To Peng Dehuai[1]
(May 31, 1951)
Comrade Dehuai, and inform Gao[2]:
All telegrams received and noted.
(1) Your plan to order all armies to resolutely block the enemy along the line of Jinhua, Tieyuan, Shuoning and the areas south of it, to transfer the main force of the 42nd Army to the area east of Yichuan, and to transfer the 47th Army to the area of Nanchuan and Xinmu, are all very correct. It is hoped that they will be resolutely carried out.
(2) Yang Chengwu’s two armies may be immediately mobilized to enter Korea. One army shall replace the 47th Army in constructing the airfield while concurrently attending to coastal defense; the other army shall replace the 42nd Army in defending against a possible landing in the Wonsan direction.
(3) To prevent the puppet Capital Division from moving northward from Xiangyang to harass Wonsan, a combat-effective division must be deployed along the Goseong-Tongcheon line. Does the People’s Army have such strength?
(4) What is the situation of the 180th Division of the 60th Army?[3] I am very much concerned.
Mao Zedong
31 May, 2:00 hours

[1] Peng Dehuai, then serving as Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers.
[2] Gao refers to Gao Gang, then serving as Commander and Political Commissar of the Northeast Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.
[3] During the second phase of operations in the Fifth Campaign, this unit, due to mishandling, was encircled by enemy mechanized forces in the Jiam-ri area and suffered severe losses.