Tuesday, 1 June

Twenty-ninth day of the fourth lunar month, Kuiwei year

Today I received a phone call from the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying a certain agency in Moscow had received news from Chongqing denying Chairman Lin had died. When I cabled my condolences last night, Counsellor Chen said it would better to hold off for a while until receiving notification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But I thought that the BBC could not be wrong, and telegrams from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs always arrived several days later. It would be too late then, so I dispatched my condolences. This is proof that I am not patient enough so I committed a mistake. I then cabled the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enquire.

Today the news is that we have scored a big victory at Yichang. We encircled 5 divisions of the enemy’s armies.