Garrison Observation | From a Deep-Mountain Sentry Post to the Army-Wide Awards Podium
A Private First Class Leads His Team to a Grand Prize
■ PLA Daily Reporter Chen Xiaojie
Wei Bangyao, a private first class in an Army unit, has become a sensation.
The reason: this private first class served as team captain, led his team in the Army-wide Military Modeling Competition, and took home the grand prize (特等奖).
In this border defense company stationed at the edge of Yunnan's deep mountains, mention the name of Private First Class Wei Bangyao and every officer and soldier will sing his praises. Two years ago, Wei Bangyao had just graduated from university. He entered the vibrant military camp with a longing for the armed forces and a resolve to achieve something in the practice of strengthening the military. On the training ground he threw himself into the dirt, drilling hard to master the skills needed to win; in his spare time, the reading room became his "second battlefield."
During his school years, Wei Bangyao had a natural sensitivity to mathematical logic. He proactively broke free from the confines of the classroom, independently exploring mathematics and the field of modeling, and regularly exchanged ideas online with like-minded "modeling enthusiasts." At the time, he never imagined that this passion and accumulated knowledge would one day shine with a distinctive brilliance along the border defense line.
Opportunity always favors the prepared. Last year, the unit received a registration notice for the Army-wide Military Modeling Competition. Political Instructor Li Jiang, having learned of Wei Bangyao's particular skill, contacted him at the first opportunity and told him that if he was willing to compete, he would personally help coordinate the team and build a platform for him.
Immediately, a competition team captained by a private first class was rapidly assembled. During the preparation period, Wei Bangyao and his comrades buried themselves in the company study room—consulting vast amounts of reference material, analyzing professional videos, carefully reading relevant books, and dissecting the difficult points of past competition problems. This steady, step-by-step, solid work style laid a firm foundation for the final victory.
Five days and four nights of fierce competition: a battle of intellect without the smoke of gunfire. In the formal competition, Wei Bangyao led his team in a race against time and a contest against difficult problems, throwing themselves in wholeheartedly, and ultimately completed the modeling task to a high standard, capturing the grand prize in a single stroke.
"Let every officer and soldier have the opportunity to shine in life" — this is a vivid embodiment of this deep-mountain company's philosophy of cultivating talent. The organization built a broad stage for Wei Bangyao to display his special skills and carefully guided him in realizing his youthful dreams; Wei Bangyao, in turn, lived up to expectations, forging himself into steel in the course of the journey to strengthen the military, and growing into a modeling sharpshooter (建模尖兵) who commands the attention of the entire army.
The mountains stand silent, bearing witness to growth. In this deep-mountain garrison, many young soldiers like Wei Bangyao are growing vigorously, carrying their passions and sense of responsibility, transforming through steadfast duty and achieving success through hard work, writing with ordinary perseverance the youthful chapter of border defense officers and soldiers in the new era.
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From a Deep-Mountain Sentry Post to the Army-Wide Awards Podium
■ Guan Lei, Wei Xiaolong, PLA Daily Reporter Chen Xiaojie
Soldiers of an Army unit on patrol. Photo by Wu Haoyuan
"I Want to Be a Good Soldier and Do Something Meaningful"
When new recruits were assigned to their companies, Wei Bangyao was placed in the squad of Staff Sergeant First Class (一级上士) Cai Shaolin of an Army unit.
When asked about his first impression of Wei Bangyao, Cai Shaolin said bluntly that he was "a bit worried" —
Gentle eyes, a soft-spoken manner — at first glance, he was far removed from the tough, resolute image of a border defense soldier.
What worried Cai Shaolin even more was that Wei Bangyao's physical fitness baseline was weak. He struggled especially with apparatus training such as the horizontal bar, and his early progress was very slow.
But after spending time together, Cai Shaolin quickly changed his view of Wei Bangyao. During one heart-to-heart talk, Cai Shaolin asked him about his original motivation for enlisting. Wei Bangyao's gaze was resolute: "I want to be a good soldier and do something meaningful."
After graduating from university, Wei Bangyao had for a time fallen into confusion about his life's direction. His father had worked for many years in the construction engineering industry and hoped his son would carry on the family business. But the young Wei Bangyao yearned to set out on a path of passionate striving, to give his youth more weight and more value. Carrying this sincere original aspiration, he resolutely enlisted and headed to the front line of border defense.
In the course of daily training and life, Cai Shaolin also genuinely saw the valuable potential in Wei Bangyao. Although his foundation was weak and his starting point was not high, he was grounded and self-disciplined, willing to endure hardship and able to bear pressure. When he fell behind in training, he proactively used his free time to add extra load and practice; when his movements were not up to standard, he repeatedly refined the details; when he encountered shortcomings or made mistakes, he never shirked or complained, but simply reflected quietly, corrected course, and steadily caught up.
In Wei Bangyao's mind, solidly completing daily training and holding fast to his border defense post were the duty and obligation of every border defense soldier — the foundation of taking root in the military camp and fulfilling one's responsibilities, with an irreplaceable value. Yet on the basis of fulfilling his duties and doing his job well, he always harbored a higher pursuit: to stand on the foundation of the military camp, give full play to his special skills, and ensure that his youth would not be limited to steadfast duty alone, but would truly shine and generate heat, not failing his military service.
This plain yet burning pursuit was something that Political Instructor Li Jiang had also heard about in his conversations with Wei Bangyao.
Last year, Li Jiang was stationed at the company for an extended period, conducting one-on-one heart-to-heart talks with new recruits, surveying their individual special skills, and understanding their aspirations for growth. When the topic of professional skills came up, Wei Bangyao mentioned that he had participated in modeling competitions three times, winning second place in a provincial-level competition.
Having said this, Wei Bangyao felt uneasy inside. The core mission of a border defense company is combat readiness and garrison duty. In his view, special skills like mathematical modeling seemed far removed from the front-line border defense mission and difficult to put into practice. He even privately regretted it, thinking it might have been better to say his major was engineering cost estimation — at least that could contribute something to garrison construction. Wei Bangyao, who was single-mindedly determined to "be a good soldier," was afraid his answer had failed to make a good impression on the political instructor. But what he did not expect was that Li Jiang not only appreciated him greatly, but quietly kept him in mind.
Last year, the unit received notice that an Army-wide Military Modeling Competition would soon be held. Li Jiang contacted the company at the first opportunity and specifically sought out Wei Bangyao's willingness to compete.
In the company office, seeing the familiar characters "modeling" (建模) on the notice, Wei Bangyao's eyes lit up. He felt that the passion he had set aside for so long, the special skill that had lain dormant for so long, had finally found an opportunity to bloom in this deep-mountain garrison.
"It's finally my turn to contribute to the unit using my own special skills." In that moment, Wei Bangyao was absolutely certain.
Wei Bangyao (far left) exchanges insights on military modeling with his comrades. Photo by Wu Haoyuan
"In This Team, Ability Does the Talking"
After receiving Wei Bangyao's enthusiastic response, Li Jiang quickly coordinated and integrated the backbone forces, assembling a competition team within the battalion and designating Wei Bangyao as team captain to lead the team in preparing for the Army-wide Military Modeling Competition.
The team had two other members: Platoon Leader Deng Wenju and Zhang Qinghua.
The move caused a stir. This competition team — led by a conscript (义务兵) commanding two officers — sparked considerable discussion within the battalion. In the eyes of many, the two platoon leaders had the advantage in both age and experience, and many people watched with a cautious, wait-and-see attitude.
On this matter, Li Jiang had a more pragmatic and far-sighted calculation. Although Deng Wenju and Zhang Qinghua had rich positional experience and a solid professional foundation, neither had participated in a modeling competition before and both lacked practical competitive experience. Wei Bangyao, though a conscript, had participated in multiple high-level competitions and had accumulated more mature practical experience.
"In this team, ability does the talking — rank doesn't determine seniority, and military grade doesn't determine who leads." With that, the team established a scientifically clear division of labor to maximize the team's combat effectiveness: Wei Bangyao was responsible for building the overall problem-solving framework and finalizing the core modeling approach; Deng Wenju applied his professional strengths, focusing on program writing, data computation, and technical implementation; Zhang Qinghua, with his meticulous thinking and solid writing skills, was primarily responsible for organizing results, reviewing logic, and drafting the paper.
From the very beginning, Wei Bangyao placed team cohesion at the top of the preparation agenda. With his rich competition experience, he knew well that going it alone rarely succeeds — unified thinking and seamless coordination are the keys to victory on the competition floor.
So, after everyone had completed their initial individual groundwork, Wei Bangyao proposed conducting concentrated joint exercises modeled on the themes of mature civilian modeling competitions, using combat-realistic (实战化) simulations to refine the rhythm of collaboration, unify problem-solving approaches, and address capability shortfalls.
In this process, clashes of ideas and disagreements arose frequently. The three members each spoke from their own professional perspectives, debated with one another, and often reviewed and simulated until the early hours of the morning. Whenever thinking could not be unified, Wei Bangyao would proactively pause the argument, take the lead in sorting out the core logic, break down the key issues, and verify step by step, driving the team to build consensus and set direction.
To ensure that the problem-solving approach was rigorous and correct and that the core formulas were scientifically sound and effective, Wei Bangyao also proactively connected online with experts at civilian universities to seek answers and verification, eliminating cognitive biases and dispelling the team's doubts, so that every step of reasoning and every conclusion could withstand scrutiny.
Through day after day of grinding and hard work, the coordination among the three grew increasingly smooth and tacit, and their mutual trust deepened. Wei Bangyao also proved the capability of this "conscript team captain" through his steady, pragmatic style and his solid, outstanding professional ability.
The day of the competition arrived quickly. The competition problems were closely tied to the realities of training and combat readiness, covering military professional knowledge across multiple domains, with strong comprehensiveness and significant difficulty. The three coordinated closely and divided labor, simultaneously working to quickly grasp the core of the problems and absorb key military theory points, while precisely deriving formulas and constructing the model architecture — the entire process was intense and efficient.
In the middle of the competition, the team hit a bottleneck on a core difficult problem. At the critical moment, Wei Bangyao broke down the logic layer by layer and argued through each point step by step, successfully clearing the blockage in the problem-solving process, unifying the team's direction of attack, and leading the team out of the impasse.
On the afternoon of the final day of the competition, they successfully completed all research on the competition problems, model optimization, and content refinement, and submitted their competition paper and modeling results to a high standard.
The subsequent three-month review and waiting period felt especially long to Wei Bangyao. He was terrified of letting down the organization's trust, letting down his teammates' efforts, and letting down the days and nights of hard striving.
When the good news arrived that they had won the grand prize, everyone was elated. Li Jiang patted Wei Bangyao on the shoulder, full of satisfaction: "I knew it. I hadn't misjudged you."
"Here, We All Became Better Versions of Ourselves"
At the beginning of this year, the unit held an awards ceremony for its "Top Ten Border Defense Exemplars" (十大戍边标兵). Among the outstanding officers and soldiers draped in honor, Wei Bangyao was the only conscript.
On the large screen at the awards venue, a short growth film played slowly, unfolding scene after scene of everyday border defense life and moments of striving. The camera recorded the trajectory of Wei Bangyao's transformation: the once slight and slender figure had become upright and sturdy through day after day of border defense training and tempering in wind and rain; the formerly green and uncertain eyes had shed the timidity and restlessness of youth, settling into the steadfastness, composure, and certainty unique to a border defense soldier. The fertile soil of the military camp and the wind and rain of the frontier had reshaped his appearance and his character.
"Here, we all became better versions of ourselves." Looking back on the path of growth and transformation, Wei Bangyao spoke from the heart.
In fact, Wei Bangyao's "accelerated" growth is not an isolated case in this unit. In this border defense force rooted in the deep mountains, generation after generation of young officers and soldiers have quietly transformed in this fertile military soil, blooming with a distinctive brilliance —
Some had won second prize in a CNC machine tool competition before enlisting; after enlisting, they precisely matched their skills to the needs of their posts, specializing in precision equipment calibration and fault diagnosis, becoming indispensable technical experts in their companies.
Some are proficient in new media creation, skilled in the full workflow of video planning, filming, and editing, using the camera to capture the everyday life of border defense and bringing stories of military strengthening from the deep mountains out to the wider world. Others have studied traditional Chinese medicine therapy techniques, are skilled in acupuncture and massage, and quietly relieve their comrades' pain and injuries in their spare time after training, using warmth to safeguard their comrades' physical and mental health.
"Every young officer and soldier who comes to the border defense carries a passion. What we need to do is understand them and build a stage for every officer and soldier to realize their dreams." In Li Jiang's view, the deep-mountain sentry post needs soldiers who will hold fast, but it needs even more innovative talent suited to the demands of training and combat readiness in the new era.
To this end, they persist in teaching in accordance with individual aptitude (因材施教) and cultivating talent with precision, proactively tapping the potential of every soldier, precisely matching individual special skills to the practical combat needs of border defense readiness, sentry management and control, and positional innovation, injecting continuous momentum into the cause of border defense.
Not long ago, Wei Bangyao was recommended to participate in a higher-level specialized training course on war gaming (兵棋). After completing the training and returning to his unit, he was appointed head of the battalion's war gaming group, taking the lead in guiding his comrades in deepening war gaming practical training and concentrating efforts on technical breakthroughs, targeting the shortfalls of the existing war gaming system and optimizing its effectiveness in practical application.
In response to the practical characteristics of the border defense area — complex terrain, dispersed sentry positions, and significant management and control difficulty — they devoted themselves to studying the operational logic of the war gaming system, repeatedly simulating, testing, and working through optimizations, completing iterative upgrades and functional improvements to multiple core modules of the system.
As the morning light breaks, awakening the deep mountains, the long sound of the bugle pierces the stillness of the mountain forest.
Through layer upon layer of forest, Wei Bangyao and his comrades assemble on time, adjust their gear, check their supplies, fall into formation, and set out on the patrol route into the rising sun.
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Let Every Officer and Soldier Find "Something Meaningful"
■ PLA Daily Reporter Chen Xiaojie
How does a private first class earn the right to lead a team to the Army-wide grand prize?
Before entering this border defense company, that question kept circling in this reporter's mind. After the interviews concluded, the answer gradually became clear — he had the ability, and there were people willing to believe in his ability and build the ladder and pave the road for him.
During the interviews, Political Instructor Li Jiang mentioned a detail. When assembling the competition team, he overrode objections and made Wei Bangyao, a private first class, the team captain. When the news broke, discussion spread throughout the battalion. Some worried that a conscript leading the team wouldn't be able to hold things together; others felt that "inverted rank" (军衔倒挂) was contrary to convention. Li Jiang responded with a single sentence: "Competition is about ability. Whoever can do it, goes."
"The way to strengthen the military lies in obtaining the right people (强军之道，要在得人)." Obtaining the right people means not only selecting them, but also putting them to use — placing them in the right positions. The military emphasizes clear hierarchy and strict obedience to orders; that is a function of the mission. But when it comes to combat effectiveness, daring to break convention and placing the right person in the right position requires not only discernment, but also a sense of responsibility.
I later asked the other two team members what they thought about "a conscript serving as team captain." They admitted that at first they did have some doubts, but those were completely dispelled after the first joint exercise. Platoon Leader Zhang Qinghua said something that left a deep impression on me: "When Wei Bangyao explained his understanding of modeling, we knew — on this matter, we had to listen to him." Letting ability do the talking, winning respect through demonstrated competence — this is probably the most plain and yet most powerful logic in the military camp.
On the evening of the day I left the company, Wei Bangyao brought up the original aspiration he had when he enlisted: "I want to be a good soldier and do something meaningful." He said he now has a new understanding of those words — "Meaningful things don't come from waiting. They come from the day you discover that what you are capable of doing is exactly what the unit needs."
From "what can I do" to "what does the unit need me to do" — the distance between those two questions is sometimes bridged only by a pair of eyes skilled at noticing, and one decisive decision.
As dusk fell, several soldiers walked out of the study room, talking about something as they went, their voices low but their expressions extraordinarily focused. In that moment I suddenly felt that this is probably the finest sight in a military camp — every spark of flame is seen, and every passion has a place to burn.
A force capable of winning battles has never been solely a contest of weapons and equipment; it is equally a contest of talent and vitality. Discovering a soldier's strengths, fulfilling a soldier's dreams, letting every officer and soldier find that "meaningful thing" — this in itself is building the future of a force.
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Military Modeling Competition
Military modeling (军事建模) is a quantitative research method that takes real-world military problems as its orientation and integrates mathematics, computer technology, and military science. It originates from the system of military operations research (军事运筹学). Through scientific assumptions about combat scenarios, model construction, data solving, review and retrospection, and assessment of results, it equips traditional military research with a precise "digital ruler," making vague combat analysis quantifiable, simulable, and verifiable. It is an important supporting means for the scientization and refinement of modern military research.
The scientific application of military modeling has fundamentally changed the traditional mode of military research. Around the time of the First World War, British engineer F. W. Lanchester used systems of ordinary differential equations to quantify combat force attrition, constructing a classic mathematical model of combat, laying the mathematical and physical research foundation for the application of firepower, and introducing quantitative analytical thinking into modern military research. During the Second World War, Allied forces used mathematical methods to solve a series of operational problems, achieving significant results.
Today, military modeling has become the "temple calculation instrument (庙算利器)" and "intelligent brain" of modern warfare, capable of precisely characterizing various military elements such as operational command, battlefield actions, and weapons and equipment operation, providing scientific support for training and combat readiness and for operational decision-making.
Conducting military modeling competitions is of significant importance for driving the transformation of the military's operational theory development toward engineering-based, precise, and standardized approaches; for promoting the use of quantitative analytical methods by forces to resolve difficult and key problems in operational training and organizational management; and for improving the thinking level and decision-making capability of commanders at all levels.
After years of exploration and practice, our military's military modeling competition has built a competition operation and management system structured around the principle of "competition problems sourced from the front line, problem-setting relying on experts, competition open to the entire army, and results serving the force." It takes the real bottlenecks faced by forces as the living source of competition problems, has identified and cultivated large numbers of data analysis talents for the force, has provided effective solution approaches for resolving real-world difficulties, and has bridged the "last mile" from competition results to the generation of combat effectiveness in the force.