It Is More Advantageous to Draw Qiu Qingquan Eastward and Destroy Him

(December 18, 1946)

Comrades Liu and Deng, and inform Comrades Chen and Su:

Your telegram of the 16th has been received. The main force of our Chen-Su army has won a great victory near Suqian. The next step is to prepare to cross the Yunhe River and advance westward, press close to the Jinpu Railway and Xuzhou, and restore the situation north of the Huai River. Under these circumstances, if the enemy on your western front is difficult to attack, it seems more advantageous to move south to seek out and destroy the 88th Division, recover Jiaxiang, Juye, Jinxiang, Yutai, Chengwu, Shanxian and other places, and thereby draw Qiu Qingquan eastward and destroy him. How this should be done exactly, please decide in light of the actual situation. The Su Zhenhua Column has been ordered to move to Daming and return to its original unit. Hu Zongnan’s main force shows signs of attacking Xi County. His intention seems to be to recover all the counties in the Lüliang area and then attack Yan’an. I have ordered Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi to strike at this enemy in the Pu County-Xi County area.

The Military Commission

18th, 21:00–23:00 hours