Battlefield China

Chapter 15 Deception

General John Bennet rubbed his temples; he felt another migraine coming on. A jackhammer seemed to be pounding away inside his skull, and each sound seemed amplified, bone-jarring, even. The light overhead burned its way into his head and his vision blurred. He knew he had been pushing his body too much, that he needed to take a break, but men were dying every second of the war.

“If they have to push through their infirmities, then, by God, so will I,” he thought. “They’re counting on me.”

Major General Tony Hyrczyk walked into the general’s office, a Rip It energy drink in one hand, and a couple of pills for the general in the other. Placing the medication and energy drink on the desk next to Bennet, he whispered, “I could tell you’re having another one of those migraines, so I brought you the usual cocktail.”

Bennet looked up at his friend, smiled weakly and nodded. Without hesitation, he grabbed the pills, tossing them down his throat as he popped the top of the energy drink and proceeded to wash them down. Within moments of the sudden rush of caffeine and sugar to his system, his headache had already subsided enough for him to continue on.

“So, what’s the word? Has the PLA taken the bait yet?” Bennet inquired.

“Hook, line, and sinker. It’s working just as you predicted it would,” Hyrczyk replied with a broad smile on his face.

Bennet stood. “I knew this plan would work,” he said, almost managing a smile of his own. “OK, let’s go tell the others of the change in plans. It’s time we got the rest of the team up to speed on our little ruse.”

The two of them left his office and headed down the hall to the operations room, where he found the rest of the Allied generals and military commanders already waiting for him.

General Bennet saw the apprehensive looks on the faces of the military commanders who stood around the briefing table, and he knew exactly why they all looked as they did. Everyone had grown impatient with keeping all their forces in a holding pattern off the Korean coast. He’d already heard someone mutter something about the airborne divisions being held in Taiwan too long.

Lieutenant General Sir Simon Carter of the British contingent was the first to voice his opinion. “General Bennet, I have some serious concerns about launching this invasion. Our forces have been marshaled too close to Qingdao for too long. My own intelligence and reconnaissance groups believe the PLA is more than alert to our plans of invading and securing the ports there. Are we still going to go through with it?” he asked.

“If everyone will please take their seats, we’ll provide you all with an update on Operation Olympus,” Major General Hyrczyk announced.

The generals and admirals dutifully sat down. General Bennet looked at the men and women before him: generals and admirals from Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Poland and Israel. These military leaders represented more than three hundred and forty thousand Allied soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen that would embark upon the what everyone hoped would be the final major campaign to end the war.

“The invasion of Qingdao…has been an elaborate ruse,” Bennet explained. He waited calmly for the reactions before him. Some were clearly shocked; others appeared angry. A few shook their heads. A couple of them let out a soft snicker, seeming to understand that something else, something bigger, was about to happen.

General Bennet held up his hand. “Before any of you launch your complaints or hurl questions at me, let me explain to you what has taken place. Since the start of the year, we’ve been building a deception campaign to trick the PLA into believing we were going to launch a massive ground invasion at Qingdao. It’s the most logical location for us to invade from the sea as it has several deepwater port facilities and it would give our forces a straight shot at Beijing. Couple that with our offensive operations in northern China, and we’ve been able to make the PLA believe our entire offensive was going to focus on capturing their capital.

“When we invaded Guangdong Province, we kept the other Allies out of that invasion because we wanted to continue the deception that we were still planning on invading Qingdao. That invasion of Guangdong Province has also forced the PLA to send multiple divisions away from Shanghai to stop us from ripping the industrial heartland of southern China apart. Which is perfect, because our real objective is to capture Shanghai and the surrounding area.”

Someone let out a low whistle. General Hyrczyk brought up the real invasion plans on the computer monitors.

Lieutenant General Alfred Guderian, Commander of the German Expeditionary Forces, spoke up. “The Chinese Air Force recently deployed their new advanced unmanned fighter drone. Wasn’t the reason that you Americans attacked Guangdong Province so that you could go after the facilities producing these fighters?” he asked with a quizzical look on his face.

“That is partially correct,” Bennet answered. “The GDP of Guangdong Province is roughly $1.42 trillion US dollars, which means the province contributes approximately 12 % of the country’s gross domestic product. However, in terms of military production, the province is responsible for more than 70 % of their entire aerospace industry. When Shenyang was destroyed during the first day of the Korean War, the majority of the PLA’s aerospace industry was wiped out, so they expanded the aerospace footprint in Guangdong Province, which is why so much of the industry is concentrated there now.

“So, yes — we did target the province because of their new UAV fighter. However, our attack there was not limited to disrupting that one specific war fighting element. In addition to the increase in aerospace production, a disproportionate amount of the Chinese small-arms munitions is produced in the Guangdong region. The Pentagon planners believed that if we could target key sectors of their military industrial sector, we could begin to create a massive shortage in their war production and potentially end the war sooner,” Bennet explained.

“This makes logical sense, but why shift our focus away from Beijing to focus on Shanghai?” quizzed Brigadier General Sami Barak, the lone Israeli general commanding the Israeli contingent.

General Bennet leaned forward in his chair and made eye contact with General Barak. “Money,” he answered. “Our attack in Guangdong is going to rip their manufacturing heart out, and Shanghai is going to rip their bank away. Without a military manufacturing base to produce the weapons of war, and without a financial sector to support the war, the PLA will have to agree to our terms of surrender.”

Suddenly it all made sense to the generals at the table. The Allies didn’t need to capture Beijing or even large swaths of China. They only needed to take away their ability to make money and produce the weapons needed to wage war. With those two components gone, the PLA would implode in on itself.

“In two weeks, gentlemen, we’ll launch Operation Olympus and end this bloody war,” Bennet said. He signaled for the new orders to be handed out.