Battalion Commander Li of a certain unit served four years in his position and turned a battalion that was originally unremarkable into a model for the entire regiment. His unit won gold and silver medals in higher-echelon skills competitions, dozens of backbone personnel grew into seasoned experts, the internal atmosphere was harmonious, and officer and soldier morale ran high. The unit was successively commended as an advanced unit for the "Four-Iron" (四铁) standard and was awarded a collective third-class merit citation. Battalion Commander Li himself was promoted on the strength of his outstanding performance. When people asked him for the secret to leading troops, he answered: "Put in 'dumb hard work' (笨功夫)."
What is "putting in 'dumb hard work'"? Leafing through Battalion Commander Li's troop-leading journal may provide the answer. His "dumb hard work" is not inaction — it is directing energy precisely where combat effectiveness generation needs it most. When he organized training, he never used "crash methods": he skipped not a single step, omitted not a single detail, drilling each movement to standard one by one and running every subject through the sieve one by one. When he led his unit, he avoided not a single contradiction and sidestepped not a single problem, keeping a constant and clear picture of the ideological dynamics and practical difficulties of every officer and soldier in the battalion. When he managed discipline, he did not let things blow through like "a gust of wind" but instead focused on the day-to-day — work style and discipline, safety management, daily order — with someone responsible for every matter and someone watching every link. Over four years, there were no grand, sweeping "bold strokes," yet through day-after-day "dumb hard work" he forged a battle-ready force that can be deployed, can hold the line, and can win — and in doing so earned the recognition of the organization and the trust of his officers and soldiers.
Savoring this "dumb hard work" carefully, one discovers that behind it lies a rare clarity: this path, which appears slow, is precisely the most solid route to success. Grassroots work is a tangle of a thousand threads; those who lead troops are easily led astray by the character "clever" (巧), always thinking about taking shortcuts, producing highlights, and seeing quick results — only to find that haste makes waste. Force building has its own objective laws. The generation of combat effectiveness is an accumulation process that moves from quantitative to qualitative change. Attempting to leap over the gradual accumulation of daily effort and drive straight to results through "clever shortcuts" will most likely fail to withstand the test of practice. One must understand: every "necessary passage" that is bypassed will ultimately become an "unavoidable detour back." The "real work" (实功夫) that is skipped will become a "historical debt" that must, sooner or later, be repaid with interest.
Put more "dumb hard work" into leading troops. This "dumb hard work" is, at bottom, holding to one's duty, consolidating fundamental skills, and driving the refinement of military skills and the strengthening of capabilities to the utmost. One must honestly follow the laws governing things — not be impatient, not advance recklessly, not muddle through — and discard the mentality of seeking quick results, so that every step falls on the beat of combat effectiveness generation. Do not rely on momentary cleverness; rely instead on pragmatic rootedness, long-term perseverance, and hard, solid work — using the "measuring stick" of actual combat to produce the "real moves" of training. This road is walked slowly, but every step is solid; it is unassuming, yet its effects accumulate over time.
Putting more "dumb hard work" into leading troops is easy to say and hard to do. At present, the tasks of training and war preparation in the force are heavy, the tempo is fast, and the pressure is great. The more this is so, the more it is necessary to calm the mind and do both visible work (显功) and latent work (潜功). Those who lead troops should have the breadth of mind to accept that "success need not come on my watch" (功成不必在我) — not coveting short-term achievement, not seeking short-term fame, willing to do the work that lies "below the horizon," consolidating the foundation and building a solid base. They should have the exacting spirit of "measuring with one ruler all the way to the end" (一把尺子量到底) — not lowering training standards by a single grade, not letting a single instance of work-style cultivation slide, implementing work item by item and polishing it piece by piece, running the character "solid" (实) through the entire process of leading troops. They should have the steadiness of "advancing one pawn a day" (日拱一卒) — sinking down to the front line, anchoring to the battle position, undisturbed by clamor and undeluded by the lure of quick results, building strength through accumulation in day-after-day hard work, and forging a battle-ready force through year-after-year solid effort.