China News Service, Sanya, Hainan, October 7th, Title: Visit to the Chinese Navy Ship Zunyi: Toward a New Long March to Deep Blue
Author Liu Mengqing
"I am a Zunyi person on the Zunyi ship. My hometown Zunyi is a heroic city, and the Zunyi ship also inherits the red spirit and strives to be a heroic warship on the sea." These words of Xu Yi, a sergeant on the Zunyi ship, express the spiritual resonance of the city ship with the same name.
As the seventh Type 055 "10,000-ton cruise ship" built by China, the Zunyi ship is named after the city at the turning point of the revolution, inheriting the spirit of the Long March and guarding thousands of miles of maritime territory.
Xu Yi grew up in Zunyi. Under the infiltration of red culture, the seeds of defending his family and country were planted in his heart early on. The day he boarded the Zunyi ship happened to be his birthday and also the day when the Zunyi ship was commissioned. "It was like fate," he said.
Faced with problems such as new equipment and insufficient capabilities of officers and soldiers, the officers and soldiers of the ship drew strength from the story of the Long March. The first test Xu Yi faced was the waves. It was the Red Army's courage to climb snow-capped mountains and cross grasslands that enabled him to overcome seasickness, stand firm in the fighting position, and stick to his duties.
"When the Red Army forcibly crossed the Wujiang River, the mortars did not have scopes. General Zhao Zhangcheng visually aimed and fired three rounds in a row, hitting the enemy's 'heart'." Veteran Wang Yanchang has always regarded the "magic gunner" General Zhao Zhangcheng as a role model. At the beginning of 2025, the Zunyi ship formation carried out actual combat exercises in the South Pacific waters. Wang Yanchang controlled the naval gun and sank the floating target in the first group.
Officer and soldier Zheng Yuchun once faced the approaching foreign military aircraft. After receiving the commander's instructions, she picked up the microphone and shouted in Chinese and English to drive away according to regulations. Zheng Yuchun told reporters that she was thinking of the Red Army buglers who blew the charge horn on the Loushanguan battlefield, and she used her voice to build a line of defense to protect the motherland's sea, air and national gates.
This group of people whose heart beats at the same frequency as the Zunyi ship is also the source of power for the Zunyi ship to sail across the sea. Since its entry into the fleet, the Zunyi ship has been at sea for an average of more than 200 days every year, with a total voyage of nearly 180,000 nautical miles. It has successively performed major tasks such as combat readiness cruises, maritime rights protection struggles, and joint exercises of multiple services and arms.
"The frequency of 'going global' has increased, and the requirements for 'winning' have also increased." The political commissar of the Zunyi ship told reporters that "seeking truth from facts" is an important characteristic of the Long March spirit, and benchmarking actual combat and pragmatic innovation are the "seeking truth from facts" on the Zunyi ship's deep blue journey.
Anti-submarine is a worldwide problem, and deep-sea anti-submarine is the "Loushang Pass" that the Zunyi ship must conquer. From mastering the obscure basic principles of acoustics, to repeated discussions with engineers, to perfecting plans and verifying tactics, the officers and soldiers of the Zunyi ship gradually explored submarine search tactics and doubled the target detection data rate.
The officers and soldiers of the Zunyi ship also focused on the combat position and were highly capable, consciously honing their excellent skills in one specialization and multiple functions. Xu Yi told reporters that he is not only proficient in using various types of weapons and equipment, but can also change posts to perform a full-process combat mission. In actual combat training, the Zunyi ship cultivates professional and professional top soldiers who are adaptable to modern naval warfare. In addition, the Zunyi ship also "opened the door for troop training" and took the initiative to conduct joint training research with air and underwater forces to tackle a number of important and difficult issues in system operations.
From the red holy land in northern Guizhou to the thousands-mile deep blue battleship, the spirit of the Long March spans time and space, guiding the officers and soldiers of the Zunyi ship to continue the new journey of the deep blue.
The morning fog has not yet dispersed and the morning sun has risen. The Zunyi ship blows its whistle and is about to set sail again.
