The Liu-Deng Army Should Speedily Move Southeast to Annihilate the Enemy[1]

(December 29, 1946)

Comrades Liu and Deng:

Your telegram of the 28th at noon[2] has been noted. It is very good to first capture Juye, Jiaxiang, Chengwu, and other towns. The northern Yellow River is about to freeze over, Xue Yue[3] is pressing hard on Jiangsu and Shandong, and Chiang Kai-shek may add two to three divisions to attack your area. Therefore, your movement to the southeast should be swift, and you should prepare to annihilate the Fifth Army, the Seventy-fifth Division, and other units within the shortest possible time, so as to open up the situation.

The Military Commission

29th, 3–5 p.m.

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

[2] Refers to the telegram sent by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping at noon on December 28, 1946, to the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and to Chen Yi, Su Yu, Zhang Jichun, and others. The telegram stated: In order to divert the enemy and coordinate with operations in East China, we will still use the main force according to the original plan, first capturing Juye, Jiaxiang, and Chengwu to threaten the Longhai Railway, while leaving the entire Second Column at Nanle and Guancheng to keep watch on Wang Jingjiu.

[3] Xue Yue was then Director of the Xuzhou Pacification Headquarters of the Kuomintang Army.