Strive to Capture Jinan Within About Ten Days[1]

(July 16, 1948)

Xu and Tan, with Su, Chen, and Zhang[2]; inform the East China Bureau and the Central Plains Bureau:

Your telegram of the evening of the 15th has been received. The capture of Yanzhou and the subsequent annihilation of the 84th Division[3] are excellent and most gratifying. We hope you will boost morale, complete the encirclement of Jinan in the shortest possible time (first seizing the airfield), and exploit the victory by capturing Jinan. If possible, you should strive to capture Jinan within about ten days.

Military Commission
16th, 11–13 hours

[1] This was a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Xu Shiyou, commander of the Shandong Corps of the East China Field Army, and Tan Zhenlin, its political commissar, and others.
[2] Su, Chen, and Zhang refer to Su Yu, Chen Shiju, and Zhang Zhen, who at the time were, respectively, acting commander and acting political commissar, chief of staff, and deputy chief of staff of the East China Field Army.
[3] The Shandong Corps of the East China Field Army surrounded Yanzhou on July 1, 1948, launched a general assault at dusk on July 12, and captured the city on the afternoon of July 13, completely wiping out the defending enemy force of over 27,000 men and capturing alive Huo Shouyi, commander of the Reorganized 12th Army and concurrently commander of the Reorganized 12th Division of the Kuomintang army. On the same day, the reinforcement-interception units also wiped out over 10,000 men of a portion of the enemy’s Reorganized 84th Division, which had moved south from Jinan to provide relief.