Guiding Principles for Operations in the Eastern Hebei Area[1]

(December 4, 1946)

To the Eastern Hebei District Party Committee, with notification to the Central Bureau and the Sub-Bureau:

Your telegram of the 30th has been received. Over the past five months, our army has annihilated thirty-nine enemy brigades, thereby having basically halted the large-scale offensive of Chiang Kai-shek’s army. In the coming half year, our army must strive to annihilate approximately forty enemy brigades, so as to fundamentally transform the war situation. As regards your area and Rehe[2], generally speaking, the situation will naturally remain one in which guerrilla warfare predominates for the time being. However, you should regularly concentrate three brigades (nine regiments) to seek out the enemy’s weak points and fight mobile warfare, attacking strongholds that are not particularly solid. Use one part of your forces to engage the enemy frontally and the main force to execute outflanking maneuvers. In each engagement, annihilate one enemy battalion, two battalions, or up to one regiment. Within half a year, strive to annihilate five or six enemy regiments and recover all strongholds that can be recovered. In all sub-districts, guerrilla warfare shall be maintained throughout.

The Central Committee

Haizhi

[1] This was a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, addressed to the Eastern Hebei District Party Committee of the CPC, with notification to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the Hebei-Chahar-Rehe-Liaoning Sub-Bureau.
[2] Rehe was an old provincial name, encompassing the northeastern part of present-day Hebei Province, the southwestern part of Liaoning Province, and the southeastern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was abolished in 1955.