Annihilating the Forces of Huo Shouyi, Chen Daqing, and Li Pinxian
Is to Aid North China and the Northeast[1]
(October 30, 1945)
Chen and Li, and inform the Central China Bureau:
(1) The arrangements made by Chen and Li on the 28th are very appropriate. (2) Annihilating Huo Shouyi[2] in the north and Chen Daqing[3] in the south is to aid the Northeast, because these troops are all scheduled to move to the Northeast. Besides paying attention to the campaign between Zouxian and Tengxian[4] and seizing the opportune moment to annihilate Chen and Wu[5], and also making preparations to deal with more diehard troops moving north, annihilating Huo Shouyi in the north is extremely important. Please pay attention to the operational guidance there: first annihilate two or three regiments of Huo’s forces to blunt their advance, then destroy them one by one. (3) Li Pinxian[6] may also possibly move toward Beiping and Tianjin. The campaign of destroying the railways between Xuzhou and Bengbu[7] and annihilating Li’s forces is significant in that it aids North China and the Northeast. We hope Central China will pay full attention to this point. (4) In destroying the railways, emphasis should be placed on digging up and wrecking the roadbeds and giving consideration to both military and civilian needs. Digging up and wrecking the roadbeds makes it difficult for the diehards, who lack manpower, to repair them; giving consideration to both public and private interests enables the people to gain

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Chen Yi, Commander of the New Fourth Army and concurrently Commander of the Shandong Military Region, and Li Yu, Deputy Political Commissar of the Shandong Military Region.
[2] Huo Shouyi was then Commander of the 12th Army of the Kuomintang army.
[3] Chen Daqing was then Commander-in-Chief of the 19th Group Army of the Kuomintang army.
[4] Zouxian and Tengxian refer to Zou County and Teng County in Shandong Province.
[5] Chen refers to Chen Daqing. Wu refers to Wu Huawen, formerly Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Front Army of the puppet troops, who was then appointed by the Military Commission of the Kuomintang government as Commander-in-Chief of the 5th Route Army of the Kuomintang army.
[6] Li Pinxian was then Commander-in-Chief of the 10th War Zone of the Kuomintang army.
[7] Xuzhou and Bengbu refer to Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province and Bengbu in Anhui Province.

benefits, so that the destruction of the railways can be thoroughly carried out.

The Central Committee

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