He knew it was only a matter of time before the Allies got lucky and punched a hole right down into it. “With my luck, I’ll be inside when that happens,” he thought glumly.
The war had not been going well these past six weeks. With each passing day, it felt more and more like the walls were closing in on them.
As he approached the side door to the building closest to the tunnel entrance, Colonel Su watched as hundreds of workers used their hands, wheelbarrows, and other tools to clear and remove the debris from the inside of the building.
Fortunately, the other side of the massive structure had not been hit yet. When Su neared the entrance, several sentries snapped to attention. One of them then held his hand out, demanding that Colonel Su show his credentials. A couple of other guards nearby kept a wary eye on him until the guard had verified his identity. Then the outer door was opened, and he was ushered inside. He made his way over to a hallway that led to a ramp, at the end of which was the next checkpoint and the armored blast doors that protected the bunker beneath the building.
Every time Colonel Su walked into the underground fortress, he marveled at how high-tech it was. There was a group of rooms divided by half walls with soundproof glass that separated the various departments, and each room had wall-mounted monitors showing whatever that group was working on. The signals intelligence group, radio communications, computer networks, the PLA ground force, the air force, and the UAV groups all had their own rooms. In the nerve center of the bunker though, it was more like an amphitheater. Multiple massive wall monitors displayed various combat front lines, friendly and enemy troop dispositions, and any other information that a high-level decision maker would generally need.
Inside this central room, the rows of seats were filled with various liaison officers from the different commands in those battlefronts, intelligence, communication and logistical groups, along with the air force and other groups needed to manage and wage a war. Colonel Su stood there for a moment looking at everything, taking it all in like a person seeing Times Square for the first time.
Su had marveled at how the PLA leadership could have so much information at its fingertips but still not be able to effectively coordinate and execute this war. However, now that his directorate, Unit 61398, had relocated to a new location outside of Beijing, he was suddenly being included in a lot more of the military decisions and seeing a lot more of the big picture. Unit 61398 had largely been focused on the cyberwarfare aspect of the war. His unit had been incredibly good at waging this aspect of the war, but his unit could not take or hold land. That was the responsibility of the ground forces.
Suddenly, Colonel Su felt like someone was standing right behind him. He turned to see General Yang, the new overall PLA commander.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” he inquired.
Su nodded, not sure what to say.
“Prior to being appointed overall general of the PLA, I’d never been in this room,” General Yang admitted. “I had no idea the generals running the war had such an operations center with this level of information. My focus had been defeating our enemies in the field, not running a war. I must admit, having this much information at my fingertips makes me question how my predecessors fouled up the war so badly for us.” He spoke in a hushed tone that only the two of them could hear.
Colonel Su raised an eyebrow at the comment but didn’t say anything further. He didn’t know if General Yang was testing him or not. He didn’t want to sound defeatist.
“Come with me; let’s go to my private office. We need to talk,” Yang suggested.
As the two of them walked into the modest office, General Yang hoped he wasn’t making a mistake by bringing the colonel into his inner circle. However, he didn’t have much of a choice — he needed Su and his directorate’s capabilities for what he wanted to do next.
Yang gestured for Su to take a seat in a pair of comfortable chairs on the far side of his office. Then he depressed a button on the side of his desk, which turned on a white-noise maker and whited out the glass windows, preventing anyone from seeing or hearing their conversation. Once these formalities were taken care of, he pulled a bottle of American whiskey out of the bottom drawer of his desk, along with a couple of tumblers. Placing the glasses on the desk, he proceeded to pour an ample amount into each and carried them over to the small coffee table next to the chairs.
Colonel Su smiled softly when he saw the dark liquid and nodded his approval. The two of them sat quietly for a moment as they sipped on the rocket fuel, sizing each other up while they let the alcohol take the edge off.
After a few minutes, Yang opened the conversation. “I have a question for you, and I would like an honest answer. I assume your office has been monitoring the social media messages being shown across the occupied territories by President Hung Hui-ju. Am I right?”
Colonel Su lifted his glass and drained the rest of its contents before he answered. “I’ve seen the messages. My directorate has been tracking them, and we’re doing our best to suppress this propaganda from being promulgated on the internet, radio and TV airwaves.”
Yang nodded, not allowing his facial expressions to betray his approval or disapproval. Instead, he got up and walked to his desk, retrieving the bottle of whiskey. He poured them both another glass.
“What are your thoughts on their effectiveness? Do they appear to be working?” he probed further.
“It’s hard to say. Some of our human intelligence assets in the occupied territories have reported that they are. Many people are disillusioned with the war. Their cities or villages have been bombed, and many of them have family members that either have been killed in the army or are currently serving in the army, and they fear for their safety.”
“What else are they saying?”
Colonel Su took another long drink of the whiskey before he added, “Many of them just want the war to end. President Hung is promising better jobs under her economic model. She cites the successes in Taiwan and South Korea as examples of what mainland China could experience if the Xi regime is defeated. Many people dismiss her claims as Western propaganda, but many others are starting to believe her.”
Yang asked, “What specifically is causing the people to doubt our government? Is it something we can counter?”
Su shook his head. “No, I don’t believe we can counter it, at least not in the occupied zones. We don’t have any control there. We can’t imprison people for listening to her messages or supporting them like we can in the areas we control. Recently, President Hung has been playing messages of Chinese-Americans who have family ties to those in cities in the occupied zones. More than any others, those messages are having a huge impact on the people.”
Yang thought about that for a moment as he took another sip of his whiskey. “That’s going to be hard to overcome,” he remarked. “There are four hundred million of our citizens now living in the occupied territories. The longer the Allies are able to control them, the harder it’ll be for us to keep this message from spreading and permeating the rest of the country.”
Colonel Su shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We’re doing everything we can to prevent that, General. The Allies have not found a way through our firewall just yet. There is only so much we can do inside the occupied territories, but we have complete control of our own.”
Yang nodded in acceptance. Unlike his predecessors, he knew there was only so much his subordinates could do. Placing unrealistic expectations on them was just setting them up to fail, or worse, falsify information and results. Creating that type of environment would only place a question mark on everything his subordinates told him, and he needed accurate information.