Eliminate the Enemy’s Third Division at an
Opportune Moment1
(August 29, 1946)
To Liu [Bocheng], Deng [Xiaoping], and Chen [Yi]:2
Liu Zhi3 should order Liu Ruming4 to lead his unit in an attack on Cao county,
and should order Sun Zhen5 to lead his unit in an attack on Dingtao. Liu Ruming
should order Cao Fulin6 to take his remnant unit and Zhang Lanfeng7 to take three
regiments to mop up the southeast of Cao county and then to attack Cao county,
with a unit of Liu’s own Sixty-eighth Division following behind them. Apart from
these offensives, Liu Ruming’s group is also tasked with garrisoning Kaifeng,
Lanfeng,8 Minquan, Liuhe, and Shangqiu. Sun Zhen should order the Third
Division (two brigades) and the Forty-seventh Division (two brigades) to first mop
up Zhang hamlet and other areas south of Dingtao and then to attack Dingtao. The
Forty-first Division of Sun’s unit is tasked with tenaciously defending Fengqiu and Changyuan, attacking Dongming at the proper time, and so forth. We hope
you will order our main forces to complete their rest and reorganization within
one week, and then once the two brigades of the Third Division have arrived at a
suitable position, concentrate all your strength to annihilate one brigade and then
wipe out another brigade at an opportune moment. This division belongs to the
Central Army, so if you can annihilate it, the impact is sure to be great. We hope
you will handle things according to the actual situation.
The Military Commission
---

Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 443–44, where it is
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
In late August 1946, the Guomindang had amassed 32 brigades of 14 reorganized divisions, totaling more than 30,000 troops. The Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army had just concluded
the Longhai Campaign, and the Guomindang had sent troops in an attempt to hold the
field army at Dingtao, Cao county. In accordance with the Central Military Commission’s
directive, the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army annihilated the Guomindang’s Reorganized Third
Division group by group from September 3 to 6 and took Commander Zhao Xitian as prisoner. The field army then pursued the Guomindang’s Reorganized Forty-seventh Division
and part of the Forty-first Division in the Dingtao Campaign on September 7, annihilating
17,000 troops.
2.  Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army. Chen Yi was commander and political commissar of the Shandong Field Army.
3.  Liu Zhi was director of the Guomindang’s Zhengzhou Pacification Office.
4.  Liu Ruming was commander of the Guomindang’s Fourth Pacification Zone.
5.  Sun Zhen was commander of the Guomindang’s Fifth Pacification Zone.
6.  Cao Fulin was division commander of the Guomindang’s Reorganized Fifty-fifth
Division.
7.  Zhang Lanfeng was commander of the Guomindang’s Temporary Fourth Column in
the Fourth Pacification Zone.
8.  Lanfeng is the former name of the county that merged with Kaocheng county in
1954 to become Lankao county in Kaifeng, Henan Province.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-218