We Must Wipe Out Some Forty-odd Brigades of the Enemy[1]

(August 23, 1946)

Comrades Liu and Deng, and Comrade Chen:

The troops Chiang Kai-shek is using for his direct attacks on us, not counting the puppet troops and peace preservation corps but only the regular forces, are as follows: 11 brigades under Tang Enbo[2] (on the Yangchow-Jukao line), 35 brigades under Hsueh Yueh, 30 brigades under Liu Chih, 7 brigades under Cheng Chien, 16 brigades under Hu Tsung-nan (in southern Shansi, southern Shensi and the Border Region), 14 brigades under Wang Yao-wu,[3] 14 brigades under Sun Lien-chung[4] and 24 brigades under Tu Yu-ming.[5] The total is 151 brigades. This is the maximum number of troops he can muster; all of them have already been committed and it will be difficult to increase their number, and even if it is increased, it will not be by much. Our task is to wipe out about 40-odd brigades from these 151 brigades and the problem can be solved. Not counting those wiped out in the Northeast or the small numbers wiped out in Jehol and along the Tsingtao-Tsinan Railway, we have already wiped out 10 brigades from July 13 to August 20.

The Military Commission of the Central Committee

Wei-yang

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Tse-tung for the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and addressed to Liu Po-cheng, Commander of the Shansi-Hopei-Shantung-Honan Field Army, Teng Hsiao-ping, its Political Commissar, and Chen Yi, Commander and concurrently Political Commissar of the Shantung Field Army.

[2] Tang Enbo was then Deputy Director of the Kuomintang’s Hsuchow Pacification Headquarters and concurrently Commander of its 1st Pacification Zone.

[3] Wang Yao-wu was then Commander of the Kuomintang’s 2nd Pacification Zone.

[4] Sun Lien-chung was then Commander of the Kuomintang’s 11th War Zone.

[5] Tu Yu-ming was then Commander of the Kuomintang’s Northeast Peace Preservation Headquarters.