Continue to Attack and Annihilate the Enemy in the Shangyi Area[1]

(December 17, 1948)

Yang and Li, and inform Yang, Luo, and Geng[2]:

(1) Your telegram of 22:00 on the 16th has been received. We are very gratified by the capture of Zhangbei. (2) You should continue to attack and annihilate the enemy in the Shangyi area, and be sure to mop up all the miscellaneous units in northern Chahar[3] thoroughly.

The Military Commission

08:00, 17th

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee to Yang Chengwu, commander of the 3rd Corps of the North China Military Region, and Li Tianhuan, deputy political commissar and concurrently director of the Political Department.
[2] 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 2nd Corps of the North China Military Region at the time.
[3] Northern Chahar refers to the area north of Zhangjiakou and the Great Wall in the former Chahar Province (which governed the northwestern part of present-day Hebei Province and the northern part of Shanxi Province).