General Yang’s heart raced as he waited for Xi’s reaction. When he wasn’t immediately executed, he slowly began to try and breathe again. President Xi didn’t say anything for a few moments. Yang could tell that the wheels were turning inside his head as he weighed his options. The general wondered what his decision would be as the leader of the country. If they tried to prolong the war, it would mean more of China would fall to the Allies, and if that happened, it would be harder for him to negotiate an acceptable peace deal. Then again, if he threatened to wage an endless guerrilla war if they didn’t accept his proposal, he might be able to gain a better deal.
Finally, Xi spoke. “What about our nuclear weapons? What if we used them on our own soil to destroy the Allied armies? Could that be enough to turn the tide?”
Yang paused briefly. “That’s a tricky question, Mr. President. The Americans know where our nuclear missile silos are, so using them is out of the question. They would move to destroy them all as soon as they thought we might use them. If we used our mobile launchers, I believe we could catch them by surprise, but personally, I’d recommend against using nuclear weapons. Once we do, you can bet the Americans will use them on us. We saw what they did to North Korea and to Shenyang.” General Yang hoped the President would not pursue that path.
Xi slumped back in his seat, the wind taken out of his sails. He had finally heard the sobering truth…Yang wondered what he would choose to do with that information.
Chapter 18
A Desperate Push
Sitting in the bottom of his fighting position, Corporal Jordan Wright looked at the sky above them, marveling at the beauty of the stars on full display. As he watched some of the glowing specks twinkle in the night sky, Wright thought these were some of the best times to be in the Royal Army, away from the hustle and bustling of London and his never-ending work at Google. He’d been telling himself that he was going to buy a place in the country one day, but thus far, he’d never gotten around to it.
“Maybe I’ll sell a ton of my Google stock and just do it when I get back from this war,” he considered. Then he almost laughed aloud at the thought of trying to convince his lovely wife to live in a small village in the countryside, several hours from London. She was quite the London socialite, what with her yoga class she taught in the evenings and her work at an art gallery. She loved the high energy and fast-paced life of the city. Really, that was one of the things that had attracted him to her — she was a ball of constant energy, full of life and passion.
Looking to his left, Corporal Wright saw that Private Nigel Flowers was still asleep. He’d let the kid sleep a bit more; they still had another twenty minutes until “stand-to.” They were nearing the scariest moments of the day now though; for some reason, the Chinese liked to use the time when the sun had just started to break through the evening darkness to launch their first attacks of the day.
Wright heard a rustling behind him. He craned his head to the left, looking for its source. He gripped his rifle a little tighter and stood to see who or what was making the noise.
When he spotted Lieutenant Lou Shay creeping up to his position with a couple of other soldiers in tow, he let out the breath he had been holding. “Good morning, Lieutenant,” he whispered as good-naturedly as he could manage. He waved to the other visitors to welcome them to the trench. The new arrivals woke Private Flowers up, but he seemed glad to see a few more people joining them in their part of the trench.
Once B Coy had secured the ridgeline containing the radar station and enemy antiaircraft guns on it, their captain had ordered them to build a series of fortifications at a couple of strategic points facing the city below them. When the PLA had failed to attack right away, the paratroopers had taken full advantage of the time to dig themselves in deep. They were also able to get some help from their engineering unit, which had finally arrived in the fourth wave of transports. In the short two days they’d been left alone to work, they’d managed to cover most of the ridge with trenches that were two and a half meters deep, as well as construct bunkers for their machine guns. They’d even managed to string up rows of concertina wire roughly a hundred meters in front of their positions.
Lieutenant Shay introduced the newcomers. “Corporal Wright, this is Lance Corporal Benjamin White from A Coy, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. Corporal White here has five privates with him to help keep their FN MAG 58 machine gun up and running. You know this quadrant better than I do — tell them where they need to have the gun set up and what their fields of fire should be.” He paused for a second to look at his watch. “Stand-to is in ten minutes. Get these guys ready. The captain told me we should expect a large attack within the next hour, so we need to be prepared.”
Corporal Wright shook the Australian’s hand, and then Lieutenant Shay didn’t wait any longer; he moved past him and headed further down the line to speak to the next group of soldiers.
The six Australians stood there for a moment, staring at the eight British soldiers they’d just been dumped on. Lance Corporal White was the first to speak. “So, where do you want us to get this pig set up?” he asked, gesturing to the private carrying the large machine gun.
“Let’s set you guys out over here,” Wright replied, pointing to a small outcropping of their trench. He had been using that as his firing position, but it would make more sense to place the machine gun there. It had a better arc of fire and could cover more of the approaches. “How much ammo did you guys bring for that thing?” he asked.
“Ten belts. You think we’ll need more?” one of the privates asked nervously.
Wright chuckled. “Yeah, we’re going to need a lot more than that. Look, one of you guys get the extra barrel set up on its bipod on the ground near the wall; that way, when you need to swap out barrels, it’ll be quick and easy. I need two of you privates to crawl back to wherever you came from and grab more ammo. Bring at least another ten belts of ammo. I hope like hell we won’t need it, but I’d rather have it here than start to run low during a battle and have to send one of you guys to go grab more then.”
With his initial orders given, the two privates headed off to go grab more ammunition while the four of them remained at the trench, awaiting stand-to and what the dawn would bring.
As the sun slowly crept its way up in the sky, the last remnants of the darkness evaporated to reveal a city in turmoil below them. Dozens upon dozens of buildings, roads and bridges had been destroyed by airstrikes and artillery from two days prior. Most of the fires were out at this point, only leaving behind the charred remains of what used to be a thriving city.
“What the hell is that?” asked one of the Australians as he pointed to a group of shadows.
“Oh crap, here they come,” Wright thought to himself. The ground below them started to move.
“Get ready, lads, it looks like the Chinese are finally going to pay us a visit this morning,” he replied.
The young man turned and looked at him as if to say, “You can’t be serious?” Then they heard the first rounds of incoming rocket and artillery fire.
“Everybody down!” yelled Wright. He grabbed Private Flowers’s arm and pulled him down to sit at the bottom of the trench with him.
The high-pitched shrieks of Katyusha rockets filled the sky just before the loud, bone-jarring roar of explosions.