“Regarding possible Russian involvement, the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army Navy has drafted a communiqué for you to deliver to our ambassador in Russia within the next few hours. It should be delivered to the Russian President by 08:00 tomorrow morning. We cross the frontiers at that time. A copy of the message is now being handed to you by an adjutant. It reads:
1.The People’s Republic of China will respect Russian territory and remain a minimum of one hundred kilometers from the Russian frontier.
2.The Central Asian Republics are our areas of interest. If Russia should choose to enter the conflict on behalf of former Soviet Republics under the Mutual Aggression Treaty, Chinese forces will defend themselves with maximum effort. Such an endeavor will place the entire Russian nation at risk.
3.The People’s Republic of China wants nothing more than amicable relations with its huge and significant neighbor of the north and west. We look forward to a long and prosperous and a peaceful relationship with the people of Russia and her government.
“We have prepared a similar message for delivery to our ambassador in Tokyo. It informs the Japanese that the People’s Republic of China is reclaiming the Loochoo Islands which they took from us by force in 1878. Japanese renaming them the Ryukyu Islands and Okinawa in no way changes the fact that they were Chinese until they were seized. In the name of avoiding bloodshed, we advise the government of Japan to evacuate all Japanese citizens prior to our imminent arrival.”
Chapter 26
A knock on the door broke into General Chang’s thoughts.
“Enter.”
General Shen, De-ming, Commander of Army Front III, stepped up to Chang’s desk and delivered a smart salute. Chang returned the salute and motioned Shen into a chair with a flourish of his hand.
“I’m afraid you will have your hands full with your mission, De-ming. It is the most difficult of all, which is why I gave it to you. I know you and your staff have been planning for months. I am glad you took my advice to ignore the northern half of Kazakhstan in your planning. Our interest lies in driving across the southern half which is abysmally lacking in roads. We appreciate that re-supply of your forces will be most difficult. Your logistical tail will be extremely long and difficult. With Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan being essentially desert, water for your troops might well be your greatest problem. With their small populations, there should otherwise be little resistance from them. The Kazakh city of Atyrau on the northern coast of the Caspian will be your ultimate objective, and letting the Russians know it should assuage some of their fears. We will make it perfectly clear to the Russians that they are of no interest to us. In fact, we are taking the approach that we are doing them a favor, eliminating the Islamic terrorist threat that has long plagued their southern border.
“I have forgotten my manners. Can I pour you a scotch?”
General Shen, De-ming nodded, smiled, and picked up a glass from a tray on the table adjacent to the desk. He held out his glass while Chang, Mao Lin poured two fingers of scotch into his glass.
“As long as you seize the road net around Almaty, you can bypass the city and let the Muslims starve or die of thirst. Tajikistan will be a modest prize, with its hydroelectric output of energy, much of which we have been purchasing. It is imperative that you leave absolutely nothing for any of these people to eat. Those who do not starve to death will die in the remaining summer heat or the coming winter cold.
“Kyrgyzstan might well be your toughest nut. Being the heart of the Tien Shan mountain network, having extremely few roads, severe winters, being tremendously enthusiastic hunters and rugged mountaineers, they might be your worst guerilla warfare nightmare. Thank God, there are only about five million of them. When you seize all of their livestock and agricultural harvest, you will put them in a tremendously bad way. They will have to rely on seizing your logistical support in order to survive. You know what that means. Every mountain pass is an ambush, an avalanche, or a roadblock. They might be as bad as the Pushtuns guarding the Khyber Pass that extracted tolls from the British troops in the nineteenth century! Perhaps persistent nerve agents will cure that problem. I understand your staff is recommending passing through once in a scorched earth policy, then abandoning the area. The terrain simply favors the defense too much. An excellent strategy, I think. Destroying the road and rail links around old city of Frunze, which they renamed Pishkek, is an excellent idea. Isolating that city will put them in a world of hurt. The old Russian military academy that used to be there would be of interest to our historians, I am sure.
“I understand they raise excellent horses around Lake Issyk-Kul. Would it surprise you to see horse mounted cavalry? Guerilla irregulars on horseback possibly? Perhaps you might find a good mount for yourself, a good way to keep the boots clean, eh, De-ming? I know you enjoyed equestrian activities at the academy. Your staff will find you a good mount, I am sure.”
De-ming merely grinned and shook his head at the thought of riding up and down his troop columns on horseback. What an imagination his superior must have. It is also obvious that someone on his central staff besides himself was keeping him well informed of the planning.
“Tajikistan, what can I say? A smaller version of Kyrgyzstan? Over half the country is above 3,000 meters high, with peaks over 7,000 meters. The agriculture production of their fertile valleys is the key. Seize it all, take it with you, and starve them out. All of them Muslims, with allegiance to Allah!
“Ah, General Shen, if Iran were only in our grasp. With the world’s third largest known reserves of petroleum, of massive, perhaps the world’s second greatest reserves of natural gas, over 65 trillion cubic feet, we would be energy sufficient for a hundred years.”
“Perhaps General Chang, the Iranians will accommodate us by attacking our forces.”
“I almost wish they would, De-ming. I am afraid with a population of 65 million, and as truculent as the Persians are, and with the terrain, it would be most difficult. It is certainly not as severe or rugged terrain as in Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, but rugged enough. I anticipate that our HIV battalions will be exhausted by the time we reach the Caspian, and our regular forces will have to then be engaged. Then there are the Americans and the Europeans. These Europeans can agree on nothing as they fight for the leadership of Europe. They have nothing but token forces. They couldn’t even handle the Balkans without the Americans. It is possible, however, that seizing Iran would be considered such a threat by them that they would unite with America to form a tremendous coalition against us. Remember that America still has several thousand nuclear weapons. We cannot hope to stop them all. They might even attack our homeland as well as our forces in the field. It is too great a risk. Europe and the Americans will understand that we are leaving them Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and the Trucial States as sources for their oil.”
“All the more pity, the irony, that is. A coalition of Europe and the United States would come to the aid of Iran, a nation which has preached the overthrow of the United States as the Great Satan for decades.”
“One thing about Iran does vex me though, De-ming. In the early 1990s, we began selling them technology, especially missile technology. This was done to cause consternation and anxiety to the Americans. It did have the desired effect of diluting their military and economic strengths by forcing them to deploy more forces to the Persian Gulf region. This put a tremendous strain on them. After the second Iraqi war, the loss of personnel in the All Volunteer Forces, as they call their armed forces, was profound. Still, using the missiles and technology we supplied, the Iranians advanced their own designs and models which might be turned against us. That is why you will reserve the lion’s share of anti-missile defense warfare systems for your final area objective. Our factories for these weapons have been ordered into round-the-clock production. We hope to keep you well supplied with our trucking assets, but I cannot promise anything. We have our own version of the American General Patton’s Red Ball Express in World War II.
“Ignore the fallout from the Indian-Pakistani nuclear exchanges which are occurring. Don’t even inform your troops of the threat. Your HIV battalions will die anyway but take all precautions for yourself and your staff. The fallout might well expunge Afghanistan. Who knows, with no one to grow opium poppies there, China might also assume the role of the world’s greatest supplier of refined heroin to Europe and America. Of course, we don’t want our markets destroyed, just controlled. We have made tremendous profits from the heroin market in the United States and Europe. We have cycled those funds through the banks of the Cayman Islands, billions of dollars each year. Those funds have bankrolled the inroads we have made in Africa, by supplying guns and food to the various tribal and ethnic groups there, and the same to the Middle East. Our support of Iran, in that respect, has supported much of the dissension between Shiite and Sunni, and a dozen offshoots of both major branches of Islam.”
“Do you anticipate fallout to be much of a problem, General Chang?”
“We know the Americans left a sizeable number of tactical nuclear weapons on Korea, some deliverable by artillery fires, others by aircraft. We know the South Koreans have launched their own nuclear weapons research and manufacturing program as well as a nascent biological one. We knew the South Korean line of final retreat at which point they used them. We did not share that information with North Korea. North Korea had sufficient conventional forces to push them to that line. Their opening biological attack was a masterpiece. We have supplied North Korea with a small number of similar nuclear weapons just to keep things even. We assured the North Koreans that we would come to their assistance if the South crosses the 38th parallel, just as we did 63 years ago, but of course, we didn’t this time. We lost a million men supporting them in the last Korean War. The destruction they are wreaking on their own country will eliminate them as an economic competitor for another 30 years. Seoul is virtually being destroyed. By then, well, we shall be well established as the hegemon of the Pacific Rim west of Hawaii. Japan and Australia will have little choice but to accept their respective positions. The rice bowl of Malaya shall feed us, as well as the Indian plains and the Valleys of the Indus and Ganges. Russia, in due time, will fall in line. They have no choice.
“Besides, De-ming, we will still take Africa. It will be the easiest plum of all, provided we have the forces left to take it. There will be no local opposition worthy of the name. With southern Africa’s oil, gold, diamonds, uranium, tungsten, cobalt, chrome, and vanadium, we will have quite a corner on the market, so to speak.”
“Well then, here’s to Africa,” said Shen, hoisting his glass to his superior. Chang acknowledged the toast by nodding back and sipping his scotch. “And what of the Americans? Why will they allow this?”
“All in good time, De-ming. We have planned accordingly. You know, it is truly pathetic how little understanding of us the Americans really have. They still think their concepts apply to us. We have gained a significant advantage over our enemies. We know how they think. The American elitists suffer a tremendous failure. They lack any idea of their own historical perspective, their history and imagination. They have forgotten how they once acted and thought. They have never grasped the application of our concepts of stealth, deceit and surprise as part of grand strategy. We tie down one of their most effective divisions along the Mexican border. Their active army, as you know, has less than eight total divisions anyway. Even though they did not go to the aid of South Korea, they are still disbursed along an eighteen-hundred-mile border. We manipulate them without their knowledge. India and Pakistan annihilate each other so that they do not compete against us for energy and food. Korea as an economic power no longer exists. We have the added bonus of occupying their depopulated lands. Our nephews the Vietnamese will no longer exist to resist our suzerainty. They will in fact, no longer exist! It is now early August. The Second Army Front has begun its mobilization. You will begin yours in ten days. You have a great distance to travel and little time before General Winter becomes a foe, or an ally.
“I must admit, though, De-ming, we are finally employing one of our greatest assets, the concept of mass to the battlefield. American military thinkers of the last twenty years thought this concept invalid. Unless they deploy nuclear weapons against our troops while we are on foreign soil, we will prove its validity. This, too, will serve our purpose by cleansing our nation of HIV infected people to a level where we can control, or perhaps even eliminate, the disease.
“Rest assured, the Americans will not respond against us. We have equaled and even surpassed the United States in many, although not all, areas of military technology. Our cruise missiles, for instance, are equal those of the Americans. Our artillery deliverable nuclear weapons are superior to theirs, and our biological weapons far exceed their defensive measures. They do not even have any defensive measures against biological agents that have been genetically engineered.
“While the health departments in their major cities have made modest preparations, many medium and smaller municipalities have not. They have paid it lip service only. They are skeptical. They regard themselves as unimportant enough to make serious preparations. They think the federal government will ride to their rescue like the cavalry in American western cinemas. They believe that if they are attacked, they will be the only ones so affected. Indeed, many rural states have not made adequate preparations or even plans. Those that have planned have not assigned any resources against those plans. They think only in terms of bombs, chemical attacks, and then mostly of attacks on infrastructure rather than the population itself. It is one of these smaller municipalities that has some strategic significance but is inadequately prepared that will be our initial target. We have identified several such cities, each of which has some unique characteristic of significance. One of these will serve, should it become necessary, as a signal of our resolve and of our capabilities.”
“What weapons are you referring to, Comrade?”
“Our biological weapons scientists tell me that we have a genetically engineered strain of an adenovirus virus as our first warning. It is extremely infectious, survives well in the environment, is highly transmissible, with very high morbidity, but low mortality. Should this fail, we can utilize a strain of engineered influenza A virus with a much higher case fatality ratio. It is resistant to the antibiotics routinely used to treat other strains of influenza A viruses, amantidine and rimantidine: It, too, could quickly spread across the entire country in a few weeks.”
“Has this virus been tested somehow, somewhere, Comrade General?”
“Yes, Comrade, it was tested on an isolated Uigher village fifteen months ago. It was very effective and will serve our purposes well.”
“And what of the Uigher village?”
“Alas, Comrade we could not allow the escape of the virus from the village. Our personnel, all vaccinated against the disease, completely isolated the village to ensure no one left or entered. They were a small nomadic group of herders, moving goats and yaks from winter to summer pasture. The survivors are all buried in the Takla Makan. Their physical possessions were buried with them, and their flocks allowed to return to the wild. Of course, this weapon system will only be employed as an indicator, a harbinger of even worse things to come if we are to suffer too much American interference.”
“What, Comrade, if the Americans do not accept this attack as a warning? They could take it as an overt act of war, or perhaps claim it is a natural epidemic not released by our agents?”
“De-ming, we have other agents far more severe. Agents which will disrupt their entire society. In such an instance, their entire military capability will come to a halt as well as their civilian sectors. As you know, sixty percent of their military capability is in the reserves. Their all-volunteer force became very hollow after their debacle in Iraq. Many left both the active forces and the reserves, deserted more or less, as soon as they could legally do so. They will be unable to mobilize. Their active forces are stretched very thin as it is. I worry more about their navy than their land forces. With the reserves, any significant military action, certainly one sustainable for more than a few days, without those reserves, is unfathomable. That is all I can say for now, except, more scotch?”
Jim Neville accompanied National Security Advisor Ralph Gardner into the Oval Office for the Daily Presidential Brief as the first activity of the morning. Gardner’s presentation lasted less than fifteen minutes, as it usually did, just to inform the President of what occurred that might be of national significance overnight. He included comments from the National Reconnaisance Office regarding Chinese movements. Neville listened without comment until Gardner finished.
“Jim, does Ralph need to hear what you have to say this morning?”
“It certainly wouldn’t hurt, Mr. President.”
“All right, then let’s have it.”
“The Japanese Ambassador and his naval attaché’ walked into my office late yesterday afternoon. They had a most interesting proposal that I said I would bring to you the first thing this morning. They want a mutual agreement pact regarding naval forces. They are offering to share with us their very latest developments in anti-submarine warfare in return for building DDX destroyers and frigates under license in Japan. Their research hasn’t exactly overlapped ours but is a bit complementary. We can merge the technologies and put them on the latest of our small ship designs, those of destroyers and frigates. These are the smallest ships I would suggest as transoceanic anti-submarine capable capitol ships. I still think we should go with the small littoral fighting ship but primarily to protect our own coasts. These smaller vessels just don’t have the staying power we need to send them across oceans.
“To go along with this, the marine engineers in the Office of Naval Research have developed a higher level of modularity in the design for these two classes of ships, that is, the destroyers and frigates. They think we can contract out these much smaller modules for these ships for manufacture in any of our metal fabricating facilities anywhere in the USA with final assembly in the shipyards of the primary contractors. These modules are small enough to be shipped by rail car. That was part of their basic objective. We can build them a lot faster that way, instead of the two to three years it now takes us to put a quality DDX destroyer together. The most time-consuming aspect of this will be getting the specifications out and letting the contracts. We could have a hundred different plants building different parts and then weld them all together in about a month’s time at the yards. It was something along the lines of what we did in World War II in order to get a large enough fleet to meet the demands for capitol ships in both oceans. The electronics and weapons modules are already at the point where they can be built anywhere and incorporated during construction. The concept is that of the old adage, plug and play utilizing commercial off-the-shelf components. It is just a matter of building the components here as opposed to overseas. Too much of our electronics are manufactured offshore.”
“Have you talked with Admiral Stark about this? I find it humorous that you are now the boss of your old boss, the Chief of Naval Operations.”
Jim Neville grinned. “Well, I retired a Captain, and he was wearing two stars as a Rear Admiral at that time. He holds no rancor and thinks it is kind of humorous, too. I suspect, though, now he wishes he had paid greater attention to what I tried to tell him those many years ago. But to answer your question, no, I haven’t discussed it with him. However, I am all for the technology bit. I’ll leave the design aspects of their proposal up to the maritime engineers. If you give your permission, I’ll take it up with Admiral Stark today.”
“Jim, by all means, let’s go for it. I wish to God we had two hundred of those DDX destroyers and frigates and littoral fighting ships, right now. If we build them, can we man them? Can we recruit and train the crews as fast as we can build the ships? Let me know what the CNO and his engineers think of it after thorough discussions.”
