Visiting Sentries During the Dog Days | Deep-Mountain Guard Post: Party Committee Standing Members Take the Afternoon Watch

三伏探哨丨深山岗亭：常委替站午后哨

PLA Daily (解放军报) 29 July 2026

Summary

Party committee standing members at a warehouse under the Shenyang Joint Logistic Support Center began personally standing the afternoon sentry rotation at 'Sentry Post No. 1' after a surprise test using micro-UAVs during shift change revealed that sentries failed to detect simulated incendiary-device drops, prompting the committee to cut high-temperature watch rotations from two hours to ninety minutes and equip posts with electromagnetic guns and capture-net guns. The article documents a specific institutional problem—degraded sentry vigilance during peak-heat afternoon watches at a deep-mountain munitions depot—and records how the committee used embedded watch-standing to generate evidence for procedural and equipment fixes rather than treating the lapse as a discipline or ideology failure. The framing points to ongoing PLA concern about low-altitude 'low-slow-small' UAV threats to fixed logistics infrastructure, with the capture-net intercept of a follow-on inspection drone presented as proof-of-concept for the countermeasure suite now fielded at the post.

The article documents the operational deployment of electromagnetic guns and capture-net guns as standard counter-UAV equipment at PLA logistics depot sentry posts, and describes a formal procedural change—reducing high-temperature sentry rotations from two hours to ninety minutes under revised Internal Affairs Regulations—providing specific detail on how PLA installations are adapting physical security protocols to the drone threat.

Translation

A Reporter Visits a Guard Post at a Warehouse Under the Shenyang Joint Logistic Support Center——

Deep-Mountain Guard Post: Party Committee Standing Members Take the Afternoon Watch

■ Zhang Kaishan, Xu Yang, PLA Daily Correspondent Wang Xuechao

Illustration: Fang Han

During the dog days of summer, the blazing sun hangs overhead. Upon learning that a warehouse under the Shenyang Joint Logistic Support Center had a "standing-committee sentry post" (常委哨), our reporter decided to go and find out what it was all about.

The vehicle wound its way along a twisting mountain road, and after more than an hour, our party arrived at this deep-mountain guard post.

The moment we stepped out of the car, waves of scorching heat hit us in the face. Fu Shuhao, an officer from the warehouse's guard and duty company who accompanied us, led the reporter toward the depot area. The asphalt road underfoot had been softened by the blazing sun, and before we had even reached the sentry post, our camouflage uniforms were already soaked through with sweat.

"Look, up ahead is the entrance and exit to the warehouse's core area—also the first line of defense for depot security. We call it 'Sentry Post No. 1,' or what the officers and soldiers call the 'standing-committee post' (常委哨)." Following the direction of Fu Shuhao's pointing finger, the "standing-committee post" appeared and disappeared amid the cover of the forest.

Drawing closer to the post, we saw two sentries with alert eyes and upright bearing, sweat dripping continuously down their cheeks.

Nian Shuan (right) standing watch. Photo by PLA Daily Correspondent Wang Xuechao.

"The sentry on the right carrying the rifle is Nian Shuan, a standing member of the warehouse's Party committee, who is currently embedded with our company." Fu Shuhao explained that the other sentry was carrying an electromagnetic gun and a capture-net gun; his primary responsibility was security prevention—the moment an unfamiliar person or a "low-slow-small" (低慢小) airborne object was detected approaching, he would immediately issue a warning and order it away; if the warning proved ineffective, he could trigger a "one-button alarm" and initiate alert-response procedures.

"Equipping the sentry post with electromagnetic guns and capture-net guns is one of the results of having standing committee members stand watch," said Fu Shuhao. The reason the warehouse's standing committee members began standing watch, he added, goes back to more than a month ago.

On that day, Zhi Mang, a standing member of the warehouse Party committee, arranged for soldiers to quietly launch two sorties of micro unmanned aerial vehicles during the afternoon shift-change window in order to test the sentries' vigilance, conducting a surprise inspection of the post through "close-in reconnaissance" and "simulated incendiary-device drops." The sentries on duty failed to detect the anomaly in time. This failure in the special-situation test put the warehouse Party committee on high alert, and a review session was convened immediately.

Some said it was probably because the sentries had not gotten enough rest; others said the sentries had probably been momentarily careless… In the end, the warehouse Party committee decided that standing committee members, in conjunction with their embedded company stays, would take one watch rotation during the afternoon hours when drowsiness is most likely to set in, seeking answers through firsthand experience.

The next day, Zhi Mang packed his kit and came to the guard and duty company for his embedded stay. After lunch, he voluntarily relieved a newly assigned soldier and walked toward "Sentry Post No. 1" together with the veteran soldier on rotation. "The afternoon watch is easy to get drowsy on—you absolutely must be at your sharpest!" Zhi Mang told himself on the way to the post.

Once actually on watch, Zhi Mang found that his energy was quite high at the start, but after an hour and a half his concentration began to falter—"not only was my head foggy, my eyelids started drooping." By the time he completed the full two-hour watch and was relieved, Zhi Mang felt as though the high temperature had "wrung out" all his energy, and his reactions were noticeably slower. A few days later, the other standing committee members who had taken the afternoon watch reported the same experience.

"Standing watch in high heat, attention tends to flag in the second half of the rotation. This is not an ideological problem—it is a normal physiological response…" At the review and analysis session, Zhi Mang presented materials he had consulted: prolonged exposure to a high-heat environment can, to a certain degree, cause insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, which in turn leads to slowed thinking and diminished concentration.

"Safeguarding depot security requires not only a sense of responsibility, but also a scientific approach!" The warehouse Party committee, drawing on relevant provisions of the newly revised Internal Affairs Regulations (内务条令), and taking into account both the watch-standing experience and actual conditions, ultimately decided to reduce sentry duty time during high-temperature periods from two hours to one and a half hours.

In the course of subsequent embedded watch-standing, the warehouse Party committee standing members also identified problems such as the guard post being stuffy and poorly ventilated, and the lack of effective countermeasure equipment against unmanned aerial vehicles. Following discussion at a meeting, they immediately set about making improvements: ventilation windows were cut into the guard post, sun-blocking film was applied, and camouflage netting was added; sentries were equipped with electromagnetic guns, capture-net guns, and other micro and miniature UAV countermeasure devices.

"After the equipment arrived, the company conducted concentrated skills training and hands-on drills, and the sentry post's early-warning and countermeasure capabilities improved markedly," Fu Shuhao said with evident pride. Just a few days earlier, a micro UAV carrying a suspicious payload quietly approached the defense zone. The sentries on duty immediately pressed the "one-button alarm," and the warehouse's combat-readiness duty room, emergency response and incident-handling unit, and all sentry posts rapidly prepared for action. At "Sentry Post No. 1," a sentry raised the capture-net gun, locked onto the UAV's altitude, heading, and speed, and decisively fired the capture net, capturing it precisely in a single shot.

"We later learned that this was a random inspection organized by the warehouse," Fu Shuhao told the reporter. Today, the depot routinely organizes such drills, with the aim of keeping sentries at all times in a state of high readiness—arrow nocked, bow drawn (箭在弦上、引而待发).

When the time came to change the watch, a young officer from the guard and duty company who had come to relieve Nian Shuan took the rifle from his hands and stepped onto the post with vigor. Fu Shuhao told the reporter that, driven by the example set by the warehouse Party committee standing members, all officers in the guard and duty company now participate in standing watch; on the sweltering midday watch and the grueling midnight watch, company officers are often seen taking their place at the post.

As the reporter left the sentry post, the sun was still blazing. Looking back, the sentries at "Sentry Post No. 1" stood tall with heads held high, their gaze burning like torches.

Lead Soldiers by Being a Soldier First

■ Wang Xuechao

The visit to the sentry post concluded, and on the return journey the wind through the car window carried a scorching heat.

In that moment, two stories came to mind. In the winter of 1934, General Yang Jingyu removed his sidearm while washing his face and let the weapon leave his sight when he went out to pour the water, violating the discipline requiring commanders and fighters to keep their weapons on their person at all times; he punished himself by standing a full watch in the howling wind and snow. In 1958, Xu Shiyou, then Commander of the Nanjing Military Region, came to serve as a common soldier in an infantry company. He told the squad leader of his assigned squad: "I've come to be a soldier so that I can eat, live, and train together with everyone. I will not be a special-case soldier." Xu Shiyou said this, and he did exactly that—showing the "bearing of a soldier" (兵样子) in every respect and integrating fully with the rank-and-file officers and soldiers.

The two stories are separated by more than twenty years, yet they point to the same plain truth: "Officers, officers—take the lead by one step" (干部，干部，先干一步). For officers to win the support and allegiance of their soldiers, they must set an example at all times and in all places. Lead soldiers by being a soldier first: as a leading officer, whatever you require soldiers to do, you must do it yourself first; whatever you require soldiers not to do, you must absolutely never do it yourself.

Before leaving the warehouse, one remark by Fu Shuhao left a deep impression on me: "After the standing committee members stood watch, the biggest change in the company was not that we had more security equipment—it was that everyone felt the leadership was always right there with us."

Original Chinese

记者探访沈阳联勤保障中心某仓库哨位—— 深山岗亭：常委替站午后哨 ■张开山许杨解放军报特约记者汪学潮插图：方汉三伏时节，烈日当空。得知沈阳联勤保障中心某仓库有个“常委哨”，记者决定前往一探究竟。汽车沿着蜿蜒曲折的山路前行，1个多小时后，记者一行抵达这个深山哨位。一下车，滚滚热浪扑面而来。随行的仓库警卫勤务连干部傅书浩带领记者向库区走去，脚下的柏油路被烈日晒得发软，还没走到哨位，身上的迷彩服已被汗水浸透。 “瞧，前面就是仓库核心区的出入口，也是库区安全的第一道防线，我们称之为‘一号哨位’，也就是官兵口中的‘常委哨’。”顺着傅书浩手指的方向望去，“常委哨”在丛林掩映中若隐若现。走近哨位，只见两名哨兵目光警惕、身姿挺拔，汗水顺着他们的脸颊不断滴落。年栓（右）正在站哨。解放军报特约记者汪学潮摄 “右边携枪的哨兵就是仓库党委常委年栓，他正在我们连蹲连住班。”傅书浩介绍，另一名哨兵携带的是电磁枪和抓捕网枪，他的主要职责是安全防范——一旦发现陌生人员或“低慢小”飞行物靠近，便会立即警告驱离；如果驱离无效，他可以“一键报警”并展开警戒处置。 “哨位配发电磁枪和抓捕网枪，就是常委替哨的成效之一。”傅书浩说，仓库常委替哨的缘由，还要从一个多月前说起。那天，仓库党委常委智芒为检验哨兵的警惕性，利用午后换岗时机，安排战士悄悄放飞了两架次微型无人机，采取“抵近侦察”和“模拟投放燃烧弹”的方式对哨位进行突击检查。结果，执勤哨兵并未及时发现异常。这次特情检验的失利，引起仓库党委一班人的高度警惕，一场复盘会随即展开。有人说，可能是哨兵休息不足；也有人说，可能是哨兵一时大意……最后，仓库党委决定，让常委们结合蹲连住班，在午后最容易犯困的时段替一班哨，通过实际体验寻找答案。第二天，智芒打起背包，来到警卫勤务连蹲连住班。午饭后，他主动接替一名刚下连的新兵，与轮值的老兵一同走向“一号哨位”。“午休这班岗容易犯困，一定要打起十二分精神！”上哨途中，智芒在心里告诉自己。真上了哨，智芒发现，刚开始站哨时精神头很足，但一个半小时后，注意力便有点难以集中，“不仅脑子昏沉，眼皮也开始打架”。等到站满两小时下哨，智芒整个人像是被高温“抽干”了精力，反应明显变慢。几天之后，其他几名午后替哨的常委也反馈存在相同的感受。 “在高温下站哨，后半程容易注意力减退。这不是思想问题，而是正常的生理反应……”研讨分析会上，智芒拿出自己查阅的资料：长时间处于高热环境，一定程度上会导致脑部供氧不足，进而引起思维迟缓和注意力分散。 “守护库区安全不仅要讲担当，更要讲科学！”仓库党委一班人依据新修订的内务条令相关规定，综合考虑替哨体验和实际情况，最终决定将高温时段哨兵执勤时间由两小时调整为一个半小时。在后续蹲点替哨中，该仓库党委常委还查找出岗亭闷热不透风、缺少无人飞行器有效反制设备等问题。经过会议讨论，他们立刻开始着手改造：给岗亭开了通风窗、贴了防晒膜，还加装了伪装网；为哨兵配备电磁枪、抓捕网枪等微小型无人机反制设备。 “设备到位后，连队集中进行了技能学习和实操训练，哨位预警反制能力得到明显提升。”傅书浩语带自豪地说，就在前几天，一架挂载可疑物的微型无人机悄然抵近防区。当值哨兵立刻按下“一键报警”按钮，仓库战备值班室、应急处突分队及各执勤哨位迅速做好战斗准备。“一号哨位”上，哨兵举起抓捕网枪，锁定无人机飞行高度、方向和速度后，果断发射抓捕网，一举将其精准捕获。 “后来我们得知，这是仓库组织的一次随机检验。”傅书浩对记者说，如今，库区常态组织这样的演练，目的就是让哨兵始终保持箭在弦上、引而待发的高度戒备状态。换哨时间到了，前来替哨的警卫勤务连一名年轻干部接过年栓手中的钢枪，精神抖擞地走上哨位。傅书浩告诉记者，在仓库党委常委示范带动下，目前警卫勤务连所有干部都参加站哨执勤，高温的午间哨和难熬的子夜哨，常有连队干部走上哨位。记者离开哨位时，太阳依旧火辣辣的，回头望去，“一号哨位”上的哨兵昂首挺立、目光如炬。带兵先当兵 ■汪学潮探哨结束，返程路上车窗外吹来的风带着灼人的温度。那一刻，我脑海里浮现出两个故事——1934年冬，杨靖宇将军在洗脸时摘下了自己的佩枪，出门倒水时让枪离开了视线，违反了指战员“枪不离身”的纪律，他在漫天风雪中自罚站完一班岗；1958年，时任南京军区司令员的许世友来到某步兵连当兵。他对所在班班长说：“我来当兵就是要和大家同吃同住同操作，我不当特殊兵。”许世友是这么说的，也是这么做的，处处拿出“兵样子”，和基层官兵打成一片。两个故事相隔20多年，指向同一个朴素的道理——“干部，干部，先干一步”，干部要赢得战士的支持拥护，必须时时处处作表率。带兵先当兵，作为领导干部，要求战士做到的，自己必须先做到；要求战士不做的，自己坚决不能做。离开仓库前，傅书浩说的一句话，让我印象深刻：“常委替哨之后，连队最大的变化不是多了安全防范设备，而是大家觉得，领导始终和我们在一起。”