Fight Several Major Battles in the Huaihai Area to Open Up the Situation[1]

(October 13, 1946)

Chen, Zhang, Deng, Su, Tan:

All your telegrams have been received. You should continue, as previously decided, to concentrate the entire forces of the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army (including the Eighth Division) to fight several major battles in the Huaihai area and open up the situation. This will be beneficial to the Huaihai area itself, to southern Shandong, to central Jiangsu, and to coordinating with Liu and Deng,[2] and it will also be advantageous for moving out to the Dabie Mountains and switching to exterior-line operations in the future (several months from now). Under this policy, the Eighth Division will also temporarily not return to southern Shandong.

The Central Committee

Wei, Yuan, Wei

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Chen Yi, Commander and concurrently Political Commissar of the Shandong Field Army; Zhang Dingcheng, Commander of the Central China Military Area; Deng Zihui, Political Commissar of the Central China Military Area; and Su Yu, Commander, and Tan Zhenlin, Political Commissar of the Central China Field Army.

[2] Liu and Deng refer to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, who were then respectively serving as Commander and Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army.