A Single Order from the Detachment Draws Attention: Reflections on One Comrade's "Fall and Rise"

Reflections on One Comrade's "Fall and Rise" ■ Zhou Haiyan

In March of this year, a single order from the detachment drew considerable attention — Xue Peng, the former chief of the Combat Service Planning Section, was reappointed to that same position. His "fall and rise" is also a window through which I have observed the results of the detachment's deepening political rectification training (深化政治整训).

Shortly after I arrived at the detachment, I heard other leaders mention Xue Peng: "Two years ago, during the restructuring, he was reassigned from chief of the Combat Service Planning Section to assistant of the Transportation and Delivery Section. He didn't say a word and worked even more conscientiously. But later, because of an officer overage, he went a long time without a transfer or promotion, and gradually the life just went out of him." I looked through his work records and found that the ledgers he kept during the first two years were neat, meticulous, and thorough, but the entries from early this year grew progressively sloppier, and the content began to feel perfunctory. At one headquarters handover meeting, I asked about the progress of a certain task. Only after being called on did he slowly say: "Still working on it."

I knew this was not a question of ability — his drive had been worn down. One day I called him into my office: "Xue Peng, do you feel like there's nothing to look forward to?" He was silent for a long time before he raised his head: "Commissar, it's not that I'm afraid of hardship or hard work — I'm afraid that no matter how hard I work, no one will notice." I didn't rush to lecture him. Instead, I talked about my own experience: after being promoted to full regimental grade (正团) at my previous unit, I served in that position for nine years before being promoted again. By the sixth year in particular, watching comrades around me advance one by one, I felt restless too. My old commissar told me: "If you lie flat now, won't all the suffering of those first six years have been for nothing? Even if the unit is dissolved or reorganized, your own drive must not diminish." Later, I settled my mind and did the work in front of me steadily and well, and three years after that the promotion order came. I told Xue Peng: "The problem is temporary — the organization is resolving it step by step. But if you give up now, when the opportunity comes, will you still be able to stand tall before the officers and soldiers?"

I then assigned him the task of drafting the logistics support plan for high-altitude garrison training. He spent a solid week in his office, going through records and visiting the grassroots. One night at 11 o'clock, I passed by his office and saw the light still on. I pushed the door open and found him marking supply points on a map. He said: "Commissar, I want to develop a 'modular support checklist' that fixes the personnel, materiel, and time limits for every node." That plan was later rolled out across the detachment, and garrison training support efficiency improved significantly. I knew his spirit had come back.

In March of this year, after rigorous assessment, Xue Peng was reappointed as chief of the Combat Service Planning Section. The day the order was announced, he said: "I am grateful the organization did not give up on me. I will prove through my actions that I didn't 'lie' my way back — I worked my way back."

This brought to mind an episode from the life of founding General Zhang Aiping. During the Red Army period, Zhang Aiping was reduced from division commander to regimental commander due to a military reorganization. His position was lowered, yet he had not a word of complaint and continued to lead his regiment with full vigor. When someone spoke up for him, he waved it off: "Being a division commander is fighting; being a regimental commander is also fighting. As long as the rifle is in hand, what does rank matter? Leading the troops well and winning the battle — that's worth more than anything." Looking at the present, some individual cadres lose heart and lie flat (躺平) at the first setback. When all is said and done, their vision is too narrow and their character too shallow. General Zhang Aiping's story tells us: a person's worth does not lie in the height of their position, but in whether they always have drive, are in the right state, and dare to fight hard.

Xue Peng's transformation strengthened the detachment Party committee's resolve to reinvigorate the spirit of officers and soldiers in their work and undertakings. Combining this with the deepening of political rectification training, we launched a coordinated set of measures (组合拳) in cadre education and management: we established the clear orientation of "performance earns position" (有为有位), reassigned five cadres who had been "lying flat" for an extended period, promoted and placed in key positions twelve frontline backbone personnel with outstanding records, including three — like Xue Peng — who "fell and got back up"; we established a "state early-warning" mechanism, with standing committee members individually linked to grassroots units, conducting quarterly "portraits" of cadres' mental and motivational states, with early reminders and early assistance; we organized cadres for on-site instruction at the Kunlun Mountain Pass and the former site of General Mu Shengzhong's building, to revisit the "Qinghai-Tibet Highway Spirit" (青藏公路精神), and we conduct quarterly selections of "High-Altitude Vanguard" (高原先锋), so that those who work hard gain both recognition and honor.

Comrade Mao Zedong said: "A person must have a certain spirit." In soldiering on the plateau, that spirit and vitality (精气神) are especially important. Our detachment's garrison area has an average elevation of over 3,000 meters, with oxygen content at only seventy percent of that in the plains. Some comrades joke: "Just lying still is the equivalent of carrying a load for five kilometers in the interior." Yet it is precisely this kind of environment that most tests a person's state of being — whether one treats hardship as an excuse to lie flat, or as a whetstone for tempering oneself. Political rectification training is about rectifying work style, rectifying discipline, and rectifying one's state of being (整风、整纪、整状态). When a person's spirit is settled and their state is good, even the greatest difficulties can be overcome; when every member of a collective is in the right state, there is no snow mountain that cannot be crossed, no wasteland that cannot be traversed.

Not long ago, I saw Xue Peng leading a headquarters element through a combat readiness rapid-deployment exercise, busy and covered in sweat and dust. He said cheerfully: "Commissar, we've developed a 'high-altitude rapid ration resupply method' — it's nearly a quarter of an hour faster than before." I patted him on the shoulder and said: well done, well done. On the way back to the unit, I kept thinking: as commissar, my greatest wish is to see every cadre be like the poplar (胡杨) on the plateau — no matter how fierce the wind and sand, drive the roots deep; no matter how cold the wind and snow, stand straight. Because our state of being is connected to the unit's combat effectiveness; our spirit and vitality is the hardest backbone on the plateau.