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28 MAO TSE-TUNG
bullet or a single copper from the Kuomintang, they have never for
a moment ceased fighting the enemy. The Eighth Route Army, more-
over, has taken the initiative in co-ordinating its operations with those
of the Kuomintang troops in the fighting in the present campaign in
southern Shansi, and for the last two weeks it has been launching
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attacks on all fronts in northern China, where fierce battles are raging
at this very moment. The armed forces and the people led by the
Communist Party have already become the mainstay in the War of
Resistance Against Japan. All the calumnies against the Communist
Party are aimed at sabotaging the War of Resistance and paving the
way for capitulation. We should extend the military successes of the
Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies and oppose all the defeatists
and capitulationists.

NOTES

The Southern Shansi campaign refers to the campaign of the Chungtiao
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Mountains. In May 1941, a Japanese invading force 50,000 strong attacked the
Chungtiao Mountains area to the north of the Yellow River in southern Shansi.
Altogether seven Kuomintang corps were massed in that area, and another four
in the Kaoping area to the northeast, making a total of 250,000 men. Since the
fight against the Communists was the main job of the Kuomintang troops north of
the Yellow River, they had never prepared themselves to fight the Japanese, and
most of them tried to avoid combat when the Japanese aggressors attacked. There-
fore, in spite of vigorous efforts by the Eighth Route Army to support the Kuomintang
troops against the enemy in this campaign, the Kuomintang troops were completely
routed, losing more than 50,000 men in three weeks, while the remainder fled to
the south of the Yellow River.