Cheng Huang’s Unit Assists Yang Luo Geng in Annihilating the Enemy Fleeing Eastward[1]

(December 7, 1948)

To Cheng and Huang, and for the information of Lin, Luo, and Liu[2]:

(1) The several telegrams you sent to Yang and Li were all inconsistent with the specific situation and all conflicted with the Military Commission’s stipulation of severing the connection between the two enemies at Zhang and Xuan.[3] Now Yang and Li[4] have already allowed the 35th Army to flee eastward, and it is also unknown whether Yang, Luo, and Geng[5] can block this enemy at Xinbao’an. As for yourselves, you did not use your rear guard to attack Miyun but instead used your vanguard to attack Miyun, thereby causing a delay in time. Under such circumstances, it is possible that before you have arrived, the 35th Army and the enemy at Huailai will have already fled eastward together, and after you arrive there will be nothing to do, making your journey there and back an empty exertion. Even so, you must still press forward day and night. It is hoped that Yang, Luo, and Geng can, on the night of the 6th or the morning of the 7th, seize the main force of the 35th Army and the 104th Army on the Xiahuayuan–Xinbao’an line, and that the enemy at Huailai has also not run away, so that you can coordinate with Yang, Luo, and Geng to annihilate this enemy. (2) Because Cheng and Huang’s movement westward has already drawn the 94th Army back to Beiping, Lin, Luo, and Liu are requested to telegraph in advance a rough plan regarding when the main force of the Northeast [Field Army] can be concentrated in eastern Hebei and when the dispositions can be completed for severing [the railway between] Beiping and Tianjin, encircling Tangshan, and attacking and annihilating [the enemy at] Tanggu (these three tasks must be accomplished simultaneously, without any discrepancy in sequence).

The Military Commission
20:00, the 7th

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[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Cheng Zihua, commander of the Second Corps of the Northeast Field Army, and Huang Zhiyong, its chief of staff.

[2] Lin, Luo, and Liu refer to Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Liu Yalou, who were then respectively commander, political commissar, and chief of staff of the Northeast Field Army.

[3] Zhang and Xuan refer to Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua in Hebei Province.

[4] Yang and Li refer to Yang Chengwu and Li Tianhuan, who were then respectively commander and deputy political commissar concurrently director of the political department of the Third Corps of the North China Military Region.

[5] 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 Region.