Adhere to and use the best thinking to live the soul.
**。Military thinking is full of "strategic thinking, strategic practice, strategic wisdom, and strategic thinking." It is not an exaggeration to describe it as broad and profound, unprecedented and unprecedented. In his lifetime, the Western soldier St. Napoleon commanded more than 60 battles and battles, two of which were defeated, and even taken prisoner, and finally completely failed. According to incomplete statistics, he commanded more than 400 battles and battles in his life, which can be said to be a victory in a hundred battles in the true sense. It is invincible, invincible, and always victorious. Napoleon is incomparable with ***. British Field Marshal Montgomery, a famous general of World War II, once said: ** The use of soldiers is really like God, the enemy is really like God, and the resourcefulness is really like God.
In February 1953, he inspected the Luoyang ship of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy.
Since mankind entered a new era, in the face of profound and complex changes in the international strategic pattern, can the military thinking produced several decades ago continue to be the guiding ideology of our army?In the face of the widespread application of disruptive technologies in emerging fields such as space, cyber, deep sea, polar regions, artificial intelligence, quantum science, biological science, autonomous systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles in the military field since the 21st century, is there any guiding significance?Our answer is unequivocal. In today's world, many heads of state, senior generals, diplomats, and scientists are studying first-class writings, especially first-class military thought. Its powerful and far-reaching guiding significance is far from being comparable with the ancient "Art of War" in China, including some Western military books. Its distinctive character of the times, its scientific nature, its advanced nature, and its practical nature will always have far-reaching guiding significance.
As we all know, no matter how high IQ and how talented a theorist is, he relies on the summarization of practical experience to put forward new theories. A kind of military theory that is rich in content and scientific is often produced in a period when military struggles are surging and practice is abundant. "The Art of War" was produced in the Spring and Autumn Period, when there were the most wars in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago. Clausewitz's "On War" also arose during the Napoleonic Wars, the longest war in modern European history. ** Military thought was born in the first half of the 20th century, and the theme of the era in the first half of the 20th century was revolution and war. On our earth, the First and Second World Wars broke out, and there were a series of people's revolutionary wars in the October Revolution, the Chinese Revolution and many other countries. It was in this "international climate" that military thinking arose in the practice of China's revolutionary war.
** The revolutionary war waged by leading the people's army is extremely grand in terms of the scale of the war;In terms of war experience, it is extremely rich. For example, the 25,000-mile long march is unique in the history of human civilizationThe War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Three Major Battles, the Battle of Crossing the River, and the Korean War are also the most spectacular in Chinese and foreign military history. With such the practice of warfare, there is a solid foundation for the emergence of military theories.
Judging from the horizontal comparison of the domestic war histories of various countries in the world, the scale of China's revolutionary war can be said to be second to none. The time lasted for more than 20 years, and it is also rare in the world. In particular, in the War of Liberation and the Korean War, millions of troops and millions of migrant workers could be mobilized at one time, and hundreds of thousands of enemies could be annihilated in a single campaign. Of course, the command structure at that time was very simple and capable, and the three major battles were commanded by Vice Chairman Zhou and President Zhu in Xibaipo. At that time, there were only about 20 people in the General Staff, and there was only one conference room and war room. The Central Military Commission does not have the General Logistics Department and other organs at all, because each theater solves its own food, clothing, and ammunition. ** once concluded: Our command is the most peculiar command in the world, neither issuing ** ammunition nor food supplies to the troops below, only sending telegrams.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, under the leadership of the People's Republic of China, in the Korean War, we fought the 16 Western countries led by the United States (including Britain, France, Germany, etc.), Kissinger once said: "Sending troops to Korea is the most difficult decision in China's life, but it is also a powerful statement of China's national determination and will." I'm afraid that only China's *** has such a strong will. This battle established China's status as a military power in the world, and since then, there has been no country that has not been in awe. "In the Vietnam War, it had a semi-direct confrontation with the United States, and in addition to confrontations with India and other countries on the border. To sum up, under the leadership of ***, our army has fought with the armies of almost all major countries in the world, except for the fact that it has never fought with the German ** team, and the results of the war have been admired by the opponent.
As you know, in the First Sino-Japanese Naval War, when the Qing army purchased the best of the West, the overall strength was comparable to the Japanese Combined Fleet, and even superior to Japan. However, the operational guiding ideology and operational command lagged behind, and in the end, the Beiyang Fleet was completely annihilated. The ruling class of modern China sought new military ideas. However, from the people in power at the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Beiyang warlords to the Kuomintang regime, they all followed a path of translating and plagiarizing foreign affairs doctrines in terms of military thought, and there was no creation suitable for their own national character at all. From Yuan Shikai's small station training to Chiang Kai-shek's military academy, they all copied the military teachings and teaching materials of Germany and Japan. Since 1909, when Jiang Zuobin translated Japan's "Infantry Drill Code" at the end of the Qing Dynasty, this "Infantry Drill Code" ruled the Chinese ** world for 30 years at that time, and the training and operations of the Beiyang warlords and the Kuomintang army were basically based on this booklet. Chiang Kai-shek inspected the army everywhere, always carrying Japan's "Infantry Drill Code". After learning the classic Japanese tactical textbooks, the Kuomintang army fought wars with Japan but always lost the war. Fu Zuoyi, a famous general during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, once recalled: When his troops began to fight the Japanese army, every tactical move was expected by the Japanese commander, so the enemy coped with it easily. Why?Because the tactics and movements of the Kuomintang army are all learned from Japan's "Infantry Drill Code", your ** is not as good as people, the quality of the army is not as good as people, and the strategy and tactics are copied behind others, such a disciple can only always lose to the master. The guerrilla warfare adopted by the Eighth Route Army was something that the Japanese soldiers could not find in any of the textbooks of the Noncommissioned Officer School or the Army University, so they could only be anxious and exhausted in the face of the Eighth Route Army.
The practice of war has proved that foreign dogmas that are divorced from China's reality are useless in China, no matter how technologically advanced they may be. A few years ago, due to the influence of some Western countries, some people only indulged in foreign military theories, and only cited foreign war examples in their speeches, just like those dogmatists who "must be called Greece" criticized during the rectification in Yan'an, "words must be called West Point", but we know very little about China's reality, our own military theory, and our own family heirlooms. If this kind of development continues, we will only be able to crawl behind foreign countries in military thinking, and we will not be able to catch up with the strong points of others, and our traditional superiority will be lost again, and we will fall into a very dangerous situation. No matter how we talk about modernization, we must never lose our traditional magic weapon that suits our own national and military conditions.
The advanced nature of military thinking is also reflected in the fact that it is a great creation of the revolutionary class in an era of great social changes. History has shown that the emerging class is vibrant and capable of creating entirely new ideas. When ancient Chinese feudal society was founded, there were outstanding military strategists like Sun Tzu and their theoretical ideas. In Europe, it was also after the emergence of the emerging bourgeoisie that military theorists such as Clausewitz and Jomini emerged. In China, it was when the Communist Party of China seized power as the vanguard of the proletariat that the military ideology was born. **Military thought is the culmination of excellent military thinking from ancient and modern China and foreign countries. In the Chinese Revolutionary War, it took more than 20 years to win the national victory from the 100-strong contingent leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising to Jinggangshan, and it was a great achievement that combined commanders and military theorists.
The achievements of military theory are not only unprecedented in Chinese history, but also admired by any people of insight in the world. Taking the Korean War as an example, many military commentators believe that from the perspective of the world's grand strategy, this war was actually a battle of wits and courage between Stalin, Truman of the United States, and the triumvirate. Among the three, Stalin and Truman made serious mistakes. Stalin did not anticipate that the United States would intervene before the outbreak of the Korean War, and it was a big mistake in the overall international strategy that the North Korean People's Army did not dare to intervene with strength after the defeat of the North Korean People's Army in penetrating deep into South Korea and being cut off from the back. Truman mistakenly believed that China would not enter the war, and let the US army advance north of the 38th parallel, which also caused the biggest fiasco in American history. In contrast, the strategic thinking and military guidance of ** are the most brilliant.
It is precisely because the practice of China's domestic and foreign wars has proved the scientific and advanced nature of China's military thinking that his great thinking was praised by many people in the world when he was alive. For example, 13 people in the United States since Truman have been reading books. Another example is that in 1957, when he went to Moscow to attend the summit of the Communist Party and the Workers' Party of 61 countries, the Soviet Union at that time had an unprecedented high standard of reception. During the conference, all the speakers stood in front of the podium to speak, and only *** sat to speak. Every day the meeting of the leaders of all countries must arrive in advance, only *** is the last to be accompanied by Khrushchev to enter, the leaders of other countries have to give a standing ovation to welcome, Khrushchev has to let *** walk in front of him every time.
This kind of prestige is not built by artificial trees, but by its own achievements to show the whole world. This is because in a poor, backward, and fragmented country like China, which led the revolutionary war to such a great victory, and after the victory, dared to fight against the United States and other countries in Korea, and was able to win the war, the scientific and correct military theory and practice are universally recognized. Even our enemies cannot fail to admire.
Another characteristic of military thinking is that it not only has a glorious past, but at the same time it is an open and constantly innovating and developing scientific system, so as to ensure its scientific and advanced nature. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he himself innovated many of the principles he put forward for himself. For example, in the civil war, he has long opposed positional warfare of hard work and attrition, and said that "positional warfare is basically useless for us". However, after the end of the movement war of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, ** was in favor of engaging in a long-term positional war near the 38th parallel. The form of operations during the Positional War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was almost the same as the "fortress to fortress" and "short assault" during the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in the Jiangxi **Soviet Region, that is, it fought with the United States for a long time. However, the environment and conditions have changed, and the mistakes of that time have become correct at this time, ** In the Soviet area, the population of the base area was only 3 million, but there were hundreds of millions of people in the area ruled by the Kuomintang, and the Red Army could not afford to fight for manpower. However, when it came to the Korean battlefield, our population was much larger than that of the United States, and the United States could not stand the consumption of manpower, so it had to end the war through negotiation and compromise.
**Military thinking, in a nutshell, is: its distinctive national character cannot be replaced by other ideas;It has been verified by the practice of domestic and foreign wars that its advanced nature is so it must be persisted in foreverIt is an open scientific system with strong vitality, and we can continue to innovate, enrich and develop the ways and methods of its application on the premise of adhering to its basic theoretical principles.
The author of this article is Gao Dongguang, a well-known military strategy expert. Photo by Zhang Shuai.