Prepare to Cut off Communications between
Beiping and Tianjin, Encircle Tangshan, and
Annihilate the Enemy in Lutai and Tanggu
 (December 8, 1948, 7:00 A.M.)
To Lin [Biao], Luo [Ronghuan] and Liu [Yalou]:1
We received your telegram of 9:30 P.M. on the 7th.2
	 1.	 There are still four enemy infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades
encircled by Yang Chengwu’s forces3 in Zhangjiakou. The enemy fleeing
eastward consists of the headquarters of the Thirty-fifth Army and its two
divisions, which are traveling in more than 300 vehicles. With no obstruction, they could arrive in Beiping within two days. There were two enemy
divisions in Xuanhua, one of which belonged to the 101st Army. They tried
to reach Zhangjiakou, but they were annihilated by Yang Chengwu’s forces
yesterday (the 7th). The other division was part of the 104th Army; it scurried away after the Thirty-fifth Army. Two divisions of the 104th Army are
in Huailai; three divisions of the Sixteenth Army are in Nankou.4 One brigade of the forces led by our Yang [Dezhi], Luo [Ruiqing], and Geng [Biao]5
checked the progress of two divisions of the Thirty-fifth Army and one
division of the 104th Army on the afternoon of the 6th in the area between

Xuanhua and Huailai. If the main body of the forces of Yang, Luo, and Geng
was able to catch up with and encircle these enemy forces yesterday (the
7th), then the enemy would not have been able to flee, and the forces of
Yang, Luo, and Geng would have been able to annihilate them with their
own strength. Otherwise, these enemy forces will have joined the enemy
in Huailai and fled to Beiping yesterday or today. If this occurred, Cheng
[Zihua] and Huang [Zhiyong]6 will be unable to do anything when they
arrive in Huailai.
	 2.	 You plan to use the Third and Fifth columns to fight the Sixteenth Army.
This is not suitable in terms of our plan as a whole. At present, Fu Zuoyi7
has fourteen divisions and one cavalry division amassing in Beiping, Zuo
county, Tong county, Shunyi, and the region around Nankou (not including the five divisions in Xiahuayuan8 and Huailai). Your primary task is to
prevent these enemy troops from fleeing to Tianjin. To accomplish this goal,
you should have four columns occupy the Langfang-Xianghe railway and
sever communications between [Bei]ping and [Tian]jin. If you succeed in
this task, the fourteen enemy divisions around Beiping will not be able to
flee. Your second task is to use one column plus local troops in eastern Hebei
to surround the three enemy divisions in Tangshan so they cannot escape.
If the enemy in Beiping and Tangshan cannot run away, there will be little
possibility that the enemy in Tianjin, Tanggu, and Lutai9 (ten divisions in
total) will be able to flee on their own. Your third task is to have one column
sever communications between Tianjin and Tanggu and have three columns
attack and annihilate the six enemy divisions on the Tanggu-Lutai line: the
Ninety-fifth Independent Division, two divisions of the Sixty-second Army
(the other division is in Tianjin), and the three divisions of the Eighty-sixth
Army retreating from Qinhuangdao. If you possess nine columns in addition to those of Cheng [Zihua] and Huang [Zhiyong], you will be able to
carry out the above three tasks simultaneously. If you have six columns, you
will be able to carry out the two tasks of severing communications between
Tianjin and Beiping and encirclement of the enemy in Tangshan. (Use four
columns to sever communications between Beiping and Tianjin, and two
columns to encircle Tangshan. When we say here that you need two columns
to encircle Tangshan, that means we will not have enough forces to attack the
enemy in Tanggu and Lutai. Therefore, completing the task of surrounding
Tangshan will require two columns plus the local forces in eastern Hebei.) If the situation becomes critical and there are reliable signs that the enemy in
Beiping will flee to Tianjin (right now there are no such signs), and you have
only four columns because reinforcements cannot catch up with you, then
all you can do is first sever communications between Beiping and Tianjin so
that the enemy in Beiping cannot run away, and then wait for the reinforcements to arrive.
	 3.	 If communications between Beiping and Tianjin have not yet been severed,
using two columns in addition to those of Cheng and Huang to attack the
Sixteenth Division in Nankou runs the risk of forcing the enemy in Beiping
to flee earlier to Tianjin and Tanggu.
	 4.	 There is no danger that the enemy in Beiping and Tianjin will flee to Xi’an,
Zhengzhou, or Xuzhou, because two of our armies, that of Xu [Xiangqian]
and Zhou [Shidi], and that of Peng [Dehuai] and Zhang [Zongxun],10 can prevent them from fleeing to Xi’an; and two other armies, that of Liu [Bocheng]
and Deng [Xiaoping], and that of Chen [Yi] and Su [Yu],11 can prevent them
from fleeing to Zhengzhou or Xuzhou. (We could put the thirty-four divisions of the four corps of Huang Wei, Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, Sun Yuanliang,12
and the others out of action in about ten days. Afterward, our army must be
able to rest for a time in the area between the Longhai railway and the Huai
River.)
	 5.	 There is no danger that the enemy in Beiping and Tianjin will flee to Suiyuan13
because we have eight columns on the [Bei]ping-Sui[yuan] railway.
	 6.	 There is a danger that the enemy forces in Beiping and Tianjin will flee to
Qingdao because we have no forces between Tianjin, Ji’nan, and Qingdao.
The danger is not great, however, because the road from Tianjin through
Ji’nan to Qingdao is longer than that between our armies in Xuzhou and
Qingdao. Our armies could go from Xuzhou to the Jiaozhou-Ji’nan railway
to obstruct and attack them.
	 7.	 The main danger is that the enemy might flee by sea. But, in the first place
the harbors of Tianjin and Tanggu will soon freeze over. In the second place, they do not have enough boats. In the third place, as of now Fu Zuoyi has
not yet made preparations of this kind. His plan is still to resolutely hold
Beiping, Tianjin, and Tangshan. We have surrounded more than 20,000
enemy soldiers in Zhangjiakou (we have only surrounded them without
attacking them). It is difficult for Fu Zuoyi to decide to abandon them and
flee alone.
	 8.	 Therefore, you should quietly await the arrival of reinforcements and prepare to carry out the plans of severing communications between Beiping
and Tianjin, surrounding Tangshan, and annihilating the enemy in Lutai and
Tanggu.
	 9.	 The very best situation would be if we could surround the enemy in
Xiahuayuan and Huailai.
The Military Commission

---

Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 340–43, where it is
reproduced from Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript.

--- 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.

2.  The telegram from Lin Biao et al. stated that their Fifth and Third columns had
arrived in Ji county, at the line north of Fengrun, and at Yutian. They planned to immediately send the columns to the area near Pinggu and Shunyi and to join the battle against Fu
Zuoyi within five or six days. After the Beiping-Zhangjiakou Campaign ended, they would
then transfer the columns south of Tong county and Beiping in order to prevent the enemy
troops in Beiping from escaping south. Columns arriving later could surround Tangshan
and cut off communications between Beiping and Tianjin.

3.  Yang Chengwu was commander of the North China Military Region’s Third Corps.

4.  Nankou is a town in western Changping county, Beijing.

5.  Yang Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing, and Geng Biao were commander, political commissar,
and chief-of-staff, respectively, of the Second Corps of the North China Military Region.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-199

6.  Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong were commander and chief-of-staff, respectively,
of the Northeast Field Army’s Second Corps.

7.  Fu Zuoyi was commander-in-chief of the Guomindang Army’s North China “Bandit
Suppression” Headquarters.

8.  Xiahuayuan is now Xiahuayuan district in Zhangjiakou, Hebei.

9.  Lutai is now the county seat of Ninghe county in Tianjin.

10.  Xu Xiangqian was commander and political commissar of the North China Military Region’s First Corps, and Zhou Shidi was deputy commander and deputy political
commissar of the North China Military Region’s First Corps. Peng Dehuai was commander
and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army, and Zhang Zongxun was deputy
commander of the Northwest Field Army.

11.  Liu Bocheng was commander of the Central Plains Field Army, and Deng Xiaoping
was political commissar of the Central Plains Field Army. Chen Yi was commander and
political commissar of the East China Field Army, and Su Yu was acting commander and
acting political commissar of the East China Field Army.

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

13.  The province of Suiyuan covered the central region of what is now Inner Mongolia
before it was abolished in 1954.