Yang Chengwu’s Army Should Prepare
to Advance Eastward to Cut off the Links
between Beiping and Zhangjiakou
(November 22, 1948, 4:00 P.M.)
To Yang [Chengwu], Li [Jingquan], and Li [Tianhuan]:1
	 1.	 It is possible that Fu [Zuoyi]’s2 forces will pull back from all of their peripheral strongholds, assemble in Beiping and Tianjin, and then flee southward.
	 2.	 To prevent them from fleeing and to wipe out Fu’s forces in Beiping, Tianjin,
Zhangjiakou, and Tangshan, our armies in the Northeast have decided to
cross through the [Shanhai] Pass early. To keep this secret, this command
should not be transmitted to the lower levels.
	 3.	 Plan to have three columns of your main forces advance eastward swiftly
and secretly. They should join with Zhan Da’nan’s3 unit in cutting off the
links between Beiping and Zhangjiakou, and encircling Zhangjiakou. This
will prevent the enemy forces in Zhangjiakou from pulling back to Beiping
and Zhangjiakou,4 and should draw the enemy forces in Beiping to send units
west to rescue Zhangjiakou. This should delay the southern retreat of Fu’s
forces in Beiping and Tianjin. For this purpose, apart from your troops near
Guisui,5 that should not move for the time being so as to confuse the enemy
in Guisui, the main forces of your three columns should prepare and await
the order to advance east on the 25th.
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 261–62, where it is
	 4.	 You should immediately investigate and inform us of the distance, routes,
and times from your units’ current positions to the Xuanhua and Huailai
areas.
The Military Commission

reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Yang Chengwu was commander of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region, Li
Jingquan was political commissar of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region,
and Li Tianhuan was deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department
of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region.

2.  Fu Zuoyi was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s North China “Bandit
Suppression” Headquarters.

3.  Zhan Da’nan was commander of the Jin-Re-Cha (Hebei-Rehe-Chahar) Military
Region.

4.  Sic. Presumably this should read “Beiping and Tianjin” rather than “Beiping and
Zhangjiakou.”

5.  Guisui is the former name of Huhhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-189