To Peng Dehuai and Zhang Zongxun [1]
(September 19, 1949)
We have just received a telegram from Fu Zuoyi dated September 17, stating that Ma Hongbin of Ningxia has arrived in Baotou and said that the commander of the 81st Army is his son, Ma Dunjing, and that this matter is separate from Ma Hongkui’s troops. Regardless of the method, so long as the Liberation Army does not attack and the 81st Army can be turned into a people’s army, he is willing to accept it, and requests that military operations be halted first to allow for negotiations. The Central Military Commission requests Peng and Zhang to immediately consider measures for handling this and report back by telegram.
[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, addressed to Peng Dehuai and Zhang Zongxun.