A drone formation sortied in array, armored vehicles churned up billowing clouds of dust, and a "Party Member Assault Team" (党员突击队) led the charge—before long, a crimson "Baiyun Mountain Regiment" battle banner was flying over the opposing position.
In the winter of 1948, the brigade's predecessor unit was dispatched to Jiutai County, Jilin, to undergo reorganization and training, becoming the 50th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. There, officers and soldiers for the first time systematically studied Mao Zedong's military thought, and for the first time truly understood for whom they should shoulder rifles and for whom they should fight.
In 1950, the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea broke out, and this newly forged force crossed the Yalu River. During the Fourth Campaign, the 50th Army's 447th Regiment was ordered to hold the Baiyun Mountain position to the last. Facing the enemy's overwhelming firepower, all officers and soldiers raised the resounding oath "not one step back—决不后退一步," fought through eleven days and nights of bloody combat, killed, wounded, or captured more than 1,400 enemy troops, and fully accomplished the blocking mission. After the war, the regiment was awarded the honorary designation "Baiyun Mountain Regiment."
Before the uprising, the Nationalist 60th Army—the formation from which this brigade traces its lineage—was contemptuously called "60 Cowards" (60熊) by Chiang Kai-shek's core units because of its weak combat power. After joining the ranks of the people's army, this force was reborn, and through iron-and-blood battlefield achievements forged the formidable reputation of "50 Mighty" (50雄).
"The same soldier who was not brave in the enemy army yesterday is very brave in the Red Army today—this is the influence of democracy. The Red Army is like a furnace; captured soldiers melt into it the moment they arrive." Revisiting this important statement by Comrade Mao Zedong, a brigade leader articulated the extreme importance of forging the soul and cultivating people (铸魂育人).
Entering the new era, the brigade has made forging the soul and cultivating people its core lever, vigorously advancing the Red Genes Passed Down Through Generations Project (红色基因代代传工程), deeply studying and comprehending Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the military (习近平强军思想), and routinely carrying out education in Party history and military history. In conjunction with the ongoing deepening of political rectification and training (政治整训), the brigade guides officers and soldiers to inherit and carry forward the fine traditions of our military, and to consolidate the ideological foundation of heeding the Party's words and following the Party.
In a certain year, the brigade participated in a trans-regional live-force exercise. After officers and soldiers completed a long-distance movement over seven days and six nights from the snow-covered plateau to an unfamiliar area, they rested briefly before entering combat. During the rest interval, each battalion and company set up classrooms at the front lines of the mission, organized officers and soldiers to take a collective oath before the "Baiyun Mountain Regiment" battle banner, and used the combat spirit of revolutionary forebears—"courage, tenacity, hard fighting, and steadfast holding" (英勇、顽强、鏖战、坚守)—to ignite fighting spirit.
During the exercise, facing a dense-forest obstacle zone nearly 3.5 kilometers long, one company of the brigade—adjudicated by the exercise control group as having only 8 personnel remaining—unleashed astonishing combat power and ultimately planted the crimson battle banner atop the Blue Force's high ground.
As the interview concluded, standing before the "Baiyun Mountain Regiment" battle banner and gazing at it, this reporter could not help but reflect: from the Jiutai reorganization and training, where they came to understand for whom they shoulder rifles and for whom they fight, to forging firm political loyalty in the new era and preserving purity and glory forever; from flesh and blood standing against a torrent of steel on the Baiyun Mountain position, to galloping through assault operations in exercises on the snow-covered plateau—this force's identity has changed, its positions have changed, its equipment has changed, but the one thing that never changes is this: where the Party flag points, the military flag follows; the military soul (军魂) endures forever, pressing ever forward.