First Hit the Weak, Then Hit the Strong; You
Fight Your Battles, I’ll Fight Mine
 (April 22, 1947)
To Nie [Rongzhen], Xiao [Ke], and Luo [Ruiqing], and for the information of Zhu
[De] and Liu [Shaoqi]:1
We received your telegram of the 21st.2 You have now gained the initiative,
and if the enemy moves south with reinforcements, ignore it and continue to concentrate all your strength on completing the Zheng[ding]-Tai[yuan] Campaign,3
which will put the enemy in an entirely passive position. This orientation is quite
correct. After the Zheng-Tai Campaign is completed, you should not be confused
by the enemy’s movement; rather you should choose the enemy’s weakest sections and wipe them out on your own initiative. Which section to select for attack
can be decided at the time. This is the policy of “First hit the weak, then the
strong, you fight your battles, I’ll fight mine” (each side doing its own fighting),
or, in other words, the policy of completely seizing the initiative to wage war.
The Military Commission


The source of this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 235–36, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.


1.  Nie Rongzhen was commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei
Military Region, where Xiao Ke was deputy commander and Luo Ruiqing was deputy
political commissar.


2.  The telegram from Nie Rongzhen et al. stated that they expected the enemy forces to
send reinforcements south, so the main forces of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region
would continue to engage in battle and complete the second phase of the Zheng-Tai Campaign. If after the campaign the enemy had not yet sent reinforcements, they would follow
the Center’s directive to continue annihilating the Guomindang’s Third Army; otherwise,
they would attack the enemy reinforcements and engage in battle along the Pingbao or
Baoshi sections.


3.  The Second, Third, and Fourth columns of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army and
local militia engaged the Guomindang army in battle along Zhengding-Taiyuan railway
from April 9 to May 4, annihilating more than 35,000 enemy troops and cutting off the
enemy’s connection between Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang. This united the Shanxi-ChaharHebei and the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan liberated areas and isolated the Guomindang forces in Shijiazhuang.


DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-295