To Chen Yi, Rao Shushi, Li Yu, and Others[1]

(May 10, 1947)

The central key for your area is to resolve the grain problem with all-out effort. As long as you can sustain grain supplies for twenty-seven brigades until the autumn harvest, and thereafter devote full strength to holding out in the present area for several months, you will certainly be able to smash Chiang’s army and fundamentally turn the situation around. Therefore, you should mobilize the local Party and government to struggle for a thorough resolution of the grain problem.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Chen Yi, Rao Shushi, Li Yu, and Su Yu, with copies to Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Zhu De, and Liu Shaoqi.