We Must Be Determined to Establish Base
Areas in Hebei, Henan, and Shaanxi
(September 4, 1947, midnight)
To Chen [Geng] and Xie [Fuzhi], and for the information of Liu [Bocheng] and
Deng [Xiaoping], and of Peng [Dehuai]:1
	 1.	 According to secret information: The Twenty-seventh Brigade has deployed
one regiment for garrison duty at Lingbao and Wenxiang2 and at the bus
stations in these places, with the main force stationed at Huayin as a reserve
force. It appears that all counties in southern Shaanxi and southwestern
Henan are extremely weakly defended.
	 2.	 You should position the powerful main army unit of the Fourth Column
west of Wenxiang in preparation for annihilating the reinforcements for the
Twenty-seventh Brigade’s main force and use the Fourth Column’s main
force to simultaneously surround the three towns of Shaan[xian], Ling[bao],
and Wen[xiang], and watch for the opportunity to capture them. After
they have been taken, hand them over to the Thirty-eighth Army for garrison duty and order them to focus on purging the landlord armed forces
in these three counties (this is very important). The entire Fourth Column
should then be divided into two routes: One route takes a short-cut through
southeastern Shaanxi, watching for a chance to seize various towns such
as Luonan, Shangxian, Shangnan, and Jingziguan; the other route goes out
via Funiushan, watching for a chance to capture the three towns of Lushi,
Zhechuan, and Neixiang. As soon as the Fourth Column has occupied these
places, it should disperse into the countryside around each county town to break down the landlords’ fortified villages and wipe out the landlords’
armed forces. You should strive to accomplish these tasks within this month.
	 3.	 Qin [Jiwei]’s3 column is to position its most powerful army unit west of
Luoyang to block a westward attack by enemy forces in Luoyang; the rest
will advance southward, watching for an opportunity to take towns such as
Songxian, Lushan, and Nanzhao, and to wipe out the landlords’ armed forces
in each county.
	 4.	 Occupying county towns and villages and destroying the enemy’s regular
forces and the enemy’s landlord armed forces should be regarded as equally
important. The entire army should be determined to establish base areas in
western Henan, southern Shaanxi, and northern Hubei.
The Military Commission

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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 238–39, 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.
Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi were secretary and deputy secretary, respectively, of the ChenXie Group Front Committee of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field
Army. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army. Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army.

2.  The county of Wenxiang was incorporated into Henan’s Lingbao county in 1954.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-33

3.  Qin Jiwei was commander of the Ninth Column of the Chen-Xie Group Front Committee of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army.