After six five-day training cycles Jia Battalion was given a day off (not that Dugen’s men could do anything personal with the time — they were not permitted to call or write home). Rather than allow his men to be idle and swap unhealthy rumors, Dugen arranged for a day of sports competition with the PAP men. Jia Battalion thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Other than a loss at the table tennis competition (one of the PAP battalions had an aspiring national champion in their ranks), Jia Battalion swept the games.
That evening, Dugen was called to General Kung’s office.
“Colonel Chu,” Kung looked at the young lieutenant colonel with a stone face as he always had, never betraying a hint of emotion and always keeping their contact painfully formal, “Jia Battalion has done well to date.”
“Thank you General.”
“My comment is a statement-of-fact, not a complement. Had your men not done well, you would have been removed from command weeks ago.” Kung glared at Dugen.
“Yes General!” Dugen stood, ramrod straight, eyes fixed forward — the perfect model of a commando officer.
Kung sighed as if in the presence of mere mortals when he expected gods, “I am modifying your training regime. Beginning tomorrow you will do in three days what you have taking five to accomplish. On day one your men will rest while the officers conduct after action reports on the previous assault and plan the next one. On day two you will assault the airport and capture the PAP soldiers. One day three you will conduct your follow-on mission. I have another item for you to incorporate into your training as welclass="underline" beginning with your second operation four days from now, your men will conduct their assault in chemical weapons protective gear. In addition, your assault will be conducted using live chemical agents.”
Dugen’s eyes narrowed. The bulky chemical weapons suits would make the assault very difficult, especially in the growing heat of the Gobi Desert spring. He would have to rigorously enforce hydration discipline to keep his men from becoming heat casualties. Still, with live chemical agents, the PAP would probably be worse off.
General Kung interrupted Dugen’s calculations, “Do you have a problem with that, Colonel?”
“No, sir!”
“Do you have any questions Colonel Chu?”
“Yes General. May I ask, what chemical agents will be used?”
“We intend to use a variety of agents. We will begin with riot control agent. While effective against untrained mobs without protective masks, it has severe limitations against a force trained and equipped for chemical defense. Half of the PAP troops will be without protective masks, half will possess them — plan accordingly.
“Later we will introduce some classified agents. These agents are very hard to detect. Extremely small amounts can incapacitate the enemy. It is our belief that the correct agent, used in the proper fashion, can enable Jia Battalion to achieve their objectives with minimal casualties and in minimal time.”
“Yes General!” Now this training was getting very interesting. As Dugen saluted and left the General’s office he knew one of two things were happening. Either Jia Battalion is being used as a testing ground for new commando tactics or Jia Battalion was going to be committed to a specific and very important combat operation in the very near future.
Fu found himself growing to like Admiral Wong, the senior officer in charge of the Quemoy invasion preparations. The admiral was mostly jovial, although he was given to occasional dark moods. The first of these episodes took Fu aback. He had been in Admiral Wong’s office listening to the Admiral’s daily briefing when the Admiral stopped, looked at Fu and said, “I think we shall lose at least 100,000 men in the attack. Is it worth 100,000 lives to capture Quemoy?”
Fu, instantly on his guard, responded, “That is not up to you or me to determine. But, if you think it so, I will put it in my next report to the Party.”
“Put in your report. I’m sure the leadership will not be deterred but I feel it my duty to honestly assess the costs of their actions.”
Fu was troubled by such an attitude. His career was dependent on Admiral Wong’s successful execution of the invasion of Quemoy. Admiral Wong’s attitude was defeatist and dangerous. Still, the Admiral did display an exceptional amount of candor for an officer. Fu decided Wong’s merits outweighed his frailties. To be safe, though, he still reported every nuance to Beijing.
In his constant touring of the Nanjing Military Region (this region included the Shanghai Garrison, Jiansu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui Military Districts of China’s central East Coast) Fu was impressed by the thoroughness of the military preparations. Huge numbers of planes, rockets, and artillery were being mobilized. Much of the equipment was moved at night, then hidden in warehouses or caves.
Curiously, little of the equipment around Amoy under the direct command of Admiral Wong was hidden. Fu inquired about this and was assured that the PLA was making every effort to disguise the mobilization of the 85th Infantry Division and the eastward movement of the 71st and 73rd Infantry Divisions to staging areas around Amoy.
Even more difficult to conceal were the gathering naval forces of Admiral Wong’s amphibious task force. Day by day more ships arrived until at last the Admiral had assembled 60 amphibious vessels capable of lifting almost 20,000 troops and 340 tanks into combat at once. In addition to these ships, People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) had dispatched 11 destroyers, 19 frigates, 20 submarines and more than 100 patrol and missile craft. Amoy Bay was fairly bristling with armament.
Still, that was not enough. Other elements of the preparations surprised him. Hundreds of J-6 fighters had been flown in from other regions and packed into hangars, wingtip-to-wingtip. Dong Feng (East Wind) 11s and 15s, advanced, solid propellant, short-range ballistic missiles with ranges of 200 and 375 miles respectively, were being set up by the hundreds throughout the province. These road-mobile missiles, launched from a transporter-erector-launcher, were being set up under canopies and moved frequently in a shell game to keep foreign intelligence services from noticing too much. Fu knew they were equipped with new Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to improve their accuracy — the army assured him that they could target and hit any major building in Taiwan now.
With such a massive amount of firepower concentrated on such a small space, Fu was sure that Quemoy’s defenses would be quickly overwhelmed. With a force like this it would be possible to assault Taiwan itself. Fu dismissed the thought. The leadership has made its decision and you have been charged with seeing it through. Perhaps the leadership is correct. Surely the Taiwanese will see that this force is unstoppable and we might reach a political accommodation — didn’t Sun Tzu himself say that “…subduing the enemy without fighting was the acme of skill”?
In early May, Fu had the opportunity to observe, first-hand, a practice naval operation. Having never been on the open ocean before, he was nervous. He hid his discomfort by being more officious than usual. In response, the naval officers around him were of no help, preferring instead to let him get seasick on the heaving deck of the flagship Luhu-class destroyer he was aboard.
Listening to the operations briefing in advance of the exercise, Fu was struck at how clinical and precise everything was. Admiral Wong’s task force commander intended to move a screen of 35 warships in front of 20 amphibious assault ships to within one kilometer of Taiwan’s territorial limits off Quemoy’s main island. The operation had two main purposes: one, practice the coordination and timing needed for a successful attack; and two, analyze the Taiwanese Navy’s reaction to the mock attack.