Expand the Fruits of Victory and Annihilate Another Part of Sun Zhen’s Forces[1]

(November 20, 1946)

Liu and Deng:

Your telegram of the 20th has been received. We are greatly gratified by the great victory in the operations against Sun Zhen.[2] It would be best if you could expand the fruits of victory, annihilate another part of Sun Zhen’s forces, and prepare to wipe out Wang Zhonglian’s[3] possible reinforcements. In short, the greater your victory on the western front, the better it will be, for it will not only tie down the Fifth Army but may also tie down the Reorganized 11th Division (which is now being moved to Xuzhou), thereby greatly assisting the operations in southern and northern Shandong.

The Military Commission

22:00, November 20

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Liu Bocheng, commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, and Deng Xiaoping, its political commissar.

[2] This refers to the Huaxian Campaign conducted by the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army from November 18 to 22, 1946. In this campaign, the main force of the field army, employing the tactic of long-distance raids, advanced swiftly and covertly from the area north of Puxian and Juancheng to Huaxian in Henan Province, and annihilated the entire 12th Security Column and the 104th Brigade under Sun Zhen, commander of the 5th Pacification Zone of the Kuomintang army, as well as the greater part of the 125th Brigade, totaling about 12,000 men.

[3] Wang Zhonglian was then commander of the Reorganized 26th Army of the Kuomintang army.