“There,” she pointed to a large island off southern China, “Hainan. That’s were their nuclear Genie lives. Their SSBN base.”
She leaned over and placed her fists on the table. “We’re going to threaten it, attack it. They can’t lose it, never, never. Whatever PLAN assets that are needed will be sent. Guess where they have a big bunch of them right now? The Straits of Taiwan. You know what? If Hainan is threatened half of those fuckers will sail south. We can pick those Mothers off one by one. Am I wrong Larry?” Larry sighed.
“It’s possible, but it’ll be defended as it is, we have to apply some heavy stuff.”
“I agree, we can ask the USAF to lend a hand too. When they’re done combing their hair,” she looked to Nathan, “you have to lean on COMSUBPAC.” He nodded.
“Anyway,” said Larry, “don’t they have some mountain-based ICBM silos up north somewhere?”
Nikki sat at the table. “Yes, in Hebei province just 60 or 70 miles north of Beijing. They call it the underground Great Wall, it’s a network of tunnels under Hebei’s mountains. Apparently, they have railways to transport the missiles through the tunnels. China doesn’t have that many nukes, not like us and the Russians. We do have all the possible launch entrances located. They know it’s vulnerable to a nuclear strike, they would retain missiles after a strike there but not a huge amount. Although it would be a near suicide mission, Taiwanese and US troops could land to get into the tunnels and cause mayhem. They’d probably use gas and thermobaric weapons. This tunnel network is a threat, but a second-rate threat.”
Frank Pike smiled and scratched his neck.
“You didn’t hear this from me Chaps. But we looked at this place from the ground and by satellite some years ago. The ground deployments we used were probably MI6 people, Chinese recruited to work against the PRC. We have access to a great many of these people from Hong Kong, we still have a swing there. It’s very strongly rumoured, and hush hush,” he tapped the side of his nose, “that GCHQ has infiltrated their communications with this place.”
“GCHQ?” Nathan frowned.
“Our NSA,” smiled Frank. Nathan stood.
“Bring up a map on the large monitor Nikki.” The island appeared on screen. He stood before it.
“OK, so it’s Hainan that’s their centre of nuclear gravity. How do we hammer the place?”
Chapter 11
THE PLA’S 1st Amphibious Mech division, and 164th Marines were making progress pushing into the city. Much of their men and equipment was now ashore, with resupply underway. Attrition was high, a landing ship carrying most of the 1st Amphibious Mech’s armour and much of their artillery had been sunk by a JASSM missile and two others damaged in F18 attacks and missile strikes. Many Frigates and Destroyers were sunk or out of action. But the core of the PLAN task force was intact.
A few F18’s were shot down, but the damaged ones were diverted to Chiayi airbase 40 miles to the south, as Taichung City’s airport was under attack and in danger of being overrun.
But resistance ashore was building in strength. Down the 7 and 8th highways the ROC Army 10thArmy Corps with its Mechanized infantry brigade and Armor Brigade were offering stiff resistance east of the city. Close air support by the ROC air force and the Apache helicopters slowed the advancing PLA units. The 8th Army Corps had advanced up highways 3 and 21 and now were starting to press the invaders from the south.
OFFSHORE, CAPTAIN CHAO of the Luyang III class Destroyer Chengdu, read the command printout from Fleet headquarters with growing unease. He flushed up with a furious expression. His Executive officer glanced at him.
“Sir, what’s the matter?”
“Damn fools. This has to be the Political idiots in Beijing insisting on this.” He passed the command slip to the XO.
“They’re more accustomed to licking politburo ass than to war.” Chao slammed his fist on the nearest bulkhead, a nearby operator looked up alarmed.
“This is a warship not a troop ship.”
The XO wore a look of disbelief. “We don’t have spare manpower for this.”
“Fleet knows that, Chao glared, the Admirals aren’t stupid. But the politicians are. Shit.” The Captain walked the line of monitors in the darkened room, each with a crewmember operating it. He placed his hands behind his back and paced with head hung low. He soon returned to the XO.
“I’m going to get the Chief of the decks to choose, he has some experience, he used to be a Marine. Take the Conn XO.” Chao left the control room. He knew it must be going very badly ashore, that it had come down to this desperate measure.
AROUND ONE HUNDRED sailors gathered on the stern flight deck. The Chief of the decks and the Captain stood inside the hanger facing aft and the crew.
May was stood alongside Captain Chao with Commander Long. The Chief of the decks had briefed her personally not long ago. She’d been horrified and still was, but she couldn’t show it. Not in front of the crew.
“Fellow crew members,” announced Captain Chao, “we have received an order from Fleet command. Chengdu is to provide a company of sailors to the 164th Marines ashore. We have chosen you to represent our ship. You will be led by Commander Long, he will be Company commander and Lieutenant Commander Tang Li will be second in command. You will be issued with all our QBZ-95 assault rifles, other weapons will be issued by the Marines once ashore. Blue camouflaged clothing will be issued to anyone who needs it, we have 20 Kevlar helmets aboard, the rest will be issued by the Marines.
Your duty is to reinforce the Marines in the fight to liberate Taiwan from the illegal regime. We will soon rendezvous with a landing ship and one of its landing craft will take you ashore. I know that you will do Chengdu and the Navy proud.”
May Hsin had thought of appealing to the MSS to intervene, but she wasn’t who she said she was, and it could open a can of worms. She had to go ashore and play grunt with the Marines. She’d be leading men to fight against her own countrymen who’d no doubt try to kill her as one of their enemies. What a Goddamn pig’s breakfast.
They were soon ashore, where they received extra helmets ammo, grenades and two heavy machine guns. The supply Sargent told them where to find the 124th Marines, they had to walk for a time but eventually clambered on to some resupply trucks bound up the road to the east. This part of the city was a mess. Cars and trucks had been burning. Buildings damaged, soldiers and civilian bodies on the road. Artillery shells flew both ways with a screaming whine, aircraft flew over dropping bombs. One landed about two hundred yards away, the sound and shock wave was like nothing she’d ever seen or heard before. They dismounted, and the local Marines fell on the truck like locusts, filling sacks with weapons ammunition and food.
A Major appeared with a camouflaged tired dirty face, he’d been in battle, there was no mistaking it. Although outranked by Commander Long the Major ignored this.
“Welcome to the asshole of Taiwan. You’ll be attached to 2 Battalion, Colonel Yu is your commander. Their task is to take the bridges over this shit pot of ditch they call the Da’an river. Up there,” he thumbed over his shoulder, “it’s defended by a Taiwanese Mech unit and a foreign unit we’ve identified as American Rangers. Don’t worry they’re aren’t many of the foreign bastards as they rarely fire. He didn’t add that when they did, it was usually a hit, fire wasn’t wasted.
“Get up there and you’ll be allocated a slot.” He spit on the roadside. “Good luck Navy.”
May took a dislike to him. His voice had dripped with disdain at her service. The thought suddenly flicked into her mind. These are all my enemies, I’m not PLAN. Don’t identify with them you damn fool.