Speeches Broadcast to Huang Wei’s Group of
the Guomindang Army1
 (November 27, 1948)
I
Generals, Officers, and Soldiers of Huang Wei’s group in southwestern Su county,
please pay attention!
The headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army is speaking to you:
The People’s Liberation Army has already entirely surrounded you. You cannot escape; your fate has reached its final juncture. For the sake of yourselves
and the people, immediately lay down your weapons and surrender. Four of
Feng Zhi’an’s2 divisions have already revolted; ten of Huang Baitao’s divisions3
have been annihilated, along with four other divisions. Our army has blocked Li
Yannian and Liu Ruming4 in Bengbu; they cannot help you. Our army has also
blocked Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Sun Yuanliang5 in Xuzhou; they cannot help
you. There is nothing that Chiang Kaishek or Liu Zhi6 can do. You may know,
wasn’t Huang Baitao’s legion surrounded in Nianzhuang a few days ago while waiting for reinforcements from Xuzhou? Chiang Kaishek ordered Qiu Qingquan
to immediately provide them with reinforcements, with the result that they
marched for eleven days, covering only thirty-odd li, and they saw the annihilation of Huang Baitao with their own eyes. Your present situation is even worse
than that of Huang Baitao. You are even farther from Xuzhou. Your forced march
from Nanyang to Nanpingji near Su county was too arduous. Can you still fight
on? It would be better to surrender your weapons sooner so that fewer will die.
Lives will be spared, and you will have done something for the Chinese people.
You know the magnanimous policy of the People’s Liberation Army. Even if you
are a blood relative of Chiang Kaishek, if you lay down your weapons, we will
treat you magnanimously. Whether you are an officer or a private, we will neither
kill nor humiliate you. Nationalists Wang Yaowu, Fan Hanjie, Zheng Dongguo7
and every other leader who has been captured are fine here with us. Many have
already been released. There are also many whom we are preparing to allow
to return home. You are all Chinese; why do you fight for the Americans? The
Chinese people oppose Chiang Kaishek’s civil war, autocracy, and betrayal of his
country. Why are you selling your lives to Chiang and a minority of reactionaries?
The crisis is urgent, and sacrifice is useless. You should lay down your arms at
once. The government in Nanjing is tottering and about to fall. Generals, officers,
and privates of the eleven divisions of Huang Wei’s legion, immediately turn your
weapons around and fight with us to Nanjing!
II
Commanding Officer General Huang Wei of the Twelfth Army Group of the
Guomindang army located in Nanpingji of Su county and the four subsidiary
corps commanders and eleven subsidiary division commanders as well as every
battalion officer and private soldier:
Right now, General Liu Bocheng, commander of the Central Plains Field
Army, and General Chen Yi, commander of the East China Field Army of the
People’s Liberation Army, are speaking to you.
Commander General Huang Wei and all subsidiary officers and privates of the
Guomindang’s Twelfth Army Group! You and we are all Chinese. Your army
and our army are fighting a war. We have surrounded you. This large army of
yours now occupies only six or seven small villages within a ten-square li area.
You have no food and no place to set up camp. How much longer can you hold out? True, you have several planes and tanks, whereas we do not have a single
plane or tank. The sky above Nanpingji is yours, and you want to use these things
to covertly break through the Southeast. But you tried for two days, and did you
break through us? No! You could not break through! Why? Because victories and
losses in war are not determined by weapons but rather by the human heart. Our
soldiers all want to fight. None of yours want to fight. Do your generals know
this? It would be better to lay down your arms. All those who do so will live; not
one will be killed. Those who want to remain may join the People’s Liberation
Army; those who do not want to remain may return home, whether they are privates, lower officers, middle officers, upper officers, or General Huang Wei. What
is the point of fighting on behalf of corrupt Guomindang officials? You sweat
and bleed; they are promoted and make their fortunes. You give your lives while
they prosper. Quickly wake up and come over. Put down your weapons. We are
all one family. Fighting a civil war, fighting the Communist Party, murdering
the people are all the ideas of Chiang Kaishek and the Guomindang. The majority of you were not willing but were forced to fight. Since that is how it is, why
fight? Quickly lay down your weapons! For the past several days we have only
surrounded you and pressed you into a slice of tofu. We have not yet begun our
offensive. If you do not surrender, we will begin to attack. We hope that General
Huang Wei will follow the example of General Zheng Dongguo and care for the
lives of his soldiers and officers and give the order to surrender. If General Huang
Wei agrees to this, send a representative to discuss the method of surrender with
our representative. If you guarantee us an orderly surrender without damage to
weapons and equipment, we will guarantee the safety of all of you, and we will
not confiscate your personal belongings. Quickly decide on your course of action.
End of this bulletin.
Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi

---

Notes

Our source for these texts is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 211–14, where they are
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscripts.

--- Notes

1.  During the second phase of the Huai-Hai Campaign, the Guomindang forces under
Huang Wei were surrounded in a narrow belt southwest of Su county. The northern Shaanxi
broadcast station continuously played five speeches urging them to surrender. The first
reproduced here was drafted by Mao Zedong in the name of the PLA General Headquarters. The second is a speech that Mao drafted on behalf of the commander of the Central
Plains Field Army, Liu Bocheng, and commander of the East China Field Army, Chen Yi.

2.  Feng Zhi’an was commander of the Guomindang army’s Third Pacification Zone.
Feng fled to Nanjing on November 8, 1948, when the commanders of the Third Pacification Zone, He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia (both underground CPC agents), led one army
headquarters and three divisions, totaling more than 20,000 men, in revolt in the region of
Jiawang and Taierzhuang.

3.  Huang Baitao, commander of the Guomindang army’s Seventh Army Group, was
killed in action at Daxiaoyuan, east of Nianzhuang, on November 22, 1948.

4.  Li Yannian and Liu Ruming were the commanders of the Guomindang army’s Sixth
and Eighth army groups, respectively.

5.  Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Sun Yuanliang were the commanders of the Guomindang
army’s Second, Thirteenth, and Sixteenth army groups, respectively.

6.  Liu Zhi was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s Xuzhou “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-194

7.  Wang Yaowu, commander of the Guomindang army’s Second Pacification Zone, was
captured during the Ji’nan Campaign in September 1948. Fan Hanjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters, was captured during the Jinzhou Campaign in October 1948. Zheng Dongguo was deputy commander-in-chief of the
Northeast “Bandit Suppression” Headquarters and commander of its First Army Group. On
October 19, 1948, the troops under his command laid down their weapons at Changchun.