Tasks to Eliminate the Enemy During the
Third Year of the War
(September 27, 1948)
II.
To Yang [Dezhi], Luo [Ruiqing], and Geng [Biao]; Yang [Chengwu], Li
[Jingquan], and Li [Tianhuan]; and for the information of Lin [Biao], Luo
[Ronghuan], Liu [Yalou],1 the North China Bureau, and the Northeast Bureau:
	 1.	 During the third year of the war (from July of this year to June of next year),
our People’s Liberation Army should take charge of annihilating about
128 brigades of regular enemy troops. Of this number, your North China
Second and Third corps should take charge of wiping out twelve brigades
of regular troops (on average, one brigade per month), including the brigade
you annihilated north of Baoding in July. You should therefore assemble
your forces to fight. During each important battle, you must personally command from the front line. (During the past attack on Gubeikou and this recent
attack on Yongning, the front line command was incompetent. You should
therefore go to the front line and personally command every relatively major
battle.) You must muster the fighting style you displayed in the major battles of annihilation2 you fought at the [Zheng[ding]–Tai[yuan] railway,

Qingfengdian, Shijiazhuang, and other places, and you must fight independently and with a plan. You should not rely on the assistance of the main
forces of the Northeast.
	 2.	 When the Central Committee was deciding on the fighting tasks for this year,
we assigned to you twelve brigades to wipe out, and we charged the Northwest
Corps under Peng [Dehuai], Zhang [Zongxun], and Zhao [Shoushan],3 which
has a smaller force than yours, to annihilate twelve brigades (including the
one-and-a-half brigades it wiped out in August). We charged the Central
Shanxi Corps under Xu [Xiangqian] and Zhou [Shidi], the fighting force
of which is also no bigger than yours, with wiping out fourteen brigades of
enemy troops (including the eight brigades annihilated in July) and capturing
Taiyuan. We assigned Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping]4 fourteen brigades; their overall fighting force is larger than yours, but because their main
forces were weakened by fighting in the Dabie Mountains during the second
year of the war, they can only take on this number. Chen [Yi] and Su [Yu]5
have been charged with destroying forty brigades, including the seven brigades wiped out in July, the six brigades wiped out in Ji’nan in September,
and the three brigades that revolted. Their fighting force is relatively large, so
they must also shoulder a very large task. We have assigned Lin [Biao], Luo
[Ronghuan], and Liu [Yalou] with thirty-six brigades; their fighting force
is the largest, so they should be able to take on this task. None of the above
tasks of annihilating the enemy include irregular forces or special technical
units. With respect to the overall number of regular, irregular, and special
technical enemy forces that our whole army eliminates during the third year,
we should strive to exceed the 1,520,000 enemy troops wiped out in the second year.
	 3.	 Within five or so years (starting from July 1946), the People’s Liberation
Army as a whole must strive to annihilate approximately 500 brigades of
regular enemy forces (or roughly an average of 100 brigades each year),
and roughly 7,500,000 regular, irregular, and special technical enemy troops
(an average of 1,500,000 per year). We must build up our army to approximately 5,000,000 troops (we have 2,800,000 now), and we must fundamentally overthrow the Guomindang. This is the overall task formulated by this
enemy troops. These three battles merged the two major liberated regions of Jin-Cha-Ji and
Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan).

meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee.6 This is based on the
experience of the past two years and born of a careful assessment, so it is
thoroughly possible to achieve. This task can be announced to the Party.
The Military Commission

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Notes

Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 154–56, where it is
reproduced from the original document preserved in the Central Archives.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Military Commission. Yang
Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing, and Geng Biao were commander, political commissar, and chief-ofstaff, respectively, of the Second Corps of the North China Military Region. Yang Chengwu
and Li Jingquan were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Third Corps
of the North China Military Region. Li Tianhuan was deputy political commissar and
director of the Political Department of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region.
Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Liu Yalou were commander, political commissar, and chiefof-staff, respectively, of the Northeast Field Army.
2.  The Jin-Cha-Ji (Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei) Field Army launched three major battles in
1947: in the first battle, from April 9 to May 4, it annihilated more than 35,000 Guomindang troops along the Zhending-Taiyuan railway; in the second battle, from October 11 to
October 22, it annihilated more than 17,000 enemy troops at Qingfengdian; and in the third
battle, from November 6 to 12, it liberated Shijiazhuang and annihilated more than 24,000
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-151
3.  Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army,
and Zhang Zongxun and Zhao Shoushan were deputy commanders of the Northwest Field
Army.
4.  Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were commander and political commissar, respectively, of the Central Plains Field Army.
5.  Chen Yi was commander and political commissar of the East China Field Army, and
Su Yu was acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army.
6.  This Politburo meeting took place in Xibaipo, Hebei, from September 8 to 13, 1948.