Ask Liu and Deng to Consider Using the Main Force to Attack the Enemy’s Weak and Exposed Rear Areas[1]

(October 9, 1946)

Comrades Liu and Deng:

Your telegram of 8 October[2] has been received. After a few days’ rest, please consider deploying the main force to strike at the enemy’s weak and exposed rear areas, recapture various weakly defended strongholds, and seize the enemy’s communication lines, so as to draw out Qiu and Hu[3] and destroy them one by one.

Central Military Commission
9 October

[1] This telegram was drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and addressed to Liu Bocheng, commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, and Deng Xiaoping, its political commissar.
[2] This refers to the telegram sent by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping at 5–7 p.m., 8 October 1946, to the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and to Chen Yi, Zhang Yunyi, Li Yu, Bo Yibo, and Wang Hongkun. The telegram stated: (1) In the battle at Zhangfengji, the greater part of the 42nd Regiment of the enemy’s 10th Brigade was wiped out. The regimental commander, leading several hundred men, broke through the encirclement under the cover of two reinforcing battalions and aircraft. (2) Since the enemy has now shrunk into a single mass, with the entire division holding only a few villages and constructing strong fortifications, it is difficult to strike. We have therefore decided to halt the offensive and seek favorable conditions for another operation.
[3] Qiu refers to Qiu Qingquan, then commander of the 5th Army of the Kuomintang forces. Hu refers to Hu Lian, then commander of the Reorganized 11th Division of the Kuomintang forces.