The Policy of First Encircling and Then
Going Back to Fight the Enemies in the
Southeast
(September 12, 1949)
To Deng [Xiaoping], Zhang [Jichun], and Li [Da], and to Lin [Biao], Deng
[Zihui], and Tan [Zheng]:1
We received your telegram of September 10.
	 1.	 We agree that the commanders of the Fourth Field Army should lead the
fight when the Second Field Army passes through Central China.
	 2.	 If Bai Chongxi2 occupies the capital of Guizhou, both the Second Field
Army and the Fourth Field Army should temporarily refrain from engaging him. The main force of the two corps of the Second Field Army should
advance directly to the regions of Xufu3 and Luzhou west of Chongqing,
and then fight eastward to occupy Chongqing. One army should stay north
of the Wujiang River (using Zunyi as the center). After Chen Geng’s corps4
of the Second Field Army joins up with the five armies of the Fourth Field
Army to conclude the fighting in Guangxi, they should immediately advance
to occupy Yunnan so as to finish encircling Guiyang. After this, part of the
Fourth Field Army should advance northward from Guangxi, while the
Second Field Army should dispatch the appropriate number of troops around
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong junshi wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 670–71, where it
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Military Commission.
Deng Xiaoping was political commissar 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. Lin Biao was commander of the
Fourth Field Army and the Central China Military Region. Deng Zihui was second political commissar of the Fourth Field Army and the Central China Military Region, and Tan
Zheng was head of the Political Department of the Fourth Field Army and the Central
China Military Region.
2.  Bai Chongxi was commander of the Guomindang’s Central China Military and
Political Affairs Office.
3.  Xufu refers to Xuzhoufu, also known as Yibin, a city in Sichuan.
4.  Chen Geng was commander and political commissar of the Fourth Corps of the
Second Field Army.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-320

Yunnan and northern Guizhou to advance eastward and southward to encircle Guiyang and to annihilate the enemy forces there. In any case, in dealing
with Bai Chongxi and the enemy forces in the Southwest, we should adopt
the policy of outflanking and moving up behind our enemies, completing our
encirclement, and then going back to fight.
The Military Commission

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