Letter to Xu Fanting[1]

(November 2, 1945)

Brother Fanting:

Your letter received. Despite your illness you have exerted yourself to write an article, which is strict in wording and righteous in principle; it has been sent to the newspaper for publication.[2] The three armies (seven divisions) of Sun Lianzhong,[3] totaling sixty thousand men, which had invaded our Liberated Area in Hebei, have been encircled by our Liu-Deng forces in the Handan region. After ten days of fighting, Gao Shuxun[4] has led two divisions of the New Eighth Army in an uprising, opposing the civil war and coming over to our side. The three American-equipped divisions of the 30th Army (Lu Chongyi) and the two divisions of the 40th Army (Ma Fawu) are in general retreat. Since the day before yesterday we have launched a general counteroffensive, having already annihilated two divisions; the remainder are still engaged in combat and are expected to be resolved within a few days. I know you are concerned, so I respectfully inform you.

Mao Zedong

November 2

[1] Xu Fanting (1893–1947), a native of Xishe Village, Guo County (now Yuanping City), Shanxi Province, was a renowned patriotic general. In his early years he joined the Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen. He later held posts in the Kuomintang, went into seclusion for a period, and subsequently collaborated with Communists to establish the Shanxi New Army. After his death from illness in 1947, he was posthumously recognized as a full member of the Chinese Communist Party.

[2] Refers to Xu Fanting’s article “An Admonition to the Kuomintang Authorities and Their Schemers,” published in *Liberation Daily* on November 6, 1945.

[3] Sun Lianzhong, then Chairman of the Kuomintang Government’s Hebei Province and Commander of the 11th War Zone.

[4] Gao Shuxun, then Deputy Commander of the Kuomintang’s 11th War Zone and concurrently Commander of the New Eighth Army.