Operational Principles for the Next Step in
the Huai-Hai Campaign
 (November 19, 1948, 10:00 A.M.)
To Su [Yu] and Tan [Zhenlin], and for the information of Liu [Bocheng], Chen
[Yi], and Deng [Xiaoping]:1
	 1.	 Presumably you have received our telegram sent at midnight on the 18th.2
	 2.	 We estimate that Huang [Baitao]’s corps3 will be wiped out tonight or tomorrow morning. Please report on the level of casualties suffered by our Fourth,
Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Thirteenth columns.
	 3.	 Where do you plan to use Ye Fei’s First Column? At present, Liu Zhi is
counting on Huang Wei (ten divisions) and Li Yannian (four divisions before
the Fifty-fourth Army arrives)4 moving north to rescue them. We think it
is an extremely important tactic to amass the Third and Fourth columns of
the Central Plains Field Army and one of Ye Fei’s columns to destroy Li
Yannian’s army in the area east of Su county. Immediately after wiping out
Li Yannian, we can go on to destroy Liu Ruming5 or to drive his forces
to Bengbu, and Huang Wei will then be isolated. Where is Ye’s column
now? Can you immediately transfer Ye’s column to the command of Liu
[Bocheng], Chen [Yi], and Deng [Xiaoping] in order to join the Third and
Fourth columns of the Central Plains Field Army to prepare to destroy Li

Yannian? Liu Zhi has ordered that Li Yannian reach Dadianji,6 which is
very close, by the evening of the 20th. Meanwhile, please ask Liu, Chen,
and Deng to instruct Chen [Geng] and Xie [Fuzhi]7 not to attack Li Yannian
too early and not to expose our forces. It is to our advantage for Li Yannian
to go deeply into the area north of Dadianji before we attack him. Since Liu
Zhi has been threatened by Wei [Guoqing] and Ji [Luo]’s armies,8 he thought
that if Li Yannian could march from Dadianji to Zhulan9 and launch a converging attack on Wei and Ji together with Qiu Qingquan,10 he would be successful, and he ordered that Li Yannian advance as a matter of urgency. The
result may be to give our forces a good opportunity to destroy Li Yannian’s
two armies. Of the four divisions of these two armies, only one division of
the Thirty-ninth Army (Wang Boxun’s)11 has relatively good combat capacity; the combat capacity of all three other divisions is deficient, and they will
be relatively easy to destroy.
	 4.	 Amass eight columns—the Second, Third, Seventh, and Tenth, the Hebei
Eleventh, the Jiangsu Eleventh, and the central Shandong column12—and
carefully organize a battle against Qiu and Li,13 with the aim of destroying
four or five of their divisions. Do not be too ambitious and decide whether
or not your troop strength is sufficient. We think it is better to use this many
men, and no more, to move Tan [Zhenlin] and Wang [Jian’an]’s14 five columns to Caocun and Jiagou15 to rest and reorganize as soon as we defeat
Huang Baitao and be prepared to attack Huang Wei. When Liu Zhi ordered
Huang Wei to reach Su county by the evening of the 20th, he did not consider the fact that the First Column of the Central Plains Field Army would
check the enemy at Mengcheng and Su county and that the Second and Sixth
columns would be prepared to strike at the tail of Huang Wei’s troops. In
fact, Huang Wei will be able to arrive in Su county around the 23rd or 24th.
If our First, Second, and Sixth columns fight effectively, we may even be
rades Chen, Xie, and Ye Fei destroy Li Yannian and also destroy or drive out
Liu Ruming, Huang Wei in Su county will find himself surrounded by our
Tan and Wang (at Jiagou) and Chen, Xie, and Ye (at Guzhen), and we can
then devote all our strength to destroy Huang Wei, as we destroyed Huang
Baitao at Nianzhuang,16 and win a great victory. During this time, in dealing
with the forces of Qiu, Li, and others in the north, we will adopt the tactic
of pinning them down, and we will deal with them after we have wiped out
Huang Wei. We feel you should deploy your forces in accordance with these
guidelines. If you finish off Huang Baitao tonight or tomorrow morning, the
five columns of Tan and Wang’s troops may take a break on the 20th and
21st at an area near Nianzhuang. On the 22nd and 23rd, you will move to the
Caocun and Jiagou areas to rest and reorganize for about a week, and then
you will coordinate with the Central Plains Field Army to defeat Huang Wei
with all your strength. Please consider this matter and respond via telegram
as to whether or not you think this deployment is appropriate.
The Military Commission

---

Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 244–46, where it is
reproduced from Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission. Su
Yu was acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army and
Tan Zhenlin was deputy political commissar of the East China Field Army. Liu Bocheng,
Chen Yi, and Deng Xiaoping were commander, first deputy commander, and political commissar, respectively, of the Central Plains Field Army.

2.  See “Regarding Deployment to Obstruct and Annihilate the Enemy on the Southern
Front,” November 18, 1948, in this volume.

3.  Huang Baitao was commander of the Guomindang army’s Seventh Army Group.

4.  Liu Zhi was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s Xuzhou “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters. Huang Wei was commander of the Guomindang army’s Twelfth
Army Group. Li Yannian was commander of the Guomindang army’s Sixth Army Group.

5.  Liu Ruming was commander of the Guomindang army’s Eighth Army Group.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-187

able to delay Huang Wei’s arrival in Su county by several days. If our com6.  Dadianji is a town in southeastern Su county in Anhui.


7.  Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi were commander and political commissar, respectively, of
the Fourth Column of the Central Plains Field Army.

8.  Wei Guoqing and Ji Luo (Ji Pengfei) were commander and deputy political commissar, respectively, of the East China Field Army’s Northern Jiangsu Corps.

9.  Zhulan is a town in northern Su county, Anhui.

10.  Qiu Qingquan was commander of the Guomindang army’s Second Army Group.

11.  Wang Boxun (1899–1983, native of Guizhou) was commander of the Guomindang
army’s Thirty-ninth Army Group.

12.  This list of columns does not add up to eight. The editors of the Chinese text suggest that the Twelfth Column was inadvertently omitted.

13.  Li Mi was commander of the Guomindang army’s Thirteenth Army Group.

14.  Wang Jian’an was deputy commander of the East China Field Army’s Northern
Jiangsu Corps.

15.  Caocun and Jiagou are towns in north and northwestern Su county, Anhui.

16.  Nianzhuang is a town in the western part of Pi county, Jiangsu.