The Northeast Army Corps Uses the 5th and 3rd Columns to Threaten Beiping and Pin Down the Enemy¹

(December 10, 1948)

Lin, Luo, Liu:

(1) Our telegram of 0700 hours on the 8th² stated that your 5th and 3rd Columns should not move westward. Now, according to a telegram from Yang, Luo, and Geng³ at 1400 hours on the 9th, the enemy’s 35th Army, with three divisions, is moving eastward from Xinbao’an⁴, while two divisions of the 104th Army are moving westward from Huailai, fiercely attacking our 3rd and 4th Columns. Yang, Luo, and Geng have strictly ordered the 3rd and 4th Columns to hold their ground and launch sorties, maintaining the position between the two enemy forces and preventing them from linking up. They request that Cheng and Huang⁵ send one army to the west of Huailai to join forces with Yang, Luo, and Geng’s four brigades to encircle and annihilate the two divisions of the 104th Army, while Cheng and Huang’s other army pins down the 16th Army along the Huailai–Kangzhuang line. Currently, two divisions of the 16th Army have reached Huailai, with another division at Kangzhuang; the 94th Army has reached Nankou⁶; the 13th Army is in Tongxian, Shunyi, and other areas; the 92nd Army has reached the eastern outskirts of Beiping; inside the city of Beiping is one division of the 31st Army; and in Liangxiang and Zhuozhou, southwest of Beiping, are two divisions of the 101st Army (formed from local units).

¹ This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Lin Biao, commander of the Northeast Field Army; Luo Ronghuan, political commissar; and Liu Yalou, chief of staff.
² Refers to “Prepare to Sever the Link Between Beiping and Tianjin, Encircle Tangshan, and Attack and Destroy the Enemy at Lutai and Tanggu.”
³ Yang, Luo, and Geng refer to Yang Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing, and Geng Biao, who were respectively commander, political commissar, and chief of staff of the Second Corps of the North China Military Region at the time.
⁴ Xinbao’an, a town located northwest of Huailai County, Hebei Province.
⁵ Cheng and Huang refer to Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong, who were respectively commander and chief of staff of the Second Corps of the Northeast Field Army at the time.
⁶ Nankou, a town located in the western part of Changping County, Beijing.

(2) If Cheng and Huang’s forces can follow the approach proposed by Yang, Luo, and Geng—using one army to coordinate with Yang, Luo, and Geng’s four brigades to annihilate the two divisions of the 104th Army—then the enemy’s 35th Army can continue to be encircled by Yang, Luo, and Geng, while the enemy’s 16th and 94th Armies can also be blocked by Cheng and Huang. However, there is concern that Fu¹ may further commit the 92nd Army, in which case Cheng and Huang’s forces may face difficulties in dealing with the concentrated assault of the 16th, 94th, and 92nd Armies. (3) Under these circumstances, it is necessary for you to move the 5th and 3rd Columns westward. However, according to your telegram of 1100 hours on the 9th, the 5th Column has lost over a thousand men and is a unit of relatively low combat effectiveness. It would take at least seven days to move from Zunhua to Huailai, which may be too late, and the 3rd Column, being in Fengrun, is even farther away. Please consider the following: Move the 5th Column to the area between Nankou and Huairou to conduct feint attacks against the enemy at Nankou and Huairou, threatening Beiping from the north; move the 3rd Column to the south of Tongxian to conduct feint attacks against Tongxian and the Beiping–Tianjin Railway², threatening Beiping from the east, in order to pin down the enemy at Nankou, Tongxian, Beiping, Huairou, and other points. Whether this is feasible, we await your consideration and decision.

Central Military Commission
0200 hours, 10th

¹ Fu refers to Fu Zuoyi, who was then commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang’s “Bandit Suppression” General Headquarters in North China.
² The Beiping–Tianjin Railway refers to the railway line between Beiping (present-day Beijing) and Tianjin, now a section of the Beijing–Shanghai line.