PLA National Defence University
By March 1993, Gu had become the Puyang military district's chief of logistics. In 1994, Gu was noticed by a visiting general from Jinan in neighbouring Shandong province, who spoke highly of his work and later transferred him to work in the production department of the Jinan Military Region. A few years later he was offered a leading post at the Jinan PLA Ground Force College (). He then went on to study at the PLA National Defence University, a breeding ground for China's top military brass.