Treat Mobilizing the Masses and Creating the
Battlefield as the Most Urgent Strategic Tasks
in the Northeast at Present1
(November 10, 1945)
Yinmao:2
	 1.	 We received on the 9th your telegram of November 6 and we are delighted
with this result.
	 2.	 At present, it is necessary to struggle on for just half a month; during this time,
the two brigades of Huang Yongsheng and Wen Niansheng,3 totaling 5,000
men, and the two divisions of Liang Xingchu and Huang Kecheng,4 totaling
more than 40,000 men, are certain to arrive at the Shenyang and Jinzhou
fronts. Please order our army at the Shanhai Pass to hold on for half a month
and then we will find a way. The main force of the Shandong troops that
will cross the sea must be concentrated between Yingkou and Shenyang and
carry out the battle according to Lin Biao’s5 strategy. The combat strength of
the American-equipped Guomindang divisions is weak. Our Liu [Bocheng]
and Deng [Xiaoping]6 have already captured three entire American-equipped divisions. Please spread this message to boost the morale of the troops. The
main force for crossing the sea must be concentrated between Yingkou and
Shenyang and should fight according to Lin Biao’s7 strategy
	 3.	 There are not many rifles in Shenyang, and some must be kept in reserve
to equip the forces that come later, but would it be possible to send some
ammunition to Rehe?
	 4.	 Three divisions of the Sixteenth Army under Li Zhengxian8 at Shijiazhuang
have begun advancing north. I calculate that within half a month they will be
close to Shanhai Pass. The Thirteenth Army of Shi Jue9 will leave Shanghai
by sea and close in on the Shanhai Pass by the middle of the month. The
Fifty-second Army is moving up from Annam,10 and I calculate that it will
arrive at the Shanhai Pass by the end of this month. The enemy you are facing consists of these three units of about 80,000 men, who are penetrating
deep into our territory but are not familiar with the land or its people, and so
they will be cut off from the masses. The soldiers from the south fear the cold
and there are many new recruits, so there are many weaknesses.
	 5.	 Pay close attention to maintaining tight control over the airports in Changchun
and the vicinity. You must eliminate all enemy troops brought in by air.
	 6.	 Lose no time in mobilizing the masses for the coming war; spread propaganda among the popular masses to the effect that Chiang Kaishek cannot
claim credit for recovering the Northeast and that he is guilty of abandoning
the region. Create a wave of feeling against Chiang amongst the popular
masses. Send a large number of cadres to carry out civilian and Party work
at the Shenyang-Shanhai Pass front and at the Shenyang-Yingkou-Andong11
front. Treat mobilizing the masses and creating the battlefield as the most
urgent strategic tasks for now and give them your utmost attention.
Zichou12
---

Notes

The source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 132–33, where it is
reproduced from the manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.
7.  Lin Biao was commander-in-chief of the Northeast People’s Autonomous Army.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to the Central Committee’s Northeast Bureau.

2.  This may well be a coded reference to something like “second level of command,”
since the document is signed zichou, which by the same token could mean something like
“top level.”

3.  Huang Yongsheng (1910–1982, native of Hubei) was commander of the Second
Political Instruction Brigade of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Shanxi-Suiyuan Joint Defense
Force. Wen Niansheng was originally commander of the First Brigade Garrison of the
Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Shanxi-Suiyuan Joint Defense Force. At this time, he was commander of the Third Guerrilla Detachment of the Eighth Route Army.

4.  Liang Xingchu (1913–1985, born in Ji’an) was commander of the First Division of
the Shandong Military Region. Huang Kecheng was commander and political commissar
of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army.

5.  Lin Biao was commander-in-chief of the Northeast People’s Autonomous Army.

6.  Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were the commander and political commissar,
respectively, of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan (Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu) Military Region.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-80

8.  Li Zhengxian was commander of the Guomindang’s Sixteenth Army.

9.  Shi Jue (1908–1986, native of Guangxi) was commander of the Guomindang’s Thirteenth Army.

10.  Annam is the name that Vietnam was commonly known by until 1945.

11.  Andong is the former name of the city of Dandong, Liaoning Province.

12.  See note 2.