He raised a hand to stop the President from interrupting him before he was done. “What should not be underestimated, Mr. President, is the will of the new American president. He has publicly chastised his military leaders for their failures and replaced them with significantly more aggressive generals. Our attack on the American LNG facilities was also a major setback; the opinion of the American public had been going heavily in our favor until the Spetsnaz attack on those LNG terminals was caught on video. A physical attack on American soil that led to the deaths of several civilians rattled and scared them tremendously-it also infuriated them. The President has announced a major build-up in American forces as a response. In just the last week, the new American Defense Authorization Bill jumped from $688 Billion to $1.3 Trillion dollars. Based on all of this… I do not believe the American President is going to agree to any of our terms,” concluded Kozlov sadly.
The other men in the room nodded in agreement-all except the FSB Director, who promptly made his opinion known. “When the Chinese launch the next phase of Operation Red Storm, the American President will not have a choice. He will have to accept our terms. The Americans have let their military diminish in size, to a point where they can no longer wage two major wars at once. They also do not have the equipment or ships to carry out such a war. They will have to choose which theater of operation they want to fight and win.”
“What makes you think they will not choose our theater of operations?” asked one of the generals at the table. Everyone turned back to Ivan Vasilev, the FSB Director, to see what he would say.
“During the last presidential campaign, the President chided his European counterparts for not doing more to defend their own countries. America has come to the aid of Europe during the last two world wars; they are not keen on having to do it a third time. If Japan, Korea and Taiwan are threatened, I believe the Americans will come to their aid over the Europeans, who can defend themselves but have thus far simply chosen not to,” Vasilev explained.
President Petrov pondered upon what had just been said. “It makes a lot of sense, but I just don’t believe the Americans would leave Europe entirely defenseless,” he thought.
Petrov decided to play devil’s advocate. “What if the Americans decide to just buy time until they are able to build up their forces enough to refocus their energies on us? Right now, they have a little over 100,000 soldiers in Europe-that number is going to double in a week, two tops. They could leave Asia to China while they focus on defeating us, then turn their attentions to China once they are ready.”
The generals in the room suddenly looked nervous. Ivan Vasilev, however, did not look even the slightest bit nervous. He just smiled while the others seemed unsure of themselves. The President noticed this and inquired, “Ivan-why are you smiling?”
“Mr. President, we have been working on Operation Red Storm for years. I have gone over nearly every possible scenario with Chairman Zhang. The Americans may decide to focus on Russia as opposed to China. If they do that, then China will be able to secure Taiwan, the Koreas, and Japan. Their position in Asia will be too strong for even the Americans to remove them. At that point, the Chinese will send troops to aid us in our war against NATO,” Vasilev responded.
His answer surprised a few, and confused others. No one else believed the Chinese would actually send troops to aid Russia. Though China and Russia had been communist partners in the past, they had a rocky relationship and at times had even been adversaries.
“Let us hope it does not come to that, Comrade. In the meantime, I want our forces to continue to consolidate our gains and bring in additional reinforcements. Hostilities could resume at any time and we must be ready for that,” Petrov said trying to appease all of the parties in the room at once.
Pecking Order
The Chinese takeover of Myanmar and Laos had both surprised and shocked the world. Their capture was nearly bloodless, which made it even more astounding. The invasion of Vietnam was a bit more of a concern for the Asian Pacific nations, who still remembered how Japan had nearly conquered most of the Pacific 70 years prior. The Vietnamese were putting up one heck of a fight, but it looked like they would probably fold within another week or two.
It took the PLA two weeks to capture Hanoi and begin to move down the rest of the country, but Ho Chi Minh City collapsed after the People’s Liberation Army Navy launched a successful seaborne invasion that no Western military expert would have ever imagined that they could pull off. The performance of the Chinese Navy’s blue water force had been a tremendous surprise. The Navy showed that it could effectively support a ground invasion with both naval guns and cruise missiles. What caught the Western militaries off guard the most was the introduction of a series of new cruise missiles, smart munitions, and aircraft. The PLA was using the invasion of Vietnam to test a series of new weapon platforms that the US, Australia, and Japan had been completely unaware of up to that point.
Now that the operations in Vietnam were complete, the CMC decided to meet to discuss initiating phase two of Operation Red Storm.
As the leaders took their seats, President Xi smiled happily. “I want to congratulate all of the generals and everyone else present on the success of phase one,” he opened. “The annexation of Myanmar and Laos have gone smoothly, and we will soon begin our projects there to increase agricultural production and improve infrastructure.”
Then Xi cleared his throat as his voice took a much more serious turn. Turning to the generals, he inquired, “How soon can North Korea begin their attack?”
The Defense Minister, General Kuang, replied, “They can commence operations within four days of us giving them the order… however, before we do that, I would like permission to begin transferring additional fuel and munitions to them now, so they will be in place prior to the attack.”
The other generals at the table nodded their heads in agreement. When the attack did finally start, the North Koreas would chew through enormous amounts of ammunition and fuel. It was imperative that their attack succeed as it would tie down tens of thousands of additional US Forces and pull the Japanese into the conflict.
Chairman Zhang felt he should ask a question, as this was a critical aspect of Operation Red Storm. “What if the North Koreans use their nuclear weapons?” he dared.
The generals at the table turned and looked at Zhang, surprised that he would pose such a question or even think the North Koreans would use their nukes without seeking permission first from China.
General Wei Liu leaned forward in his chair and addressed this question. “Mr. Chairman, we have told the Koreans they are not to use them, that this war is to stay conventional. If, by chance, the Koreans do use their nuclear weapons, then we need to fiercely hope that they succeed in whatever they hit, and it truly hurts the Americans.”
Zhang asked a follow-up question, “What about the American carriers? Don’t they have two of them in Japan with a third on the way right now? They have also deployed nearly 60,000 Marines to Japan.”
The Defense Minister spoke up this time. “Mr. Chairman, I understand that you have been the brains behind Operation Red Storm and coordinating this effort with Russia, but these are military matters. You have given us the political and military goals, and we have developed a series of plans to achieve them. This is a military matter, and we are not going to share all the details of our operations with you as they do not concern you. We will continue to keep you informed of the progress of the objectives you have given us, but we will not go into the minutia of how we are going to execute them.”