, where they are in urgent demand. The faster this happens, the better.
	 3.	 Please consider these two points and respond.


Mao Zedong


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 82–83, where it is repro2.  “Crossing the seas” refers to the Eighth Route Army’s forces in the Shandong Military Region crossing the Bohai Gulf to begin actions in the Northeast. “Fighting in the
field” refers to both the counterattacks being waged by forces in the Shandong Military
Region, including the New Fourth Army in Shandong, against the Guomindang forces
invading the Shandong Liberated Areas along the Jin-Pu line near Xuzhou and Ji’nan, and
the campaign to annihilate those puppet troops that refused to surrender.


DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-55

duced from a handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.



--- Notes



1.  Chen Yi was commander of the New Fourth Army and of the Shandong Military
Region, and Li Yu was deputy political commissar of the Shandong Military Region. Luo
Ronghuan was the commander and political commissar, and Li Zuopeng was chief-of-staff,
of the Shandong Military Region. At this time, they were preparing to go to Shandong.