The Columns in the Regions of Fujian,
Guangdong, and Jiangxi Need to Fight
Independently before September or October
(July 9, 1949)
To the branch office of the South China Bureau, Fang [Fang], Wei [Jinshui], and
Zhu [Manping], and to the Third and Fourth Field Armies:1
We received your telegram sent on July 3.
	 1.	 We approve your deployment.
	 2.	 Our Fourth Field Army has finished deployment and will begin attacking Bai
Chongxi2 in several days. We are just waiting for the completion of the campaign3 that we launched recently. After that, we will have the troop strength
to advance into and occupy Ganzhou and the seventeen counties in southern
Jiangxi, but we have yet to decide when exactly to occupy Ganzhou and the
towns in southern Jiangxi. Around September or October is possible.
	 3.	 The strong forces of our Third Field Army are now advancing southward from Shanghai. It seems that they could occupy Fuzhou, Quanzhou,
Zhangzhou, and so on in August and September. If necessary, after annihilating the enemy forces in western and southern Fujian and so on, these corps
could assist you in annihilating the enemy forces in the Han River valley and
in occupying Chaozhou and Shantou. We ask the Third Field Army to please
bring this to the attention of comrades Ye Fei and Zhang Dingcheng4 et al.
Our source for this telegram is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 629–30, where it is
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Fang Fang was secretary of the Branch Office of the South China Bureau; Wei Jinshui
(1906–1992, native of Fujian) was political commissar of the column in Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi; and Zhu Manping (1911–1988, native of Guangdong) was deputy political commissar of the column in Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi.
2.  Bai Chongxi was head of the Guomindang’s Central China Military and Political
Affairs Office.
3.  This refers to the Fourth Field Army’s defeat of Bai Chongxi’s troops on the HunanJiangxi border in early July 1949. The campaign, which concluded on July 9, annihilated
more than 4,600 enemy troops.
4.  Ye Fei was commander of the Tenth Corps of the Third Field Army, and Zhang
Dingcheng was political commissar of the Tenth Corps of the Third Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-292

	 4.	 Before our Third Field Army advances and occupies western and southern
Fujian, and before the Fourth Field Army advances and occupies southern
Jiangxi, our troops in western Fujian in the Han River and Dong River regions
should fight independently. They should fight as they see fit in accordance
with the actual situation, based on the differences in strength between our
forces and those of the enemy, and they are not to rely on reinforcements.
	 5.	 We ask the Third Field Army to please order Ye Fei to establish radio contact with Fang, secretary of the South China Bureau’s Branch Office (who is
now in Mei county).
	 6.	 The telegram sent by Fang and Wei Jinshui on July 3 should be passed on to
the Third and Fourth Field armies for their information.
The Military Commission

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