Jinshan had been a powerful figure. But General Chen was something else. Lena was surprised how he had consolidated power so quickly, wiping out his enemies and instilling fear in everyone around him. China was now an authoritarian military dictatorship, with her father as its supreme leader.
During the middle of the ceremony, the parade of soldiers suddenly stopped and turned to face him. An aide whispered something in General Chen’s ear, and he rose, nodding and grinning with excitement. He hobbled his bulky frame down the stairs, escorted by soldiers, to receive a medal from the unit commander.
Minister Dong leaned over to her and whispered, “It is the Order of August First. The highest military award. Only ten people have ever received it.”
Lena looked at Dong. The neutered head of the MSS had kept his title, but he was now only a figurehead. General Chen had installed one of his loyalists next to Dong, and he was making all of the Ministry of State Security decisions now.
Lena said, “What has he done to deserve it?”
Dong replied, “Does that matter?”
They watched as the medal was placed around General Chen’s neck. Lena could practically feel his pulse pounding, the endorphins filling his bloodstream as his lifetime quest for power and affirmation was realized. He walked back up the stone steps to his elevated perch and waved to the masses. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens cheered. Lena’s father beamed.
Hours later, after a lavish lunch with senior military officers and their social-climber wives, it was finally time for business. General Chen sat at the head of the long conference table as his senior leaders poured praise onto him until finally he frowned and demanded they begin updating him on the status of the war.
A PLA general leaned forward and began giving updates. Lena recognized him as one of her father’s former subordinate unit commanders. It looked like he had pinned a few more stars onto his collar in the past week. She wondered what her father did with the former general in that position. Loyalty was all that mattered to General Chen, she knew.
“We are locked in a stalemate in Central America, General. Our forces are making progress, but the Americans have dug into their positions north of the Panama Canal. With our recent naval defeat…”
A PLA Navy officer bristled. “We were hardly defeated. We sank five American ships and shot down nearly one hundred aircraft.”
Lena knew that was an exaggeration. She had read the raw intelligence reports. Only a few dozen American planes were destroyed, not the astronomical figure that the PLA Air Force had claimed. And four of the five American ships were damaged, not sunk. But these were facts no one in this group dared bring up.
There was nothing like a public execution to start the good news flowing.
“We expect to break through the American lines within the next week, General.”
General Chen looked at the map. Bright red arrows plowed through the blue American positions.
“How?” he asked.
“Sir, we intend to use…”
General Chen stood. “You have had weeks with the same soldiers, the same equipment.”
“Yes, sir, but…”
“The Americans are holding us back. What did I say during my speech to the politburo? We must be stronger.”
“Yes, sir.”
General Chen widened his eyes and used his hands to emphasize the importance of his words. “We must use all of our resources. It is crucial to our victory efforts that we break through. Our naval fleet is now transiting up the east coast of South America. They will be in Venezuela by… by when, Admiral?”
“Next week, sir.”
“Next week.” General Chen snorted. “Hmph. I want action now.”
“Our men are short-handed after the recent attacks. We are waiting for reinforcements…”
“You have an inordinate number of troops in the vicinity. What are they doing, if not fighting?”
“Sir, there are many things they must do…” The officer answering the question was caught off guard. “Logistics. They must drive fuel and ordnance north to the front lines. And some are being used to guard prisoners… we have several POW camps. They must…”
General Chen shook his head. “No. That is a waste of resources. Close the prison camps.”
“Who will guard the prisoners?”
He shrugged. “Terminate all of the prisoners.”
The officer’s mouth dropped open. “Sir… that is… illegal.”
General Chen rose from his seat, his chair falling backward behind him. “Do not dare to tell me what I can and can’t do. I told you to terminate the prisoners. We must use all of our soldiers for fighting. We must put forth maximum effort!”
He turned to another general and said, “What of the unconventional weapons programs we are developing. Could we use those to break through the stalemate?”
Most of the faces looked horrified.
Someone had the good sense to placate him with, “We will look into it, sir.”
General Chen said, “The Americans wouldn’t expect a chemical attack. It worked well in Korea. We could use gas to break through Central American land mass.”
Lena looked at the men around the table. They were fearful for their lives. Despite the irrational things he said, no one would dare contradict him.
General Chen continued, “It is imperative that we break through those lines and start moving northward by the time the naval fleet arrives in Venezuela. We must force the Americans to deploy their resources to Central America. This will relieve pressure on our naval fleet in the Atlantic. Once our naval fleet reaches Venezuela, our Atlantic fleet will allow us to execute an amphibious landing on the American homeland. This will be a crushing blow. We must break through Panama before then.”
Several of the generals and admirals in the room began offering suggestions. Lena thought they sounded like children playing a game. These generals had risen through the military ranks during a career of peace. And now they were moving hundreds of combat divisions half a world away, in the largest war the world had ever known.
General Chen said, “Lena, what do you think?”
The room went silent as all eyes fell on her.
Lena kept her chin up as she spoke. “The Americans have enough aerial range to attack our naval fleet as it moves north. The latest MSS intelligence report suggests that the Americans are gathering their strike aircraft together on a few specific military bases. They are using these bases as hubs to increase their Long Range Anti-Ship Missile capability. An amphibious landing would require Chinese air and naval superiority.”
“We will have it!” shouted one of the PLA generals.
Lena was unimpressed, and it must have shown on her face.
“You think we will not succeed?” her father asked.
“Not unless we are able to damage the American air and naval forces that would be used to counterattack our naval movements.”
One of the generals said, “We have moved many of our air assets into the region. We can launch an attack…”
Lena interrupted him. “Your forces are busy maintaining a stalemate in Central America. Any reallocation of those air and ground forces would damage your ability to fight the ground war. And an attack on targets near the continental United States would be very costly to our attacking force.”
“That is not true!” said the same general, no doubt trying to save face in front of her father. “We attacked an American base during the Panama battle last week and hit eighty-five percent of our targets with only ten percent losses.”
Lena said, “You had surveillance support. You knew where the targets were and could use a mass satellite launch to gain precious targeting and communications capability. Our next mass satellite launch won’t be ready for weeks. You would be flying blind, General. Hoping that your targets were where they were supposed to be. Hoping that the Americans didn’t wipe out your air force. The same air force that is needed to provide air support over Central America.”