Order to the Army for the Countrywide Advance

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Order to the Army for the Countrywide Advance has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: Order to the Army for the Country-wide Advance, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an order drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing, China on the 21st of April, 1949. It was first published in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 4, in 1960.

After the reactionary Nationalist government refused to sign the Agreement on Internal Peace, the People's Liberation Army acted on this order issued by Chairman Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and embarked upon a general advance, unprecedented in scale, into the vast areas which had not yet been liberated. On the morning of the 21st of April, 1949, the Second Field Army, led by Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and others, and the Third Field Army, led by Chen Yi, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin, and others, forced the Yangzi River on a front extending more than 500 kilometres from Hukou (north-east of Jiujiang) in the west to Jiangyin in the east and completely destroyed the defence line along the Yangzi which the enemy had painstakingly built in three and a half months. On the 23rd of April these forces liberated Nanjing, which had been the centre of the counter-revolutionary rule of the Nationalist Party of China for 22 years, and proclaimed the downfall of the reactionary Nationalist regime. Then they thrust south along separate routes, liberated Hangzhou on the 3rd of May and Nanchang on the 22nd of May and captured Shanghai, China's biggest city, on the 27th of May. In June, they began their march into Fujian Province; they liberated Fuzhou on the 17th of August and Amoy on the 17th of October. On the 14th of May, the Fourth Field Army, led by Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and others, forced the Yangzi on a front of more than 100 kilometres in the Tuanfeng-Wuxue sector east of Wuhan. On the 16th and 17th of May, it liberated Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hankou, cities of strategic importance in central China. Then it marched south into Hunan. Cheng Qian, Nationalist governor of Hunan Province, and Chen Mingren, Commander of the First Army, renounced their allegiance to the Nationalist Party on the 4th of August, and Hunan Province was peacefully liberated. The Fourth Field Army fought the Hengyang-Baoqing Campaign in September and October, wiped out the main force of the Nationalist troops under Bai Chongxi, and then pushed on to Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces. It liberated Guangzhou on the 14th of October, Guilin on the 22nd of November, and Nanning on the 4th of December. While the Second and Third Field Armies were forcing the Yangzi River, the armies in northern China, led by Nie Rongzhen, Xu Xiangqian, and others, captured Taiyuan on the 24th of April, 1949. The First Field Army, led by Peng Dehuai, He Long, and others, after liberating Xi'an on the 20th of May, continued its march into the Nationalist areas in the North-West together with two armies from northern China. They captured Lanzhou on the 26th of August, liberated Sining on the 5th of September and Yinchuan on the 23rd of September, and completely annihilated the Nationalist troops under Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui. Late in September, Tao Zhiyue, Nationalist Garrison Commander-in-Chief of Xinjiang Province, and Burhan, the governor, renounced their allegiance to the Nationalist Party, and Xinjiang was peacefully liberated. At the beginning of November, the Second Field Army, led by Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and others, together with the 18th Army of the Northern China Field Army and part of the First Field Army, led by He Long, Li Jingquan, and others, began their march into south-western China. They liberated Guiyang on the 15th of November and Chongqing on the 30th of November. On the 9th of December, Lu Han, Nationalist governor of Yunnan Province, Liu Wenhui, Nationalist governor of Xikang Province, and Deng Xihou and Pan Wenhua, deputy directors of the Nationalist Bureau of Military and Administrative Affairs in the South-West, renounced their allegiance to the Nationalist Party, and the two provinces of Yunnan and Xikang were peacefully liberated. In late December, the People's Liberation Army, which had entered the South-West, fought the Chengdu Campaign, completely wiped out the Nationalist troops under Hu Zongnan, and liberated Chengdu on the 27th of December. By the end of December 1949, the People's Liberation Army had wiped out all the Nationalist troops on China's mainland and liberated the entire mainland except Tibet.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ORDER TO THE ARMY FOR THE COUNTRYWIDE ADVANCE

#ORDER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MILITARY COMMISSION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA AND OF THE GENERAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY

#Mao Zedong

#21st of April, 1949

#★

#To All Commanders and Fighters of All Field Armies and of the People's Liberation Army in the Guerrilla Areas of the South

The Agreement on Internal Peace, drafted after long negotiations between the delegation of the Communist Party of China and the delegation of the Nanjing Nationalist government, has been rejected by that government.¹ The responsible members of the Nanjing Nationalist government have rejected the agreement because they are still obeying the orders of US imperialism and Jiang Jieshi, the chieftain of the Nationalist bandit gang, and because they are trying to block the progress of the cause of the Chinese people's liberation and prevent the internal problem from being solved by peaceful means. The Agreement on Internal Peace, comprising eight sections with 24 articles formulated by the two delegations in the negotiations, is lenient on the problem of war criminals, is lenient toward the Nationalist officers, soldiers, and government personnel, and provides appropriate solutions for other problems, all proceeding from the interests of the nation and the people. The rejection of this agreement shows that the Nationalist reactionaries are determined to fight to the finish the counter-revolutionary war which they started. The rejection of this agreement shows that, in proposing peace negotiations on the 1st of January of this year, the Nationalist reactionaries were only trying to check the advance of the People's Liberation Army and thus gain a breathing space for a later comeback to crush the revolutionary forces. The rejection of this agreement shows that the Li Zongren government at Nanjing was utterly hypocritical in professing to accept the Communist Party of China's eight terms for peace as the basis for negotiations. Inasmuch as the Li Zongren government had already accepted such fundamental terms as the punishment of war criminals, the reorganization of all the reactionary Nationalist troops on democratic principles, and the handing over of all power and authority by the Nanjing government and its subordinate governments at all levels, it had no reason to reject the specific measures which were drawn up on the basis of these fundamental terms and which are most lenient. In these circumstances, we order you as follows:

• Advance bravely and annihilate resolutely, thoroughly, wholly, and completely all the Nationalist reactionaries within China's borders who dare to resist. Liberate the people of the whole country. Safeguard China's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence.
• Advance bravely and arrest all the incorrigible war criminals. No matter where they may flee, they must be brought to justice and punished according to law. Pay special attention to arresting the bandit chieftain Jiang Jieshi.
• Proclaim to all Nationalist local governments and local military groups the final amended version of the Agreement on Internal Peace. In accordance with its general ideas, you may conclude local agreements with those who are willing to cease hostilities and to settle matters by peaceful means.
• After the People's Liberation Army has encircled Nanjing, we are willing to give the Li Zongren government at Nanjing another opportunity to sign the Agreement on Internal Peace, if that government has not yet fled and dispersed and desires to sign it.

#Mao Zedong, Chairperson of the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Commission

#Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army