Chapter 95 Central Work Tasks in 1942

(December 28, 1941) Comrades in charge of the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the Party: The Pacific War is a long-term war, and the Japanese invaders will get deeper and deeper in the South Pacific. At present, they are drawing troops from North China and Central China to the south, and there is a possibility of sending a part of them in the future.Chongqing's policy is to use only guerrillas to confront the enemy, not to confront the enemy with the main force, and let the enemy withdraw. Our army should also adopt this policy.In 1941 our base areas suffered great damage, and we should concentrate on restoring our strength in 1942, when the enemy was busy in the Pacific and taking a strategic defensive position against China.Resolutely implement the instructions of the Central Committee on December 13th[1], improve the army and streamline administration, develop the economy, develop the democratic movement, develop work in enemy-occupied areas, develop political offensives against the enemy and puppets, and train cadres in a planned way.In military terms, it is to smash the enemy's possible "mopping up" (any "mopping up" must be resolutely smashed), and recover the enemy's retreat area; for the strongholds that penetrate into our area, isolate them as much as possible and withdraw automatically; for some of the most necessary In localities, it is possible to use forceful attacks and recovery methods individually, but large-scale offensives cannot be used. On the contrary, they will detain the enemy and cause revenge "mopping up", which is not only useless, but also harmful.The adventurous spirit that may arise in the army and in the locality must be guarded against.The general trend of the world and the domestic situation forced the Kuomintang to make some kind of political change, but the process was still slow.The propaganda of our party and our army must avoid provoking the Kuomintang, wait and see changes, criticize less, be patient as much as possible, and not be impatient.In short, the central task for next year is to accumulate strength, restore vitality, consolidate internally, and consolidate the party, government, military and civilians.Political offensive against the enemy and the puppets is the mainstay, supplemented by guerrilla warfare.For the Kuomintang, it is mainly to dredge and unite, and it is supplemented by preventing its anti-communism.If the enemy does not attack the Soviet Union, we will adopt this policy to wait for the enemy's disadvantages.If the enemy attacks the Soviet Union or the Soviet Union attacks the enemy, we will have full energy to cooperate with the Soviet army in combat.I hope that all comrades will study and implement it.

Central Secretariat Central Military Commission December 28 Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Judging from the content of the instructions stated in the article, it should be "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning the Work of the Anti-Japanese Base Areas Behind the Enemy Areas after the Outbreak of the Pacific War" on December 17, 1941.