Opinion on Wiping Out the Enemy at Datong[1]

(August 30, 1946)

Zhang, Luo, and inform Nie and He[2]:

(1) The enemy at Datong has two possibilities: holding fast and stubbornly resisting, or breaking out and fleeing westward. (2) You should step up the elimination of strongholds outside the city and deploy forces so that when the enemy sallies forth in separate columns (as in the two recent instances when enemy forces inside the city did so), you can encircle and wipe them out (in the two recent instances they were only routed, not wiped out), in order to heighten the panic among the enemy inside the city and prepare for storming and capturing Datong. (3) If the entire enemy force at Datong breaks out and flees westward, do not block them; let them flee to a point several dozen li from the city and then wipe them out.

The Military Commission

30th day of the 8th month

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Zhang Zongxun, commander of the Frontline Headquarters at Datong, and Political Commissar Luo Ruiqing.

[2] Nie refers to Nie Rongzhen, then commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. He refers to He Long, then commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region.