Battle Plans after the Main Forces of the
Northeast Army Enter the Shanhai Pass
(November 26, 1948, 8:00 A.M.)
To Lin [Biao], Luo [Ronghuan], and Liu [Yalou], and for the information of
Cheng [Zihua] and Huang [Zhiyong], and Yang [Dezhi], Luo [Ruiqing], and
Geng [Biao]:1
	 1.	 When your main forces enter the [Shanhai] Pass, the enemy’s situation will
certainly change. Our battle plans and deployment must be determined in
good time. Therefore, we expect you to complete the tasks in the rear within
a few days and rush to eastern Hebei in motorized vehicles before the arrival
of our main forces. This point is extremely important.
	 2.	 To date, the enemy in Beiping, Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, and Tangshan still
plans to maintain a tenacious defense and not to withdraw. But it is difficult
to predict the changes in the next few weeks.
	 3.	 Our battle plans: (a) We have already ordered Yang Chengwu2 to encircle the enemy at Huailai and Zhangjiakou, and we have also ordered Yang
[Dezhi], Luo [Ruiqing], and Geng [Biao] to move from Quyang to the west
of Zhuo county and Laishui, continuing when necessary to the [Bei]pingZhang[jiakou] railway in order to pin down several enemy units. (b) The
first battle waged by your main forces should not be at Tangshan but rather
at Langfang3 or other places along the [Bei]ping-[Tian]jin railway. In that place there are two divisions of the Ninety-fourth Army, and we reckon that
they might reinforce the enemy forces. You must first destroy this enemy,
and moreover you must also prepare to destroy possible reinforcements from
Beiping. This is because Fu [Zuoyi]4 and Chiang [Kaishek]’s main forces are
in the areas around Beiping. We calculate that there are four divisions of the
Thirteenth Army, three divisions of the Sixteenth Army, one division of the
Ninety-third Army, three divisions of the Thirty-fifth Army, one division of
the Thirty-first Army, three divisions of the Temporary Third Army, three
divisions of the Temporary Fourth Army, one division of the Temporary
Fifth Army, one division of the New Second Army, and four cavalry brigades. These troops are distributed along the railroads to Zhuozhou, Beiping,
Tongzhou, Miyun, and Zhangjiakou. You must prepare to fight with and
destroy a part, or the greater part, of the reinforcements from these enemy
units. Only by so doing can we carry out our task of cutting the connection
between [Bei]ping and [Tian]jin (one railway and one highway). Meanwhile,
we must use a necessary number of forces to encircle the enemy at Tangshan
(three divisions of the Eighty-seventh Army) and render them incapable of
escaping. (c) Having completed the above two tasks, severing the connection
between [Bei]ping and [Tian]jin as well as encircling Tangshan, the second
battle task is to not yet attack Tangshan but rather to destroy the three divisions of the Sixty-second Army (at Lutai5 and Chichengtan, east of Tianjin),
and one regiment of the Independent Ninety-fifth Division (Tanggu) if
these enemy forces have not yet escaped. (d) Destroy the enemy forces at
Tangshan. (e) Take Tianjin (the Ninety-second Army and the main forces of
the Independent Ninety-fifth Division). (f) Destroy the enemy forces in the
areas around Beiping. (g) Take Beiping. The above is the outline of the battle
plan that we have devised here and that we put forward for your consideration. You should decide based upon the situation when you arrive in eastern
Hebei and submit it to us for final approval.
	 4.	 Tangshan is a source of coal for [Bei]ping and [Tian]jin. Therefore, if you
encircle Tangshan before you cut off the railway between [Bei]ping and
[Tian]jin, you risk inciting the enemy forces in Beiping to fight in Tianjin
and Tangshan or to escape via sea or land routes. If you agree on this point,
please send a telegram to Cheng and Huang to not encircle Tangshan at present. If, on the other hand, you are sure that the enemy forces in Tangshan
plan to withdraw, you must encircle them rapidly.

	 5.	 If Yang Chengwu encircles the enemy at Zhang[jiakou] and Xuan[hua], and
the enemy forces at Huailai and Beiping come to reinforce Zhang[jiakou]
and Xuan[hua], then Cheng and Huang from Jixian and Yang, Luo, and
Geng from the vicinity of Zhou county will rapidly advance westward to cut
off [Bei]ping and Zhang[jiakou] and to join forces with Yang Chengwu to
destroy the enemy.
The Military Commission

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Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 275–77, where it is
reproduced from Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  This is an excerpt from a telegram that Mao Zedong drafted 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-ofstaff of the Northeast Field Army. Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong were commander and
chief-of-staff, respectively, of the Northeast Field Army’s Second Corps. 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.

2.  Yang Chengwu was commander of the North China Military Region’s Third Corps.

3.  Now known as Anci.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-193

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

5.  Lutai is now the county seat of Ninghe county, Tianjin.