The Fourth Corps Should Follow Up the Victory and Occupy Gaoyao, Deqing, and Other Counties

(October 17, 1949)

Comrade Lin Biao,[1] and to inform Jianying and Chen Geng[2]:

The direction of the enemy's flight from Guangzhou is either due west into Guangxi or southwest into Hainan Island. Our Fourth Corps should, it seems, follow up the victory and press forward until it occupies Gaoyao, Deqing, Fengchuan, Gaoming, Xinxing, Yunfu, Gulangnan, Luoding, and other counties, and if necessary also occupy Wuzhou, and then halt for rest and reorganization pending orders, awaiting your unified disposition for operations in Guangxi. For occupying all the above-mentioned counties may, on the one hand, lead to the destruction of a part or a large part of the fleeing enemy, making it easier for the Fifteenth Corps to capture Hainan Island, wipe out the remnant enemy, and pacify all of Guangdong; and on the other hand, this would mean that the deployment of our troops for operations in Guangxi would be completed. Whether this can be done, please decide in the light of the circumstances.

Mao Zedong
October 17

[1] Lin Biao was then commander of the Fourth Field Army and concurrently commander of the Central China Military Area.
[2] Jianying, namely Ye Jianying, was then First Secretary of the South China Sub-Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and commander and concurrently political commissar of the Guangdong Military Area. Chen Geng was then commander and concurrently political commissar of the Fourth Corps of the Second Field Army.