Completing Preparatory Work for Fighting in
the Guomindang Areas
(July 26, 1947)
To Teng [Daiyuan], Bo [Yibo], and Wang [Hongkun], and for the information
of Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping], Xie [Fuzhi] and Han [Jun], and Zheng
[Weisan] and Li [Xiannian]:1
We received your telegram of July 24.
	 1.	 We are pleased that you have ordered all your units to speed up their preparations for a timely departure. It will be best if Zhao [Jimei]’s column2 can
depart at the same time as all the other units.
	 2.	 In addition to replenishing the ranks with new troops, reorganization, and
training, cadre allocations and finances, food, shipping, and other preparatory work, all units must also do two things: First, they must carry out full
political mobilization. They must make all officers and men understand the
glory and the importance of our task, pointing out the difference between
fighting in the Guomindang areas and fighting in the Liberated Areas and
the conditions required for vanquishing the Guomindang, so they will be
psychologically prepared and will have the courage and determination to
overcome difficulties and the will to do battle in distant land. Second, you
must send personnel to help the leadership organs of each column and brigade to study and decide on policies for work in the Guomindang areas,
including how to collect grain, how to mobilize the masses, how to use and
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 150–51, where it is
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Teng Daiyuan was second deputy commander of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Military Region, Bo Yibo was first deputy political commissar, and Wang
Hongkun was third deputy commander. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander
and political commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army. Xie Fuzhi and Han
Jun were political commissar and deputy commander, respectively, of the Fourth Column
under the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army. Zheng Weisan was first deputy secretary and Li Xiannian was second deputy secretary of the Central Plains Bureau of the Central Committee
of the Chinese Communist Party. Li Xiannian was also deputy commander of the Jin-JiLu-Yu Field Army.
2.  Zhao Jimei was commander of the Twelfth Column of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-13

deal with Guomindang local-law enforcement, revenue-collecting agencies,
and administrative personnel in districts and townships, how to deal with
the armed forces of landlords, and how to establish armed forces among the
masses, among other things.
The Military Commission

reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.