The Emphasis in Attacking Luoyang Should Be on Striking the Reinforcements[1]

(March 7, 1948)

Chen and Tang, Chen and Xie, and inform Liu and Deng[2]:

Your telegram of the 6th (si hour)[3] received. (1) For an important city like Luoyang, Gu Zhutong[4] will definitely not refrain from sending reinforcements. After you occupy Heishiguan[5], Yanshi, and Xin’an, you should use a part of your forces to attack Luoyang, lure the enemy into sending reinforcements, concentrate all your strength to annihilate the reinforcing enemy, and place the emphasis on striking the reinforcements. The enemy reinforcements may be Sun Yuanliang[6], and a part of the 11th Division may also come. Request Liu and Deng to order the 11th Column to quickly feign an attack on the 11th Division so as to pin it down. (2) After the victory at Yichuan, there has been great shock in the Xi’an area. The 30th Division has already reached Heyang to guard against our southward advance. There are also reports that the 1st Division and the 36th Division are concentrating toward Tongguan. Whether they have actually moved, please order the 9th

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Chen Shiju, Chief of Staff of the East China Field Army, and Tang Liang, Director of its Political Department, as well as Chen Geng, Secretary of the Front Committee of the Chen-Xie Group of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, and Xie Fuzhi, Deputy Secretary.

[2] Liu and Deng refer to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, who were then respectively Commander and Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army.

[3] Refers to the telegram sent by Chen Shiju, Tang Liang, Chen Geng, and Xie Fuzhi to the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee at the si hour on March 6, 1948. The telegram proposed that on the evening of the 7th, the 8th Column seize Heishiguan and Yanshi, destroy the railway, and cut the railway communication between Zhengzhou and Luoyang; that the 9th Column raid and occupy Xin’an, cutting the link between Luoyang and Shaanxi; and that on the 9th, the 3rd and 4th Columns directly raid Luoyang. The telegram also assessed the possible enemy reinforcement of Luoyang and proposed corresponding tactics.

[4] Gu Zhutong was then Commander-in-Chief of the Army General Headquarters of the Nationalist Army and concurrently Commander-in-Chief of the Xuzhou Command of the Army General Headquarters.

[5] Heishiguan, a ferry crossing on the Luo River, located southwest of present-day Gongyi, Henan.

[6] Sun Yuanliang was then Commander of the Reorganized 47th Army of the Nationalist Army.

Column to ascertain. (3) Our eleven brigades launched an attack from Yichuan toward the southwest on the 5th and 6th. It is estimated that within about a week they may occupy Chengcheng, Baishui, Luochuan, Zhongbu[1], Yijun, Tongguan[2], and other points, threatening Xi’an. (4) The forces under Xiangqian[3] will begin attacking Linfen today.

Military Commission

24:00, 7th

[1] Zhongbu, old county name, present-day Huangling, Shaanxi.

[2] Tongguan, old county name, present-day Tongchuan, Shaanxi.

[3] Xiangqian, i.e., Xu Xiangqian, then First Deputy Commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region.