Speech to Some Leading Cadres of the People’s Liberation Army Participating in the Defense of Yan’an[1]

(March 18, 1947)

The enemy is coming, and we are prepared to clean house for them. In fighting our battles, what matters is not the gain or loss of a single city or piece of land, but the destruction of the enemy’s effective strength. Preserve the people and lose the land, and both the people and the land will be preserved; preserve the land and lose the people, and both the people and the land will be lost. When the enemy enters Yan’an, he comes with his fist clenched; once he arrives in Yan’an, he will have to spread out his fingers, and that will make it convenient for us to chop them off one by one. We must tell our comrades: in as little as one year, or at most two, we will return, and we will exchange one Yan’an for the whole of China.

[1] This is part of a speech given by Mao Zedong when he met with some leading cadres of the People’s Liberation Army participating in the defense of Yan’an, just before the evacuation of Yan’an.