Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong’s Troops Should Immediately Advance Toward Nankou and Huailai[1]

(December 2, 1948)

Cheng and Huang, Yang, Luo and Geng, Yang and Li[2]:

(1) Your telegram of 18:00 hours on the 1st has been received. Since the 35th Army has already moved westward, Cheng and Huang should immediately set out and advance by the most direct route toward Nankou[3] and Huailai, in coordination with Yang-Luo-Geng and Yang-Li to annihilate Fu’s[4] troops.

(2) Yang-Luo-Geng should, as proposed in Cheng and Huang’s telegram, head straight for Zhuolu. (3) Yang-Li should, as proposed in Cheng and Huang’s telegram, encircle the enemy at Zhangjiakou and prevent the enemy from retreating to Zhangbei.

The Military Commission

0400 hours, 2 December

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee addressed to Cheng Zihua, commander of the Second Corps of the Northeast Field Army, and Huang Zhiyong, its chief of staff.
[2] Yang, Luo and Geng refer to Yang Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing and Geng Biao, who were then respectively commander, political commissar and chief of staff of the Second Corps of the North China Military Area. Yang and Li refer to Yang Chengwu and Li Tianhuan, who were then respectively commander and deputy political commissar and concurrently director of the political department of the Third Corps of the North China Military Area.
[3] Nankou, a town situated in the western part of Changping County, Beijing.
[4] Fu refers to Fu Zuoyi, then commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang’s “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters for North China.