Liu turned again to Dianrong, his aide-de-camp. The Colonel was currently stuck in a very nasty position.
“But I have had quite enough of this! Dianrong! I gave you a direct order! I want you to carry it out… right now!”
“Liu! Control yourself!” Wencang shouted.
With two of his senior commanders thundering at each other in the room and the shouts echoing around, Peng rubbed his forehead to lower the headache. They had been in here for hours now, and everybody’s tempers were flaring.
“That’s quite enough! Both of you!” Peng shouted at the top of his voice. He then turned to Colonel Dianrong:
“Colonel, put down that phone and step away!”
With both Liu and Wencang seething, Dianrong put down the phone and quietly backed away towards the walls and took his position. Peng got up from his seat and looked at Wencang.
“Is it true that you lost several special mission aircraft in the Indian missile attack on Golmud?”
“Yes, comrade chairman,” Wencang replied after controlling his anger.
“And we also lost the long-range cruise-missile launchers that General Liu had attached to the air-force. What is the status of that base?” Peng asked neutrally. Liu took his seat in the meantime.
“It is no longer operational,” Wencang went on, knowing fully well where this was going. “We will need all of today to repair the runway enough to allow fighters to land and refuel. But we have relocated several units to Korla, Wugong and…”
Wencang was stopped mid-sentence by Peng’s raised hand.
“I am not finished, General! Please answer my questions first and then say what it is you wish to say!”
General Yongju, Chen and the others noted the tone. The party leader was exerting his control. Chen knew that Liu and several of the PLA garrison commanders in this region were strongly loyal to the party and Peng. So the chairman could push back on Wencang without too much worry. Wencang noted the insult as well but bit his tongue.
“So it is safe to surmise that the Indians have control of the air over southern Tibet,” Peng continued. “And if they have control of the air, they will control events on the ground eventually. It is inevitable. Now, I understand we have significant unused missile capabilities in Tibet. We were perhaps far too confident about our air-force’s ability to control the skies when we began operations two weeks ago. And the air-force has proven us wrong and brought us to the verge of defeat. The navy did not fare any better, did it?”
Peng turned to face Admiral Huaqing, who was having difficulty swallowing the lump in his throat. The meeting had just covered the disastrous naval battle in the Indian Ocean the previous day before the argument between Wencang and Liu had erupted.
“I think our conventional forces have failed us utterly and brought shame on us in the party, the armed forces of this nation and the people of China!” Peng thundered to the assembled Generals. “And I blame you all for that! All of you! Generals and Admirals alike! We find ourselves hiding in this bunker like rats waiting to be exterminated! Perhaps I am to blame as well for believing in all of you! But I can correct my mistakes here and now!”
Wencang stared at Peng like a rock. He did not fear what was coming.
“General Wencang!” Peng looked at him from the head of the table. “Consider yourself dismissed as commander of the air-force! General Chen, you are dismissed as well. You have brought defeat on your respective commands and betrayed the trust of the people of China. And for that you will answer to them when the time comes. I will not have you pollute the minds of others in this room any further!”
Wencang grunted, then pulled himself to attention and saluted. Chen got up from his seat and did the same. Peng did not return the respect.
“Get out of my sight! Both of you!”
As both Generals got up, collected their papers and left the room, Peng turned to the naval commander.
“Admiral Huaqing! I think back now to the lies you said to my face about our capabilities and I wonder whether I should not have you shot for treason right now! But there is war on and I would not want the people to grow concerned with the loss of their Admirals in the midst of it. So consider yourself lucky that I am just having you removed from your post and placed under arrest. You will answer for your deceit later! Get out!”
As Huaqing fumbled with his papers and got up, the two remaining senior Generals in the room, Yongju and Liu shared a look in silence. Peng waited as the disgraced Admiral left the room and the door was closed behind him by Dianrong. Once peace prevailed in the room again, Peng turned to face Liu and Yongju.
“General Liu, if I ever find you questioning my authority in front of this committee or anywhere else, I will have you removed as well! Is that understood?”
“Absolutely,” Liu replied calmly.
“Now,” Peng continued, “there is the matter of the Indians. For all the incompetence shown by our commanders, it is the Indians ultimately who are to blame. And they will pay dearly! But not at the cost of our cities lost to nuclear weapons! If we were to lose even one of our major cities on top of what all has been happening in Tibet over the last year, as well as this war, the party will not survive. And we must survive! Without us, China has no future. So, do what you must. But we have to ensure that we bring the Indians on their knees and willing to negotiate an end to this war.”
“I can bring the Indians to their knees,” Liu said quietly as he crossed his fingers and leaned forward on the table. “Quickly and efficiently. Wencang was right on one thing, I will admit. The Indians did not have anything in their arsenals with sufficient range to strike at Golmud airbase other than ballistic-missiles. But their strike has given us the opening we needed. The attack on Tawang was an interesting test to see the inner weakness of the Indian government and its inability to digest civilian casualties. The three-thousand civilians that died in that one attack nearly overwhelmed their government’s ability to continue this war. But at Tawang they saw merely a glance at our might and our resolve to inflict whatever wounds needed to win this war on a higher pedestal. I think the time has now come for the Indian population to see our true resolve…”
“This madness has to stop!”
“I think it is hardly a matter of us stopping anything right now,” Tiwari, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow replied as he stood in the office of the Russian Minister. “If anything, you should be spending this time with my counterpart from Beijing perhaps. They did start the war, after all.”
For his part, Bogdanov knew he could only carry his concern across to the Indian ambassador so far. After all, Moscow was under no threat from the war. In fact, it was profiting handsomely from it.