Our Combat Orientation in the Northeast and
the Situation within the Pass1
 (May 20, 1947)
To Lin [Biao] and Gao [Gang], and for the information of Zhu [De] and Liu
[Shaoqi]:2
We received Gao’s telegram sent from 5:00 to 7:00 this morning, and Lin’s
two telegrams sent on the 18th and 19th.3 We are very relieved that you have
gotten off to a good start. Under your leadership, land reform has been carried
out in the Northeast, the masses have been mobilized, and a powerful army has
been built. Among the country’s regions, yours comes first in terms of its economy, and second in terms of military power (Shandong ranks first). At present,
you should move eight divisions southward. We expect that you can solve the
problem of southern Manchuria4 in the summer and the fall and do your best to
move to Rehe5 and eastern Hebei in the winter and next spring, with the goal
of annihilating [enemy] units such as the Thirteenth and Ninety-second armies,
mobilizing the masses, and expanding our forces. The two areas combined have
a population of fifteen million, which is an indispensable condition for capturing the Changchun and Bei[ping]–[Liao]ning railways6 and the four cities of
Chang[chun], Shen[yang], [Bei]ping, and [Tian]jin. There are three conditions
we must bring about to take the two railways and four cities. You have fulfilled
the first condition by establishing a powerful base in northern Manchuria.7 Now
you are advancing toward southern Manchuria and expect within a short period of
time to be able to create the second condition by setting up a solid base there. The
third step is to establish a base in the region of Hebei, Rehe, and Liaoning. In the
regions south of the Shanhai Pass, our forces in the Jiangsu-Shandong area8 are
bearing the heaviest burden. On their front, the enemies have amassed thirty-two
reorganized divisions composed of eighty-five brigades (including those wiped
out). The enemy offensive faced few difficulties until the recent annihilation of
their Seventy-fourth Division. If we wipe out two or three more enemy divisions (armies) from now on, we will be able to go over to a general counteroffensive. Our armies under Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping]9 are now attacking
Anyang. In June they will be able to move 100,000 troops across the Yellow
River and advance toward the Central Plains. Our forces under Peng Dehuai and
Xi Zhongxun10 (with only six incomplete brigades) have been dealing with attacks
by thirty-one enemy brigades under Hu Zongnan,11 and after two months of battle
they have demoralized Hu’s forces. After several more months, they will definitely be able to wipe out the enemy in large numbers and open up new prospects.
The four brigades under Chen Geng12 will be operating in the Northwest. Last
month, the army under Nie [Rongzhen], Xiao [Ke], and Luo [Ruiqing]13 annihilated more than thirty thousand enemy troops in the Zheng[ding]–Tai[yuan]
Campaign,14 and seized more than 15,000 guns. Now they need to rest for half a
trolled by the Soviet Union and the Japanese at various times before and during the Japanese Occupation. Following the War of Resistance Against Japan, the railway was jointly
used and administered by China and the Soviet Union, and in December 1952, the government of the Soviet Union gave the railway in its entirety to the PRC. The Beiping-Liaoning
railway, running from Beiping to Shenyang through Tianjin, is now a section of the BeijingHarbin railway.

month, and they will be attacking the [Tian]jin–Cang[zhou] railway15 around the
middle of next month in coordination with your operations. Regarding the overall
prospects at present, in most regions we have now gone over to a counteroffensive. It will take only one or two more successful battles in Shandong before we
enter the stage of an across-the-board counteroffensive.
Mao Zedong

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 78–80, where it is reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript in the Central Archives.
# Source: en:MRP

--- Notes

1.  I.e., south of the Shanhai Pass.

2.  Lin Biao was commander and political commissar, and Gao Geng was deputy political commissar, respectively, of the Northeast Democratic Allied Army.

3.  The telegram from Lin Biao stated that on May 8 eight divisions of the Northeast
Democratic Allied Army in northern Manchuria began crossing the Songhua River and
moving south, and on the 17th, they annihilated a regiment of the Guomindang’s New
First Army and a peace-keeping force at Huaide, northwest of Changchun. On the 18th,
Lin’s forces wiped out most of the two enemy reinforcement divisions at Huaide, capturing
many. They expected to reach southern Manchuria within ten days, with the intention of
improving the chances for success of the war effort in the Northeast.

4.  Southern Manchuria included Andong (now Dandong), Zhuanghe, Tonghua, Linjiang, Qingyuan, Liaozhong, and other areas southwest of Shenyang.

5.  Rehe was a province covering the northeastern part of what is now Hebei, the southwestern part of Liaoning, and the southeastern part of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous
Region before it was dissolved in 1955.

6.  The Changchun railway, originally built and administered by Russia, originates in
Harbin and extends west to Manzhouli, east to Suifenhe, and south to Dalian. It was conDOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-310

7.  Northern Manchuria included Harbin, Mukden, Bei’an, Jiamusi, and Qiqihar.

8.  Referring to the East China Field Army, of which Chen Yi was commander and
political commissar and Su Yu was deputy commander and Tan Zhenlin was deputy political commissar.

9.  Liu Bocheng was commander, and Deng Xiaoping was political commissar, of the
Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army.

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

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

12.  Chen Geng was commander of the Fourth Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army.

13.  Nie Rongzhen was commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-ChaharHebei Military Region, and Xiao Ke was its deputy commander and Luo Ruiqing was its
deputy political commissar.

14.  See “First Hit the Weak, Then Hit the Strong; You Fight Your Battles, I’ll Fight
Mine,” April 22, 1947, in this volume.

15.  Now part of the Beijing-Shanghai railway.