Battlefield Korea

No Time to Iron

General Kuang called the emergency meeting of the CMC as soon as Vice Admiral Ning informed him that one of their submarines had been attacked and sunk by the Americans in the Yellow Sea. The Americans had managed to pre-empt the North Koreans invasion of the South by one day, throwing China’s timetable off; however, this attack by the Americans on one of their subs may have just given them the pretext for the next phase of their operation.

President Xi walked into the command bunker, feeling a bit disheveled. His hair had not been combed, and his shirt was badly wrinkled. He had been sound asleep when he had been rudely awakened from a lovely dream by one of his aides. The unlucky man had told him, “There was an incident involving one of China’s submarines and the US Navy carrier group. Your presence is needed in the bunker.”

Once his feet hit the floor, President Xi quickly threw on some pants and a button-down shirt. He skipped the tie and jacket; no need to be too formal at this hour of the day. When he arrived at the command bunker fifteen minutes later, he saw several of the other members just as tired and unkempt as he was.

“What happened?” he asked his Minister of Defense as everyone began to take their seats. A military aide began to pour everyone some hot tea as the meeting began.

Vice Admiral Ning spoke up first. “Sir, one of our Yuan-class attack submarines was sunk by a US Navy submarine roughly 90 minutes ago. The submarine had recently completed some upgrades at the shipyard and was en-route to join our other forces in the East China Sea to observe the American carrier battle groups. While transiting to their observation point, it appears they stumbled onto a North Korean submarine, who confused them for an American submarine and fired on them.”

The eyebrows of the men around him all tweaked in strange positions. It was obvious that they were confused. The admiral held up his hand to signal that there was more to the story.

“Our sub evaded the KPN’s torpedo and summarily sank them, rather than risking an enemy sub getting a second shot off at them. One of our torpedoes missed the Korean submarine, and it continued on a trajectory that took it towards an American submarine. At that moment, the Americans engaged our sub and sunk them. Eighteen sailors were able to escape and are currently being held on an American destroyer,” the admiral concluded.

Foreign Minister Yong Zhang added, “The Americans have reached out to our office and have relayed nearly the exact same information. They said they fired in self-defense of their fleet, believing it was under attack. They have offered to return our sailors as soon as possible, and requested to know where we would like them flown.”

The others in the room grumbled at this. They did not like the fact that their sailors had been taken prisoner and over a hundred others had been killed.

General Kuang, the Defense Minister, interjected, “Mr. President, while the loss of our submarine and most of its crew is tragic, it does present us with a unique opportunity.” The others in the room looked at him as if he had two heads.

“The next phase of our operation calls for us to reoccupy the Province of Formosa (Taiwan). That action was going to result in a probable confrontation with the US. This incident gives us a precursor situation, allowing us to respond militarily to the Americans and shape the narrative that they were the aggressors, that we are merely defending ourselves,” he said convincingly.

Foreign Minister Yong immediately jumped in before anyone else could get a word in edgewise. “I would highly caution us against an immediate retaliation against the Americans,” he urged. “Our plan calls for us to wait until the United States is fully bogged down in a ground war with North Korea. If they are fully committed in both Korea and Ukraine, they are not going to be able to intervene in Taiwan.”

The group devolved into several factions, arguing for and against striking back at the Americans right away. The sinking of their submarine did present the perfect pretext to attack them, but they still needed time to shore up their assets before they made that move. The Americans were in an excellent position to retaliate financially against China, if they did not get certain things taken care of first.

President Xi looked at his Foreign Minister, “How long do you believe we need to dump the remaining Treasuries we hold?”

The group all intently looked at Minister Yong. He looked through some notes, then responded, “At least twenty-four hours. We can take a loss on them, but it would be best if we could wait two days to get a better price. As to the businesses, I have no idea how far along they are at securing themselves from any potential American retribution. They were told they needed to have things ready in eight days, not twenty-four hours.”

Sitting back in his chair, Xi reached out and took his cup of tea. He lifted the warm liquid to his lips and sipped slowly, thinking. “The Americans have given us the appropriate pre-text to act without appearing to be the aggressor. Some of our corporations may be hurt by an expedited timeline, but that cannot be helped. We must execute. Start Operation Red Storm in twenty-four hours. Move our forces across the North Korean border and secure the Peninsula. Then let’s bring that belligerent little Province Formosa back into the fold.”

Everyone in the room smiled; they liked it when their leader was aggressive. Then the room became abuzz with activity as they all sprang to action, issuing orders to the various departments and commands and setting the stage for the next phase of action.