“Of course, the Indians deny any and all involvement,” Wencang continued. “And if doesn’t stop, we will be tasked to go on the offensive in punitive retaliations.”
“Wencang, are you serious? Why weren’t we told about this?” Chen said in shock. Wencang grunted in half-amusement, half-disappointment.
“You weren’t told because even I found out about this only yesterday. Only General Jinping was aware, based on briefings at the CMC. He chose to keep it with him until he was sure of what was happening. That changed yesterday. The Chairman asked for military options in case we cannot get India to back off support for the Tibetan rebels. We are now authorized to bring up our defensive readiness levels in Lanzhou and Chengdu MRAFs. As you can imagine, there are no dates for this yet because of the fluid nature of events. General Jinping seemed worried about it when I met with him yesterday. Which is why he will approve whatever is needed now to ensure the Air-Force does not fail him and the C-M-C when the time comes.”
Wencang looked back from the windows and the blue skies outside to face the two men sitting across from him.
“So he will approve the unified MRAF requirement and you will be tasked to unite the two headquarter staffs under your command. All Air-Force Divisions under these two regions will now be under your field command. Expect a lot of resistance from people who will find themselves subordinated to your region from Chengdu. But exert total control and get them working together. You will have three full Fighter Divisions under your control with one more in reserve and several independent units and support Divisions. That’s close to five hundred frontline fighters, tankers and airborne-radar aircraft under direct command not counting reserves and transport Divisions.”
Chen leaned back in his chair on hearing all of this. He then remembered something and looked at Feng. Wencang took the cue and looked over to Feng as well.
“You have something to add, Senior-Colonel?”
“Yes sir, I do. With all the Fighter Divisions you will hand us to fight the Indians, we will be quickly limited by our ability to base them near regions of interest,” Feng added and opened his briefcase to remove his recommendations. Wencang took the papers from him and looked around for his reading glasses under the bundle of papers on his desk.
“Airbases?” he asked as he opened the spectacles.
“Yes sir. We don’t have enough airbases near the Indian border to concentrate all of these forces. This means that the cheaper, second line units could perhaps be based on airfields in the TAR so that they can reach the combat zone without requiring tanker support. The more precious heavy fighters should be based in bases in upper Tibet and Lanzhou region airbases along with all special mission aircraft. However, what this means is that despite our numerical superiority, we will not be able to exert the same presence over the battlefields as the Indians would be able to given the close proximity of their permanent airbases near the border.”
Wencang read through the recommendations on the papers Feng gave him, nodded on some and frowned on others.
“That’s a lot of hardware in here, Feng,” he said finally as he put down the papers. Before Feng could answer, Chen spoke up.
“Sir, it is what will be needed to keep the Indians at bay and to secure our ground forces on the battlefields. So far these units have been kept back at mainland bases. I need them moved to the Tibet area right away so that Feng can figure out how best to deploy them in combat alongside our fighters.”
Wencang removed his reading glasses and frowned, lost in thought. He then nodded in silence and looked back to Chen and Feng.
“I will see what I can do. In the meantime, get back to your commands and begin the task of integrating the regional units into a single unified command. I will be visiting in a few weeks to see the nature of the preparations along with General Jinping. Do not let me down on this. Understood?”
“Sir!”
Wencang got up behind his desk and Chen and Feng did the same. Chen walked over to the coat-rack and picked up his coat. As he buttoned it, Feng snapped his briefcase shut and pushed his chair back into place as he walked around it.
“One other thing. Keep this under wraps for now. If we are lucky, cooler heads will prevail in a few weeks and this whole incident will be behind us. If not, prepare yourself mentally for a bitter struggle, gentlemen. Find ways for us to prevail in a fight with the Indians. Despite all the propaganda out there, we all in this room understand the ground realities. I will do my best to handle Beijing and get you what you need. You figure out how to defeat the Indians by capitalizing their weaknesses and expanding on our strengths.”
“Yes sir!” Both men saluted Wencang who returned it and sat back into his chair. Chen and Feng walked out a few moments later while the young Lieutenant closed the door to Wencang’s office behind them.
Once it was peace and quiet inside, Wencang looked at the wish list Chen and Feng had laid out before him and decided to get to it. He picked up the phone to his adjutant outside.
“Get me Colonel-General Liu at 2ND Artillery Corps HQ right away.”
The sound of the boots trampling the grass and bushes was now louder than the sounds of the water gushing down the rivulet nearby. The fifteen heavily armed Indian soldiers moving through the thick bushes had no time to pay attention to serenity of the surroundings, however. Their job was to get on a dominant peak on the other side of the east-west running rivulet.
A few minutes later they were at the edge of the shallow rivulet and looking at the trees and bushes on the other side through their rifle optics. This force of men was commanded by Major Krishnan. He looked around and saw the camouflage-painted faces of his Jawans as their flipped the rifle safeties off and chambered a round into their rifles. A few seconds later he gave the all clear with a hand wave and the group moved out from the bushes and ran over the shallow rivulet, splashing ice-cold water as they did so. They were soon within the bushes on the other side and then began climbing to the northwest from where they could control the western stream.
Half a kilometer to their west a squad of Chinese soldiers was moving down the edge of the main stream on foot. This was neither the first time nor the last time this had happened. And in the last few weeks it had been a regular story. The Tibetan rebels would often move through these hills as they infiltrated into southern Tibet. The Chinese soldiers would pursue those groups attempting to move back through this area to safety in India. And since the official Chinese line was that Arunachal Pradesh was Chinese territory, the PLA had become very aggressive here, leading a series of hot pursuits into Indian Territory. Less than a week before, they had run into an Indian patrol and both sides had engaged, causing several dead and wounded on the Indian side as a result of mortar fire from Chinese troops.
On this morning the Chinese troops were conducting yet another such patrol. This time, however, an Indian Nishant UAV had picked up the Chinese even before they had crossed the border. Thirty minutes after that, Krishnan’s commanding officer at the Battalion HQ had received the call and Krishnan and his men had been dispatched to intercept, taking the feed from the Nishant UAV as their navigation aid. It allowed them to get into a position of advantage before they came into contact with the Chinese.