In the first part of a series , Liu Zhen examines how the PLA’s strategies have developed from guerrilla warfare to hi-tech conflict. In April 1932, Xi Zhongxun , 18, led the newly formed Fifth Detachment of the Red Army’s Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Force marching in the mountains in Yongshou county, Shaanxi province. Reorganised by the young communist from a mutinous battalion of the local warlord’s Northwest Army, the 200-strong unit was trying to link up with another Red Army force nearby. The Communist Party’s political work boosted their discipline and morale, but equipment and logistical difficulties remained – and if anything, worsened over time. Ultimately, exhausted and out of food and munitions, the troops were overwhelmed by local bandits and forced to disperse.