(Xinhua News Agency, Northern Shaanxi, 16th) Since Jiang the bandit Jieshi launched his peace offensive on January 1st, the heroic stalwarts of the Guomindang reactionaries, who had expressed in reams of writing their willingness to "shorten the duration of the war," "alleviate the people's suffering," and take "saving the people as the prerequisite," suddenly lowered their peace tune in mid-January, and the old tune of "fighting the Communist Party to the finish" was suddenly struck up again. This has been even more so in the last few days. After the Shanghai People's Peace Delegation returned from its visit to Beiping, it was immediately persecuted by these heroic stalwarts. On the 13th, the Guomindang Central Propaganda Department issued a "special propaganda directive" to "all party headquarters and party newspapers," which stated: "Ye Jianying used the Shanghai People's Peace Delegation as a mouthpiece to propagandize to our rear areas that the Chinese Communist Party has sincerity for peace, while accusing the government's military deployments of lacking sincerity for peace. All newspapers must, based on the following points, forcefully refute this from the front and the side." This "special propaganda directive" listed several points. "It is better for the government to fight to the finish than to surrender unconditionally." "The eight points proposed in Mao Zedong's January 14th statement are conditions for national subjugation, which the government should not have accepted." "The CCP should bear the responsibility for sabotaging peace. Today, the CCP has instead put forward a so-called list of war criminals, including all responsible persons of the government, and further demands that the government arrest them first. Its tyrannical unreasonableness is obvious. If the CCP does not change this kind of conduct, the path to peace negotiations will be difficult to find." The god-like posture of being as anxious for negotiations as if one had lost one's parents, which was seen two weeks ago, is no longer visible. The famous phrases that spread among the people and gladdened their hearts, such as "shorten the duration of the war," "alleviate the people's suffering," and "take saving the people as the prerequisite," are no longer mentioned. If the CCP is unwilling to change its "conduct" and insists on punishing war criminals, then peace cannot be discussed. Is saving the people the prerequisite? Or is saving the war criminals the prerequisite? According to the "special propaganda directive" of the Guomindang's heroic stalwarts, the latter has been chosen. The list of war criminals is still being solicited for opinions by the CCP from various democratic parties and people's organizations, and it is heard that opinions have already been received from several quarters. According to these opinions already received, all disapprove of the list proposed by a certain authoritative person on November 25th of last year. They believe that every one of the forty-three war criminals on that list is correct, but unfortunately, it is too small. They believe that the number of people who should bear responsibility for launching the counter-revolutionary war and slaughtering several million people is definitely not just forty-three, but should be one hundred and several tens. Now let us tentatively assume that the number of war criminals will be determined to be one hundred and several tens. Then, we ask our heroic stalwarts: why do you oppose punishing war criminals? Are you not willing to "shorten the duration of the war, alleviate the people's suffering"? If, because of your opposition, the war has to continue, does this not prolong the time and extend the calamity of war? The crime of these eight characters, "prolong the time, extend the calamity of war," was a charge you, in the name of the Nanjing government spokesman, leveled against the Communist Party in a statement on January 16th, 1949. Do you now want to take it back, write it on a poster, and hang it on yourselves for glory? What about "taking saving the people as the prerequisite"? According to the statistics of your government's Ministry of the Interior, the population of China is four hundred and fifty million. Why has it suddenly changed to taking saving one hundred and several tens of war criminals as the prerequisite? Four hundred and fifty million versus one hundred and several tens, what is the ratio of large to small? You heroes are not muddle-headed; you have studied arithmetic. Please, according to your arithmetic textbooks, do a good calculation. We also agree with the formulation of taking saving the people as the prerequisite. The people of the whole country also agree. If you act on "taking saving one hundred and several tens of war criminals as the prerequisite," then you must be careful. The working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie, you will not be able to hold your ground. You, who advocate "taking saving the people as the prerequisite," persecute the Shanghai People's Peace Delegation, saying they have become Ye Jianying's mouthpiece. Is Ye Jianying's magic so great that in a few days he made the delegates believe that "the CCP has sincerity for peace, while accusing the government's military deployments of lacking sincerity for peace"? On the 14th, the die-hards used the Nanjing Municipal Council to pass a "motion to disavow the Nanjing Municipal People's Peace Delegation." A portion of the die-hards within the Guomindang's "CC" and Fuxing cliques, that is, the war criminal clique, a few weeks after their own "appeal for peace," are no longer "appealing for peace," but appealing for war. The Guomindang die-hards are just this unlucky. Whether it is the Shanghai People's Peace Delegation or people of conscience within the Guomindang, as long as anyone is unwilling to follow their path, they will be persecuted and attacked, thus isolating themselves at the pinnacle of a pagoda, and they will not repent even unto death. The broad masses of the people in the Yangtze River basin and the south, including workers, peasants, intellectuals, the liberal bourgeoisie, enlightened gentry, and conscientious Guomindang members, listen: The Guomindang die-hards who stand on your heads and run amok do not have many days left to live. We and you are on the same side. The small handful of die-hards will fall from the pinnacle of the pagoda in a few days, and a people's China is about to emerge.