A Letter to Comrade Mao Zedong, December 10, 1947 – Zhu De

A Letter to Comrade Mao Zedong

(December 10, 1947)

After the Land Conference (225), I went to Noji and Jizhong and then from Shijiazhuang back to the Working Committee (242). I would like to report to you what I have seen. The second, third, and fourth columns to which Noji belonged were reorganized, united internally and full of vitality. In the Battle of Hebei (241), when the Qing Dynasty wanted to fight a big battle, when encountering "nibbling" the fortress, there were too many enemies, and the result was only one or two shots, and the rest had to be evacuated. Xu Shui was not defeated, and the enemy's Third Army came to our aid (243), giving us the opportunity to fight a sports war. At this time, our army supported the Xushui operation on the one hand, so that the enemy from the north could not come to the south to help, and most of our troops went south to encircle and annihilate the headquarters of the three armies and the Seventh Division in Qingfengdian (240), which created a good example of the Jin-Cha-Ji troops fighting a war of annihilation. Then I fought Shijiazhuang again, and I won again, and my morale was even stronger. Although our army also suffered some casualties before and after, its morale was not damaged.

In these battles, I learned to fight sports battles, defensive battles, and offensive battles. However, ordinary cadres still do not like to learn tactics and only rely on old habits to fight, which is a major shortcoming. Before the current attack on Shijiazhuang, An Guo had called for the study of siege warfare as the mainstay, and cadres at higher and lower levels held study meetings first, held meetings when fighting, and held meetings when they could not advance. In the line of fire, three or five people are still meeting, especially the branch meeting, and play a leading role. Veterans bring new recruits, which promotes learning. The result is that the warriors work together and the people fight for themselves, and they win the victory.

After my victory in the Battle of Shijiazhuang, I went to Yeke again, summed up the lessons learned, attached them on a separate paper, and unfortunately did not completely write them down. I have entrusted Comrade Yang Dezhi (244) to supplement the materials I have collected and to write them into a pamphlet for the future siege of the city by our army. Although it is not completely universal, as long as it has the same or similar conditions, it is possible to attack the city. The most field armies were more developed, with a new sixth column. The Noji command is also a powerful command.

With regard to siege warfare, it is not something that can be prepared overnight, but as long as it is fully prepared, there is nothing that cannot be fought. In China, the enemy's urban fortification equipment is still unable to be extremely strong.

Soldiers added that after the land reform, they no longer felt lacking. After the liberation fighters went through the grievance movement, their class consciousness was easy to raise, and most of them were very useful.

The military industry conference was in full swing, and Shandong, Taihang, Jinsui, and local representatives all arrived. As far as possible, at this meeting, it was agreed how to make the next year's combat more and better military products, which can be used by the field army to attack tough problems. Recently, shijiazhuang and Yuan's experience in attacking tough problems is mainly based on grenades, and explosives and shells are assisted, and the three are fully cooperated and fully prepared, and the number is large, and it is enough to use it. Next year, military production is expected to develop further.

I went to the Hebei Central Military Region and the District Party Committee for about half a month to meet with Comrade Zhang Yunyi (245) to understand the situation in Shandong, and Comrade Chen Yi (115) came to you for discussion on the situation there, and did not report it separately. The situation in Jizhong is hereby reported below:

After the liberation of Zhangjiakou (238) by our army, the workers' movement went the wrong way, the workers were paid double salaries, and the wages of the workers were based on the support of four people, so the disaster was left behind. The wages are too high, the quality of the things made is bad, and the cost is high. The scissors difference between industrial products and agricultural products is getting bigger and bigger. There is a flour mill in the river, a new type, which can grind nine hundred bags of flour every day and night. Skilled workers eat small stoves, general workers eat medium stoves, office workers eat large stoves, and the highest wages of workers are six or seven hundred pounds of millet in January, forming a confrontation between workers and management personnel. I talked to the head of the trade union in person, this is a suicide policy. I told them that in times of war, as long as people can barely live, they must work hard.

The fact that the workers are the leading class of the revolution and who are only concerned with improving their own lives, without regard to the war and with no regard for the overall situation, has led to the closure of most of the public and private factories and the unemployment of the workers, which is to the detriment of the fundamental interests of the working class. I asked if this phenomenon could change quickly, and they said it could. When I arrived in Shijiazhuang, I found that our trade union comrades had come to this set again, and immediately corrected it. At present, it is tentatively set that workers will be paid five catties of rice per person per day, and the maximum wage will not exceed 200 catties per person per month. In this way, there will be room for industrial development in the future, and workers will not be unemployed. I suggest that the Central Committee send competent people to the workers' movement, to lead the masses of workers into the war well, to establish a new-democratic household chores, and to truly realize the mastery of the working class.

{Excerpt from: The Collected Works of Jude}

【Notes】

(115) Chen Yi (19 O ——— 1972), Sichuan Lezhiren. After the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, he served as a party representative in the 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division of the 11th Army of the National Revolutionary Army (formerly known as the Ye Ting Independent Regiment). After the Long March of the Red Army in 1934, he remained in the Jiangxi Soviet Region to persist in guerrilla warfare and served as the director of the Central Office of the Chinese Soviet Republic. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, he was acting commander of the New Fourth Army. After the beginning of the Liberation War, he served as the commander of the East China Military Region, the commander of the East China Field Army, and the political commissar.

(240) The Battle of Qingfengdian was an important battle fought by the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army in the Qingfengdian area of Dingxian County, Hebei Province, by means of siege and reinforcement during the Liberation War. On October 11, 1947, the main force of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army and local armed forces attacked north of Baoding, besieging Xushui and luring the enemy to reinforcements, and then the main force of the army and the enemy from the north and south formed a confrontation between Xushui and Rongcheng. Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered the main force of the Third Army stationed in Shijiazhuang to advance north in a vain attempt to pinch the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army in the Xushui area. On the eighteenth day, the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army continued to block the northern line to aid the enemy with four brigades, concentrated the main force of six brigades and marched south, and in the early morning of the twentieth, surrounded the southern front of the enemy in one fell swoop in the Qingfengdian area. On the twenty-second day, the enemy was completely annihilated, and Luo Lirong, commander of the Enemy Third Army, and Yang Guangyu, deputy commander of the enemy's Third Army, were captured. The battle involved the annihilation of more than 21,000 enemy troops on the northern and southern fronts, and was the first major victory achieved after the Jin-Cha-Ji battlefield was turned into a strategic offensive.

(241) Battle of Daqinghebei refers to a campaign fought by the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army in September 1947 north of the Daqing River in the Pingjinbao Triangle region.

(242) The Working Committee is the Central Working Committee of the Communist Party of China. After the withdrawal of the People's Liberation Army from Yan'an on March 19, 1947, the three secretaries of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, namely Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi, remained in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region to lead the national war of liberation; The other two secretaries, Liu Shaoqi and Zhu De, and some other members of the Central Committee formed the Cpc Central Committee Working Committee with Liu Shaoqi as secretary and went to Xibaipo Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, to carry out work entrusted by the central authorities. In May 1948, after the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong arrived in Xixiangpo Village, the Central Working Committee of the CPC Central Committee came to an end.

(243) See 240

(244) Yang Dezhi, born in 1910, a native of Zhuzhou, Hunan. At that time, he was the commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army.

(245) Zhang Yunyi (1892-1974), a native of Wenchang, Guangdong. After the beginning of the Liberation War, he served as deputy commander of the East China Military Region.

(225) The National Land Conference was convened by the Central Working Committee of the Communist Party of China on a july-13, 1947, in Xibaipo Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, entrusted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Liu Shaoqi, secretary of the CPC Central Committee Work Committee, presided over the meeting and made a report and summary at the meeting. The meeting adopted the Outline of China's Land Law, which stipulates: "Abolish the land system of feudal and semi-feudal exploitation, and implement the land system in which cultivators have their own land."

(238) refers to the recovery of Zhangjiakou City, an important town in North China occupied by the Japanese and Puppets, on August 23, 1945.