In 2017, Ma became the chief of the gun section on a newly commissioned warship. Less than a year later, the crew entered a competitive live-fire contest.

Ma led his team through basic tasks, including checking ammunition, cleaning barrels, disassembling and inspecting mechanical parts, testing every electrical wire, and analyzing the trajectory of each shell. Under his leadership, his team achieved a first-round hit and won first place among all competing vessels.

Over his 27 years in the Navy, Ma has operated six types of naval artillery on four types of ships, recording every maintenance session, compiling over 150,000 words of notes and more than 400,000 data entries.

Rooted in repeated real-world exercises, Ma said, "On the battlefield, the gun is me, and I am the gun."

He analyzed every live round fired, studying ship sway, the expansion speed of propellant gases, and how wind conditions alter a shell's trajectory. His research has consistently improved first-hit rates and overall gun performance.

For Ma, true strength lies in the team. As the unit's top gunnery specialist, he shares his knowledge freely, mentoring not only his own shipmates but also personnel from other vessels, naval academies and equipment factories.

"What happens to these skills if I fall in battle or retire?" he said. Determined to ensure the knowledge is passed down, he set out to compile a professional textbook tailored for naval gun crews, which gained support from his unit.

Ma has spent over 700 days studying with experts, visiting factories and mastering design software. Often working late into the night, he damaged his eyesight, but the effort paid off when his work was adopted as a standard Navy training manual.

Over more than two decades as a section leader, he has cultivated numerous technical talent, many of whom have risen to positions such as ship captains or senior petty officers.

Liu Lipeng contributed to this story.

lishangyi@chinadaily.com.cn