British military theorist and historian J F. C. Fuller wrote the book War Guidance, believing that war guidance is an art. In the process of guiding the Chinese revolutionary war, Mao Zedong clearly put forward the concept of "the law of war guidance", so that war guidance is truly based on scientific laws. The process of war guidance is an active process from subjective to objective, and then from objective to subjective, including two processes, one is the process of understanding the laws of war, and the other is the process of implementing war. There are many contradictory relations in the process of war guidance, such as preserving oneself and eliminating the enemy, purpose and means, overall and local, active and passive, advantages and disadvantages, attack and defense, concentration and dispersion of forces, lasting and quick decision, internal and external lines, and fighting and walking. The war director mainly solves two kinds of contradictions. One is to reflect the objective reality of the war subjectively and truthfully, and solve the contradiction between the war director's subjective understanding and the constantly developing objective situation of the war; The second is that the war director uses the laws of war to carry out the war according to the war plan, solve various contradictions encountered in the process of realizing the war intention, and strive for the victory of the war. War guidance must be based on certain objective material conditions. As Mao Zedong said: "People who guide the war cannot expect victory in the war beyond the limits of objective conditions, but they can and must actively strive for victory in the war within the limits of objective conditions. The stage for war commanders' activities must be built on the permission of objective conditions. However, they can use this stage to direct many impressive and powerful dramas. " (Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 2, p.478) War guidance should follow the basic guiding principles. These basic guiding principles of war mainly include: ① the principle that war guidance is subject to politics. War is a means to achieve political goals and serves politics. The relationship between war and politics determines that war guidance must obey the needs of politics. ② The subjective guidance of war conforms to the principle of objective reality of war. The correctness of war guidance cannot be tested by war guidance itself, but must be tested by war practice. Therefore, war guidance must proceed from the objective reality of the war and change constantly according to the development of the objective reality of the war. This change can neither surpass the development of the objective reality of the war nor lag behind the development of the objective reality of the war. Only by making the subjective guidance of the war conform to the objective reality of the war can the correctness of war guidance be guaranteed. Mao Zedong pointed out that the root cause of the mistakes made by the war directors was that the deployment and command of the war or battle were not suitable for the local situation, the subjective guidance was not consistent with the objective reality, and the contradiction between the subjective and objective was not solved. ③ The principle of centralization and unification. War guidance is different from general campaign command or battle command. It must implement the guiding principle of centralization and unification, that is, the decision-making power of war guidance is highly concentrated in the hands of the least number of people or even one person, so as to ensure the consistency of war operations. ④ The principle of grasping the overall situation of the war. War guidance is a planning and coordination activity for the overall situation of war, and the overall situation is extremely important for war guidance. The war director must focus his attention on the overall situation of the war. To take good care of the overall situation of the war, we must seize the strategic hub that has a huge impact on the overall situation of the war, that is, seize the strategic hub to plan the overall situation of the strategy. ⑤ Principle of flexibility. War guidance is the most full embodiment of human's conscious initiative in the war. Flexibility is an inevitable requirement for war guidance. Different situations of war determine different rules of war guidance. Whether the war guidance is correct or not will greatly affect the outcome of the war. In addition to the objective material conditions, the ultimate success or failure of war depends on the correctness of war guidance. On the basis of certain objective material conditions, correct war guidance can win the war, on the contrary, wrong war guidance will lead to war failure. In the future information-based local war, great changes have taken place in the form of war, the mode of operation, the battlefield environment, etc., and the requirements for war guidance are higher. Correct war guidance will still play an important role in winning the future war.
Publisher: China Military Encyclopedia Editorial Office [1]
