Attack Wayaobao or Panlong Only If You
Have Complete Confidence
(April 30, 1947)
To Peng [Dehuai] and Xi [Zhongxun]:1
Only after you have gone through painstaking reconnaissance and have complete confidence should you resolve to attack Wayaobao or Panlong. If you do
not have full confidence, it would be best not to attack. The troops should step up
their rest and reorganization, and we should wait for the enemy to exhaust itself.
Be prepared to annihilate the enemy while in motion.
The Military Commission
Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, p. 45, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army, and Xi
Zhongxun was its deputy political commissar.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-298