Storm and Capture Weak Positions and Then
Displace and Annihilate the Enemy
(August 27, 1946)
To Su [Yu] and Tan [Zhenlin], and for the information of Chen [Yi], Liu
[Bocheng], and Deng [Xiaoping]:1
	 1.	 We received Su and Tan’s telegram of the 26th2 and are very pleased to learn
that you wiped out the Ninety-ninth Brigade.
	 2.	 After managing to surround and annihilate the enemy at Jiali city, rest for a
few days and recover from fatigue. Afterwards, choose the weakest enemy
forces among Huangqiao, Jiangduo, Guxi, Yunlianghe, and other places, and
storm and capture them (ignore for now enemy positions where victory is
not assured). Eliminate small strongholds at the enemy’s rear one by one to
completely isolate the enemy along the Hai’an-Qutang-Dabaimi-Xiaobaimi-Jiangyan line, and then try to capture this line at an opportune moment. In
sum, attack and capture the weak points, threaten the enemy’s rear, and then
displace and annihilate the enemy. We hope you will make your deployments according to the current situation.


The Military Commission


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 430–31, 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. Su
Yu was commander and Tan Zhenlin was political commissar, respectively, of the Central
China (Hunan and Hebei) Field Army. Chen Yi was commander and political commissar of
the Shandong Field Army. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political
commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army.



2.  The telegram from Su Yu et al. stated that the field army had wiped out the Guomindang’s 6,000-member Fifty-fifth Brigade east of Huangqiao and had shifted its military
strength to surround the Guomindang’s Third Regiment at Jiali in hopes of eliminating it.
Jiali city is in southwestern Rugao county, Jiangsu Province.


DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-215