There Is Ample Reason for Our Side to
Initiate a Counteroffensive1
 (November 3, 1945)
From AB to CD [The Central Committee to the CPC Delegation in Chongqing],
November 3:
We received your telegram of the 2nd. Guisui, Baotou, Wuyuan, and Linhe
must be captured. The time period should be at least half a month. As for Datong,
only encircle it for now as it cannot be dealt with until after Guisui and Baotou are
resolved. Fu Zuoyi and Yan Xishan2 have instigated the civil war, each attacking
our Liberated Areas with forces of more than 50,000 troops, so there is ample reason for our side to initiate a counteroffensive. If our side is falsely accused of instigating the civil war, we shall make public Chiang Kaishek’s telegram of October
19th to Hu Zongnan3 and all the various other documents related to the civil war.
Delegates to the National Assembly must be re-selected and the timing must be
postponed for one year, otherwise our side will resolutely oppose it. You4 should
discuss and draft a resolution concerning procedures for holding a political conference, the dates it should be convened, and so on; only after your return and after
discussion can we express our final opinion, and only then the matter of delegates
can be considered. Provided that the conference is postponed, you should stay on in
Chongqing for as long as possible and not return. A political conference is actually
a means by which the centrists can be educated and a way for them to gain experience, but the problems are not going to be resolved there. To add a point to our
previous telegram,5 Eighth Route Army troops should be stationed in the three cities of Beiping, Tianjin, and Qingdao; for the time being, only a small contingent of
Central Army troops can be stationed there and in the future they should withdraw.


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 59–60, where it is reproduced
1.  This telegram was sent by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
to its representatives in Chongqing.
2.  Fu Zuoyi was commander of the Guomindang’s Twelfth War Zone. Yan Xishan was
commander of the Guomindang’s Second War Zone.
3.  See “Method for Dealing with Captured Officers and Soldiers,” November 3, 1945,
in this volume.
4.  The editors of Wenji indicate that this is referring to Zhou Enlai.
5.  See “North China, the Northeast, and Other Areas Must Be Returned to People’s
Self-Governance,” November 3, 1945, in this volume.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-70



from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.