To Lin Boqu, Wang Weizhou, and Others[1]

(June 15, 1947)

The enemy’s “mopping-up” operations are mainly aimed at harassing our areas and seizing able-bodied men. According to our experience, so long as we adopt a positive attitude and persist in the struggle against “mopping-up,” even a guerrilla force of just over ten men, by maintaining constant contact with the enemy, can make the enemy hesitate and dare not advance rashly, or cause them to fortify themselves on the hills and dare not descend into the ravines to seize people. In this way, we can both delay the enemy’s advance, facilitating our covering of the masses and the transfer of organs, and also check the enemy’s harassment, reducing losses among the masses and organs.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Lin Boqu, Wang Weizhou, and others, with copies to Peng Dehuai, Xi Zhongxun, Ma Mingfang, Ye Jianying, and Yang Shangkun. Lin Boqu was then Chairman of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government. Wang Weizhou was then Deputy Commander of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Shanxi-Suiyuan Joint Defense Army. Ma Mingfang was then Deputy Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.