To Yang, Luo, and Geng on Annihilating a Part of the Enemy’s 16th Army[1]

(October 13, 1948)

Yang, Luo, and Geng:

(1) It is excellent that you have captured Xibozi, Chadao, Qinglongqiao, Badaling, and other places, annihilated a part of the enemy, and are preparing to thoroughly destroy the railway line between Huailai and Beiping within one week. (2) In order to draw back one division of the 92nd Army (which has already been dispatched from the vicinity of Beiping to Tanggu) so that it does not go to reinforce Huludao, and in order to attract the 35th Army to continue moving eastward, thereby facilitating the operations of Yang, Li, and Li[2] in Suiyuan[3], it is hoped that while you are destroying the railway, you will concentrate a suitable force to annihilate one or two regiments of the 16th Army.

The Military Commission

13th, 15:00 hours

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Yang Dezhi (commander), Luo Ruiqing (political commissar), and Geng Biao (chief of staff) of the 2nd Corps of the North China Military Region.
[2] Yang, Li, and Li refer to Yang Chengwu, Li Jingquan, and Li Tianhuan, who were respectively the commander, political commissar, and deputy political commissar and director of the political department of the 3rd Corps of the North China Military Region at the time.
[3] Suiyuan, a former province encompassing the central part of what is now the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, abolished in 1954.