The Need to Succeed in Crossing the River in
One Attempt
(April 17, 1949, 3:00 A.M.)
To the General Front Committee; Su (Yu) and Zhang (Zhen); and Liu (Bocheng),
Zhang [Jichun], and Li [Da]:1
We received your telegram of April 15 from 7 to 9 p.m.2 Negotiations ended
on the 15th. Nanjing has from the 16th to the 20th to think things over. During
that time, our army should seize all the enemy’s strongholds on the northern bank
and at the heart of the river. After the 20th, it will be completely up to us to decide
when our army crosses the river, and there will not be any constraints. Our telegram of the 16th from 7 to 9 a.m.3 asking if you could change the crossing from
the 22nd to the 25th assumed that Nanjing would agree to sign and on the assumption that it would sign on the 20th and then request several days to plan. It is not
necessary to change the date to the 25th. Whether or not Nanjing agrees to sign
on the 20th will depend on the attitude of the United States and Chiang Kaishek,
so there is little certainty. Nanjing thinks it would be very difficult for our army
to cross the river, and it does not believe we can do this on so grand a scale. We
reckon they will ignore us until the 20th, wanting to see if we can really succeed
in crossing after the 20th. If our army actually succeeds in crossing the river on
Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 544–45, where it is
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Su Yu was deputy commander and second deputy political commissar of the Third Field
Army, and Zhang Zhen (张震) was chief-of-staff of the Third Field Army. Liu Bocheng was
commander of the Second Field Army, Zhang Jichun was deputy political commissar and
head of the Political Department of the Second Field Army, and Li Da was chief-of-staff of
the Second Field Army.
2.  The telegram from the General Front Committee stated that various points on the
Yangzi River between Nanjing and Anqing could be taken in a single night on April 20,
except for Jinhekou, Xiaohuangzhou, and Jiangxinzhou, and so forth, which would require
more than two days to take because they were held by enemy forces. The April 20th operation would only be the beginning of the formal battle to cross the river, and the Communist
forces might need to take a rest after taking the bridge tower north of the river.
3.  See “Our Position Should Be Based upon Negotiations Being Broken off and the
Need to Fight Our Way across the River,” April 16, 1949, in this volume.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-256

the 22nd, then there is still the possibility of signing on the 23rd, 24th, or 25th.
Therefore, you should act according to the original plan. Do not change the rivercrossing time from the 22nd, and you must strive to cross in one attempt. This is
extremely important.
The Military Commission

reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.