Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Strengthening the Military · Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Political Achievement | Devoted Cultivation, Weaving Dense "Battlefield Nerves"
Devoted Cultivation, Weaving Dense "Battlefield Nerves"
— An Investigative Report from a Brigade of the 71st Group Army
■ PLA Daily Correspondent Hou Yongbo, Special Correspondents Song Shijie and Liu Yihan
The brigade organizes exercises in unfamiliar field terrain. Photo by Wang Ruimin
In the depths of northern Jiangsu, at the first light of dawn. Inside a communications shelter on the exercise and training ground of a brigade of the 71st Group Army, screens flicker as situational information surges and flows — aerial reconnaissance data, ground fire coordinates, and forward element positions converge in real time into a single stream; an encrypted order completes verification and reaches every combat unit in an instant.
This is a heroic unit forged in the fires of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. In those years, the forebears of this brigade's predecessor units built "steel links" with their flesh and blood, upholding victory with the sincerity of those who believe "success need not be credited to oneself." Time and space have flowed on, but the bloodline continues. Facing the challenges of the future informatized and intelligentized battlefield, the brigade's Party committee has continuously recalibrated its outlook on political achievement (政绩观), pouring its energy into foundational construction whose results are difficult to see in the short term, and resolutely eliminating the shortsighted behavior of burying systemic operational risks for the sake of "looking impressive."
Willing to do preparatory work, willing to tackle unfinished business. The brigade's Party committee has established and practiced a correct outlook on political achievement (正确政绩观), leading officers and soldiers to anchor themselves to the demands of system-of-systems training (体系练兵) and joint operations, continuously pressing forward toward building a new-type network information system (新型网络信息体系) that is fully interconnected across all domains and highly resilient, allowing the invisible "battlefield nerves" to extend ever further toward the front lines.
**Drilling the "Invisible" Hard Skills, Forging a "New Engine" for Victory**
Visiting the brigade, this reporter happened to arrive on the traditional "vehicle and artillery field day," and witnessed an unusual scene.
"Successfully networked, document transmission error-free, data flow smooth…" Inside a communications shelter, a multi-element, multi-node communications connectivity test was underway. Multiple communications means and various data parameters washed over the operators like a tide; Master Sergeant Wan Renfeng calmly guided his team members through the operations, handling the data with ease.
As one of the brigade's first cohort of communications technicians, Wan Renfeng told this reporter that this was an "information field day" (信息场日) custom-designed for informatized equipment — officers and soldiers use equipment adjustment and calibration opportunities to conduct "one specialty, multiple capabilities" (一专多能) training, running both their own professional abilities and the performance of their equipment through a thorough sieve in the face of the data flood.
What is the deeper significance of the shift from "vehicle and artillery field day" to "information field day"? The brigade's leadership said: there are no shortcuts to drilling the "invisible" hard skills — only day-after-day grinding through training.
In the past, the core mission of communications soldiers was to maintain communications; circuit laying, radio operation, and cipher conversion were their signature skills. In recent years, as multiple advanced communications equipment types have been fielded by the force, the data flood has become the new language of the battlefield, and the capability demands on communications soldiers have grown with each passing day.
During the interviews, one defeat was repeatedly mentioned by officers and soldiers. After a new type of communications shelter was fielded, the brigade participated in a higher-echelon competition for the first time. Because they had not thoroughly grasped the "temperament" of the new equipment, video transmission was delayed and they could only rely on older equipment to maintain operations, resulting in an unsatisfactory final score.
"We wanted to 'take first place,' but instead we stumbled." In the after-action review, officers and soldiers found that the new equipment placed higher and stricter professional demands on everyone — they needed to simultaneously master multi-band networking, and at times a single operator had to operate multiple radio types simultaneously to flexibly respond to "enemy" situations. Communications transmission had entered the "expressway," requiring every communications soldier to be a "generalist."
"Equipment upgrades do not automatically mean combat power rises with the tide." The brigade's communications battalion commander, Battalion Commander Li, reflected: "Because we were eager to display the 'visible achievements' (显绩) brought by fielding new equipment, we instead neglected the 'latent work' (潜功) of raising soldiers' professional levels and opening up communications links between different equipment types. Little did we realize that these are precisely the 'latent achievements' (潜绩) that require sustained, long-term effort."
To address this, the brigade has adhered to the standard of "treat peacetime as wartime, everyone capable of serving as a backup" in building the "information field day." This not only specifies maintenance priorities such as comprehensive debugging of various information systems and testing of the technical and tactical performance of information equipment, but also integrates multiple subjects such as "situational sharing" (态势共享) and "data fusion" (数据融合), conducting joint debugging and testing of various information equipment in a combat-realistic environment to ensure equipment is connected and operational at all times.
Spending the "information field day" alongside officers and soldiers, this reporter observed that communication windows were randomized, "enemy" situation backgrounds were complex, and completion time limits were compressed… The high-intensity tempo had officers and soldiers exclaiming it was "satisfying."
"To forge a 'new engine' for victory, one must not only specialize and refine on the daily exercise and training ground, but also devote oneself to building strength, putting in hard work and drilling hard skills in obscurity." The brigade's leadership explained that as more and more equipment incorporates communications modules and the data flood surges ceaselessly, communications soldiers are no longer simple "message relays" but more like "data helmsmen." To avoid falling behind in the transformation and upgrade, one must have the sense of urgency that "sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you fall back."
Today, whenever major tasks such as combat-realistic exercises or research breakthroughs arise, the brigade's officers and soldiers go through an "information field day" — this has become an important measure for consolidating the foundation of information support. Not long ago, during a communications support exercise, Corporal Long Xingyi single-handedly served as a "generalist," completing networked connectivity for multiple equipment types in a short time and keeping network data in a "hot backup" state at all times.
**Willing to Pave the "Information Expressway," Passing the Baton to Open Up Joint Links**
Late at night, the professional classrooms at the brigade's field training site were still brightly lit. Gathered here were staff officers, battalion commanders, engineers, and technical backbone personnel of various types — a "brainstorming" session on opening up joint communications links was underway.
Assistant Engineer Chen Peng is a familiar face at such research breakthrough sessions. In his view, the process of integrating the various services and arms into the network has no "completed tense" — it is always in the "present continuous."
This feeling began at the time of the brigade's formation. That year, Chen Peng received the mission of establishing the first network and building the first link, and immediately ran into a hard obstacle: platforms from the various services and arms were speaking different "dialects," and achieving unification was not the work of a single day.
Just as everyone was pressing through the difficult points, higher-echelon organs came to inspect the phased results. Someone proposed: we have already put in a great deal of effort — why not "package" the existing results and set up a "demonstration observation point" to make a good impression? The brigade's Party committee rejected this on the spot: "Any 'making do' in the communications network is a 'fatal wound' on the future battlefield. To build a good 'information expressway' for system-of-systems operations, we must keep at it generation after generation. Pressing hard to overcome difficulties today is paving the roadbed for tomorrow."
Forgoing short-term impressiveness, standing firm on long-term development. During the inspection process, the brigade's Party committee spoke not of achievements but only of problems, and requested that higher echelons coordinate solutions to certain thorny issues. Thereafter, they joined hands with academies and research institutions to establish a research "think tank," upgrading software platforms and standardizing data standards. Targeting problems such as unreasonable network-link construction, inflexible system employment, inadequate security protection, and slow dynamic adjustment, they optimized links level by level — from individual elements to the system of systems, from single links to multi-domain joint operations — continuously testing and verifying in practice.
Engineer Zhang Tao has a deep appreciation for this: "Just as the junctions between different units on the battlefield tend to become weak points in the defense, the 'junctions' of the information system are also the points most prone to breaking. Our mission is to be the 'adhesive' — to repair each segment of the information link and connect them into a network."
Opening up links is not only a technical breakthrough — it is also a protracted battle of directly confronting problems.
"Chairman Xi has pointed out that solving problems requires genuine effort and real exertion — one cannot respond perfunctorily and go through the motions." In this brigade, the operator at every communications station has one habit: promptly recording each problem discovered, categorized by type, in a "problem list."
During one mountain offensive exercise, the communications node where Corporal He Shiyu was stationed had its command link severed mid-maneuver due to strong electromagnetic jamming by the "enemy." After the exercise, He Shiyu entered the exposed problems into the "problem list," and through repeated study of jamming patterns and equipment anti-jamming performance, worked out multiple countermeasures.
"Don't fear a long 'problem list' — fear that the problems on the list go unsolved." The brigade's leadership pointed out: only by emerging from defeat can one advance toward victory. This results-oriented approach of "seeking truth over appearance" (唯实不唯虚) has enabled officers and soldiers to dare to confront problems and shortcomings head-on.
Chen Peng is not alone in his devoted pursuit of breakthroughs. Corporal Ni Peng has studied information interoperability technology for multiple communications terminal types, becoming an expert in cross-module connectivity; Company Commander Jiang Tiichi led a technical team to develop a certain operating method that increased the deployment timeliness of the command information system several-fold; one battalion, targeting complex battlefield environments, innovated network tactics for different scenarios, effectively improving the quality and efficiency of communications connectivity while on the move… From individual soldiers to the system of systems, the brigade's officers and soldiers have passed the baton in paving the road, allowing the "information expressway" to extend ever further.
Late into the night, the "brainstorming" continued. Chen Peng's notebook was filled densely with the link bottlenecks to be overcome in the next phase. He knows well that in the process of bringing the "information expressway" to full connectivity, every node they reach will become the starting point from which those who come after will charge forward.
**Persisting in Unfinished Business, Pushing Information Nodes to the Battlefield Front Lines**
The morning mist had not yet lifted, but a certain training ground was already a scene of busy activity. A new type of communications node vehicle rolled through muddy tidal flats and completed camouflaged deployment in a depression only a few hundred meters from the "engagement line."
Several kilometers away, another communications element was providing accompanying support closely behind an armored assault group. As the combat vehicle jolted, operator Zhao Sida tapped at his keyboard, pushing a fire strike request to the command post and fire units. In just a few seconds, the first-round strike coordinates had completed verification and been transmitted back.
"In the past, our positions were often set up in the rear." Staff Officer Hu of the brigade's operations and training section pointed to the points of light on the screen and said: "Today, communications nodes move with the mission and deploy close to the front lines — wherever the combat forces advance, our 'battlefield nerves' extend."
From "static support from the rear" to "communications on the move at the front," there is no ready experience to follow, no standard answer to copy — one can only feel one's way across the river. On this road of exploration, the brigade's officers and soldiers have pressed forward one after another.
Not long ago, in order to further break down the information barriers between the various services and arms, they embedded a "joint module" (联合模块) in the communications platform, working together with neighboring units to broaden the airspace perspective, open up maritime links, and weave the "information network" denser and cast it wider.
During one combat-realistic exercise, the brigade's communications network was blocked and severed. They rapidly activated backup links and dynamically reconstituted the network, not only maintaining basic command continuity but also supporting real-time sharing of reconnaissance intelligence and fire unit information. After the exercise, the command post convened an after-action review at the first opportunity, identifying the "symptoms" behind the various "blockages" in communications support during the exercise.
"The closer you are to the battlefield front lines, the more difficult points and bottlenecks you encounter." The brigade's leadership told this reporter: these problems cannot be encountered sitting in a rear shelter, and cannot be thought of through simulated deduction alone. These real-combat subjects — always pressing closer, always requiring a breakthrough — are precisely the unfinished business they must press on with day after day: "If we don't tackle it today, tomorrow we will pay in blood."
In order to reach new benchmarks of combat power, the brigade's officers and soldiers have proactively stepped out of their "comfort zone," accelerating the updating of knowledge, expanding capabilities, and upgrading skills.
On coastal tidal flats, they probe the limit performance of equipment, eliminate information blind spots, and improve long-distance data transmission rates.
In mountain highlands, commanders at all levels combine shared battlefield situational awareness to "plan and command simultaneously" (边筹划、边指挥), innovating communications methods in complex battlefield environments.
In hilly wilderness, they conduct combat-realistic exercises together with neighboring units, organizing reconnaissance, fire, and support elements in system-of-systems operational deductions, evaluating and optimizing plans in real time…
"Today's battlefield space is shifting from the 'tangible' toward the 'intangible,' and communications elements are also continuously shedding their former 'supporting role' identity, drawing closer to the battlefield front lines and gradually becoming the 'decisive factor' (胜负手) that determines the outcome of the battle." The brigade's Party committee holds that pressing on with these unfinished matters that are "invisible" and "intangible" today is a necessary act in support of winning.
In the depths of eastern Anhui, a "manned + unmanned" (有人+无人) mode "battlefield review" (沙场点兵) allowed the brigade's officers and soldiers to envision the "future mode" of communications networking — unmanned equipment networked in "three dimensions," information tentacles breaking through the barriers of multi-dimensional battlefield space; from detection to destruction, reconnaissance front ends and fire units build an "order-based" (订单化) chain through an integrated platform; enemy situation, friendly situation, and other information are shared in real time in "cloud-based situational awareness" (云端态势), forming a dynamically updated data "resource pool."
"The communications soldier's battlefield is no longer 'a telephone line and a radio set,' but the entire system of systems. Looking to the future, we are striding forward toward an ever broader system-of-systems battlefield and joint battlefield." Said Section Chief Meng of the brigade's information support section.
As the sun set in the west, the smoke of the exercise and training ground gradually dissipated. Inside a communications shelter of the brigade, officers and soldiers were still conducting an after-action review of the day's communications connectivity, the "information network" on the screen flickering with a faint light. With the posture of being "always online," they are devoting themselves to cultivating and weaving dense the "battlefield nerves" for winning future wars.