Generally in war, the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this.
When you plunder the countryside, divide your forces. When you conquer territory, divide the profits.
Set the troops to their tasks without imparting your designs; use them to gain advantage without revealing the dangers involved. Throw them into a perilous situation and they survive; put them in death ground and they will live. For when the army is placed in such a situation, it can snatch victory from defeat.
It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self controlled.
He should be capable of keeping his officers and men in ignorance of his plans.”
Sun Tzu
The Art of War
500 B.C.
Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, Chang, Mao-lin strolled across the stage, arms at his side. Everyone in the room came to attention. “Generals and Admirals, be seated,” he announced. “You have been called here to inform you of the first great military operation of the twenty-first century. As professional military officers, every commander among you is hereby relieved of your commands. Each commander is promoted. Each of you is about to receive a new command. Many of you that are chiefs of staff will also receive a command; most of you will replace your commanders in the regular army that I just relieved. Your packet contains your orders and the promotion order of your new rank. Commanders, your new commands are exclusively of the militias of the various provinces which are now assigned to you. You are called together for this briefing to provide you with the overall scope and intent of our plan. Much of what I say to one of you as an individual applies to all of you. Each of you will have considerable freedom of action in this undertaking. It must be that what is discussed here is not to be discussed with anyone except your respective staffs no lower than corps level on pain of death. No one outside this room is to grasp the significance or enormity of this operation. You are to squelch any and all rumors regarding the nature of this war by any means necessary until all of our forces are in motion. The People’s Liberation Army Navy is leaving many of the details to you on how you conduct the war in your particular area.
“As you know, as a nation, we are under tremendous pressure of population, insecurity of food supplies, questionable sources of raw materials for our industries and energy requirements to continue at our current levels of production and population. Above all, there is tremendous restlessness in our rural areas. Therefore, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has devised a plan to expand our geographical base to include sources for all of our required raw materials, petroleum, and foodstuffs for the foreseeable future.
“Generals and Admirals, another major goal of this operation is to acquire land for our Han Chinese people. In this regard, your primary mission will be the elimination of the current occupants of your area of operation. Your primary troops will be the militias which you have so aggressively trained. Your reports all indicate that your militia units are fully trained, manned, equipped, and psychologically prepared to carry out their assignments. We shall soon see.
“Your Army fronts will vary somewhat in size, according to the difficulty of your mission. Terrain, your opponents, the significance of the front, transportation, logistics, seasons and weather and so on have all been taken into consideration. Some of you will have more significant resistance than others. Those areas of operation will receive priority for logistical support. All forces of the People’s Liberation Army Navy will be fully involved, although many units will be held as a strategic reserve. Your forces will, in effect, be expected to live off the land which you are responsible to seize. As you are all aware, our food reserves and transportation capabilities are our most potential liabilities.
“Without discussing lesser details, the major thrusts will occur after our allies initiate their actions to tie down potential western adversaries. This will preclude the Americans from bringing their weight against us. We have a firm belief that they, the Americans, will not risk nuclear war under the circumstances. We do believe that they might commit limited resources to their previous treaty obligations, but will not extend any efforts to our major thrusts. All of our intelligence and indicators strongly support this belief that the Americans will not interfere with our major operations. In fact, they lack the capability to do so, and no one knows this better than they do. We do not anticipate any other body, such as the United Nations, to contribute anything more strongly than words against our actions.
“We are making major thrusts to essentially conquer much of Asia and half of Africa. One front will be responsible for the Malayan peninsula. Another front will engage the Indian subcontinent. A third front will engage the Central Asian Republics.
This will be the most difficult and largest front of all and will, consequently, receive the greatest logistical support. Fifty million militia personnel will be assigned to this front, and more will be available as required. This front has tentatively, as its final western geographical objective, the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea, that is, unless the Iranians decide to engage us. We do not anticipate any difficulties with the Russians. We will make clear to the Americans, Japanese and the Europeans that Iraq and Saudi Arabia and their oil belong to them. This we will guarantee. This should reduce the potential for their involvement.
“The last front will be Africa. Actually, we believe that this will be the least difficult front of all. Africa is devastated by famine, wars, anarchy and AIDs. The People’s Liberation Army Navy will begin landing forces on the east African coast and continue to do so according to our limited seaborne transportation assets. We have converted a fleet of merchant ships into troop carriers. We will land a battalion a day as a minimum at each beachhead. There are a number of beachheads all along the coast, according to intermediate objectives. These troop ships will make round trips until the entire front is delivered. The initial battalions are expected to seize and protect their assigned harbors. Thereafter, each battalion is expected to immediately move inland to make way for the next day’s arrivals. Our Chief of Naval Operations has accordingly worked out the naval strategy and will discuss it with the individual African Front Commander.
“The Southeast Asian Front, the Malayan area, also has naval assets assigned for its protection. This Front Commander will work in consort with the Chief of the Peoples Navy.
“Perhaps some of you have guessed over the last few years that this concept was being planned as a result of the establishment of the depot system in the various districts in the west and south.
“While all of the strategy and some of the operational details have been worked out, each of you will be called to the People’s Liberation Army Navy Headquarters to discuss your individual assignments over the next few months. For the most part, the tactical and some of operational aspects will be left to you. This is what will be discussed with you at these meetings. Your individual fronts are assigned code names that are known only to yourselves as the Commanders, and to the PLAN. Chemical weapons are authorized down to the divisional level. Our air armies are modest in size and capability. Many are aware we have concentrated on building and acquiring ground attack aircraft. Land forces will be supported to a limited degree by our air forces; each front commander will have an assigned numbered air force. The land force commander will have overall command and responsibility for the air force supporting him.
“The Central Committee and the Joints Chiefs of the PLAN recognize that this is a tremendous undertaking, a historical but not quite unprecedented event, not even in scale. Warriors a thousand years ago, and more than once, did what we are about to do, and did it very well. We can, and will, do no less. I will take a few questions from the assigned commanding general of each Army Front at the end of the general guidance.
“Lights out, first presentation, please.”
The PowerPoint projection on the screen showed a map of Asia. On it were drawn three large red, curving arrows, flowing out of China to the west and south. “I will call upon each of you new commanders in turn, so that you might know who is on your flanks, what your boundaries are, and what the strategic objectives for each are. We, the Chinese people, are about to ensure the future of our nation and our people as the greatest power on earth in this twenty-first century. This is a massive undertaking, one that will be on par with the Great Revolution and what the west calls World War II. This entire operation is to be completed within an absolute maximum of eighteen months. Twelve months is desirable, but in some cases, that might be somewhat unrealistic.
“General Liu, Lien-chang, you are hereby promoted to Army Front I Commander. Your region of responsibility will more or less be the Malayan peninsula. You will recall we signed a treaty with the Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei in 2001 called the Treaty of Conduct of Parties to settle all claims of territory in the South China Sea. We are now abrogating that Treaty Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, without telling the other signatories, of course. Our economic and military assistance programs over the last ten years in Burma, Laos and Cambodia have provided us with excellent intelligence. Their armies are modest but reasonably equipped, mostly as light infantry, as you know. One of the major goals of our agents has been the infiltration of the Islamic militant groups throughout the region. I am happy to report that this effort has been most successful. These people are to be eliminated above all others. The necessary information on these groups, the Guragon Mujahideen, Wau Kah Rah, the Kampualan Mujahideen, and so on, will be in your office in twenty-four hours.
“We acceded to the Association of South Eastern Asian Nations, ASEAN, by signing the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, in which we pledged to resolve all disputes by peaceful means in 2003. We are about to absolve that treaty as well. Your westward boundary, General Liu, will be the Irawaddy River. You are to include the cities of Rangoon and Singapore in your endeavors unless other arrangements are made at the last minute. They are the prizes at the end of your long march. Do not invade the Philippines or Sumatra at this point. Rather, consolidate your gains; eliminate the great majority of the population, as many as you can. Eliminate all of the ethnic Vietnamese. Spare no one. There are two million Chinese and people of Chinese descent in Vietnam. These are to be spared if at all possible. Their loyalty has always remained with our mother country, and they will be an asset. Indeed, they have supplied us with much intelligence. Malaysia has six million Chinese, and Singapore holds two million Chinese. Those of Singapore might be more difficult to sort out. Many Vietnamese will retreat to the western highlands with the intent of conducting guerilla warfare as they have so successfully done in the past. That is not to be allowed. This is why the Irawaddy River was chosen as your western boundary. You have both flanks of the highlands. International borders are meaningless. You are to kill them by whatever means, making special effort to do so before they can retreat to the interior highlands. You will not have any heavy weapons to speak of at your disposal. Limited mortar and light rocketry will be your artillery. Your air forces will be quite limited. Therefore, you must rely almost wholly on your light infantry; indeed, that is essentially your total force. Your men must, to a considerable degree, live off the land. Your area of responsibility is a major rice producing region of the world. Take advantage of it. Your lines of communication will be long. Commandeer whatever civilian transport is available that you choose. Dependable resupply for your area could be questionable as a result of the lack of transportation assets, particularly if you do not swiftly complete your mission.
“We have, more or less, one year’s supply of food for your armies. We have modest medical supplies in storage as well. Stockpiling of anti-malarials, antibiotics and surgical consumables has been a modest priority. Your medical battalions are reasonably well staffed. A number of your units, however, are composed of HIV infected personnel. You must consider the results of expending food and medicines on your wounded and ill soldiers who suffer from an incurable illness against completion of your mission. What guidance you give to your medical personnel in this regard is up to you. Abandoning such will not be frowned upon. Whatever your decision is in this respect, make absolutely sure that your policy is rigorously enforced. Do not hesitate to use the complete and absolute authority we are giving you to conduct this mission.
“You must complete your mission prior to the consumption of that reserve of food and medicines. There must be no support base for the conduct of guerilla warfare. Hence, you must show no mercy in destroying the elements which would support any guerilla warfare. Each village is to be raided, all of its food seized, and its inhabitants killed. Your armies will be composed of the armies of the following provinces that are listed in your orders, chief among them are Yunnan, Kwangsi, and Kwangtung. We estimate that totals about fifteen million men. Since we have never had organizations higher than regiments in our militia units, they are arbitrarily being assigned into divisions, corps and armies. Officers will be promoted to the appropriate ranks for these higher levels of organization. Your staff and your corps and division commanders have been arbitrarily and initially selected for you, many of them you know. Your staff is composed of regular People’s Liberation Army Navy generals. They are among the best we have for their particular specialties. Many of your higher militia commanders will be initially insecure, indecisive and hesitant. They will probably lean very heavily upon you and your staff and upon their staffs. It is up to you to work with them and bring them to the appropriate level of their commands as quickly as possible. Do not take a great length of time, however, to do this. If any of them are slow to respond or less than capable, it is your responsibility to immediately replace them with someone who is. Ruthlessness is to be a primary consideration in their selection. A bad decision is considered better than no decision.
“If you need to make a very modest amphibious assault along the coast, coordinate with Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. We can, at best, mount a two-division sized force for an amphibious flanking movement. We would prefer not to have to do that, but we recognize the possibility that it might be necessary, especially around the larger port cities such as Haiphong.
“Do you have any questions at this time, General?”
“Yes, Comrade General Chang. If our new commands are to be exclusively of these militia units, what role will the regular People’s Liberation Army Navy play in this war?”
“An excellent question, Comrade General. The regular army will be held as a trained reserve. There are elements to this plan that are not to be revealed today. We anticipate that they will not be utilized, at least, that is our hope. Nevertheless, we have a trained, standing army ready, if necessary, to meet any contingency. Any further questions?”
“No, Comrade General. Thank you.”
Chapter 4
“General Tsai, Ting-wen. You are hereby promoted to Commander, Army Front II. You have a very large territory to conquer and possibly an extremely tough opposition to overcome. We have faith that you will accomplish your mission with speed and skill. Your objectives include the Indian peninsula and the destruction of the remains of the Indian and Pakistani armies. You will attack after those antagonists have exhausted themselves. Your eastern boundary is the Irawaddy River. You will invade through Assam and sweep west and south. Your westward boundary is just east of the Iranian border. Pakistan and Afghanistan are yours, but you are to approach no closer than 150 kilometers to the Iranian border. We do not wish to excite the Americans too much. Your northern boundary is the Himalayas, the northern borders of Nepal and Bhutan. These small states are of little consequence, although you might have some minor irritation from the many retired Ghurkas still living there. Much of the guidance which I just gave to General Liu also applies to you. Elimination of the population is the primary objective. Under certain circumstances, specific individuals in India are to be spared, if they can be identified before their demise. Those to be spared when possible are scientists and engineers, faculties of technical institutions and universities and the like. This does not apply to any Muslims anywhere. We will not allow any jihads to be waged behind our backs.
“Your job might become extremely complicated. At the appropriate time, Pakistan will attack India in Kashmir. It is quite possible, indeed likely, that a nuclear exchange will occur. We anticipate that India and Pakistan will attrit each other, either by nuclear fires or conventional warfare. We anticipate that India will be the winner. With luck, their air forces will destroy much of the other’s forces, both ground and air. The ground forces of both are heavily armed with man portable surface to air missiles, thankfully supplied by the United States. Such an exchange is expected to last but a few weeks. Only upon the order from the People’s Liberation Army Navy are you to give the mobilization order to your forces. I repeat, you do not issue the mobilization order until you are ordered to do so by this Headquarters. That is imperative. Your job is to pick up the pieces, such as they will be, and ensure that neither will constitute a threat, nor be able to conduct any form of guerilla warfare. We believe that Pakistan has about twenty-five nuclear warheads that range from five to twenty-five kilotons in yield, and perhaps twenty-five more that are up to one hundred kilotons in yield. It is possible, even likely, that a number of Indian cities will disappear under mushroom clouds. Most likely, so will Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Lahore, and perhaps Peshawar in retaliation. If the latter disappears, your job will be much easier. The Khyber Pass will be open to you, provided, of course, it has not been closed by landslides. How you deal with radioactive areas and contaminated resources is up to you. You are to conquer Afghanistan. Their practice of revenge must be greatly respected. It is important, therefore, that no Afghan lives. What and how your troops treat or do to these people is of no consequence as long as you kill them.
“You will have approximately twenty-five million people to accomplish your mission. They are the militias of the provinces of Hopeh, Anwhei, Hupeh, Kweichow, Hunan, and Szechuan.
“Any Questions, Comrade General?”
Tsai stood, came to attention, and responded, “Comrade General, how will this Indo-Pakistani war be initiated? The timing here can be very crucial.”
“You are absolutely correct, Comrade General. Certain events will be initiated to ensure that this conflict is started at the appropriate time. Pakistan will enter into the war full of confidence due to a secret treaty we have with them. We have what they call the Sino-Pakistan Mutual Assistance Treaty, which guarantees we will come to each other’s aid in the event of war with India. We have supplied Pakistan with small amounts of plutonium and technology so that they have manufactured a modest number of artillery and aerial deliverable tactical nuclear warheads, as well as intermediate range rockets, as part of this treaty. By doing so, the International Atomic Energy Association and inspectors have no knowledge of the size and capabilities of their nuclear arsenal. This has bolstered their confidence in our participation in such a conflict.
“Any further questions, Comrade General Tsai?”
