To Li, Dai, Wen, and Ren [1]: Our Liu-Deng [2] forces have again won a victory. On August 21, north of Minquan County, we annihilated an entire enemy brigade and one regiment of another brigade. Thus far, from August 10 to August 21, our units have destroyed two regular enemy brigades and five security regiments, and more than four thousand puppet troops have defected to our side.


Liu Zhi [5], in a panic, has hastily dispatched reinforcements. In addition to seven brigades transferred from southern Shaanxi and southwestern Henan, he has also moved two brigades of the 75th Division from western and central Hubei. As a result, only the 185th Brigade of the 66th Division remains in western Hubei.


Please instruct Wang Liu and Luo Wen [6] to disperse completely, rely on the masses, and resolutely establish base areas. With regard to your own command, any units that have failed to disperse for guerrilla operations—such as those under Huang Lin and Min Xuesheng [7]—should be ordered to do so without delay and thoroughly.


In short, all our units in southern Shaanxi, western Henan, and western Hubei should seize this opportunity: the more widely our forces are dispersed, the better; the larger the territory we control, the better. Supplies and uniforms can be secured in this way; fatigue and physical exhaustion can be recovered; and mass armed forces can be cultivated (for only by cultivating such forces can we truly take root).


I urge you to guide all units to implement these measures decisively and without fail.


Where is Wei San [8], and how is his health? Please inform us.


Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript, Central Document No. 23.


Notes [1] Li refers to Li Xiannian, then Commander of the Central Plains Military Region. Dai refers to Dai Jiying, then Political Commissar of the First Column of the Central Plains Military Region. Wen refers to Wen Jianwu (1911–1951), from Jinzhai, Anhui Province, then Commander of the Second Column of the Central Plains Military Region. Ren refers to Ren Zhibin, born in 1915 in Jimo, Shandong Province, then Political Commissar of the Second Column of the Central Plains Military Region. [2] Liu-Deng refers to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, who at the time served respectively as Commander and Political Commissar of the Jin-Hebei-Luyu Field Army. [3] “Wei Ma” denotes August 21. [4] “Wei Hui” denotes August 10. [5] Liu Zhi was then Director of the Zhengzhou Pacification Office of the Nationalist Army. [6] Wang Liu refers to Wang Shusheng and Liu Zijiu, who at the time served respectively as Commander and Deputy Political Commissar of the First Column of the Central Plains Military Region. Luo refers to Luo Houfu (1909–1975), from Huang’an, Hubei Province (now Hong’an), then Commander of the Jianghan Military Region. Wen refers to Wen Minsheng, born in 1915 in Yuanqu, Shanxi Province, then Political Commissar of the Jianghan Military Region. Wang Shusheng, Liu Zijiu, Luo Houfu, and Wen Minsheng were at that time organizing the Northwestern Hubei Military Region. [7] Huang Lin and Min Xuesheng were then Political Commissar and Commander, respectively, of the Fourth Military Subregion of the Henan-Hubei-Shaanxi Military Region. [8] Wei San refers to Zheng Weisan, then Acting Secretary of the CPC Central Committee’s Central Plains Bureau and Political Commissar of the Central Plains Military Region.