Step up Preparations against Fu Zuoyi’s
Attacks
(May 9, 1946)
To He [Long] and Li [Jingquan], and for the information of Nie [Rongzhen]:1
	 1.	 You must step up preparations against Fu Zuoyi’s2 attacks.
	 2.	 Rapidly build and strengthen fortifications at Zhuozishan,3 Jining, Liangcheng,
Fengzhen, and so on, and make advance troop assignments for defense of
the cities (the numbers should not be too large). Store up provisions and
ammunition and prepare to defend the cities to the death as you await the
main forces to wipe out the enemy from flexible positions. In the recent battle
of Sipingjie4 in the Northeast we deployed two regiments to defend the city
(one more was added a week later). Five of the enemy’s divisions surrounded
us on three sides and fought for twenty days without achieving a victory and
now our main force is seeking opportunities to destroy the enemy from the
periphery. We hope units will be told to follow this model.
	 3.	 Nie must make similar preparations regarding the enemy at Nankou.
	 4.	 Rapidly annihilate the bandits north of Chahar.5
	 5.	 Intensify the training of soldiers, raise the level of their skills, and boost
morale in preparation for smashing the attacking enemy. You are expected
to inform us by telegram of each item in the preparatory work.
The Military Commission
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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 208–9, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
He Long and Li Jingquan (1909–1989, native of Jiangxi) were commander and political
commissar, respectively, of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region. Nie Rongzhen was commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.

2.  Fu Zuoyi was commander of the Twelfth War Zone of the Guomindang army.

3.  Zhuozishan is now the county seat of Zhuozi county, Inner Mongolia.

4.  The battle of Sipingjie began on April 18 and lasted for one month, with the Communist forces inflicting major casualties on the Guomindang troops before the Northeast
Democratic Allied Army withdrew from Siping on May 18 and then from Gongzhuling
and Changchun.

5.  Chahar Province covered today’s northwestern Hebei and Xilingol, Inner Mongolia,
and then also northeastern Hebei and northern Shanxi, until it was abolished in 1952.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-138