Chimera (71 page)

“But I have had
quite
enough of this!
Dianrong!
I gave you a direct order! I want you to carry it out…
right now!
”

“
Liu!
Control yourself!” Wencang shouted.

With two of his senior commanders thundering at each other in the room and the shouts echoing around, Peng rubbed his forehead to lower the headache. They had been in here for hours now, and everybody’s tempers were flaring.

“That’s
quite
enough! Both of you!” Peng shouted at the top of his voice. He then turned to Colonel Dianrong:

“Colonel, put down that phone and step away!”

With both Liu and Wencang seething, Dianrong put down the phone and quietly backed away towards the walls and took his position. Peng got up from his seat and looked at Wencang.

“Is it true that you lost several special mission aircraft in the Indian missile attack on Golmud?”

“Yes, comrade chairman,” Wencang replied after controlling his anger.

“And we also lost the long-range cruise-missile launchers that General Liu had attached to the air-force. What is the status of that base?” Peng asked neutrally. Liu took his seat in the meantime.

“It is no longer operational,” Wencang went on, knowing fully well where this was going. “We will need all of today to repair the runway enough to allow fighters to land and refuel. But we have relocated several units to Korla, Wugong and…”

Wencang was stopped mid-sentence by Peng’s raised hand.

“I am
not
finished, General! Please answer my questions first and then say what it is you wish to say!”

General Yongju, Chen and the others noted the tone. The party leader was exerting his control. Chen knew that Liu and several of the PLA garrison commanders in this region were strongly loyal to the party and Peng. So the chairman could push back on Wencang without too much worry. Wencang noted the insult as well but bit his tongue.

“So it is safe to surmise that the Indians have control of the air over southern Tibet,” Peng continued. “And if they have control of the air, they will control events on the ground eventually. It is inevitable. Now, I understand we have significant unused missile capabilities in Tibet. We were perhaps far too confident about our air-force’s ability to control the skies when we began operations two weeks ago. And the air-force has proven us wrong and brought us to the verge of defeat. The navy did not fare any better, did it?”

Peng turned to face Admiral Huaqing, who was having difficulty swallowing the lump in his throat. The meeting had just covered the disastrous naval battle in the Indian Ocean the previous day before the argument between Wencang and Liu had erupted.

“I think our conventional forces have failed us utterly and brought shame on us in the party, the armed forces of this nation and the people of China!” Peng thundered to the assembled Generals. “And I blame you all for that!
All
of you! Generals and Admirals alike! We find ourselves hiding in this bunker like rats waiting to be exterminated! Perhaps I am to blame as well for
believing
in all of you! But I can correct my mistakes here and now!”

Wencang stared at Peng like a rock. He did not fear what was coming.

“General Wencang!” Peng looked at him from the head of the table. “Consider yourself
dismissed
as commander of the air-force! General Chen, you are dismissed as well. You have brought defeat on your respective commands and betrayed the trust of the people of China. And for that you will answer to them when the time comes. I will not have you pollute the minds of others in this room any further!”

Wencang grunted, then pulled himself to attention and saluted. Chen got up from his seat and did the same. Peng did not return the respect.

“Get
out
of my sight!
Both of you!
”

As both Generals got up, collected their papers and left the room, Peng turned to the naval commander.

“
Admiral
Huaqing! I think back now to the
lies
you said to my face about our capabilities and I wonder whether I should not have you
shot
for treason right
now!
But there is war on and I would not want the people to grow concerned with the loss of their Admirals in the midst of it. So consider yourself lucky that I am just having you removed from your post and placed under arrest. You will answer for your deceit later!
Get out!
”

As Huaqing fumbled with his papers and got up, the two remaining senior Generals in the room, Yongju and Liu shared a look in silence. Peng waited as the disgraced Admiral left the room and the door was closed behind him by Dianrong. Once peace prevailed in the room again, Peng turned to face Liu and Yongju.

“General Liu, if I
ever
find you questioning my authority in front of this committee or anywhere else, I
will
have you removed as well! Is
that
understood?”

“Absolutely,” Liu replied calmly.

“Now,” Peng continued, “there is the matter of the Indians. For all the incompetence shown by our commanders, it is the
Indians
ultimately who are to blame. And they will pay dearly! But
not
at the cost of our cities lost to nuclear weapons! If we were to lose even one of our major cities on top of what all has been happening in Tibet over the last year, as well as this war, the party will not survive. And we
must
survive! Without
us
, China has no future. So, do what you must. But we have to ensure that we bring the Indians on their knees and willing to negotiate an end to this war.” 

“I
can
bring the Indians to their knees,” Liu said quietly as he crossed his fingers and leaned forward on the table. “Quickly and efficiently. Wencang
was
right on one thing, I will admit. The Indians did not have anything in their arsenals with sufficient range to strike at Golmud airbase other than ballistic-missiles. But their strike
has
given us the opening we needed. The attack on Tawang was an
interesting
test to see the inner weakness of the Indian government and its inability to digest civilian casualties. The three-thousand civilians that died in that one attack nearly overwhelmed their government’s ability to continue this war. But at Tawang they saw merely a glance at our might and our resolve to inflict whatever wounds needed to win this war on a higher pedestal. I think the time has now come for the Indian population to see our true resolve…”   

MOSCOW

RUSSIA

DAY 12 + 0900 HRS

“This madness has to
stop!
”

“I think it is hardly a matter of us stopping anything right now,” Tiwari, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow replied as he stood in the office of the Russian Minister. “If
anything
, you should be spending this time with my counterpart from Beijing perhaps. They
did
start the war, after all.”

For his part, Bogdanov knew he could only carry his concern across to the Indian ambassador so far. After all, Moscow was under no threat from the war. In fact, it was profiting handsomely from it.

New-Delhi was in crisis talks with the Kremlin for new emergency contracts for artillery shells, missiles and aircraft to replace usage and losses. Beijing was trying to do the same, but it was worse for them given their much higher losses in ‘difficult-to-replace’ items such as Su-27s, Il-76 transports. India had taken losses in aircraft as well but for the Indian side the greatest need of the hour was replacement for spent Brahmos missiles, R-77s, anti-radar missiles and other airborne weapons. The land forces needs were even more staggering.

So both the Indian and Chinese embassy staffs in Russia were hard at work to secure instant contracts. All of which was either being paid for up front or on very generous credit lines favoring Moscow. In case of India, other such deals were also underway in Washington to provide additional spares for aircraft such as the C-130Js, C-17s and P-8Is which were being used daily and continuously as well. And money was flowing. All in all, there was little incentive in either Washington or Moscow for any
serious
intervention to halt the war…

Until the Indian and Chinese naval forces went berserk against each other’s commercial shipping, that is. 

Over the last two weeks, the world economy was getting affected at ever increasing rates as commercial shipping had to be diverted away from well-established routes in the ocean. Foreign personnel had been evacuated from both India and China in the last week. And that affected companies worldwide. Once that threshold metric was achieved where the benefits of the emergency defense deals were offset by the overall losses in other sectors of the economy, the thought processes worldwide had changed.

There was also a military and media aspect to it.

Unlike other wars, the frontlines in this war were hard to reach by the media on either side. Targets being struck were in remote regions of Tibet far from western media coverage. On the Indian side the logistics were so clogged with military traffic that effective discerning of the current state of the conflict was impossible.

The fact that the war was spread over two-thousand kilometers and hundreds of thousands square kilometers of the ocean did not help. The only people who knew how the war was
really
going were in the military and government on both sides. And the media outlets were forced into a situation where they were dependent on press handouts from New-Delhi, Beijing, Washington and other locations.

Social media was adding to the chaos as well. With disparate pieces of information coming in from differing sources, the effect was chaotic. Rumors of nuclear weapons being used were rampant and causing mass panic in the major cities of India despite government claims to the contrary.

The ripple effect of all this on the world economics were significant. Businesses in both India and China were being shut down as people moved away from the urban areas in anticipation of what was to come…    

Bogdanov looked Tiwari straight in the eyes.

“Mr. Tiwari, I think the time for games is over. I stand here not as your enemy but as a friend and as an official representative from the Kremlin. I have been instructed to ask
you
as to what it will take for your government to terminate hostilities.” The time for informalities was over.

“I have no instructions for negotiations from New-Delhi, Minister Bogdanov,” Tiwari replied. “But if I
were
to venture and express my personal opinions, I would say that Beijing started this war following a brutal repression program on the Tibetan populace more than a year ago now. They failed to crush the Tibetan bid for freedom from oppression. Beijing
then
tried to blame India for it and failed
again
. They
then
proceeded to attack my country with perhaps the most massive conventional arms campaign since the Second World War. And they are about to fail on that as well.”

Tiwari sighed, shook his head and continued: “If I was to say anything at all, sir, I would say that they are getting everything they
deserve
at this point!” Tiwari’s voice was laced with robustness and clarity of thought. After all, he had not been assigned to Moscow offhandedly.

Of course that confidence and clarity also stemmed from the state of the war. Like Beijing, New-Delhi and even the Kremlin had assessed that China was on the verge of losing the conventional war against India. But it was also the logical extrapolation of that assessment that Beijing was being pushed into a corner.

And
that
could prove lethal for
both
sides.

“Did New-Delhi have anything to do with arming and assisting the Tibetans as the Chinese claim?” Bogdanov asked neutrally. He half-expected a rebuttal, and got the same.

“Is the Kremlin seriously going to push forward Beijing’s made-up casus belli as an argument point to push India into a corner?” Tiwari asked with surprise. Bogdanov sensed the slyness of the answer and smiled internally.

“Beijing is going to believe whatever they want to believe. Matters on the ground, however, will not wait for them,” Tiwari replied.

“Tiwari,” Bogdanov replied with a neutral face, “it is
our
assessment that New-Delhi is becoming increasingly aggressive in dealing with Beijing and that the momentum of the war
has
shifted in favor of India. But bear in mind that Beijing knows this as well. If you push them too hard into the corner, they
will
become desperate. Your passion for retribution against Beijing aside, I think the use of nuclear weapons concerns us
all
, don’t you think?”