Report on the Occupation of Xuzhou and
Elimination of the Enemy Forces
(December 6, 1948, 6:00 P.M.)
To Lin [Biao], Luo [Ronghuan], and Liu [Yalou]; and for the information of the
Northeast Bureau, Peng [Dehuai], Zhang [Zongxun], and Zhao [Shoushan]:1
We received the telegram you sent between 5:00 and 7:00 A.M. on the 6th. We
occupied Xuzhou on December 2, and the people extended a great welcome. Du
Yuming2 ordered the three corps and twenty-two divisions under Qiu Qingquan, Li
Mi, and Sun Yuanliang3 to flee from Xuzhou in the direction of Anqing. Now they
have been completely encircled by the main forces of our East China Army in a
20-li area between Xiao county, Tangshan, and Yongcheng, and we are preparing
to spend time separating and eliminating these enemy forces step-by-step. For ten
days, eleven divisions from Huang Wei’s army group,4 which had moved from
the southern section of the [Bei]ping-Han[kou] railway5 to reinforce the Xuzhou
area, have been encircled and attacked by the main forces of our Central Plains
Field Army and a unit of our East China Army in the area between Xu county,
Mengcheng, Bengbu, and Yongcheng (Shuangduiji6). The enemy forces have
pulled back to defend an area 10 li in width and are depending on air-dropped supplies, so it is difficult to separate them. It will therefore take some days before we
can finish them off completely. The enemy forces are supported at Bengbu by Li
Yannian’s and Liu Ruming’s two corps,7 totaling fifteen divisions (this includes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 333–34, where it is
the six divisions that retreated from Huludao). Our attacks forced them to retreat
to Bengbu from the area south of Xu county. Recently, because we transferred
some forces to fight Du Yuming, these enemy forces again moved north of the
Huai River. They are not very strong, however, so we can pin them down with
a single unit. There is news that Chiang Kaishek is again moving several armies
from the Hankou area to Bengbu. But if our Northeast and North China armies
can hold the enemy forces in Beiping, Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, and Tangshan, and
our Northwest Army can grab hold of Hu Zongnan,8 it should be entirely possible
for the East China and Central Plains armies to finish off the enemy forces north of
the Huai River in roughly one month. Relatively speaking, this enemy unit has the
greatest combat capacity among the Chiang bandit forces (Huang Baitao’s army
group,9 which we already annihilated east of Xuzhou, had a comparable combat
capacity), and if we can finish it off, the Chiang bandits will have no main forces
left. Then it will be fairly easy to proceed to annihilate the enemy forces south
of the Huai River (there are twenty-five divisions, including the enemy forces in
central Jiangsu) and to fight south of the Yangzi River in the future.
The Military Commission
reproduced from the original document 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.
Peng Dehuai was commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army. Zhang
Zongxun and Zhao Shoushan were deputy commanders of the Northwest Field Army.

2.  Du Yuming was deputy commander-in-chief of the Guomindang army’s Xuzhou
“Bandit Suppression” Headquarters and director of its Advanced Headquarters.

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

4.  Huang Wei was commander of the Guomindang army’s Twelfth Army Group.

5.  The Beiping-Hankou railway is part of today’s Beijing-Guangzhou Railway.

6.  Shuangduiji is a town in southern Suixi county, Anhui.

7.  Li Yannian and Liu Ruming were the commanders of the Guomindang army’s Sixth
and Eighth army groups, respectively.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-198


8.  Hu Zongnan was director of the Guomindang army’s Xi’an Pacification Office.

9.  Huang Baitao was commander of the Guomindang army’s Seventh Army. He died in
the battle of Daxiaoyuanshang on November 22, 1948.