Before the general issued the order, he asked, “Sir, the militia units will probably be cut to pieces without armor support. Should we have them wait until the 14th Army is in position to support their advance?”
“No. They are quick and mobile, and we need to get them there now. I know they will be ravaged, but they will buy the 14th time to get into position and hit the Americans with our heavier armored and mechanized forces,” General Zuocheng replied. He had a huge pit growing in his stomach, knowing that tens of thousands of militia soldiers would probably be killed within the next hour.
Hold the Line
“Captain Thornton, Colonel Lee was looking for you,” said one of the sergeants as he walked into the operations room.
Thornton nodded and began to walk towards the door leading to the parking lot helipad. It had been three and a half hours since they landed in Rudong, and things were still very chaotic. His company had secured a suitable landing zone and expanded the perimeter enough to allow follow-on forces to continue to arrive. Helicopters were landing as fast as they could and offloading dozens of soldiers, munitions, water, food and other supplies that they would need. So far, two full battalions of Marines had landed at his landing zone (LZ), and were pushing further into the city. The eight Wolverines that arrived thirty minutes ago were already heavily engaged just a few blocks away.
As Thornton approached Colonel Lee, he could see that he was apprehensive about something. “Captain, there you are. I have some disturbing news….” he started.
Joe sighed. Then, sitting next to the colonel along the brick wall some of his soldiers had used for cover a few hours ago, he asked, “What’s coming our way?”
“Intelligence intercepted a message from the PLA district commander, directing the Chinese 14th Army to head to Rudong and Nantong. They also intercepted some additional orders to the local PLA militia units. I’m not sure why we were not warned earlier; apparently, they intercepted these orders three hours ago. The brigade recon team sent a FLASH message saying they had spotted a massive troop movement heading towards us. Here’s the video image they sent,” he explained, passing a tablet to Thornton.
Looking at the screen, he saw multiple side streets and alleyways crawling with militia. There had to be thousands of them. Thornton handed the tablet back and asked, “How far away are they?”
“They are approaching the brigade perimeter right now. We have several airstrikes inbound right now that will hopefully thin them out. I’ve asked for several additional Wolverines to be dropped. We are going to need a lot more firepower to beat back that mob. Their sheer numbers could overwhelm us if we are not careful,” Colonel Lee stated.
Thornton nodded. After a pause, he asked, “What do you want me to do, Sir?”
“I’d like you to have several heavy machineguns moved up to the roof of the surrounding buildings overlooking the LZ. See if you can’t get a few more barricades built near the perimeter and have them start placing a lot of claymore mines out there. I’m confident they won’t break through our main lines, but we need to be ready to hold the landing zones and ports. I’m going to move to Delta Company’s position next and make sure they are doing the same. You and Bravo Company have the two closest LZs to the frontlines right now.”
Before the colonel could leave, Thornton asked, “When are we getting some heavy armor from the ports?”
“Soon. They should be arriving with the next wave of transports, along with nearly 100 Wolverines. I would expect them to start showing up in a couple of hours, but until then, it’s going to get a bit dicey around here — so be ready,” Colonel Lee said as he got up and walked over to one of the armored trucks, hopping in.
Thornton quickly walked into his command center and began to look over the digital map as it was being updated with the data from the various drone feeds and intelligence reports. The colonel was right; it was not looking very good at the outer perimeter. He immediately called his platoon leaders and sergeants, gave them an update on what was coming their way, and issued new instructions to get their perimeter ready to repel the enemy should they break through the lines. It was imperative that they keep the air bridge into Rudong open.
They Are All Bad Choices
As the reports continued to flood in from the Rudong and Nantong, it was becoming clearer that the invasion was not going according to plan. They had anticipated stiff resistance by the PLA, but what they were encountering was nothing short of madness. The PLA had started to throw multiple militia divisions at the invasion force while they positioned the 14th Army to join the fray. The battle for Rudong was turning into a complete slaughter — not of the US Marines who were spearheading the invasion — but of the militia forces that were attacking them.
The drone feeds from the battle and some of the videos they had been reviewing from the battle helmets of the Marines was brutal. The number of bodies piling up in the streets and parks was horrific. The Chinese kept throwing more and more militia soldiers at the Marines, despite the endless slaughter. At the same time, the wave-after-wave assaults were starting to inflict a terrible casualty rate among the Marines. What was worse, the PLA was not allowing the civilians to flee the city. They had blocked the roads, clogging the streets up and creating an even worse humanitarian crisis. The General was not going to be pleased with what was happening. The US had been working hard to avoid civilian casualties, but it appeared that the PLA was going to use the people of Rudong, Nantong and Shanghai as human shields.
Major General (MG) Peter Williams walked over to where General Gardner was standing and waited for him to finish speaking with General Black. MG Williams had been with General Gardner since the start of the war in the Middle East over two years ago, and he had continued to remain his executive officer as he transferred from one Command to the next. He had a relatively good understanding of how the general thought, what he wanted to have done and how he wanted things to run.
A minute later, General Gardner turned to MG Williams and said, “I assume you’ve gotten caught up on the reports flooding in?”
MG Williams just nodded and waited to see what his friend would say next. Gardner began, “We are taking significant casualties, even though we are slaughtering their militia forces. It also appears the PLA is using the civilian population as human shields preventing them from fleeing the city,” he said, disgusted.
“I think we should revise our invasion plans and send the EHDs into Rudong,” Williams proposed, hoping Gardner would agree.
“I had wanted to save them for our summer invasion, but I think you may be right. This is a fight that is more suitable for the EHDs. What I’m not sure of is what to do with the civilians. If the PLA is not going to let them flee the area, they are going to get caught up in the fighting. I do not want to limit our ability to provide air or artillery support for fear of hitting civilians,” he stated.
“What are you going to do?” asked Peter, also very concerned about the situation.
“I have a call with the President and General Branson shortly. I am not going to do anything until I have clarity and support from the President.” Gardner checked his watch again; his telecom was going to start in five minutes.
President Stein had been monitoring the progress of the invasion since it started, sifting through miles of information and data feeds in the bowels of the PEOC. Like the others in the room, he was appalled by what appeared to be the senseless slaughter of the PLA militia forces. Now they had to contend with the PLA’s blockading of the civilians from fleeing the cities.