Chapter 79 Regarding the Party's tasks after Japan's surrender[1]

(August 11, 1945) 1. After the Soviet Union entered the war, Japan announced its surrender [2].The Kuomintang is actively preparing to regain lost ground in our liberated areas and win the fruits of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.This battle will be extremely fierce. 2. In this case, our party's mission is divided into two stages: (A) At the present stage, the main forces should be concentrated to force the enemy and puppets to surrender to us. Those who do not surrender should launch attacks according to the specific situation, destroy them one by one, vigorously expand the liberated areas, occupy all possible and necessary cities and major transportation routes, and seize weapons and resources, and to arm the base without hesitation.For this purpose, all localities should quickly concentrate most of our troops, break away from the scattered guerrilla state, divide them into three groups, A, B, C, etc., organize them into regiments, brigades, or divisions, and turn them into super-local regular corps. Guarantee the victory of our army when solving the enemy and puppet.After the enemy and the counterfeiters are resolved, the main force should be quickly assembled and trained to improve combat effectiveness and prepare to be used to prevent civil war.However, all localities should retain a necessary number of local corps and guerrilla units, and freely select local cadres to lead troops to defend the local area. Militia guns must be retained, and everything must not be concentrated.During this period, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Sui, Taiyue, Henan, Hubei, central Anhui, western Zhejiang, Hunan and Guangdong should have the necessary forces to defend against the Kuomintang's attacks, and the rest should be used to deal with the enemy and puppets.In some places with special circumstances, the central government has issued separate instructions.

(B) In the future stage, the Kuomintang may attack us on a large scale. Our party should prepare to mobilize troops to deal with civil war. The number and scale will be determined according to the situation.In some areas, such as Jiangnan, Henan, Hubei, Jin, and Sui[3], the first stage may be very short, and this should be fully estimated. 3. Rapidly strengthen work in cities, especially those cities that our Party may and must seize.Send a large number of capable cadres to these cities, quickly learn to manage the financial, financial, and economic work in the cities, use all possible people to participate in urban work, solve the problem of maintaining urban order, and resolutely suppress the resistance of the reactionaries, but do not kill people lightly.There should be a focus on the use of troops and the use of cadres, otherwise nothing will be achieved.

Fourth, grasp the policy, and do not separate yourself from the masses in any action.Troop expansion is necessary, but it must not exceed the financial burden of the people.It is also necessary to collect materials, but we must not only care about the army and ignore the people, especially not to harm the interests of the people.Breaking through strongholds and occupying cities should have unified command and strict discipline.Quickly train cadres and quickly strengthen the political work of the army. 5. The human resource of our army is the militia, and the defense of the countryside is also the militia. We must rapidly expand the militia organization.

Sixth, this winter and next spring, among the 100 million people, we must go ahead and launch rent reductions (already reduced as usual).Reduce rents in all newly liberated areas, freely mobilize and organize the masses, establish local parties, local governments, and promote local cadres, so as to quickly establish the foundation of our party among the basic masses and quickly consolidate all new liberated areas.However, the interests of the middle peasants must not be harmed (the middle peasants are also the basic masses); the rich peasants should not be attacked except for the reduction of rent in the part of feudal exploitation;Those who have already been distributed in some areas will not change, but we must try to relieve the landlords, we must try to win over the rich peasants, and we must compensate for the losses suffered by the middle peasants.If we do not pay attention to these aspects, the rural united front will be broken and our party will be isolated, which will benefit the Kuomintang.

7. The resumption of the KMT-CPC negotiations will be considered on the basis of new international and domestic trends, and Yan'an will take a moderate attitude towards the criticism of the United States and the KMT for the time being.However, all localities should absolutely not have any illusions about Chiang Kai-shek. Their deceit must be exposed among the people. Necessary spiritual preparations should be made for the danger of Chiang Kai-shek launching a civil war. Take the biggest win without distractions.At the same time, rescue should still be carried out for the victims of the U.S., and we should still prepare for the beneficial cooperation of both parties when the U.S. military lands. We must show goodwill to the American people and the democrats in the government, but the possibility of Scobie's [4] danger has not yet passed.

8. It is hoped that all localities will follow this policy, consider local conditions, and consider implementing it. Printed from transcripts kept at the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is an inner-party directive drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [2] On August 10, 1945, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, through the governments of neutral Switzerland and Sweden, forwarded Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation to the governments of China, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union who were fighting against Japan, requesting surrender.On August 14, the Japanese government sent a note to the governments of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China expressing their acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation.On August 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced his unconditional surrender to the public in the form of broadcasting "The Edict of the End of the War".

[3] Sui, referring to Suiyuan, that is, Suiyuan Province, was abolished in 1954, and the original jurisdiction was placed under the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. [4] Scobie, see note [19] on page 353 of this volume.