Source: People's Navy
In the long river of time, the gaze of two warships across time and space is recorded-
In Nanchang, Jiangxi, the decommissioned Nanchang ship is stationed on the water surface on the west bank of the Ganjiang River. Now, the sound of cannons and gunpowder smoke have gone away with the wind, and the river water that quietly laps the hull of the ship sings in a low voice, praising her past glory.
Thousands of miles away in the open sea, as the lead ship of the Type 055 guided missile destroyer independently developed by the mainland, the Nanchang ship in service set sail, sailed the waves of the sea, sailed the Bering Sea, patrolled the Pacific Ocean, and pursued the dream of the People's Navy on a new voyage into the deep blue.
This hope is passed on to glory. Since the establishment of the new generation of Navy's Nanchang ship, it has resolutely implemented Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the army, continued the heroic torch, and created many firsts in the history of the People's Navy. In 2023, the Nanchang ship was commended by the Central Military Commission as a "model unit for the whole army to practice the goal of strengthening the army". On January 7, 2024, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China awarded the Nanchang Ship Party Committee the title of "Model of the Times".
Inheritance: Bloodline continues
"Earnestly strengthen party building, strengthen ideals and beliefs, carry forward the glorious traditions, and strive to forge a maritime force that obeys the party's command and is politically competent. "President Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment when he attended the military parade in the South China Sea pointed out the way forward for the People's Navy.
Turning over the "family tree" of the People's Navy warship, "Nanchang" is a name full of loyalty and glory. Nanchang is a city of heroes, and it is the place where the people's army fired its first shot. Named after the City of Heroes, it highlights the glory and mission of a warship. The first-generation Nanchang joined the People's Navy in 1949 and was inspected by Chairman Mao Zedong and received an inscription. The second-generation Nanchang is a Type 051 missile destroyer independently designed and built by the mainland, which joined the combat sequence of the People's Navy in 1982 and served as a formation command ship to carry out combat readiness patrols less than two years after joining the ranks, and successfully completed more than 80 major tasks such as exercises and drills and Olympic security. The third-generation Nanchang ship was established in June 2017 and entered the list in January 2020, honorably accepted the review of President Xi Jinping, and participated in more than 10 major tasks such as the combat readiness training of the aircraft carrier formation.
101, the name of the mainland's first destroyer, is used today on the new generation of Nanchang ships. In December 2014, the mainland began construction of the Type 055 destroyer, the largest tonnage and the most technologically advanced of its kind in the history of the People's Navy. With the name of "Nanchang" and the number of "101", it embodies the ambition, backbone and confidence of the People's Navy to brave the wind and waves and advance into the open sea. A small poem "Me and My Battleship" by the crew Shang Zaili confided the hearts of the officers and men of the Nanchang ship: "As the flagship and the first ship, the 101 ship carries honor and glory, and the motherland names me first, and I use the first to repay the motherland." ”
"Hero City, Hero Ship, Hero Soldier, First Gun, First Ship, First Man", 18 gilded characters are inlaid in the main passage of the Nanchang ship, which is particularly eye-catching. The Nanchang ship carries the name of the hero, and it must carry the history and responsibility of the hero.
To inherit the red gene and continue the red blood, the most fundamental thing is to inherit the soul of resolutely obeying the party's command. "The task of building a strong people's navy has never been more urgent than it is today". The Party Committee of Nanchang Ship deeply understands Chairman Xi's great trust in the People's Navy, carries out in-depth education on the theme of studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and carries out educational and practical activities of "learning the idea of strengthening the army and making contributions to strengthen the military cause", guiding the officers and soldiers to understand the science contained in the idea of strengthening the army, and open up the road of connecting theory with practice, deeply understand the decisive significance of the "two establishments", and resolutely obey the command of President Xi, be responsible for President Xi, and reassure President Xi.
The picture shows the Nanchang ship going to sea for training. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Navy
"Study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the army, and run through the whole process of character cultivation, cultural cultivation, and value shaping of the army. Qi Weiguang, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Nanchang Ship, said. From being listed to being read and completing the full training, every step of the officers and men of the Nanchang ship has been firmly advanced under the guidance of ideology and the light of the spirit. Hu Jiahao, a member of the ship, grew up under the inspiration of the goal of inheriting the spirit and striving to be the first. At the beginning of boarding, heavy tasks, unfamiliar majors, and strict management made Hu Jiahao feel a gap in his heart, and he once felt less confident in whether he could become a qualified shipmember. With an in-depth understanding of the history of the Nanchang ship, especially every time he walked through the main passage, the 18 big characters would remind him of his original intention of joining the army. Hu Jiahao's concept has been constantly changing, and he is deeply aware of the great responsibility and glorious mission he shoulders as a member of the hero ship. "I am from Nanchang and from Hero City. The longer you are with the Nanchang ship, the deeper your spiritual experience of the hero ship. Hu Jiahao said. He secretly made up his mind, "On the battlefield, I am willing to be the last shell fired by the Nanchang ship at the enemy!" This conviction was strengthened, and no matter how great the difficulties were, I was determined to overcome them. Hu Jiahao picked up the night lamp to gnaw on books, touched equipment to practice operation, carefully maintained ammunition, and regularly checked the temperature and humidity of the warehouse to ensure that the equipment was always in the best condition. On a certain time he went abroad to participate in a joint exercise, Hu Jiahao undertook the task of firing the main gun for the first time, making a "good start" to participate in the exercise abroad, and also completing the "coming-of-age ceremony" as a new crew member.
In the past, the Nanchang ship made history, and today, the Nanchang ship continues to write brilliantly. In the honor room of the Nanchang ship, the battles participated in by the three generations of the Nanchang ship, the honors it has won, and the heroic deeds are displayed, which is like a lighthouse standing on the sea, inspiring the officers and men to follow closely and strive for it.
"When Li Dingshan, a soldier of the original detachment, was on patrol duty with the ship, the ship suddenly had a dynamo flying danger, and he did not care for himself, and immediately blocked the turbocharged air intake with his chest, suffocated the engine, and protected the equipment. Du Xiaohui was infected by the deeds of his comrade-in-arms Li Dingshan and took him as his role model. In 2021, Du Xiaohui went to a certain sea area with the ship to carry out actual combat training tasks. On the way, he suddenly noticed a layer of oil mist on the glass wall of the gas turbine's chassis, and immediately conducted an in-depth inspection, finally finding cracks in the pipe connections among hundreds of parts. Gas turbine is one of the core equipment of the ship's power system, known as the "heart of the battleship". When the gas turbine is working at a high temperature, once the oil and gas leakage, it is very prone to deflagration. Regardless of the high temperature of the pipe wall, Du Xiaohui grabbed the leakage point and blocked the oil and gas that was being sprayed, so as to win valuable time for subsequent repairs. At the critical moment, the red tradition was inherited and carried forward by the officers and men of the Nanchang ship.
The heroic battleship of the new era, calling for the heroic sailors of the new era. A group of young officers and men with an average age of more than 20 years old bravely shouldered the mission of the times and protected the motherland and the people behind them on the Nanchang ship. Xu Wenqian, who drove a battleship across the ocean, grew up to be one of the first female helmsmen of the Nanchang at the age of 22; Bian Xianliang, a soldier of the "post-00s" generation, hit the first test firing of live ammunition at sea and won a full house; and a young commando unit fighting in the air created a new record in a certain live-fire exercise...... The spiritual inheritance of the hero city, the historical relay of the hero ship, and the responsibility of the hero soldier are constantly written in the track of the Nanchang ship bravely entering the deep blue ocean.
Today, the new generation of Nanchang has crossed more than 40 latitudes in the north and south, sailed more than 100,000 nautical miles, opened up a series of proud tracks, and set up milestones in the deep blue journey of the Chinese Navy.
Innovation: Cutting the waves
During his inspection of the Navy, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to "strengthen the sense of innovation, improve the ability to innovate, stimulate the vitality of innovation, cultivate the potential of innovation, and inject strong impetus into the transformation and construction of the Navy". The navy's equipment is intensive in science and technology, and it must continue to make efforts in new fields, rely on new forces to support, and empower with new technologies.
From the 1,000-ton Type 07 destroyer "Four King Kongs" introduced at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the Type 055 "10,000-ton drive" Nanchang ship independently developed by the mainland, the destroyers of the mainland Navy have achieved a high degree of integration of combat systems, upgraded weapons systems, and doubled their tonnage.
The progress of equipment is inseparable from the drive of scientific and technological innovation. The power of advanced equipment is inseparable from innovation in application and training.
The new generation of Nanchang ships integrates cutting-edge military technologies such as large-caliber main guns, the latest secondary guns, and new vertical launch systems. The ship's cables alone are hundreds of kilometers long, and the bundles of cables each connect to different equipment and play a different role. The warship has a strong comprehensive combat capability, which means that the skilled operation of the warship requires a strong professional quality. At the beginning of its formation, when officers and men first encountered new equipment with a high scientific and technological content and a complex operating system, "their heads suddenly turned very slowly," and "some parts looked like they knew each other at a cursory appearance, but when they looked closely, they were different." For a time, everyone felt a deep "skill panic", in the past, the ship only needed to touch the line a few times to basically grasp the essentials of operation, and in the face of a large increase in the number of components, different specifications, and more high-end integration of the Nanchang ship, many old sailors also fell into the dilemma of "touching a few times and not scratching their heads".
It is better to let people wait for equipment than to let equipment wait for people. In this big test of mastering cutting-edge equipment, Chen Weigong, then secretary of the Party Committee of the Nanchang Ship, wrote down the answer idea on the drawings, which was the battleship's port number "101": "With one hand to hold the torch of heroic inheritance, and the other hand to anchor the direction of the first-class benchmark, we start from '0'!" When the ship and the person first met, they were very strangers to each other. The new weapons and equipment have not yet been integrated with any combat units, and there are no ready-made teaching materials, training outlines, and combat deployment tables for the contingent to conduct training and actual combat. In order to quickly achieve the integration of man and ship, all officers and men should explore from scratch and make bold innovations in equipment optimization and integrated training. The members of the ship's party committee led the officers and men to go down the cabins, follow the pipelines, learn their specialties, draw drawings, and explore hundreds of cabins of the ship, sort out the dense cables, draw thousands of system schematic diagrams, and study and put forward nearly 1,000 suggestions for equipment optimization. In 10 months, the officers and men completed hundreds of equipment tests on several systems, sorted out and formed more than 100 sets of achievements such as individual training manuals, compiled dozens of construction specifications such as operational guidance manuals, filled the gaps in the training program of Type 055 ships, established a model for the training of ships of the same type, and created an impressive record of "one year of trial loading and entering the ranks, one year of forming combat effectiveness, and one year of making contributions to the ocean."
A new generation of warships creates a new generation of naval talent. When the Nanchang ship fired missiles live for the first time after it entered the ranks and participated in the exercise with an actual combat background for the first time, the veterans of the ship's anti-air combat department had just been discharged from the army, and they were replaced by a group of new recruits. They are faced with the "number one problem" in the field of air space, and they need to complete a series of actions such as the operation of the launch process and the handling of emergency situations in a very short time, launch anti-aircraft missiles, and intercept mobile high-speed target aircraft from multiple directions. In the face of extremely challenging exercise tasks, the young crew members specialized in intensive research and repeated simulated drills around the principles of missile operations, the process of launching and controlling, the coordination of passwords, and the coordination of combat positions, and practiced until even sleeping and dreaming were "launching" commands. After training day and night, on the day of the exercise, they successfully intercepted several batches of targets, achieved anti-aircraft attack launches, and proved with outstanding results that they were worthy of being the crew of the Nanchang. Since its establishment, more than 50 of the new-generation Nanchang warships have been awarded third-class meritorious service, more than 20 officers have grown up to become ship chiefs or have gone to serve in government agencies and academies, and nearly 100 backbone personnel at or above the squad leader level have been sent to fraternal warships. The Nanchang has become a test field and seed ship for military talents.
Battleships are shaping sailors, and sailors are shaping battleships. The new-generation Nanchang ship is the lead ship of the mainland's Type 055 destroyer, which is the most expensive and difficult, and it is also the first. In the equipment installation, they have eliminated the signs of hidden dangers, improved the internal structure, and overcome technical difficulties; in the trial of armaments, they have found out the performance of the equipment, tried out the base number of equipment, and mastered the ability to take care of the house; in the maintenance of equipment, they have innovated the maintenance mode, the amount of actuarial consumables, and explored the evaluation methods; and in the preparation for the expedition, they have fought the stormy waves, deterred the nuisance of a strong enemy, tempered their combat qualities, and obtained the "access card" to the battlefield. During a certain exercise, an "enemy" plane made a low-altitude surprise attack. Soon, the unpredictable track was captured by the radar of the Nanchang ship, however, suddenly snowflakes flashed on the screen, and there was no trace of the "enemy" plane. In the face of a sudden special situation, the department chief immediately instructed the personnel to adopt an anti-jamming strategy, and the radar soldiers quickly tapped the keyboard to adjust the radar parameters and optimize the operation mode. A set of combination punches was thrown, and the "enemy" plane was locked on. As soon as the commander gave the order, the missile jumped into the air and successfully hit the target! A new tactic was verified on the Nanchang.
The picture shows that in October 2023, the officers and men of the Nanchang ship held a ceremony to welcome the national flag raised in Tiananmen Square on the day the Nanchang ship entered the ranks. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Navy
Seize opportunities in exploration and innovation again and again, and forge ahead bravely in transformation and leapfrogging. Since its establishment, the new-generation Nanchang has participated in the naval parade to celebrate the 70 th anniversary of the founding of the People's Navy, and has been the "vanguard" of surface ships to meet the commander-in-chief's review; in a certain sea area where China and foreign countries have conducted joint exercises, it has been full of firepower and galloping vertically and horizontally; it has passed through the Miyako Strait into the Pacific Ocean, left footprints in the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan, and successfully completed major tasks such as the Sino-Russian "Maritime Alliance-2021" and "Vostok-2022" exercises, and has been affectionately called the "Model Worker Ship" by the majority of netizens.
Victory: Draw strength to the sea
Rise to the sea, decline against the sea, cannot control the sea, must be controlled by the sea. This is an unforgettable lesson left by history. Over the past 75 years, the People's Navy has been strong and difficult to tackle tough problems. Navy commanders and fighters know that the sea breeze never stops and the tide is still raging. In 2023, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to "improve the ability to respond to complex situations in a timely and appropriate manner, and resolutely defend the mainland's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests" during his inspection of the navy in the Southern Theater. President Xi's important instructions have provided strong leadership and scientific guidance for the People's Navy to firmly and flexibly carry out military struggles at sea.
"The crew of the Nanchang has only two states: combat and ready to fight. The Party Committee of the Nanchang Ship has always regarded full-time readiness and being able to fight at any time as a hard standard, and in their own words, "the first mission is in progress, the second mission is being prepared, and the third mission is planned." The party committee of the warship used the warning of "questions about winning battles, questioning about values, and torture of skills" to motivate officers and men, launched a big discussion on "how much thinking about war, what is bad about daring to fight, how much can be fought, and whether it is good to win wars"; established a military assessment database and a "hero list" for the ship's passages, squeezed out water with one person and one account, eliminated false merit with one move and one style, and worked in a strict style with every policy, and kept a close eye on combat missions, enemy situations, and future naval battles, and comprehensively strengthened training and preparation for war.
Sailing is to go on battle, training is to fight. In the course of exploration, they focused on the major and difficult problems that were deeply integrated into the combat system of the aircraft carrier formation, pooled their wisdom and tackled key problems, and deeply explored the mode of integrating the small system of typical combat formations into the combat mode of the large system; in one mission after another, they took the lead in carrying out the study and training of such subjects as joint firepower strikes of formations, joint anti-submarine warfare of ships and aircraft, and "manned + unmanned" coordinated confrontation...... All the officers and men of the Nanchang bravely shouldered the heavy burden of preparing for war, actively integrated into the maritime combat system, and improved the coordinated combat capabilities of command coordination, joint confrontation, and system attack and defense, and became a well-deserved "escort with a knife" for the aircraft carrier formation.
In the desk drawer of crew member Jia Xiaojun, there are more than 10 transparent plastic bottles filled with seawater. Since the Nanchang was put into the ranks, every time it carried out a major task or sailed through an important sea area, the ship's party committee organized an activity of "taking water from the ocean" and distributed it to every crew member after the mission was completed. Bottles of seawater, marking the time and sea area of water intake in detail, recording the deep blue track of the Nanchang ship "going south and north", and also cherishing the deep memory of each crew member fighting the wind and waves.
During a certain actual combat deployment and training in the open sea, the Nanchang went out as a "sentry ship" in a formation to face the foreign aircraft carrier formation. At 6 o'clock in the morning, suddenly, the two foreign ships turned at a large angle and rushed straight towards the formation. In the face of the sudden situation, the ship's party committee met urgently in the wheelhouse, immediately made a decision, and ordered the duty officer to shout to the foreign ship: "I am the 101st ship of the Chinese Navy, please keep a safe distance from me, and inform you of your intentions." "Shouted several times, but the foreign ship did not respond. "Two into eight. Soon, the battleship accelerated from 12 knots to more than 20 knots, constantly narrowing the distance between it and the outer ships. "We can even see the movement of people on the deck of the opposing ship. The deputy political commissar of the ship at the time recalled, "From time to time, the opponent urgently changed speed and direction, and made a series of actions to probe, but we resolutely blocked back." "The decisive advance of the Nanchang ship broke the intention of the foreign ships to cross the formation through the bow of the Nanchang ship in one fell swoop, forcing the two foreign ships to turn.
The level of modernization of a warship is measured not by the loading of missiles, but by the amount of contribution to the combat system. The party committee of the Nanchang warship believes that modern warfare is not based on the strength of a single ship, but on the comprehensive competition of systems. On a certain voyage through an important strait, the officers and men of the Nanchang warship strengthened their vigilance to deal with underwater threats that might arise at any time due to its special geographical location. At about 7 o'clock in the evening, the officers and soldiers found anomalies in the numerous echo points of sonar. They determined the direction of the noise in a timely manner, quickly analyzed and judged, discovered a suspected foreign submarine and immediately reported it to the formation command post, providing key intelligence for the command post to make timely judgments and responses, and preventing and defusing major risks for the safe movement of the entire formation.
The Nanchang has always been fighting on the front line of the ocean, and has repeatedly clashed with foreign warships and aircraft at sea. In the face of the arrival of foreign warships and planes to penetrate the sea, practice deterrence, and provoke and nuisance, the Nanchang warship dared to struggle, was good at fighting, played a game with the opponent on the front line, and confronted the system, and successfully resolved the special situations and dangers such as the ultra-low-altitude flight of foreign military aircraft, the close-range release of unmanned aerial vehicles by gunboats, and the close reconnaissance of submarines, demonstrating the determination and confidence of fighting when called, being able to fight, and winning the war.
"Comrade-in-arms, maybe tomorrow the triumphant team will be missing me, but I will die without regrets. On the manuscript of the captain Wang Kunqi, such touching words were written. The training and testing close to actual combat, the arduous and strict environment, and the tempering of urgent, difficult, and dangerous tasks have sharpened the fighting spirit of the officers and men of the Nanchang. One day in 2022, the Nanchang ship was concentrating on preparing for an important training mission to come. On the eve of the mission, Ni Yuzhuo, a member of the ship, was diagnosed with a malignant thyroid tumor. "Training is real fighting, and I can't be absent. In order to ensure the completion of the training task, Ni Yuzhuo applied to return to the team shortly after the operation, and quickly devoted himself to tackling key problems in tactics. During the exercise, he calmly responded and commanded calmly, which boosted the morale and fighting spirit of the whole ship. In the two subjects of actual use of weapons, the Nanchang was the first to go into battle as the command ship of the formation, and both successfully destroyed the target. Devoting themselves to every exercise and training with the spirit of charging into battle and devoting themselves to every mission with the determination to see death as if they were at home, the officers and men of the Nanchang fulfilled the solemn oath of "going to the mission with their lives and protecting the party flag with the military flag" in the face of a formidable opponent and a grim situation.
Forging ahead into the deep blue ocean and defending the people of the motherland is a relay expedition for the People's Navy to reach one goal and move toward the next. Over the past 75 years, different eras and different warships have witnessed the growth and glory of the People's Navy, and the farther journey and greater goals have continued the glory and dream of the People's Navy. On the surging ocean, the Nanchang ship, which carries the red spirit, is riding the wind and waves with innovation, moving forward with victory and waves, and marching bravely towards the goal of realizing the centenary of the founding of the army!