To Commander-in-Chief Hao and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Xun of the Central China Democratic Allied Forces, and to all officers and men: On the occasion of your army’s founding anniversary, we extend our warmest congratulations. We hope that together you will thoroughly defeat Chiang Kai-shek’s offensive and thereby hasten the realization of a peaceful, democratic new China. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, the 8th day.