Source: People's Liberation Army Daily, China Military Trumpet
The officers and men of the brigade rushed to the battle position with high morale (file photo). Photo by Yin Jiaquan
In the middle of the night, the mountain had already slept. At this time, under the rock formation, a place called the "Underground Dragon Palace" was open with a pair of vigilant eyes.
Suddenly, the battle alarm sounded, and one after another launchers quickly dispatched and disappeared into the vast night.
Occupy positions, missiles erected. 10、9、8、7...... The analog launch entered the countdown, and the only thing left was the press of the red button from that earth-shattering roar.
A touch is imminent, and a silence is like thunder. Witnessing this scene through the large screen of the operational command, the reporter's heart was hot: There is a kind of training and preparation for war, which is called "ready to fly."
This is an ordinary night for a brigade on duty detachment of the Rocket Army. Combat readiness duty, like a strong bowstring, will instantly fill the whole brigade, affecting everything to suddenly speed up.
The daily routine has changed, the rhythm of work and training has changed, and the way the troops operate has changed...... In this camp under the cover of the dense forests of the mountains, the soldiers are old and new, regardless of the size of the posts.
The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized the need to "build a strong strategic deterrent force system". The officers and men of this brigade are well aware that existence is a deterrent as an important weapon of the country, and actual combat is a more effective and reliable deterrent. Only by always ensuring that "we can fight at any time" can we truly "stop fighting with force."
The mission waits for no one, and the situation waits for no one. The drums of war on the new journey require the missile force to step up quickly, stretch the bow and go all out.
(a)
To observe the combat readiness of a unit, the combat duty room is the best window.
In front of me, the various elements on duty are full, the huge electronic display screen is constantly switching various screens, and the sound of on-site instructions, reports, and keyboard tapping comes and goes. In the midst of it, a strong atmosphere of war came to my face.
"It's not just a process, every step of our way is a hostile move. The political commissar of the brigade, who accompanied the interview, told reporters.
"Enemy situation?" Following the direction of his finger, the reporter found that there was "no cave" here. With the slide of the mouse, the sea and air conditions information can be obtained in real time, and the traffic, geographical dynamics and other information can be seen at a glance, giving people the feeling of "the end of the world is close at hand".
"The earth is so small, and the battlefield is so close. The reporter's heartfelt sigh opened the conversation box of the political commissar of the brigade.
"You must have heard of 'Dongfeng Express, the mission will be accomplished'? This requires the rocket officers and men to not only know the 'grass and trees' around the station, but also pay attention to the 'wind and grass' thousands of miles away. The political commissar of the brigade said: Don't look at the officers and men who are calm as water on the surface, but in fact, their minds are already full of tension.
A road in and out of the camp, stretching for tens of kilometers. The brigade sent people to reconnoiter along the road every day, rain or shine, and thunder could not move. Where congestion occurs and when traffic is at peak hour, all factors that may affect the emergency dispatch of troops are grasped in real time, repeatedly studied and judged, and countermeasures are formulated.
A short stop on the way to pull will also touch the tense nerves of the officers and men of the brigade. "What should I do if there is a special situation at this juncture?" and "What if the war starts at this time...... The political commissar of the brigade did not mind the reporter's description of their mental state as "like they were on the edge of an abyss and walking on thin ice", and in his opinion, a unit that was always ready for war should be like this.
After graduating from university, Chief Yang of the Health Section was assigned to the brigade and served as a military doctor and the leader of the health team. For the first time this year, he felt that his post was so close to the war.
"In the past, whether it was training or acting Xi, the health department was more of a supporting role. Now, we have moved from the periphery to the center, to be programmed into the elements of duty, and to go to the battlefield every day. ”
Going to the battlefield every day makes Section Chief Yang particularly sensitive to the three words "shelf life". Every time he went to the position to inspect the medicine, he had to go to check the inventory of medicines and register them. "In the past, the main thing to check the drugs was to see if the quantity was enough, the variety was not complete, and which drugs were supplemented if they were less, but now they also have to look at the production date of the drugs to ensure that each drug is within the shelf life and is always in a 'fighting' state. ”
Niu Dongbin, a third-class sergeant major of a battalion, has been in the army for 18 years, and most of the time is spent on duty. Today, he notices the difference: it's common to be busy until 1 or 2 a.m., and his workload has increased dramatically compared to previous years. There is one detail that touches him deeply: the various equipment and tools used to test missiles are no longer stored in the cabinet every time they are used up, but are directly pre-placed at the workstation, which is convenient for taking and using at any time. "These equipment tools are the 'guns' of our test trumpeters. To prepare for war, you have to load your bullets at any time. ”
"There is always a task in the head, and there is always an enemy in the eye. Niu Dongbin said that he has been a soldier for so long, and he has a deep understanding of this sentence this year.
(b)
I didn't sleep all night in practice. After a short rest, one missile launcher after another drove into the operation shed in the morning light. The dull roar of the engine pierced the silence of the camp, and another "camp confrontation and frame sorting" began.
This time, it was the two launch battalions that "collided head-on". I saw that the two sides came and went, mercilessly, causing problems and setting up dangers for each other, and the scene was full of "gunpowder smell".
The reporter has interviewed many confrontation Xi, and it is rare to see this form of face-to-face fighting. What is particularly admirable is that despite the fact that the two battalions are in the same small space, the content of the competition is all-encompassing, and the study and judgment of the battlefield situation, the marshalling of personnel and equipment, the concealment and camouflage of maneuvers, and the handling of special situations and dangers have all appeared on the "test papers" of both sides.
"To prepare for war, we must find ways to exhaust all possibilities of the future battlefield. A training staff officer of the brigade said that once the long sword of a great country is unsheathed, it must be victorious, and the only choice for training in peacetime is to march to actual combat and run toward victory.
If there is no real opponent with "real swords and real guns," they will create their own opponents; if they cannot personally experience an "earth-shattering" battlefield, they will simulate the battlefield. Their eyes on victory are far more than completing the current combat duty task, and before that day really comes, the thunder of "use me to win" has exploded in their hearts countless times.
After dozens of rounds, the confrontation comes to an end, and it no longer matters who wins and who loses. According to the established arrangement, the two sides conducted another practical exercise.
The scene in front of me is blood-pumping: under the launch frame, everyone is interlocking, everyone is connected, and the trumpeters of the two battalions are not far behind, and every second counts.
In order to achieve "training in the form of combat and fighting in the way of training," the brigade has transformed missile operations into "assembly line operations" and forged launch trumpeters into "standardized plug-ins" through unified standards. In this way, not only can they be randomly modularized for daily training, but even if there is combat attrition in future battles, they can quickly reorganize into a complete launch unit and strike again.
This is a leap forward in the brigade's combat strength building. Behind it, it is not only the acceleration of time, but also the acceleration of the state, "raising soldiers for a thousand days and using soldiers for a thousand days" has replaced "raising soldiers for a thousand days and using soldiers for a while".
As he spoke, the on-site commander pinched the stopwatch and revealed an important message: "The launch frame that completed the task first has been shortened." ”
The word "again" aroused the reporter's interest in getting to the bottom of it. According to the brigade commander, over the past few years, the officers and men of the brigade have continued to carry out "time-shortened training" to improve their rapid reaction capability minute by minute, and to set new records for the fastest time again and again.
I don't know how hard it is. The more in-depth the reporter looks, the more he discovers that this "again" is not easy to come by. "You must know that there is a strictly standardized process for missile launches, which cannot be changed at will, and zero mistakes and errors must be ensured. The commander changed his words, "But if you want to be fast, you have to find a breakthrough outside the launch process." ”
In all aspects of material preparation, emergency assembly, troop dispatch, and cross-regional transfer, they have demonstrated and tested one by one, merging those that can be merged, discarding those that should be discarded, and never connecting those that can be paralleled......
In fact, in the eyes of others, this brigade could have chosen a more secure way: how to do what was Xi used to do it, how to ensure safety. After all, as long as the tasks are completed in a stable manner, it is also a kind of "success".
However, the party committee of the brigade has its own view of political achievements. "The core force of the mainland's strategic deterrence, the strategic support of the mainland's status as a great power, and the important cornerstone of safeguarding national security, look at these words, which one allows you to slacken, wait and see, and wait?" said the brigade commander, who said that what they wanted to do was to "improve their strategic capabilities in a down-to-earth manner" in accordance with President Xi's instructions.
(c)
Since the beginning of this year, He Dehu, the leader of a certain department, has been in the main camp area, and he can count the number of days he has spent in the main camp area with his fingers. During this time, he has been leading the technical support force to rush day and night in the deep mountain positions and under the launch frame.
"Position construction, combat duty and other tasks are intertwined and superimposed, and the important work that needs to be completed in the brigade is pressed forward, and time waits for no one!" finally ran into He Dehu, and as soon as he opened his words, the reporter felt urgency from his tone.
On the way to the goal, there is no shortcut, only to speed up and run. He Dehu said that the brigade party committee is responsible for the implementation of the division of labor, decomposes important work into individuals and posts, clarifies the time point, speeds up the progress bar, and leads the officers and men of the brigade to launch a "battle for time."
Charge at the beginning, sprint at the start. This is a fierce battle of physical fitness, but also a competition of willpower.
Through the heavily guarded road sentry, the reporter came to a position. At this moment, just one door away, the officers and men of a certain detachment have entered "wartime" -- under completely closed conditions, the oxygen content of the air has dropped considerably, the daily ration standard has been reduced to half of that of normal times, and sometimes the lights are as bright as day and do not go out for many days, and sometimes they are as dark as paint, and they cannot see their fingers, and there is no pattern to follow.
"It's anti-fatigue, anti-hunger, anti-hypoxia and jet lag training. According to the instructor of a certain battalion, officers and soldiers have been locked up inside for dozens of days, cutting off all contact with the outside world, as if they had disappeared.
"In the past, the intensity of 'three antibodies and one down' training was not so great. Now it's different, there are a lot of subjects that should be trained, the operation that should be practiced is not down at one time, and there is a lot of suffering that should be suffered. Under the extreme test of body and mind, there is constantly switching between two states, one is 'ready to fly' and the other is 'ready to go'. ”
Isn't this what "fighting a war" and "preparing for a war" are? The proper state of an army is fully embodied in them.
Returning to the main camp, the reporter saw a different scene.
Carrying logs, rolling tires, wading through ditches, rushing steep slopes, and crossing obstacles...... The shouts and cheers shook the sky. If you don't look closely, the reporter thinks that these fighters who are leaping and scrambling to be the first are from the special forces.
"People have the Three Jewels and Spirits. A leader of the brigade introduced the original intention of organizing this kind of training: On the future battlefield, the rocket force units will fight non-contact and over-the-horizon, but the more this is the case, the more they must train the bloody courage to dare to engage the enemy in close combat and see red bayonets.
"Only those who can fight can stop the war, and only when they are ready to fight may not have to fight, and the more they cannot fight, the more likely they are to be beaten. The leader said: Carrying out education on the fundamental functions of our army and carrying out such combat duty tasks can make the officers and men more impressive.
Indeed, the bloody courage of the missile units is not like a thunderbolt, but it is like a fire boiling on the ground. "If you want peace, then prepare for war!" said Sergeant Zan Youqi, who quoted a famous quote that shocked the reporter when he heard it.
As one of the first soldiers in the brigade to greet the dawn, the first thing Zan Youqi did every day was to check the communication lines to ensure that they were open at all times. "Now, the whole brigade is holding back its strength, all of them are like arrows on the string. ”
(iv)
No matter how long it has been, Dou Weixiang, a college student soldier, will clearly remember the scene when he walked into the depths of the "underground Dragon Palace" and had his first intimate contact with missiles.
"Under the light, the projectile body exudes a cold jade-like luster. Dou Weixiang used poetic language to describe the "first meeting" to reporters.
Don't look at how easy he said now, he was both excited and nervous at the time, and the sense of sacredness and oppression that came with the country's heavy weapon instantly opened the pores of his whole body.
At that time, he had less than 60 days of on-the-job training. "Today's recruits are growing up so fast, and getting started is a real thing. The veterans cast envious glances. Before that, only experienced technical backbones had this qualification.
Speaking of "qualifications", Liu Qianwen, the squad leader of a certain company, suddenly felt that his heart was not so "stable".
As a well-known trumpeter in the whole brigade, in the past, whenever he participated in the competition, others could only compete for the second place. However, since the brigade implemented the training of "one specialization and multiple abilities, one person with multiple posts", Liu Qianwen has encountered a strong opponent - the just-concluded professional assessment, and another squad leader, Wang Jiaguang, won the championship.
"You're running, you're speeding up, and you can fall behind if you take a nap. Liu Qianwen, who learned from the pain, summed up the lessons and put forward a new goal: to bring out the full-post operation unit and realize the random exchange of trumpeters under extreme conditions.
Unexpectedly, Wang Jiaguang took the initiative to respond to the battle and fought with him: "I won the first place in this assessment, and the next time I will bring out the first class in the competition, I will work harder and harder than others now." ”
At the end of the night training, many officers and men went into the Xi room after washing.
Logging in to the military vocational education platform of the strong army network, Guo Guanghao, the squad leader of a company, began to "punch in" to learn Xi professional courses. With his consent, the reporter flipped through the courses he had completed and found that there were not only mechanical, electrical, electronic and other related majors, but also "Sea Power and Sea Control" and "Big Data Analysis", etc., which were very extensive.
At this time, Changsheng, a college student soldier sitting next to him, told reporters a detail: In the early hours of one morning, when he was packing up his Xi materials and preparing to go back to the dormitory to rest, he found Guo Guanghao and several veterans standing in the corridor reading books. "The backbone of the squad leader is working hard to improve Xi, and our new comrades must work harder, don't you say?"
Reporters can feel this eagerness every day when they are covering in the brigade. It is the sense of panic of "not learning for a day and not being able to keep up", the sense of urgency of "waking up and being afraid of falling behind", and the sense of responsibility of "not being able to sleep until everything is finished".
When he saw Zhao Junfeng, the first-class sergeant major of a certain battalion, he was carrying two large bags in his hands, which contained thick copies and various certificates.
After 30 years in the army and 19 years as a squad leader, Zhao Junfeng has applied for 19 national invention patents, and 9 have been approved. Who would have believed that this soldier who had made such fruitful achievements in scientific research would have only a junior high school education; who would have thought that in order to be proficient in missile launching, Zhao Junfeng would study advanced mathematics and university physics on his own for 10 years.
After joining the ranks of combat readiness duty, the days of bowing and stretching made Zhao Junfeng, who was nearly fifty years old, feel particularly fulfilling. "In the past six months, I have thought a lot and had a lot of new ideas. As he spoke, Zhao Junfeng handed over a notebook.
Unfold the reading, which is circled with a red, blue and black pen, which is something that only professionals can understand. The reporter was about to close the notebook, only to see a sentence written on the title page: "Modern warfare has repeatedly proven that speed can shatter scale." ”
At that moment, the reporter suddenly understood: Why Zhao Junfeng has been fighting ceaselessly for so many years, and why the officers and men of this brigade have always been ready to fly.
At this time, the military horn sounded, and the battle song of the Rocket Army was played on the radio-
"Although we can't see it, the world is watching us. Lying quietly is the sword of the sky, and unsheathing is a killer weapon. We support the status of a great power, and we have a sense of security. The motherland does not need us easily, and using us is a heavy punch. With us in the heavens and on the earth, we will pass on the triumphant song ......"
(Produced by the People's Liberation Army Daily, China Military Horn)