Dispositions for the Pinghan Campaign1
(October 27, 1945)
To Liu [Bocheng], Deng [Xiaoping], Bo [Yibo], Zhang [Jichun], and Li [Da]:
We received your telegram of October 26.2 Your dispositions are entirely
correct. Wait until all your units have arrived, conserve strength, and store up
energy. By then the enemy will be hungry and exhausted and its weakness will be
exposed. We will concentrate our main forces, seek the enemy’s weak spots, and
wipe out one or two of its divisions, and the enemy’s morale will surely suffer a
setback.
Hu [Zongnan]’s troops3 in Shijiazhuang sent a telegram to Hu on October 26,
saying that they would order one division to move toward Gaoyi in coordination
with Hou Ruyong4 to reinforce the troops marching northward from Anyang. Its
fighting capacity is not as good as that of the enemy now confronting you, and
you may use local forces to delay its movements. The diehard enemy troops in
Shijiazhuang and Xinxiang total eight divisions, and the diehard enemy troops
in front of you total six divisions, adding up to no more than fourteen divisions.

If you wipe out one or two divisions of the enemy troops in front of you, it may
lead to a reinforcement of the remaining enemy troops from both the north and
the south. You must be prepared to wipe out four or five divisions of the enemy in
successive and repeated campaigns to change the overall situation.
As far as the situation in Suiyuan is concerned, more than 50,000 of our
forces under the command of Nie Rongzhen and He Long5 began the campaign
on October 18. The enemy is very tenacious. In the beginning we wiped out
only one regiment, put to flight one cavalry division, one infantry division, and
a few less well-known units. After a week of hard fighting, we took Fengzhen
and Liangcheng and we took Jining on October 24. Then the situation began
to change. We wiped out the Twenty-sixth Division under the command of He
Wending6 (who belongs to the Chiang faction) at Zhuozishan.7 The main forces
of Fu Zuoyi’s8 101st and Thirty-second divisions are fleeing westward, and we are
pursuing them in Guisui.9
As regards the situation in Hubei and Henan, the field army brigade of our
Fifth Division is already set up. It has taken Tongbo and has joined forces with
Wang Shusheng, Dai Jiying, and Wang Zhen.10 We have ordered it to operate
freely and to cooperate with your campaign. We hope that you will pay attention
to mobilizing the people to participate in the campaign, strengthening defense
work, evacuating noncombatants, and hiding provisions and livestock, and that
you will amass all possible strength to defeat the enemy facing you. As regards
food supplies, you should prepare for protracted warfare.

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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 84–85. It also appears
in Mao Zedong junshi wenxuan. Neibuben, pp. 376–77.

--- Notes

1.  This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong on behalf of the Military Commission of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It was sent to Commander of the
Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region Liu Bocheng, Political Commissar Deng
Xiaoping, First Deputy Political Commissar Bo Yibo (1908–2007, born in Taiyuan), Second Deputy Political Commissar and Chair of the Political Section Zhang Jichun (1900–
1968, native of Hunan), and Chief-of-Staff Li Da (1905–1993, born in Mei county, Baoji).

2.  The telegram from Liu Bocheng et al. said: The enemy now lacks confidence but is
still resolute, and our rear troops consisting of 13,000 men have yet to arrive. We have thus
resolved to continue harrying the enemy south and east of the Fu River. With only one-third
of our military strength, we will try to wage a small battle to annihilate the enemy a column
and a fort at a time. With our small elite force united, we will penetrate deep behind enemy
lines to engage in positive activity while amassing our forces to rest. Once the rear troops
that we are awaiting arrive, we will look for an opportunity to eradicate one or two enemy
divisions.

3.  This refers to the Third and Sixteenth armies under the command of Hu Zongnan,
commander of the Guomindang’s First War Zone, which had just advanced in Shijiazhuang.

4.  Hou Ruyong (1908–1986, born in Zhaoxian Hebei) was originally a brigade commander for the puppet armies of the Independent Second Brigade of the Sixth Field Army.
After Japan surrendered, his unit was absorbed by the Guomindang army and Hou became
commander-in-chief of the Guomindang’s advance army in the First War Zone.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-56

5.  Nie Rongzhen was commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei
Military Region, He Long was commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region.

6.  He Wending (1903–1968, native of Shaanxi) was commander of the Guomindang
army’s 26th Division.

7.  The name of a town. It is now the county seat of Zhuozi county in Inner Mongolia.

8.  Fu Zuoyi was commanding officer of the Guomindang’s Twelfth War Zone.

9.  Guisui is the old name for the city of Hohhot, now located in Inner Mongolia.

10.  Wang Shusheng and Dai Jiying were the commander and political commissar,
respectively, of the Henan War Zone. Wang Zhen was commander of the 359th Brigade of
the Eighth Route Army.