The Current Battle Situation in
Each War Zone
(September 15, 1947, 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.)
To Peng [Dehuai], Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping], Chen [Yi] and Su [Yu],
Chen [Geng] and Xie [Fuzhi], Rao [Shushi], Li [Yu], and Tan [Zhenlin], and to
be forwarded to all commanders:1
The current situation:
	 1.	 Our army has completed the task of strategic development in the Dabie
Mountains, western Henan, southwestern Shandong, the Henan-Anhui
Border Region, and northern Shaanxi.
	 2.	 Our army under Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping] has occupied more
than ten counties and wide swaths of countryside in southeastern Henan,
eastern Hubei, and western Anhui, making its military prowess known north
and south of the Yangzi. The masses in that area are very good, there is
already new grain to eat, local work is being assigned, and preparations are
currently being made for operations to annihilate the enemy’s main force.
In the surrounding area there are altogether twenty-three enemy brigades,
of which approximately twelve or so brigades are motorized forces. Lately
there has been news that two brigades from the Reorganized Tenth Division
have been transferred to Zhengzhou.
	 3.	 Our Western Corps under Chen [Yi] and Su [Yu] has assembled in southwestern Shandong and has annihilated the Fifty-seventh Division, establishing a position conducive to expanding the army’s base area north of the
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army. Liu
Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively, of
the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army. Chen Yi was commander
and political commissar and Su Yu was deputy commander of the East China Field Army.
Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi were secretary and deputy secretary, respectively, of the ChenXie Group Front Committee of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army. Rao Shushi was political
commissar of the East China Military Region, and Li Yu was deputy political commissar
of the East China Military Region, and Tan Zhenlin was deputy political commissar of the
East China Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-37

Huai River, west of the Grand Canal, and east of the [Bei]ping-Han[kou]
railway, and continuing to annihilate the enemy in that area. The enemy has
only fifteen brigades or so in that area, of which no more than five or so are
motorized forces.
	 4.	 Our corps under Chen [Geng] and Xie [Fuzhi] has occupied nine counties
in western Henan (Yiyang has recently been taken over by the enemy).
Apart from having annihilated many security forces, it has also annihilated
the new First Brigade of Hu Zongnan’s2 Seventy-sixth Division as well as
one independent regiment of the Thirty-sixth Division, and it has annihilated
a regiment of the Sixty-fourth Brigade of the Reorganized Fifteenth Division
of Li Tiejun [1904–2002, native of Guangdong] of Luoyang and has routed
two of its regiments. Now in that area, except for Shaan county, which we
have not yet captured, Zhechuan, the area north of Nanzhao, Luoyang, Linru,
and the area west of Lushan have all come under our occupation. Now the
areas south of the Wei River and the Yellow River, north of the Han River,
and west of the [Bei]ping-Han[kou] railway are all very weakly defended,
which facilitates our army’s unrestrained development.
	 5.	 In northern Shaanxi we have recovered various towns such as Jia county,
Mizhi, Wubao, Zizhou, Zhenchuan, Hengshan, Jingbian, Baoan, Wuqi,
Anding, and Gulin. The field army led by Peng [Dehuai] has advanced
to areas south of the Qinghuabian-Yanchuan line. We have engaged and
attacked seven brigades plus two regiments of the main force of Hu’s army
north of this line, so they cannot retreat south quickly. After our army has
completed the task of annihilating a portion of the enemy forces, before long
it will prepare to fight on exterior lines.
	 6.	 At present, it is only in the Jiaodong area that the enemy continues to maintain an offensive with more or less fifteen brigades. Things in that area will
remain difficult for a time, but we estimate that if the three fronts of Chen
[Yi] and Su [Yu], Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping], and Chen [Geng] and
Xie [Fuzhi] win a few more victories, and after some even greater shakeups
in the Central Plains and Yangzi River areas, large numbers of enemy troops
in Jiaodong will be forced to withdraw southward. If our armies do not fight
battles for which they are unprepared and in which there is no certainty of
victory, and if each battle wipes out a portion of the enemy (no matter how
many), it will be possible to change the situation in this region.
The Military Commission
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 251–53, where it is

2.  Hu Zongnan was director of the Guomindang army’s Xi’an Pacification Office.