Telegram to Zhou Enlai and the Various Strategic Regions[1]

(November 3, 1945)

Zhou and the various strategic regions:

The 30th Army, 40th Army, and New 8th Army under Sun Lianzhong, which had invaded the Handan area in the central section of the Peiping-Hankow Railway—seven divisions totaling 60,000 men—have been encircled by our forces under Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.[2] After ten days of bloody battle, Gao Shuxun[3] led the two divisions of the New 8th Army in an uprising against the civil war. Apart from approximately 3,000 who fled, the remaining two armies (including three U.S.-equipped divisions) were completely annihilated. Many prisoners were taken, and the count is now under way. Our side also suffered 8,000 casualties.

The Military Commission

November 3

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee on November 3, 1945, concerning the Peiping-Hankow Campaign, addressed to Zhou Enlai and the various strategic regions.

[2] Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were then serving respectively as Commander and Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region.

[3] Gao Shuxun was then Deputy Commander of the Kuomintang’s 11th War Zone and concurrently Commander of the Newly Organized 8th Army.