To Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying[1]

(June 12, 1946)

For the sake of retaliation, we have captured Zaozhuang, Tai’an, Dawenkou, Zhangdian, Zhoucun, Dezhou, Jiaozhou, and other places. If the Americans speak out, we should refute them. Over the past several months, the Guomindang has attacked and occupied several hundred of our villages and towns, forty county seats (twenty-six of which have yet to be recovered), and a population of three million, yet the Americans have said nothing. Now they are speaking out, which shows their unfairness. If the Guomindang does not cease its offensives, our retaliation will not cease either.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying.