Doctrine

The Wisdom of Victory Contained in the 'Advantage-Disadvantage Transition Line'

“利害变换线”中蕴含的胜战智慧

PLA Daily (解放军报) 19 May 2026

Summary

A PLA commentary by Gao Kai and Wang Cheng rehabilitates Liu Bocheng's concept of the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' (利害变换线) as a doctrinal framework for modern command, arguing that identifying and exploiting the threshold where battlefield advantage converts to disadvantage remains the decisive act of campaign planning, and extending the concept to intelligentized warfare through integration of big data decision-support, digital twin battlefield simulation, and full-domain cyber-electronic penetration (网电全域渗透). The article documents the PLA's ongoing effort to graft Maoist and early PRC operational concepts onto intelligentized warfare doctrine—a pattern visible across recent military press output—but the specific pairing of Liu Bocheng's 'compass method' with digital twin and cyber-electronic tools extends that pattern by providing a named analytical procedure commanders are expected to apply, not merely a general exhortation to combine tradition with technology. The explicit inclusion of 'military democracy' (军事民主) as a mechanism for pooling judgment in complex decision environments raises the question of how the PLA is managing the tension between centralized command authority and the distributed, rapid decision cycles intelligentized warfare demands.

Translation

Making Good Use of the 'Advantage-Disadvantage Transition Line' ■ Gao Kai, Wang Cheng

● The true pivot of victory is often not the seizure of high ground heavily defended by the enemy, but rather that invisible, subtle boundary that divides 'advantage' from 'disadvantage,' 'initiative' from 'passivity,' 'bearable' from 'unbearable'—the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' (利害变换线).

The 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' (利害变换线) is a military term created by Comrade Liu Bocheng in the practice of revolutionary warfare. It profoundly reveals the critical threshold at which advantage and disadvantage mutually convert between enemy and friendly forces in combat. It is not a tangible line on a map, but rather a sensitive zone where strength and weakness shift, a turning point where offense and defense exchange positions, and a watershed of war-bearing capacity (战争承受力). Its essence is the key area or node most favorable for one's own side to achieve maximum results at minimum cost, formed by the convergence of multiple factors including the balance of forces, conditions of time and space, systemic resilience (体系韧性), and psychological will. In the era of intelligentized warfare (智能化战争), the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' exhibits more complex, more concealed, and more rapidly evolving characteristics. Deeply grasping its inner meaning and applying it to war planning and command remains the key to arranging a winning situation and seizing the initiative.

Dialectically analyze the situation to discern the source of transition. 'The wise man's deliberations must weigh both advantage and disadvantage.' Discerning advantage and disadvantage on the battlefield is a commander's fundamental skill. In determining the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line,' Comrade Liu Bocheng placed emphasis on drawing upon and expanding the application of the 'compass method' (圆规划法): taking the core objectives of both enemy and friendly forces as the center, comprehensively considering factors such as the radius of force maneuver, the range of fire strikes, and logistical support capacity, and drawing multiple concentric circles; using the intersections of the circles as a basis to sketch the initial contours of the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line.' This makes clear that the line is by no means a simple line of contact, but rather a critical transition line determined after thoroughly analyzing the 'five elements' (五行) of mission, enemy situation, friendly situation, terrain, and time, and precisely locating the strategic and campaign nodes where 'pulling one hair moves the whole body.' Commanders must transcend a local perspective, examine the campaign's center of gravity from the standpoint of the strategic whole, lock onto tactical vital points around the campaign's center of gravity, and precisely grasp the core advantage-disadvantage points bearing on the overall situation within the unity of opposites—analyzing layer by layer and connecting points into a line—before they can perceive even the finest details.

Pursue advantage and avoid harm to control the pivot of transition. The essence of war lies in 'pursuing advantage,' and the art of command is prized for its capacity to 'pursue and avoid.' Once the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' is determined, the core of command lies in using the swiftest possible action to drive the mutual conversion of advantage and disadvantage between enemy and friendly forces. During the War of Liberation, faced with the Nationalist Army's concentrated offensives against northern Shaanxi and Shandong, Comrade Mao Zedong, with far-sighted vision, precisely captured the pivot of the overall 'advantage-disadvantage transition' at the 'dumbbell' handle and 'iron pliers' hinge of the enemy's strategic disposition, and resolutely decided to send Liu-Deng's army on a thousand-li advance into the Dabie Mountains, thrusting directly into the enemy's heartland. This move instantly rendered the enemy passive across the board and successfully opened the curtain on the strategic counteroffensive. The 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' changes with the situation; commanders must clearly perceive the situation and be skilled at choosing the right moment, striking on the initiative at the most favorable time. Strategically, comprehensively employ military, political, economic, and diplomatic means to seize the initiative; at the campaign level, flexibly employ pinning and blocking actions to achieve defeat in detail; tactically, skillfully use penetration, envelopment, splitting, and encirclement to achieve rapid annihilation of the enemy. Through the initiative of 'you fight your way, I fight my way,' realize the pursuit of advantage and avoidance of harm, and the exchange of offensive and defensive positions.

Employ forces flexibly to accelerate the effectiveness of transition. Dialectical materialism reveals that the transformation of things must pass through an intermediary. The transition of advantage and disadvantage also requires a bridge, and that bridge is 'maneuver' (机动). To defeat the superior with the inferior, to defeat the many with the few, to defeat the strong with the weak—these require especially high mobility. In applying the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line,' one must never allow the enemy to enter within the line and wait helplessly for defeat; instead, through stratagems such as making a feint in the east while attacking in the west, concealing the real and displaying the false, and besieging a point to strike at relief forces, one should skillfully lure the enemy deep into a pre-set battlefield to accelerate the process of advantage-disadvantage transition. The brilliant victories at the Shentouling ambush, the Southwest Shandong campaign, and the Dingtao campaign all benefited from this. Although informatized and intelligentized warfare (信息化智能化战争) has elevated combat precision, intensity, and tempo to unprecedented levels, 'mobile flexibility' (机动灵活) remains an important magic weapon for our army to defeat the enemy, and its connotation has grown richer: building on the traditional foundation of force maneuver and posturing, it integrates actions such as precise fire strikes, efficient information deception, and full-domain cyber-electronic penetration (网电全域渗透)—openly repairing the plank road while secretly crossing at Chencang, concealing the real and displaying the false, hiding harm and revealing advantage—inducing the enemy to misjudge the battlefield situation, accelerating the transition of advantage and disadvantage, and firmly grasping battlefield initiative.

Actively create the situation to expand the domain of victory. Although battlefield advantage and disadvantage have an objective character, by giving full play to subjective initiative, a situation favorable to the enemy and unfavorable to oneself can be reversed into a new situation favorable to oneself and unfavorable to the enemy, thereby redrawing the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line.' During the War of Resistance Against Japan, faced with the disadvantage in the waterway network region of central Jiangsu where the enemy's steamboats were fast and our wooden boats were slow, Comrade Su Yu discerned the characteristics that the enemy's steamboats were heavy and difficult to turn while our wooden boats were light and agile in changing direction. He creatively mobilized the military and civilians to combine overt and covert means, building dams layer by layer, actively transforming the battlefield environment, and converting the waterway network favorable to enemy mechanized movement into a 'water maze' (水上迷宫) that restricted enemy maneuver and facilitated our guerrilla operations, successfully expanding the space for 'advantage-disadvantage transition.' Combat is like playing chess: faced with given battlefield conditions of advantage and disadvantage, commanders must especially promote military democracy (军事民主), pool the wisdom of all, employ modern means such as big data mining, intelligent model deduction, and digital twin battlefields (数字孪生战场) to assist decision-making, actively seek the 'optimal solution,' and proactively transform objective conditions—only then can one convert disadvantage into advantage, change passivity into initiative, and achieve a fundamental reversal of the battlefield situation.

The wisdom of victory embodied in the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' shines with the brilliance of military dialectics (军事辩证法). On the future battlefield, full of variables and challenges, it is imperative to strengthen dialectical thinking, strategic vision, and a spirit of initiative—precisely identifying change, scientifically responding to change, and proactively seeking change amid insight into the changes in technology, in warfare, and in the adversary—and to flexibly apply the profound wisdom of the 'advantage-disadvantage transition line' throughout the entire process of war planning and command, forging new advantages for defeating the enemy and achieving victory.

Original Chinese

用好“利害变换线” ■高凯王程 ●真正的制胜枢纽，往往并非攻取敌重兵据守的高地，而在于那条无形中分割“优势”与“劣势”、“主动”与“被动”、“可承受”与“不可承受”的微妙界限——“利害变换线” “利害变换线”，是刘伯承同志在革命战争实践中创造的军事术语，深刻揭示了作战中敌我利与害相互转换的关键临界点。它并非地图上的有形之线，而是作战中强弱转换的敏感带、攻守易势的翻转点、战争承受力的分水岭。其本质是力量对比、时空条件、体系韧性、心理意志等多重因素交汇作用下，最有利于己方以最小代价获取最大战果的关键区域或节点。智能化战争时代，“利害变换线”呈现更复杂、更隐蔽、更快速的演化特征，深刻把握其内在要义并应用于战争筹划指挥，仍然是布设胜局、赢得主动的关键所在。辩证析局，洞悉转换之本源。“智者之虑，必杂于利害”。洞悉战场利与害，是指挥员的基本功。刘伯承同志判定“利害变换线”，重视借鉴并拓展运用“圆规划法”：以敌我核心目标为圆心，综合考量兵力机动半径、火力打击范围、后勤保障能力等因素，划出多个同心圆；以圆的交点为基础，勾勒出“利害变换线”的初始轮廓。由此可见，此线绝非简单接触线，而是基于对任务、敌情、我情、地形、时间“五行”的透彻分析，精准定位“牵一发而动全身”的战略战役节点后，确定的利害转换临界线。指挥员须超越局部视野，立足战略全局审视战役重心，围绕战役重心锁定战术要害，在对立统一中精准把握关乎全局的核心利害点，层层剖析，连点成线，方能明察秋毫。趋利避害，掌控转换之枢机。战争本质在“逐利”，指挥艺术贵在“趋避”。确定“利害变换线”后，指挥核心即在于以最迅捷之行动，促使敌我利害转换。解放战争中，面对国民党军对陕北、山东的重点进攻，毛泽东同志高瞻远瞩，于敌战略布局的“哑铃”把柄与“铁钳”铰链处，精准捕捉全局“利害变换”枢纽，毅然决策刘邓大军千里挺进大别山，直插敌腹心。此举瞬间令敌全局被动，成功开启战略反攻序幕。“利害变换线”因势而变，指挥员务必明察态势、善择火候，在最有利时机主动出击。战略上，综合运用军事、政治、经济、外交手段夺取主动权；战役上，灵活运用牵制、阻击达成各个击破；战术上，善用穿插、迂回、分割、包围实现速决歼敌。以“你打你的，我打我的”之主动，实现趋利避害、攻守易势。灵活用兵，加速转换之效能。辩证唯物主义揭示，事物转化必经中介。利害变换亦需桥梁，此桥即为“机动”。以无胜有，以少胜多，以劣胜优，尤其需要高度机动。运用“利害变换线”，切忌将敌放入线内束手待毙，而应通过声东击西、隐真示假、围点打援等谋略，巧妙诱敌深入预设战场，加速利害转换进程。神头岭伏击、鲁西南战役、定陶战役的辉煌胜利，皆得益于此。信息化智能化战争虽使作战精度、烈度、强度空前提升，但“机动灵活”仍是我军克敌制胜的重要法宝，其内涵更趋丰富：在传统兵力机动示形基础上，融合火力精确打击、信息高效欺骗、网电全域渗透等行动，明修栈道、暗度陈仓，隐真示假、藏害明利，诱使敌误判战局，加速利害转换，牢牢掌握战场主动权。能动创势，拓展制胜之疆域。战场利与害虽具客观性，但通过充分发挥主观能动性，可将利于敌、不利于我的态势，扭转为利于我、不利于敌的新局，进而重划“利害变换线”。抗日战争时期，面对苏中水网地带敌汽轮快、我木船慢的劣势，粟裕同志洞察敌汽轮笨重、转弯困难，我木船轻便、转向灵活的特点，创造性地发动军民明暗结合、层层打坝，主动改造战场环境，变利于敌机械化运动的水网为限制敌机动、便利我游击的“水上迷宫”，成功拓展了“利害变换”空间。作战如同弈棋，面对既定战场利害条件，指挥员尤其要发扬军事民主，集思广益，运用大数据挖掘、智能模型推演、数字孪生战场等现代手段辅助决策，积极寻求“最优解”，主动改造客观条件，方能化劣势为优势，变被动为主动，实现战场态势的根本逆转。 “利害变换线”的胜战智慧，闪耀着军事辩证法的光芒。在充满变数与挑战的未来战场，必须强化辩证思维、战略眼光与主动精神，在洞悉科技之变、战争之变、对手之变中精准识变、科学应变、主动求变，将“利害变换线”的深邃智慧灵活运用于战争筹划指挥全流程，锻造克敌制胜的新优势。