To Chen Yi, Rao Shushi, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin[1]

(March 10, 1947)

The entire month of March may be used as a period for rest and consolidation. Your whole army shall thoroughly rest and consolidate for one month, so as to facilitate subsequent operations. During the period of rest and consolidation of the East China Field Army, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to carry out a key offensive against the Shandong Liberated Area, abolished the two pacification headquarters in Xuzhou and Zhengzhou and formed the "Xuzhou Command of the Army General Headquarters," presided over by Army Commander-in-Chief Gu Zhutong, to exercise unified command over the troops originally under the two pacification headquarters in Xuzhou and Zhengzhou. He transferred Wang Jingjiu’s group from the Hebei-Shandong-Henan battlefield to Shandong, and incorporated three of the "Five Main Forces"—namely, the Reorganized 74th Division, the Reorganized 11th Division, and the 5th Army—into three respective army corps. The total strength on the Shandong battlefield reached 24 reorganized divisions comprising 60 brigades, approximately 450,000 men.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Chen Yi, Rao Shushi, Su Yu, and Tan Zhenlin.