“Yes sir. Now, if you please, I will brief you on the friendly situation. Using deceptive measures we have landed strong forces on Taiwan by unconventional means. Friendly casualties have been remarkably light. We have 10,000 soldiers of the 37th Infantry Division Keelung only 15 miles northeast of Taipei. We have reinforced regiments of about 4,000 men each in all three of the major west coast ports: Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. We have air dropped a regiment of the 2nd Airborne Division on Shalu to help secure Taichung’s harbor for follow-on forces. We have also air dropped the remainder of the 2nd Airborne Division on Highway 1, nine kilometer southeast of CKS Airport. Lastly, we have airlanded a battalion of commandos at CKS and secured the airport. Other airborne and airlanding operations are in progress.
“Beginning one hour after we captured the airport we have been landing aircraft every five minutes at CKS. By now we ought to have an entire regiment of the 87th Infantry Division in place with one regiment arriving every hour. Using commercial shipping and civilian ferries, reinforcements will arrive by sea in less than eight hours at every port facility we have seized. We have pressed into service every ocean-capable ferry in China from Guangzhou to Shanghai as well as most of our nearby merchant fleet. Our conventional amphibious forces will concentrate on landing troops and armor at Keelung and on the beaches near CKS.
“At the moment, the ROC forces in the field in Taiwan equal the equivalent of nine infantry divisions and two tank divisions with two-thirds of an artillery division. Our forces on the ground equal approximately three infantry divisions without heavy equipment.” General Wei looked satisfied at his briefing.
Fu Zemin had a drawn look on his face, “You mean we are outnumbered by almost three to one?”
The general smiled reassuringly, “Comrade Fu, remember the damage we inflicted on the renegade province before our attack. Their military has been hard hit by our virus. They can only fight at about 50 percent manning — about six divisions. You see, they only outnumber us two to one.” The general smiled thinly.
“Oh, I feel better already,” Fu let his sarcasm get the best of him. The general’s eyebrows arched.
“Sir, I don’t want to sound overconfident, but the enemy divisions are without communications. Without the ability to communicate, they cannot react to our moves. Further, when a military unit has half of its people sick in bed it is at less than half effectiveness. In fact most major militaries of the world consider a unit with only 50 percent of its personnel to be completely combat ineffective.”
Still looking worried, Fu changed the subject, “General Wei, you said we destroyed 40–60 % of the ROC Air Force. I expected a better result. Why did we not destroy more?”
“Sir, since our airborne surveillance aircraft and reconnaissance ships would impacted by the E-bomb we did not have them out collecting at the moment of detonation. As best as we could determine prior to the electronic attack, the ROCAF had only sortied about half of its fighters in response to our attack. This was a smaller response than we anticipated.” The general showed an air of resignation.
Fu became angry. He wanted to rule Asia someday, but he didn’t want to get shot out of the sky in the process of doing so, “Did you military geniuses ever stop to think that a few pilots might be grounded because of the flu?”
General Wei, stared at the seatback in front of him, not really focusing on anything. This man was obviously an intelligence professional, more concerned with data than with saving face. The general turned to Fu, “Of course!” His face lit up, “That’s got to explain it. I congratulate you Comrade Fu. I will relay this to the invasion headquarters immediately.”
General Wei removed an odd-looking cellular phone from his equipment belt and dialed a number, “Raven here… Something to consider… Maybe too many pilots had the flu… Right. I recommend you recalculate the attrition rate and plan accordingly. Oh, I also need any information on the status of the American ships… Right, I’ll wait.”
“General Wei, isn’t that a commercial satellite phone?” Fu was incredulous at the thought of a military intelligence officer using a regular commercial phone.
Wei hit the mute button on the phone. “Why yes sir, it is. It’s an Iridium satellite system digital phone — good anywhere on Earth. Highly resistant to jamming. And, actually fairly hard for the Americans to intercept. Because it’s digital and the system handles so many calls world-wide, we calculated it to be more secure than our normal scrambled voice communications. We have equipped every commander down to the regimental level with one.” The general was glowing with pride.
Fu was shocked that the PLA would place so much reliance on an American commercial communications system, “What if the Americans turn it off?”
“Well, first of all, we don’t expect to be fighting that long. Secondly, we own part of Iridium. It’s technically not even an American company — it’s based in Bermuda and we even have two members on its board of directors. If the American government eventually shuts down our calling privileges we’ll be no worse off than we were before. We will simply shift to using traditional modes…” Fu could hear someone on the other end of the phone. “…of communication. Pardon me. Yes… Yes. Excellent! No, that is all. Raven out.” The general turned to Fu with a broad grin, “We found the American naval task force. Our reconnaissance aircraft report seeing one capsized ship. A destroyer is on fire. Another ship appears to be damaged. And…” Wei’s smile became still larger, “we have sighted the sinking stern section of their flagship, the USS Belleau Wood. Fortune smiles upon us.”
“We attacked the Americans?” Fu was shocked at the implications. “Who ordered that?”
Wei looked not least bit concerned, “I’m sure it was a ‘mistake’, sir. After all, the American ships were in a war zone. We warned them, didn’t we?”
Fu fell silent. In the last few hours, China began a war of conquest and attacked the U.S. Navy. Everything had moved so quickly since the sudden arrest of Admiral Wong in his bunker. There had been no time to think. Only time to follow orders and react. It seemed like days ago, but it only happened less than four hours ago. Fu turned around in his seat and noticed the first passengers (all PLA officers) were four rows back. There was no one in the two rows of seats between them and the cockpit. He had his suspicions, but he had to know for sure. “General Wei,” Fu gathered himself to project his best aura of leadership and confidence, “Just how knowledgeable are you on the planning of this operation?”
“I have been working on the contingency plans for the invasion of Taiwan for the last eight years,” the general’s statement was matter-of-fact. No pride — simple truth. “We have actually been making and revising invasion contingency plans since 1949. We have an entire secret staff section of the PLA dedicated to doing nothing but that.”
“When did you learn of the actual approval for the operation?” Fu’s question was cool, but he was dying to know the answer for it would be an indicator of just how trusted an aid he was to the Party.
“I was notified in January, six months ago.”
Fu was crestfallen. With effort he kept his face impassive. This lowly PLA general knew about the operation shortly after the extraordinary planning session — the session in which Fu advocated a swift campaign to capture all of Taiwan and follow it up with a bold move to eject America from Asia — only his plan was rejected! Instead, the leadership approved a strategy of meek half-measures that he, Fu, was mandated to oversee.
The true extent of the leadership’s brilliance was becoming clear. He was simply used as a pawn in a game much larger and more complex than he ever imagined. Now he knew for sure, “So, the planned invasion of Quemoy was simply a ruse? Was the arrest of Admiral Wong a ruse too?”