A Picture Worth a Thousand Words | Do Not Be an "Amateur" at Waging War
Do Not Be an "Amateur" at Waging War
■ Illustrated by Wang Dafei Author: Zhang Xueshi
In March 1952, Comrade Zhou Xihan was transferred to serve as Chief of Staff of the Navy. At the time, the Navy of New China had just been established. He made a vow to "work himself to death rather than be an 'amateur,'" went through every Russian-language document he could find, and kept the light in his study burning through the night on a regular basis. Through this relentless drive, he swiftly completed the transformation from a fierce Army commander to a seasoned Navy combat commander.
To be an "expert and master" (行家里手) capable of fighting and winning wars has always been the unceasing pursuit and guiding value of our military's commanders. One important reason why our military's founding-generation combat commanders understood command and could fight wars was that they were good at learning and diligent in study, and absolutely refused to be "amateurs." This spirit and character is worthy of emulation by today's commanders.
At present, the form of war is accelerating its evolution toward informatized and intelligentized warfare (信息化智能化战争). Operational theory, the mechanisms of victory, combat technology, and tactics and methods of fighting are continuously iterating and upgrading. The way of achieving victory is undergoing a profound shift from the traditional "war of attrition" (消耗战) to a "war of dissipation" (耗散战), with the core logic upgrading from the physical-domain collision of material energy to multi-domain integrated system destruction and cognitive dominance (体系破击与认知主导). If a commander cannot keep pace with "tomorrow's war," he will become an "outsider" to war, will be unreliable when fighting breaks out, and will be looked down upon in the hearts of officers and soldiers.
In the early 1950s, Comrade Nie Fengzhi, who came from an Army background, was appointed Commander of the East China Military Region Air Force. Thereafter, he set aside the airs of a commander and became a student, humbly seeking instruction from pilots, radar technicians, and communications staff officers; he spent entire days at the control tower and command post, following Soviet military experts in hands-on practice. Through hard study, he thoroughly mastered the complete Air Force command system in a short period of time and forged his ability to command air combat. Today, commanders at all levels should likewise fix their eyes on tomorrow's war and on powerful enemy adversaries, engage in continuous and unceasing study, and strive to achieve renewal of concepts, upgrading of capabilities, and expansion of quality, comprehensively elevating their ability to fight and win.
To not be an "amateur," the key lies in updating one's thinking and concepts. Thought walks ahead of action, just as lightning walks ahead of thunder. Today's wars are largely a matter of theory guiding practice—one war eliminates one theory, one transformation gives birth to another. This demands that commanders at all levels focus on new developments in military transformation and new achievements in military theory, gain deep insight into informatized and intelligentized warfare, keep the thinking of "war" perpetually "fresh," and thereby design war and win war.
To become an expert and master of modern warfare requires both study and practice, both diligent research and training. Only by actively throwing themselves into combat-realistic training (实战化训练), taking the lead in entering their combat positions, entering their roles, and entering the situation, taking the lead in drilling strategy and command, continuously innovating tactics and methods of fighting, and fully stocking the "toolbox" for commanding tomorrow's war, can commanders at all levels elevate their warfighting capability in the new era and earn the "qualification certificate" (资格证) for leading troops in battle.