The Focus Should Be on Cutting Off the Enemy Between Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua[1]

(December 3, 1948)

Cheng and Huang, Yang and Li:

(1) Your telegrams of 1300 and 2400 hours on December 2[2] have been received. (2) Yang and Li may keep your dispositions as set forth in your telegram of 1300 hours on December 2 unchanged, but you must strengthen the forces for cutting the Zhangjiakou-Xuanhua section. Since the 35th Army is still in Xuanhua, we need not fear that the enemy in Zhangyuan[3] will flee westward or northward. The focus should be on cutting off the enemy between Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua. (3) If the 35th Army has already reached Zhangyuan, Yang and Li should focus on preventing the enemy from fleeing westward or northward.

The Military Commission

1600 hours, December 3

[1] This was a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Cheng Zihua, commander of the Second Corps of the Northeast Field Army, and Huang Zhiyong, its chief of staff, and to Yang Chengwu, commander of the Third Corps of the North China Military Area, and Li Tianhuan, its deputy political commissar and director of its political department.

[2] This refers to the telegrams sent by Yang Chengwu and Li Tianhuan to the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and to Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong at 1300 and 2400 hours on December 2, 1948. The first telegram said: "In compliance with the telegraphic order of the Military Commission and of Cheng and Huang, we have made the following dispositions: (a) The 1st Column will cut and control the Zhangjiakou-Xuanhua highway and encircle Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua from the southeast. (b) The 6th Column will send one brigade to cut the Zhangjiakou-Zhangbei highway, and its main force will encircle Zhangyuan from the northwest. (c) The 2nd Column will be deployed on both banks of the Yanghe River, ready for mobile operations at any time." The second telegram said: "The enemy still shows no sign of fleeing westward. The Zhangjiakou-Xuanhua section is still the most critical area at present. For the convenience of mobile operations, we suggest that for the time being our dispositions of 1300 hours on December 2 remain unchanged and that they be altered later in the light of the situation."

[3] Zhangyuan, now Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province.