Battlefield Korea

Start of Red Storm

General Yang Yin looked out the helicopter window as they approached his headquarters building. In nearly every direction, he could see the various units that made up his army group encamped, uncertain of what would come next. He had been rigorously training his army group for four long months. In that time, they had spent more time at the range honing in their shooting abilities than they had in the past two years. In addition, they spent every day down at the field simulators, working small unit tactics and practicing combat in a combined arms environment. His generals, colonels, and majors had spent hours of classroom time watching videos and conducting tabletop exercises on how to effectively employ armor, artillery and mechanized infantry forces into an attack.

They had also watched countless videos of the American invasion of Iraq and the earlier Persian Gulf War, examining how these tactics were used to great effectiveness. For all their faults and misgivings, the Americans were the masters of warfare in the air, the sea, and on the ground. No nation on earth knew how to kill people more efficiently and effectively than the Americans. It was for that reason that General Yang placed such a heavy emphasis on learning their tactics and then working to implement them into his own army group. While other army groups trained their men according to standard Chinese military doctrine, he opted for a more aggressive unconventional plan. His efforts would be tested soon, and he would either prove to be a brilliant military leader or be replaced for not trusting in the traditional military doctrine.

Yang’s helicopter began to circle the landing pad, coming in for its final approach before settling down on the grassy knoll not far from the building he had commandeered to be his forward headquarters command. It had been a quick, whirlwind meeting with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff in Beijing. He was eager to get his part of the operation moving and prove to his superiors that his training program would work.

General Yang was not like a lot of the traditional Chinese Generals. He came from an aristocratic family, but unlike many other generals, he had grown up in the United States. His father had been a wealthy businessman and owned several factories in the US and China. During his teenage years in America, his father had enrolled him in a military school when he expressed an interest in serving in the Chinese military when they returned to China one day. His father encouraged this interest and did whatever he could to give his son a competitive edge when entering the People’s Liberation Army. However, when Yang graduated high school, instead of returning back to China to join a Chinese military academy, he applied to, and was accepted into a prestigious American military academy, the Citadel.

During his four years of study at the Citadel, he attended the US Army jump school, and was among the few students selected to attend Ranger School. Being a foreign student, he was given a lot of opportunities that most students would not have gotten until after they had joined the active duty military. Yang kept quiet about his career goals of returning back to China. It was not that he did not like (or even love) living in America-he did. Yang had many American friends, but his true love was for his ancestral homeland, China.

He wanted to see China succeed and become the dominant world power. While he loved many aspects of American culture, he deeply resented the culture of identity politics, various forms of racism, and the never-ending pursuit of money at the expense of others in society. The Americans seemed to value making money over taking care of their own people. In Yang’s eyes, while China might have a lot of problems, it provided its people with free education, free healthcare and a stable government that did not swing from one political spectrum to the other after each election. It provided what Yang thought was the most important, stability.

After completing his studies at the Citadel, Yang rejoined his family in China and was introduced to several high-ranking party officials and military generals that his father routinely did a lot of business with (his father’s factories produced a lot of military equipment, so he was well connected in those circles). Once they learned that Yang had not only attended one of the top American military academies but had gone through the American Ranger School, the men had tremendous admiration and respect for him. It was decided that they would become Yang’s patrons, and these men would help mentor and guide Yang through his career in the military to become a general and a leader in the new PLA.

Twenty years later, Yang was now the Commanding General for the Southern Theatre of Operations. When he had been read in to Operation Red Storm, he moved his headquarters to Pingxiang to be closer to his command when the annexation of Vietnam eventually began. Unlike a lot of other generals, Yang wanted to be near the action, so he could adjust tactics quickly if the situation warranted it.

General Yang’s force, Army Group A, consisted of the 14^th Army, 41^st Army and the 42^nd Army. He had roughly 69,000 soldiers spread across six divisions, all ready to roll across the border. He had been told his objective was to secure Hanoi and the surrounding area, then let General Sheng’s Army Group B (which consisted of the 20^th Army, the 27^th Army, and the 38^th Army) pass through his lines as they moved further south and secure the next set of objectives.

Never in his entire military career had General Yang seen such a large display of Chinese military might in one place, ready to be sprung. When he had been recalled to Beijing four weeks ago, he thought he was going to be replaced. Yang was a relatively young general by Chinese standards, only forty-four; however, his patrons in the Politburo had been advocating for years to update the military not just in terms of weapons and equipment, but also in bringing in a younger generation of generals who were tuned into modern technology and tactics. Unfortunately, one of his key patrons had suffered a heart attack a few months ago, and that left Yang uncertain of his future as the youngest army group commander since the revolution.

When General Yang arrived in Beijing, instead of the nasty surprise firing he had anticipated, Yang was read into a secret military operation that had been put together by Chairman Zhang, arguably China’s most forward-looking leader. He might be the third ranked person in the Chinese government, but he was probably the most powerful. As General Yang read through his portion of Red Storm, his eyes grew wide with excitement. China was finally going to ascend the global stage as a real superpower, not just an economic superpower, but a military superpower and the dominant leader of Asia. This was why he had wanted to join the military, to help lead his country into that glorious future.

As General Yang exited his helicopter and walked towards his command building, a commandeered government building, he signaled to his officers that he wanted them to follow him to his office. Once he had walked into the room that had been designated as his, he neatly placed his bag down in an almost robotic way, and then grabbed the water bottle next to his computer. After taking a long drink, he looked at his executive officer and six division commanders, who were staring at him, waiting for instructions.

“We have been given the orders,” Yang began. “We are to invade Vietnam in forty-eight hours. I want you to get your divisions ready.” He paused long enough to pull out several folders from his bag, handing one to each of the division commanders and another to his executive officer (XO).

“These are your division orders and objectives,” he directed to the division commanders.

The men nodded, beginning to pour through the flood of new information.

Pointing to his XO’s folder, he indicated, “Your folder holds our Army Group orders and objectives. Obviously, I want them gone over by our planners to make sure we have everything covered.”

Yang sighed. “Before you ask, I do not know what the other divisions or army groups are doing. I only know our orders and what we are supposed to accomplish. Please move to have your soldiers prepare to carry out the orders given to us. The eyes of the world and China will be upon us. We cannot fail.”

His future, his life, depended on the ability of the men in front of him to execute the orders they had just been given. The PLA did not look fondly on failure, and neither did the generals above him. He would be equally as hard on his own generals and their officers. The State must prevail at all cost.