“The cabals would actually welcome political stability on Russia’s southern borders. They have great fears of Islamic militarism, as displayed by the Chechnyans. They do not care who provides it since they cannot. Our controlling presence will eliminate the possibility of revolution or civil unrest of any sort to their south.
“No, Comrade Commissar, the only potentially significant threat I see after destruction of the regular armed forces of the Central Asian Republics is limited guerilla warfare, aimed at production facilities, pipelines, and our personnel associated with petroleum production, transportation, and general occupation forces. I say limited, because it will not long survive.”
“How will you address this guerilla threat, Comrade General?”
“Comrade Commissar, we will not control it. When I said limited guerilla warfare, I was referring to limitations in time. The People’s Liberation Army Navy will eliminate it. Historically, it is a proven fact that guerilla warfare cannot succeed without the support of the local population. A truism recognized by our own great Mao Ze Dong. By the total elimination of the civilian population no guerilla effort can be sustained. Those few communities which survive our initial onslaught will be intensively scrutinized. At the first indication of resistance, they will be eliminated. Additionally, the harsh environment of the Central Asian Republics, essentially desert with intensely cold winters and intensely hot summers, will not support independent guerilla operations of any worth. They will be too busy merely trying to survive.
“As an added factor, our organized communes are trained to their particular assigned areas of endeavor. You might regard them as colonists trained to inhabit and practice agriculture in their assigned environment or district. In about a year, they should be self-sufficient in food production. In three years, manufacturing initiatives for light industries will be introduced according to locally available resources.”
“When, Comrade General, will these forces be ready for deployment?”
“Comrade Commissar Po, they are ready at this moment.”
Slightly irritated, Po rose from his chair and walked to the General’s table.
“Comrade General, can you tell us when they will be deployed?”
“Yes, Comrade Po. They are being deployed now. We initiated mobilization early this morning.
“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.
