We Can Maintain the Initiative If
We Capture Panlong within a Week
 (May 4, 1947, 1:00 P.M.)
To Peng [Dehuai] and Xi [Zhongxun]:1
	 1.	 We received the telegram you sent on May 3 at 15:00.2 We are very pleased
that you took 600 prisoners. It seems that the enemy’s main forces will
remain in Sui[de] and Mi[zhi] for a few days, and it will take them at least a
week to make it back to Panlong.3 If our troops can capture Panlong within
a week, we will be able to maintain the initiative. Hu Zongnan4 has already
ordered Zhang Xin5 to lead a unit (it may be one regiment) from the Twenty-fourth Brigade for reinforcement. Please take heed.
	 2.	 In the Northeast, following the elimination of four regiments of enemy forces
in early April, the enemy’s offensive has ended, and we are now preparing
to launch an offensive. In Shandong, we wiped out the three brigades of the
Seventy-second Division on April 26, and it seems that preparations are being
made for a forceful new campaign, but we have not yet received a report. Liu
[Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping]6 have captured Tangyin, and Chen [Geng] and Xie [Fuzhi]7 are currently attacking Yuncheng. Nie [Rongzhen] and
Xiao [Ke]8 are currently attacking the Zheng[ding]-Tai[yuan] railway.9
Mao [Zedong]
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 46–47, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army,
and Xi Zhongxun was its deputy political commissar.

2.  The telegram from Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun reported a dawn attack on Panlong that resulted in the capture of more than 600 security team personnel defending the
enemy’s front line. Closing in on the enemy’s position with very few casualties, Peng and
Xi planned another battle after dusk.

3.  Panlong town is situated northeast of Yan’an. In May 1947, the PLA’s Northwest
Field Army annihilated more than 6,700 Guomindang troops under Hu Zongnan in Panlong
and seized large quantities of weapons, equipment, and supplies.

4.  Hu Zongnan was commander of the Guomindang’s First War Zone.

5.  Zhang Xin (1902–1985, born in Jinhua, Zhejiang) was commander of the Twenty-fourth Brigade under the Guomindang’s Reorganized Seventy-sixth Division.

6.  Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-299

7.  Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi were commander and political commissar, respectively, of
the Fourth Column of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army.

8.  Nie Rongzhen was the commander and political commissar, and Xiao Ke was deputy commander, respectively, of the Jin-Cha-Ji (Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei) Military Region.

9.  The Zheng[ding]-Tai[yuan] railway is today’s Shi[jiazhuang]-Tai[yuan] railway.