The Xiahuayuan Area Should Be Captured by the Swiftest Means

(December 4, 1948)

Cheng and Huang, Yang and Luo and Geng, and inform Yang and Li:

It is estimated that the Temporary 3rd Army is still in Huailai and the area to its east. Our Yang, Luo, and Geng should by the swiftest means capture the line of the Xiahuayuan area and cut off the link between the Temporary 3rd Army and the enemy at Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua. So long as the Temporary 3rd Army and Fu’s forces in the Beiping area cannot link up with the enemy at Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua, there is no danger of the enemy at Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua fleeing westward. Therefore, it is most important to capture the Xiahuayuan area and firmly sever the link between the enemy forces in the east and the west.

The Military Commission

0400 hours, 4 December

[1] This was 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; and to Yang Dezhi, commander of the Second Corps of the North China Military Area, Luo Ruiqing, its political commissar, and Geng Biao, its chief of staff.

[2] Yang and Li: Yang Chengwu and Li Tianhuan, who were at that time respectively commander and deputy political commissar and director of the political department of the Third Corps of the North China Military Area.

[3] Xiahuayuan, a town, now Xiahuayuan District, Zhangjiakou Municipality, Hebei Province.

[4] Zhang-Xuan: Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua in Hebei Province.

[5] Fu: Fu Zuoyi, then Commander-in-Chief of the “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters of the Kuomintang forces in North China.