Cornstalk is usually directly used as a reductant in reductive leaching manganese. However, low utilization of cornstalk makes low manganese dissolution ratio. In the research, pretreatment for cornstalk was proposed to improve manganese dissolution ratio. Cornstalk was preprocessed by a heated sulfuric acid solution (1.2 M of sulfuric acid concentration) for 10 min at 80℃. Thereafter, both the pretreated solution and the residue were used as a reductant for manganese leaching. This method not only exhibited superior activity for hydrolyzing cornstalk but also enhanced manganese dissolution. These effects were attributed to an increase in the amount of reductive sugars resulting from lignin hydrolysis. Through acid pretreatment for cornstalk, the manganese dissolution ratio was improved from 50.14% to 83.46%. The present work demonstrates for the first time the effective acid pretreatment of cornstalk to provide a cost-effective reductant for manganese leaching.