Assemble the Main Forces and Ride the Crest
of Victory to Capture the Jiaoji Railway
(February 25, 1947)
To Chen [Yi], Su [Yu], and Tan [Zhenlin], and for the information of Rao
[Shushi], Liu [Bocheng], and Deng [Xiaoping]:1
We received the telegram you sent at 9:00 on February 24.2 We completely
agree with your views that apart from having the Third Column stay in the area
of Zou [county] and Teng [county], you should assemble sixty regiments to ride
the crest of victory to annihilate the Eighth and Twelfth armies and take care of
the Jiaoji problem once and for all. This time the battle in Laiwu was of very
short duration, and our troops do not seem to have suffered heavy losses or severe
exhaustion, so they should be able to launch an attack to the north after a few days
of rest and reorganization. As for the enemy’s southern line, do not obstruct them
but let them advance north, the farther the better. We estimate it will take them
at least two weeks to reach the Tai’an line. We think we can complete the Jiaoji
assignment within two weeks and then rest and reorganize for two or three weeks,
heading south to fight in early April.
The Military Commission


Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 669–70, where it is
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Chen Yi was commander and political commissar of the East China Field Army, Su Yu
was deputy commander, and Tan Zhenlin was deputy political commissar. Rao Shushi was
political commissar of the East China Military Region. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping
were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army.
2.  The telegram from Chen Yi et al. reported that the Guomindang’s main forces
in Linyi were moving westward and the Seventh Army was moving from Tancheng to
Lincheng and would advance north alone toward the Tianjin-Pukou railway. Chen Yi et al.
planned to leave one unit of the local forces to fight around Linyi and to send the Third
Column to check the northward advance of the Guomindang forces. They believed they
could deal with the enemy at the Jiaoji railway with a combined force of sixty divisions.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-279



reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.