Temporarily Ignore the Enemy Forces at the
Shanhai Pass and in Qinhuangdao
(November 24, 1948, 8:00 P.M.)
To Lin [Biao], Luo [Ronghuan], and Liu [Yalou]:1
	 1.	 Please calculate how long it will take for each of your columns to reach
Yutian and Ji county and the [Bei]ping-[Tian]jin railway,2 and report it to us
by telegram.
	 2.	 Your rear forces and headquarters should not pass through the Shanhai
Pass, and they should ignore the enemy forces at the Shanhai Pass and in
Qinhuangdao. Wait until we have cut off Beiping from Tianjin, Tianjin from
Tanggu, Tanggu from Tangshan, and Tangshan from Luan county, and have
also wiped out the enemy forces in Luan county, Tangshan, and Tanggu.
After that, if the enemy forces in Yu[guan]3 and Qin[huangdao] do not move,
we will send troops to eliminate them.
	 3.	 It seems that, under orders from Chiang [Kaishek], Fu Zuoyi’s4 forces
are preparing to retreat from Datong and Zhangjiakou and to assemble at
the [Bei]ping-[Tian]jin-Tang[shan] line. It seems they have not prepared
to retreat to the west. We are therefore planning to have Yang Chengwu5
immediately lead three columns eastward from the area east of Sui[yuan]6
to encircle the enemy forces in Zhangjiakou. Yang [Dezhi], Luo [Ruiqing], and Geng [Biao]7 should lead the two columns currently stationed near
Shijiazhuang, plus the column in Baoding (the enemy forces in Baoding
have retreated northward), and promptly begin moving north, approaching Zhuo county. After that, when you are cutting off Beiping from Tianjin,
Tianjin from Tanggu, and Tanggu from Tangshan, and attacking the enemy
in Tangshan and Luan county, you can either pin down the enemy forces
in Beiping or join the effort to cut off Beiping from Tianjin. Please tell us
promptly whether this approach is suitable.
The Military Commission

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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 271–72, where it is
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.
Lin Biao was commander of the Northeast Field Army. Luo Ronghuan was political commissar of the Northeast Field Army, and Liu Yalou was chief-of-staff of the Northeast Field
Army.

2.  The Beiping-Tianjin railway is part of today’s Beijing-Shanghai railway.

3.  Today’s Shanhai Pass.

4.  Fu Zuoyi was commander of the Guomindang army’s North China “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters.

5.  Yang Chengwu was commander of the Third Corps of the North China Military
Region.

6.  The province of Suiyuan covered the central part of today’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region before it was dissolved in 1954.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-191

7.  Yang Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing, and Geng Biao were commander, political commissar,
and chief-of-staff, respectively, of the Second Corps of the North China Military Region.