Forging the Blade's Edge in Highland Darkness: An Army Regiment Conducts Consecutive Training in High-Difficulty Subjects
On a summer night on the Karakoram Plateau, a sharp burst of whistle blasts shattered the silence as a certain Army regiment raised the curtain on a consecutive training exercise integrating two high-difficulty subjects: nighttime maneuver and nighttime live-fire shooting.
Officers and soldiers moved on command, rapidly completing vehicle loading and mounting according to their combat groupings. Several infantry fighting vehicles switched off their headlights and sped toward unfamiliar terrain guided solely by low-light night-vision equipment. The convoy crept along winding mountain roads, the undulating ridgelines glowing with a faint green luminescence through the night-vision devices.
Highland weather is complex and changeable. During the unit's movement, an unexpected snowstorm struck, and snow rapidly blanketed the road surface. "Snow ahead — all vehicles increase spacing and proceed at low speed!" The words had barely been spoken when an emergency arose: the right front wheel of Infantry Fighting Vehicle No. 2 sank into a hidden pothole concealed by the snow. Battalion Commander Qiu of a certain battalion immediately issued a decisive order: "All vehicles hold security — Vehicle No. 2 crew, handle it yourselves!"
Wedging in stones, setting up a hydraulic jack… Freezing wind drove snow pellets into their faces, but the crew of Vehicle No. 2 paid no heed to the cold and worked in close coordination to address the situation. Before long, the fighting vehicle was successfully freed.
"On the future battlefield, you can encounter any situation — you must forge hard skills." Battalion Commander Qiu explained that for this night training exercise, they set no route markers in advance, conducted no prior route reconnaissance, and relied entirely on onboard navigation and terrain data for orientation. Improvised contingencies were woven throughout the entire training, genuinely tempering officers and soldiers' capabilities for rapid maneuver and emergency response in unfamiliar terrain and complex weather conditions.
After the convoy reached the designated area, officers and soldiers swiftly moved to their combat positions and, under low-light conditions, completed communications link establishment, target-area safety sweeps, and final fire-control system calibration in preparation for firing.
"'Enemy' armored target area — targets appearing and disappearing at random — conduct autonomous search, acquisition, and engagement!" With the order issued, the fighting vehicles advanced in combat formation with bounding movements.
In the low light, the target area was cut through with gullies and ravines, with targets concealed among them and extremely difficult to distinguish. "Enemy fighting vehicle spotted, front left." Inside the turret, gunner Tang Yunpeng kept his eyes fixed to the gun sight and was the first to acquire the outline of a target.
"Target locked — armor-piercing round, load." Vehicle commander Xiong Tao rapidly confirmed the parameters; Tang Yunpeng tracked the target quickly, and Xiong Tao issued the fire command without hesitation. In an instant, a tongue of flame erupted and the round tore through the night — but struck the earthen slope to the left of the target.
Seeing this, Tang Yunpeng felt a jolt of tension. The effects of plateau air pressure and wind speed on the trajectory far exceed those on the plains. He immediately recalculated the correction, making a fine adjustment to the aiming direction. Moments later, a second round screamed out and struck the target with precision.
The firing continued as targets appeared and disappeared in multiple directions and multiple waves. The participating officers and soldiers responded with composure, independently assessing threats and switching between different ammunition types; round after round burst from the barrel, and targets "bloomed" one after another.
Inside the command observation post, Staff Officer Deng of the regiment's operations and training section monitored the training in real time through night-vision equipment, recording data such as shell impact points and crew response times. "Night shooting is a test of hard skills in search and detection, rapid judgment, and precise coordination," Staff Officer Deng explained. This training exercise used randomly appearing and disappearing targets throughout, with no target orientations preset, approximating actual combat to the maximum extent, with the aim of genuinely testing and improving the unit's night-combat capability.
In the early hours of the following morning, with the conclusion of the final round of fire strikes, the nighttime live-fire shooting training exercise came to a successful close. Statistical data showed that the overall hit rate of participating vehicle crews had improved markedly compared to the previous round of night training, with multiple crews posting excellent scores.
As training concluded, each vehicle crew immediately launched into after-action review discussions, with officers and soldiers digging into the root causes of problems in areas such as first-round hits, contingency handling, and coordination, and drawing lessons from the experience.
"Night combat is a traditional advantage of our military and one of the primary operational modes under informatized (信息化) conditions." The regiment's leadership stated that they will continue to focus on core operational capabilities including nighttime reconnaissance, precision strike, and rapid maneuver; construct battlefield environments under demanding and rigorous conditions; and carry out intensive specialized training to steadily forge the unit's hard skills for full-spectrum, all-time-domain (全时域) combat.