General Offensive on Nianzhuang While Simultaneously Attacking the Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi Corps[1]

(November 16, 1948)

Liu, Chen, Deng, and inform Su:[2]

Your telegrams of the 20th at 22:00 hours and the 16th at noon received. (1) Details on the 54th Army and 39th Army will be investigated and reported by the Staff Department. (2) According to Liu Zhi’s[3] report on the 16th, the 39th Army and 99th Army are concentrating at Guzhen and advancing to attack Suxian. He has ordered Yu Zhaolong, commander of the 96th Army, to move to Bengbu and use his main force to coordinate northward. No mention was made of the 54th Army. First, it will take considerable time for this army to move from Huludao to Tangshan and then south from Tangshan. Second, it seems undecided whether this army will be used to defend Nanjing or to attack Suxian. However, you should prepare for its arrival. (3) It seems more appropriate for you to use the 2nd and 6th Columns to pin down Huang Wei[4] and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th Columns to annihilate the 39th Army and 99th Army, which may advance on Suxian, as these enemy forces are relatively weak. If the four divisions (not three divisions) of the 54th Army, the five divisions under Liu Ruming,[5] and the aforementioned enemy forces come together, their numbers will be greater, but in terms of quality, only

two or three divisions are relatively strong. (4) Liu Zhi has repeatedly informed Huang Baitao[1] that, in his judgment, our army intends to flee, and has told Huang to await reinforcements and cooperate to smash our army. However, according to reports from Wei Guoqing and Ji Luo (Ji Pengfei),[2] they attacked the rear of Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi’s[3] forces on the evening of the 15th, which was somewhat premature. It is excellent that Su has gone to the Wei-Ji command to direct operations. Please ask Su to consider having the columns under Wei and Ji, as well as the 3rd Column, withdraw one step southward tomorrow (the 17th). At the same time, the 7th, 10th, and 11th Columns of the Jiangsu Front on the main axis should also withdraw one large step eastward tomorrow evening (the 17th). Then, on the evening of the 18th, when Tan Zhenlin and Wang Jian’an[4] launch the general offensive on Nianzhuang,[5] a simultaneous large-scale attack on Qiu and Li would seem more appropriate. Please ask Su to handle this at his discretion.

Central Military Commission
24:00 hours, November 16

[1] Huang Baitao, then Commander of the 7th Corps of the Kuomintang Army.
[2] Wei Ji refers to Wei Guoqing and Ji Luo (Ji Pengfei), then respectively Commander and Deputy Political Commissar of the Subei Corps of the East China Field Army.
[3] Qiu Li refers to Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi, then respectively Commanders of the 2nd Corps and 13th Corps of the Kuomintang Army.
[4] Tan Wang refers to Tan Zhenlin and Wang Jian’an, then respectively Political Commissar and Deputy Commander of the Shandong Corps of the East China Field Army.
[5] Nianzhuang, a town located in the western part of Pi County, Jiangsu Province.