Since the majority of Chinese amphibious and infantry forces ready to invade Quemoy were either traveling in trucks or bivouacked in tents along Quemoy Bay, awaiting orders to begin the main assault, they were caught mostly in the open and fully exposed to the cluster bomb attack. Except for sporadic, unguided antiaircraft cannon and small-caliber fire, the F-16s began their egress from the target area completely unopposed. One Taiwanese F-16 Fighting Falcon was hit by cannon fire and was forced to eject, but not until he flew his stricken fighter east of Quemoy Island, practically into the arms of waiting Taiwanese patrols.
“Center up on the steering bug, heading two-eight-three, five minutes thirty seconds to the next turnpoint,” McLanahan reported to the Megafortress crew. They had crossed the Chinese coastline forty miles south of Xiamen, over Futou Bay; the new heading would take them south and west of the city of Zhangzhou and along the southern edges of the Boping and Wuyi Mountains. “Minimum safe clearance altitude, five thousand five hundred feet. High terrain twelve o’clock, twenty miles.” They were flying at treetop level using the EB-52’s COLA (COmputer-generated Lowest Altitude), in which the satellite-based navigation system compared its present and projected position, along with airspeed and heading, with a huge database of terrain elevations to compute the lowest possible altitude the Megafortress could fly without hitting any terrain or known man-made obstructions, and without using any radar emissions that might give their location away.
“Bandits, twelve o’clock, no range, no altitude yet,” Luger called out. “Just popped up… got a range estimate now, about forty-one miles and closing fast… speed five hundred knots. I think we got a couple Chinese Sukhoi-27s in the area, guys — and the son of a bitch might have gotten a look at us.”
A group of Chinese Communist Party Politburo members had joined Jiang in congratulating Sun Ji Guoming for his service. Jiang continued his praise for Sun, saying to all of his colleagues, “A stroke of genius, igniting a conflict on the Korean Peninsula at the same time as your attacks against the Nationalists. The Chinese Taipei issue certainly does pale in comparison to the prospect of a new Korean War. ”
“In your address to the world, Comrade President, may I also suggest that you offer to mediate a resolution of the conflict between North and South Korea, and perhaps go as far as to refuse to commit any of our troops to assist President Kim Jong-il if he refuses to participate in negotiations,” Sun suggested. “That might prevent the South from beginning its own offensive. Of course, if the South or the United States attacks the North first, we should threaten to use all of our resources to assist President Kim. The same for the Iranian conflict, if one should develop— we can offer to convince the Iranians to halt any aggression, in exchange for a greater presence in that region.”
President Jiang was obviously impressed by Sun’s ideas. “I still find it hard to believe,” the Paramount Leader said, “that we have used nuclear weapons against the rebel Nationalists and even against the United States, and we still apparently face no threat of retaliation. What has happened to the vaunted American military machine?”
“The machine is still there, Comrade President, and it is still powerful,” Sun warned. “That American submarine was probably sitting near Bandar-Abbass for weeks, and no doubt there are American submarines near most of our coastal military bases and ports as well that we have failed to detect — perhaps even with nuclear attack missiles. And if the Americans ever get proof that we planted the nuclear explosive on the Independence, we may indeed find ourselves at war with the United States. But as long as Martindale and his generals do not have a clear target, they cannot strike without being labeled as ‘warmongers,’ which is a hated name in America. We must not act rashly, but we must continue to keep the American president unbalanced and uncertain.”
“Excellent advice, comrade Sun,” Jiang said warmly. At that moment, an aide came up to Sun, bowed to the president, and handed Sun a message. “You have been a trusted and most valuable adviser to me. Your hard work and loyalty have been favorably noted by the Party. ”
“Thank you, Comrade President,” Sun said. He glanced at the note, then went on, “It is my honor as well as my duty to carry out the wishes of the—” And then he froze in complete surprise and muttered, “What in blazes?”
“What is it, comrade Sun?”
“The Quemoy invasion forces at Xiamen Bay are under air attack! ” Admiral Sun Ji Guoming exclaimed. “Air defense sites, missile emplacements, amphibious assault staging areas… it is a massive attack force! But where? Where did it come from?”
“What about casualties?” President Jiang asked breathlessly. “Did we stop them? Did we sustain any losses?”
Sun Ji Guoming read the message carefully, his eyes widening and his jaw slackening further and further as he read. Finally, he responded in a quivering voice, “The air defense sites… they were hit by precision weapons, some kind of armor-piercing weapon that homed in on our antiaircraft radars. Then more aircraft, believed to be Nationalist F-16 fighter-bombers, flew over and dropped cluster munitions on the infantry staging areas. Casualties are… believed to be high.”
“High? How high? How many casualties?”
“There is no report, sir,” Sun explained. “This is obviously a preliminary report—”
“What do you mean, Admiral?” Jiang exploded. “There have been high casualties, but you do not know how many? Where did this attack come from? I thought you told me the rebel Nationalist air force had been destroyed!”
“It has been destroyed, sir,” Sun said, his mind swirling in confusion. “I am sure of it! We hit every major rebel air base with a nuclear missile, and we have attacked every known alternate rebel air base with gravity weapons. The attack must have come from another base in the region, perhaps South Korea or Japan, perhaps even the Philippines.”
“But all of those countries pledged not to support the rebels or the United States in any offensive military missions,” Defense Minister Chi Haotian interjected. “They promised that the United States would not be permitted to stage attacks against us from their soil.”
“Then the attackers must have come from Formosa,” Sun said. “I do not know how they managed to sneak past our radar planes and elude our air defenses, but they cannot destroy all our air forces. My Tupolev- 16 heavy bombers are standing by — I shall order another heavy bombing attack against the rebels, this time attacking their civilian airfields and alternate bases — any field capable of staging F-16 fighter-bomber attacks against us.”
“It is so ordered,” President Jiang said. “You must execute this mission immediately. We must retaliate against the Nationalists right away.” “Yes, sir,” Sun said, relieved that the president and Politburo members weren’t turning this bad news against him. “I also ask permission to use the entire fleet of Tupolev-26 supersonic bombers to spearhead the attack. If some of the rebels’ F-16 fighters survived our air raids, we must use the high-speed bombers to penetrate their fighter screen and attack the targets.”