The previous night’s Allied bombing raid on the industrial centers in the city of Tianjin had resulted in the death of nearly five thousand civilians. It had also killed more than three thousand soldiers and destroyed yet one more of Yang’s desperately needed armor brigades. He had been moving some of their strategic-level units such as heavy armor and mechanized units into heavily populated areas and industrial centers, in hopes that the Allies would not risk killing civilians in an effort to destroy his most prized units. That clearly had not worked.
A few minutes went by as the other generals and staff officers waited for President Xi to arrive. One of the colonels stuck his head in the doorway, signaling that the President had arrived before he went back to his duties. The others in the room squirmed a bit in their chairs as they waited for Xi. The last forty-eight hours had been a disaster, and they knew the President would not be pleased.
Without any preamble, Foreign Minister Wang walked into the room, quickly followed by several other ministers and then the President. Yang had to admit he didn’t know who half of the other ministers were at this point. Xi had been purging anyone he felt had failed him or the State these past few months. Between his purges and the Allies’ assassination bombings, there had been a lot of turnover in senior-level positions.
Taking his seat at the center of the table, President Xi surveyed the faces of the men before him. After a moment, he settled his gaze on the two men sitting opposite him, General Yang Yin and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Gentlemen, you’ve been back from your peace talks with the Americans and their Allies for less than forty-eight hours, and in that timeframe, the Allies have launched a series of new offensives and even now threaten the outskirts of this very city. Account for yourselves!” he demanded. He fixed each of them with a death stare.
Minister Wang fumbled for a few words as he sought to make sure Xi knew he had done everything in his power to convince the Allies that they had to agree to the terms he’d presented. The others at the table remained silent, almost stoic, as they listened to Wang describe how he had presented the facts to the Allies — that if they didn’t agree to Xi’s generous terms to end the war, China would pursue a hundred-year insurgency strategy, ensuring there would never be peace in China.
For his part, Xi seemed utterly unconvinced by Wang’s assurances. Once the foreign minister had run out of steam, Xi nodded and then turned to General Yang.
“What’s your assessment, General? Are future peace talks with the Allies worth it? Will the Allies accept the terms Minister Wang presented?”
Yang thought about his response for a moment. He knew what Xi wanted to hear, but he also knew the truth. He sighed. “Sir, I believe it would be best if I spoke with you in private about my assessment of the meeting.”
This response caught the others in the room by surprise. They were probably aware that General Yang’s assessment of the meeting would be the more realistic one, given his history of candor. After sitting through Minister Wang’s blundering recap, they had expected him to say something.
President Xi smiled. “Clear the room,” he ordered. “Everyone out but General Yang.”
Though no one’s comments were loud enough to trace back to any individual, there was a general murmur that swept over the room. All the ministers gathered their papers and got up as directed, though several of them had very sour expressions. They were obviously unhappy with being excluded.
“The general doesn’t want to deliver the bad news in front of the others. Good, at least he has the sense to keep the truth to himself and those who actually need it.”
Once the room had been cleared, Xi returned his gaze to General Yang. “I’ve always appreciated your forthrightness, General, but in this instance, I find myself grateful for your discretion. If the rest of those fools knew what bad shape we were in, they’d probably be plotting my demise.”
Yang bowed slightly.
“Well, it’s just the two of us left,” said Xi. “I take it the meeting did not go well?”
Yang tried to appear composed, but he knew the end for the PLA was near. He wondered if this was what the German generals had felt like during the last days of World War II, when the Russians were closing in on Berlin.
“No, Mr. President,” he responded. “The Americans would not budge. From their perspective, they are winning. They see no reason to agree to the terms you told Wang to present.”
Xi swore a few times as his temper got the better of him. Once he’d managed to calm himself a bit, he asked, “What parts of the proposal would they agree to?”
“In principle, they agreed to our Greater China territorial claims, with a couple of exceptions. They insisted that Singapore and Thailand be returned to their people and that Formosa be allowed to officially declare its independence. They also insist on us denuclearizing,” he said, adding that last part almost as an afterthought.
“They want us to yield our nuclear weapons? Why would they think we’d ever give them up?” Xi shot back.
“Because we’ll never use them, and because we provided the North Koreans with the missiles that hit them,” Yang countered. Had there been anyone else in the room with them, he never would have said that to Xi.
President Xi snorted. “I don’t know about never using them,” he retorted. “We just haven’t thought up a good enough plan for how to make them count.”
Smiling at the comment, General Yang knew he had gotten Xi to walk into the trap he’d baited. “Sir, I believe I have an idea about how we can use them to our advantage, and perhaps end the war, once and for all.”
Lifting an eyebrow, Xi asked, “How would we do that? And I thought you were dead set against using nuclear weapons.”
“Let’s just say I’ve had a change of heart after my meeting with the Americans,” Yang replied.
Over the following twenty minutes, General Yang walked President Xi through a scenario of how they could use their nuclear weapons on the Allied forces and end the war.
“I must say, General, I’m impressed,” President Xi finally said. “You’re more cunning than I’d given you credit for. How soon do you believe you could put this plan together?”
“I need a couple of days, Mr. President. If I may, I’d like to suggest that we hold a final planning meeting to go over the details of the plan prior to execution. Would you be available to meet again, in, say, three days, with the rest of the CMC?” Yang asked.
Before Xi could respond, Yang added, “I’d like for us to meet at the Summer Palace bunker. We’ve never met there during the war, and it’s a bunker facility I’m confident the Allies are unaware of. I get nervous each time we all gather in this building,” he said, looking up at the ceiling dramatically. “The Allies have already bombed this building a few times. I fear if we hold more CMC meetings in the same place, they will get wise to it and try to bomb this building a little harder.”
Xi also looked up. The building had indeed been bombed its fair share of times. Fortunately, the command bunker and operations center was burrowed deep under the building and had survived a few attempts at its destruction.
He nodded, seeming to accept the suggestion that they’d been tempting fate. “Very well,” Xi responded. “We’ll reconvene the meeting in three days at the Summer Palace facility.” Xi paused for a second, apparently sizing Yang up. “I’m glad you’ve given some more thought to using our nuclear assets. We all know they’re a weapon of last resort, but I fear we are quickly approaching that point.”