Eternal Monument： Ten Military Principles

　　
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has accumulated rich operational experience after a year and a half of fighting, especially since it turned to a strategic offensive. Mao Zedong made a systematic and scientific summary of these experiences. From December 25th to 28th, 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting in Yangjiagou, Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi, at which Mao Zedong made a report on "Current Situation and Our Tasks". In this report, the famous "Ten Military Principles" were put forward. The main contents are: fight scattered and isolated enemies first, and then fight concentrated and powerful enemies; Take small cities, medium-sized cities and vast villages first, and then take big cities; The main goal is to annihilate the enemy’s effective forces, not to preserve or seize cities and places; Concentrate absolute superior forces in each battle, surround the enemy on all sides, and strive to wipe out the enemy, so as not to escape the net; Don’t fight unprepared battles, don’t fight uncertain battles; Carry forward the style of fighting bravely, not afraid of sacrifice, not afraid of fatigue and continuous fighting; Strive to annihilate the enemy in the movement, while paying attention to position attack tactics; On the issue of siege, all enemy strongholds and cities with weak defenses are firmly seized, all enemy strongholds and city cameras with medium defenses are seized, and all enemy strongholds and cities with strong defenses are seized when conditions are ripe; Replenish ourselves by capturing all the enemy’s weapons and most of their personnel. The source of our army’s manpower and material resources is mainly at the front. Be good at using the gap between the two campaigns to rest and train troops.
The full text of the top ten military principles is 593 words. In incisive language, Mao Zedong made the strategic and tactical principles of the People’s Liberation Army clear, which is both easy to understand and easy to remember. It is completely different from his opponent Chiang Kai-shek’s long speech. In the later stage of strategic decisive battle and strategic pursuit, the People’s Liberation Army flexibly applied ten military principles, further enriched and developed this theoretical treasure, and finally relied on this treasure to completely defeat eight million Kuomintang troops.
From the sixteen-character formula to the ten military principles, it marks the improvement of the strategic and tactical theory of the people’s army, and marks that Mao Zedong’s military thought reached an unprecedented height during the War of Liberation. Therefore, it is not difficult for people to understand why Chiang Kai-shek, who was an excellent cadet studying in the Japanese military academy and the president of the Whampoa Military Academy, was finally defeated by Mao Zedong, who had never been to a military academy for a day. Batman, a British military expert, commented: "Mao Zedong is an era figure who holds all the keys to unlock the military mysteries of this era." (Xinhua News Agency)

Editor: Cao Jin