Pay Full Attention to Protecting Beiping’s
Industries and Important Cultural-Historical
Sites
(December 17, 1948, 4:00 P.M.)
To Lin [Biao], Luo [Ronghuan], and Liu [Yalou]; and for the information of
Cheng [Zihua] and Huang [Zhiyong]:1
	 1.	 Fengtai, Mentougou, Shijingshan, and Changxindian are important industrial
zones, and our Fifth and Eleventh columns are currently fighting in these
zones. We hope you will order them to pay full attention to protecting the
industries there. The way to do this is to leave everything completely intact
and to use the original workers, staff, factory directors, and management to
handle affairs. Our armies should only send personnel to supervise them and
soldiers to protect them.
	 2.	 You should also leave all the original management personnel in place at
the major cultural-historical sites of Shahe, Qinghe,2 Haidian, and Xishan.
Our armies should only send soldiers to protect these sites and personnel to
establish contacts there. You should pay particular attention to establishing
contacts with the teaching and administrative staff and students at Tsinghua
University, Yenching University, and other universities, and discuss with
them how to reduce losses during the fighting.
	 3.	 Given that the Eleventh Column is fighting at Shijingshan and that it still
must join with the Fifth Column to fight in the region around Fengtai, it
appears it will be difficult for the time being for the Eleventh Column to
advance to the Nankou-Shahe region and to take over the assignments of
the Fourth Column. The Fourth Column may therefore leave one division in
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 415–16, where it is
the Nankou3-Shahe region; it is quite enough for the Fourth Column headquarters to lead the main forces to Zhangjiakou. We ask Lin, Luo, and Liu
to determine the time for this column’s departure. It should be fine for it to
arrive in Zhangjiakou in about a week.
 The Military Commission
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.

--- Notes

1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Lin Biao was commander, Luo Ronghuan was political commissar, and Liu Yalou was
chief-of-staff of the Northeast Field Army. Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong were commander and chief-of-staff, respectively, of the Northeast Field Army.

2.  Shahe is a town in southeast Changping county, Beijing. Qinghe is a town in northeast Haidian county, Beijing.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-217


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