Letter to Guo Gengguang[1]
(November 22, 1950)

Mr. Gengguang:
Your gracious letter has been received, and I deeply appreciate your kind sentiments. Regarding the matter of work, it would be more appropriate to consult and resolve it with those nearby who are familiar with your circumstances.
I hereby extend my respects!

Mao Zedong
November 22

[1] Guo Gengguang (1880–1956), a native of Chaoyang Village, Shaoshan Township, Shaoshan City, Hunan Province, was a lawyer. At the time, he resided in the city of Xiangtan, Hunan. During the Great Revolution period, he had expressed sympathy for Mao Zedong’s revolutionary activities.



Letter to Hu Qiaomu[1]
(November 22, 1950)

Comrade Qiaomu:
Please take responsibility for drafting a directive in the name of the Central Committee to correct shortcomings in writing telegrams. For example: do not use characters such as zi, chou, yin, mao, dong, dong, jiang, zhi to replace months and days[2]; write the full month and day, for instance, November 22; signatures should generally use full names, not just surnames without given names, except when the recipient is fully aware of the person’s identity, such as Liu-Deng, Chen-Rao, etc.; place names and organizational names must generally be written in full, with abbreviations like Jing, Jin, Hu, Han permitted only in very rare cases; also, the structure of the text must be grammatically correct, prohibiting the omission of subjects, objects, and other necessary nouns, and adjectives and adverbs must be distinguishable in nature, etc. Please take the lead in drafting an initial version, then invite Yang Shangkun, Li Tao, Qi Yanming, Xue Muqiao, and any other comrades you deem necessary to convene one or two meetings to revise and enrich it, and then submit it to me for review.

Mao Zedong
November 22

[1] Hu Qiaomu was then serving as Mao Zedong’s secretary and Director of the Central People’s Government Information Administration.
[2] Zi, chou, yin, mao are the first four of the Earthly Branches. Dong, dong, jiang, zhi are the rhyme headings of the first to fourth rhymes in the upper level tone of poetic rhymes. In the past, it was customary when sending telegrams to use the Earthly Branches "zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, hai" to sequentially represent the 12 months of the year, and to use the rhyme headings "dong, dong, jiang, zhi" etc., to sequentially represent each day of the month.



Regarding the Issuance of Bandit Suppression Bulletins
Telegram to the Central-South, East China, and Southwest Military Regions
(November 23, 1950)

Central-South Military Region, East China Military Region, Southwest Military Region:
(1) The Central-South Bandit Suppression Bulletin No. 2[1] has been received and is very good. (2) Each of your three major military regions has tens of thousands of bandits to be eliminated within a set timeframe. It is suggested that the East China Military Region follow the methods of the Southwest and Central-South Military Regions by issuing an internal bandit suppression bulletin once a month. The bandit suppression bulletins of your three major military regions, in addition to being distributed to the provinces and armies under your jurisdiction and to us, should also be simultaneously sent to the other two major military regions for reference and comparison.

Mao Zedong
November 23

[1] The Central-South Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Bandit Suppression Bulletin No. 2 primarily reported that in mid-October, troops of the Hunan Military Region focused on suppressing bandits in Jingxian, Suining, and the Xuefeng Mountain area of southwestern Hunan, while another unit, together with a regiment from Hubei and in coordination with the Youyang Military Sub-district of the Southwest Military Region, jointly suppressed bandits in the Longshan area along the Sichuan-Hunan-Hubei border. By early November, after a month of operations, this phase had essentially concluded.



Telegram to Peng Dehuai, Deng Hua, and Hong Xuezhi[1]
(November 23, 1950)

Peng, Deng, Hong:
Both your telegrams of 18:00 on the 21st and 12:00 on the 22nd have been received. We have the following suggestions regarding operations for your consideration: (1) As of this moment, the puppet 7th and 8th Divisions have advanced to the line of Deokcheon, Yeongwon, and continue to push northward, while the puppet 6th Division’s three