Entering the Rocket Force Engineering University: A Sword-Tempering Visit Across Time and Space
In early summer, a reporter entered the Rocket Force Engineering University—the "cradle" of strategic missile force officers—to begin a sword-tempering visit (砺剑寻访) across time and space.
At the entrance to the university history museum, newly reopened after renovation, a couplet immediately caught the eye: "Remember how predecessors, through hardship, composed the song of flight to the heavens; expect that successors, with heroic spirit, will recite the poem of sword-tempering." Standing before it, every character carried the weight of a thousand jun, as if one could hear the footsteps of the older generation of pioneers forging their path through hardship.
In one corner of the exhibition hall, a set of old desk and chairs drew attention. The guide told the reporter that the display recreates the office scene of the university's first president, Xiang Shouzhi, as it was in his day.
"The former president's original name was Xiang Shouzhi [向守芝], but to express his determination to dedicate himself to the missile cause, he changed it to Xiang Shouzhi [向守志], meaning 'to hold steadfast to the aspiration of strengthening the military.'" In 1960, Premier Zhou Enlai personally signed the order appointing Xiang Shouzhi, commander of the Army's 15th Corps, as president of the Xi'an Artillery Advanced Technical School—the entire military's first missile technology school.
Even after the order was issued, his superiors still felt regret on his behalf: he had been on track for promotion to military region chief of staff, yet was going instead to open up new ground at an educational institution.
One moment of decision, a lifetime of commitment. The scenes from the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea—where comrades-in-arms used flesh and blood to resist a powerful enemy—cut Xiang Shouzhi to the core: without advanced weapons, without high-quality personnel, the military could never possess true confidence. During his five years as president, Xiang Shouzhi led the faculty and students in building China's first missile personnel training system, making the school the "cradle" of strategic missile talent.
"Looking down at today's world, strengthening and developing the military cannot be separated from science and technology, nor from high-quality personnel. We are a missile academy that trains personnel to operate cutting-edge weapons; we must be at the very forefront of strengthening the military through science and technology." Inside the university history museum, the reporter happened to encounter Professor Zheng Jianfei, who had just returned to the university after completing a model-tracking mission for a certain type of missile with frontline units. Without even washing off the dust of travel, he went first to his office to organize what he had observed at the front, then to the university history museum to consult relevant materials, striving to incorporate the most vivid material into his lesson plans and bring it into the classroom.
"Both a teaching center and a research center; both cultivating high-quality personnel and solving academic, theoretical, and engineering-technical problems for the troops." Over the course of decades, generation after generation of officers and soldiers have put into practice through their actions the educational philosophy proposed by the sixth president, Fu Beichi. The simulator instrument panel in the university history museum, bearing the marks of the years, is a vivid annotation of those words.
In the 1980s, a sharp contradiction emerged between grassroots unit training requirements and equipment support. The university Party committee made a decisive decision to develop a missile training simulation system, which quickly received approval to proceed.
This engineering project was technically complex and large in scale. Fu Beichi personally applied to take command, and a cohort of professors—including Huang Xianxiang, Deng Fanglin, and Wang Minghai—led the assault on the key difficulties. After more than 1,000 days and nights of concentrated research, the large-scale comprehensive strategic missile technical training launch simulation system was completed on schedule. In 1991, the project received the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and more than ten subsystems successively received Military Science and Technology Progress Awards.
"Personnel are the key factor driving the high-quality development of our military; the advantage in personnel is a decisive advantage." A university leader remarked that during the revolutionary war years, our military was rich in battle-hardened commanders and talented personnel. Now, in responding to the rapidly changing transformations in science, technology, and warfare, we must rely even more on talent-driven development, relying on the new-era strivers to take up the charge in relay.
Looking back from the main hall of the university history museum, the "Torch Great Wall" (薪火长城) sculpture surges with imposing momentum, as if declaring to every visitor: the time has come and the momentum has formed to build a sound, high-quality system for independently cultivating talent; to forge a revolutionary and professional military talent formation is a weighty responsibility and a mission as heavy as a mountain.