Walking over to Colonel Fang, General Cho leaned in and said in a low voice, “Look, the American Marines are less than ninety miles from the Hwangsuwon Airbase. Once they land enough forces, they are going to make a concerted push in this direction. With the North Koreans having just surrendered to the allies, we have to secure as much of the country as possible. What can you do to establish some sort of air defense corridor to allow us to marshal enough forces to push them back into the sea?” he asked in a much calmer tone.
“Sometimes the best way to get what you want is to apply honey when the vinegar has clearly not worked,” Cho remembered.
The sudden surrender of the North Koreans had caught the Chinese army off guard, and certainly made things a bit more complicated. The PLA now had to secure as much of the country as possible. Pausing for a minute before responding, Colonel Fang replied, “I need you to secure the surrounding hills and ridges around the airbase. We need to make sure there are no enemy soldiers nearby calling in airstrikes on us. From the reports I read from one of my units at the base, they came under air attack almost as soon as they arrived at the base. Clearly an enemy force is operating in the area. Find and destroy them, and I will get you an air defense corridor.”
General Cho nodded. “I will have my division start to clear the surrounding hills and ensure there are no Americans observing the base. In the meantime, please move additional air defense vehicles to the base. My infantry forces will work with your men to identify new positions to locate the SAMs and anti-aircraft guns to best protect the base.”
The two men talked for a few more minutes and then went their separate ways to get things moving.
General Cho waved to his executive officer for him to come over to him. Cho unfolded his map on the side of his command ZBD-04A infantry fighting vehicle and spit the piece of gum he had been chewing into his hand. Then he applied it to both corners of the map, and pressed them against the side armor of the vehicle.
“You didn’t want to use one of the tables?” his XO said in a slight chuckle as he approached his commander.
Smiling and then laughing at what he had just done, “Sometimes when you have an idea, you just have to run with it before it fades away. Come here and look at the map of the DPRK airbase. I just got done talking with Colonel Fang from our air defense brigade. He insisted that there must be an American, ROK, or Japanese unit operating on one of these ridges or hilltops near the airbase, calling in airstrikes. He has asked if we could help clear these areas, so he can bring in additional air defense systems. Then the engineers can work on getting the airfield operational again for the air force.”
General Cho showed his XO multiple hilltops and ridgelines in the vicinity of the airbase. “Colonel Fang also said they had shot down two aircraft. One of the pilots was able to eject in the vicinity of this hilltop, roughly a mile and a half from the airbase, but no one has gone looking for the pilot yet.”
The XO gave a puzzled look. “Why didn’t anyone send a search party?” he wondered. “Seems like someone isn’t doing their job…”
“I am going to call fifth brigade and find out why they have not secured that downed pilot yet. They should have,” he replied. “We have a Special Forces battalion we can call and see if they will support us in trying to ferret out this enemy force in the area. Would you like me to give them a call and see if they can spare any units?” his XO offered. He knew his commander was under a lot of pressure to secure the airbase and then move to the coast to make contact with the American Marines.
General Cho nodded and signaled that it was time for them to get back on the road. “Have the rest of the division continue to move towards the airbase. We need to get it secured and back operational within the next 24 hours, if possible.”
Maverick signaled Chunk, their demolition expert, to crawl over to his position. Sighing, Chunk slowly crawled out of his fighting position and made his way over to Maverick’s little foxhole, which was fifteen yards away from his own. “This had better be good-I just opened my tortellini and cheese, and they are going to get cold,” he said in reference to his MRE, snickering.
Maverick ignored the joke and handed him his spotting lens. “What do you see down there at the base of the hill?”
Chunk grudgingly took the glasses from Maverick and began to scan down below. The bottom of the hill was roughly 4,000 yards below them and had a fairly steep elevation. A soldier on foot could easily scale it, but not a tracked vehicle. As he peered through the trees towards the clearing at the bottom of the hill, his eyes spotted something. At first, it was just a couple of what appeared to be Chinese soldiers. But as he scanned the area, he spotted dozens of infantrymen, all heading up the hill towards their position.
“I see we have company joining us for lunch,” he replied as he handed the binoculars back. “You better tell Chucky.”
Keying his mic, Maverick said, “Chucky, we have company heading our direction from the base of the hill. Chunk and I spotted at least a couple dozen infantrymen. How do you want us to proceed?”
CW4 Lee was hoping they could stay undetected for a little while longer, but with the downing of the Hornet pilot, he knew that was becoming less and less likely.
“This is going to get ugly fast,” he thought.
Keying his own mic, Chucky responded, “Standby and monitor them. I’m going to raise Henhouse and advise them of our situation.”
“Henhouse, this is Watchman Five. We have enemy soldiers heading towards our position. What is the likelihood of us being able to get an extraction?” he asked for probably the tenth time in the last three hours.
A couple of minutes went by before they heard the familiar voice of Henhouse. “The Air Force is going to vector in two pairs of wild weasels to your position. Depending on their success, we may be able to arrange for an extraction on the back side of Hill 079, roughly 2,000 yards from your current position. How copy?”
CW4 Lee smiled at that news. They had been going around and around trying to get an extraction. “That’s a good copy, Henhouse. How soon until the Vipers show up?”
The radio came back to life quickly in response. “They should be in bound in less than five mikes. Standby and report back on any battle damage assessments.”
As the enemy soldiers slowly began to climb up the hill they were dug in on, additional armored troop carriers and tanks fanned out around the airbase. Several pieces of construction equipment showed up as well; two bulldozers and a couple of graders had begun the process of filling in the craters on the runways and taxiways. Two more SA-22s had also shown up and it looked like an SA-10 was being set up not far from the dam and the edge of the reservoir. Then, they heard the unmistakable sound of jet engines.
Once the jets could be heard, the SA-22s and SA-20s immediately began to fill the sky with surface-to-air missiles, intermixed with their 30mm anti-aircraft guns. Several PGZ95 Chinese self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles also opened up with their quad 25mm autocannons, filling the sky with green tracers and SAMs. The overwhelming rumble of war was incredible; the thunderous booms of hundreds of 30mm and 25mm autocannon rounds echoed throughout the valley and filled the sky. Then Chucky and the rest of his team saw several missiles impact against the body of two PGZ95s, which blew up violently, throwing flames and shrapnel in all directions.
Then, one of the SA-20s exploded in spectacular fashion, just as the others had earlier in the day. Only this time, they saw one of the F-16s explode in mid-air as one of the SAMs collided with it. As more SAMs flew after the F-16s and additional anti-aircraft fire continued to light up the sky, another Viper pilot was hit, though he managed to limp his aircraft away. Fortunately, before he had to leave the battle, he managed to shoot down two more of the anti-aircraft vehicles.