Yang Chengwu’s Corps Should Proceed Westward According to the Original Plan[1]

(August 9, 1948)

Chengwu, and inform Li Jingquan, Nie, Bo, Teng[2]:

Your unit of eight brigades, together with the Yao Zhe Column[3] under your command, should complete all preparatory work before the 20th. Proceed westward on the 21st according to the original plan. Around September 10th, the main force should arrive in the vicinity of Guisui[4] and begin the attack on Guisui, while a part of the force should arrive in the vicinity of Jining and Xinghe and begin the attack on these two points. In all preparations and marches, pay attention to concealment. Jingquan and Yao Zhe should lose no time in joining forces with Chengwu. Consider the specific deployment and inform us by telegram.

The Military Commission

9th day, 18:00 hours

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Yang Chengwu, commander of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region.

[2] Li Jingquan was then secretary of the CPC Jin-Sui Sub-Bureau and political commissar of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region. Nie, Bo, and Teng refer to Nie Rongzhen, Bo Yibo, and Teng Daiyuan, who were then respectively commander, political commissar, and second deputy commander of the North China Military Region.

[3] The Yao Zhe Column refers to the Eighth Column of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Jin-Sui Joint Defense Military Region, with Yao Zhe as its commander.

[4] Guisui, an old city name, is now Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.