Arrangements for Destroying the Frontline
Troops in Gu Zhutong’s Apparatus
(May 8, 1947)
To Liu [Bocheng], Deng [Xiaoping], Chen [Yi], and Su [Yu]:1
To smash the frontline troops of Gu Zhutong’s2 apparatus (about thirty brigades stationed along Tai’an, Xintai, Mengyin, and Linyi):
	 1.	 Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping should still act according to the Central
Committee’s May 4 telegram3 by trying to finish rest and reconsolidation
by June 1, cross the Yellow River by June 10, and attack the enemy in the
Hebei-Shandong-Henan Region and the Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu Region,
and for the second step to attack the Central Plains region. To stay in this
region on a long-term basis, the entire army should be fully mobilized politically (make everyone aware of the political task, encourage them to tolerate hardship and not to be afraid of difficulties), and should fully prepare
cadres, expenses, and other items. Extensively communicate the Central
Committee’s February 1 instructions on the current situation and tasks.4
	 2.	 Before June 10, Chen Yi and Su Yu’s army should concentrate all its forces
(twenty-seven brigades) to seek and create opportunities to annihilate the
enemy, and it should prepare to cooperate with Liu and Deng’s army in
extensive offensive actions after June 10. It would also seem best for Tan
Zhenlin5 to set off for central Jiangsu with the Seventh Column after June 10.
The Military Commission

Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 64–65, where it is
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively,
of the (Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu) Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army; Chen Yi was commander and political commissar, and Su Yu was deputy commander, respectively, of the
East China Field Army.

2.  Gu Zhutong was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s Command Headquarters in Xuzhou, which he had established in early March 1947 to command the troops
under the previous Xuzhou and Zhengzhou Pacification Offices.

3.  This telegram, drafted by Mao, assigned tasks to the various military units.

4.  See “Directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the
Current Situation and Tasks,” February 1, 1947, in this volume.

5.  Tan Zhenlin was deputy political commissar of the East China Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-307