Concentrate a Maximum Force to Attack a Single Point and Destroy the Enemy One by One[1]

(September 23, 1946)

Nie and Liu, and Xiao and Luo:

(1) Your telegram of the 22nd received. The dispositions are very appropriate. (2) Yesterday (the 22nd), the Central News Agency broadcast that a three‑pronged attack on Zhangyuan[2] seems intended to scare us into withdrawing, so that they can take Zhangyuan without a fight as they did Chengde, since the enemy has only six brigades (divisions), no more than about thirty thousand men. (3) During operations, take care in the first battle to encircle only one or two regiments, concentrate a maximum force and all artillery to attack a single point (on no account attack two or more points simultaneously), and after succeeding, expand the results and destroy the enemy one by one. After victory in the first battle, decide on new actions in light of the situation. (4) First use a part of the force to block the enemy, wear him down through fatigue and attrition, draw him into terrain favorable to us, and then strike and destroy him. (5) Advocate fierce assault, fierce charge, and fierce pursuit, so as to ensure victory.

Military Commission

23rd

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Nie Rongzhen, commander and political commissar of the Shanxi‑Chahar‑Hebei Military Region, and Liu Lantao, deputy political commissar, as well as to Xiao Ke, commander of the Shanxi‑Chahar‑Hebei Field Army, and Luo Ruiqing, its political commissar.
[2] Zhangyuan is present‑day Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province.