Battlefield Pacific

Formosa Fortress

A soft mist of rain was drifting across the mountains that overlooked the lowlands of Luodong Township and the eastern shores of Formosa. Seagulls squawked off in the distance, and waves crashed against the shore in the early morning twilight.

Standing on top of a ridge overlooking the beaches several miles away, General Yang Yin took in a deep breath of the fresh saltwater air, slowly letting it out through his nostrils. “This is a good position,” he thought.

Turning to survey the rest of the ridgeline, he saw that even at the twilight hours, men and machines were hard at work preparing to meet the eventual American invasion force. He grunted in satisfaction at what he was seeing — these positions would be terribly hard for the enemy to capture.

Looking at the brigadier general in charge of the islands fortification systems, he realized how lucky he was to have such a competent man in charge of the island’s engineers. Brigadier General Lee Jinping had developed an intricate layered defensive position across the most likely beach zones and ports the Americans would need to secure to liberate the island.

During dinner the previous night, Lee had told him that his inspiration for the defenses he’d built was rooted in the example of what the Japanese had done on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In both cases, the Japanese had known they couldn’t hold the islands forever but had been determined to bleed the Americans dry during the assault. Using that as his reference, General Lee had had dozens upon dozens of boring and tunneling machines brought in from the mainland within the first week of the invasion, before the PLA had even finished capturing the island. He had devised a series of interlocking fortresses that would be built at different positions around the beaches and lowlands, where the Americans would most likely land. He also built several of these forts near the major ports that would be used to offload the American heavy tanks and other equipment once they’d been captured and established a beachhead.

The fortresses were positioned so they could provide interlocking fields of fire with their short-, medium- and long-range artillery guns. They had also built hundreds of hidden machine-gun bunkers that would be revealed when the enemy got close enough to them. All of these positions had been built with the knowledge that they would be attacked mercilessly from the air by the American Air Force. They knew they would be hit with precision-guided missiles and bombs, so the fortresses were well designed, with cutback and blowout tunnels to allow overpressures and flames to escape without blowing into the larger tunnel system.

For the past eight months, nearly 60,000 soldiers and over 100,000 civilians had labored on the defenses. From filling sandbags to laying concertina wire to digging tank ditches, the civilians on the island were being put to use fortifying the island against their liberation — against their own free will, of course. Internal communications within the island had been shut down, to the point that no cell phone could get a signal. Even the Thuraya satellite phones had a hard time operating on Formosa. General Lee had been adamant that if they were to succeed in surprising the Americans, they needed to ensure none of the people either working on or observing the construction of the fortifications could transmit any form of knowledge or information about it to the Allies.

General Yang saw Brigadier General Lee catch his eye contact while he was surveying the scene and walked over to him. “I hope the fortifications meet your satisfaction,” said General Lee. “We still have many more months of construction ahead of us, but we’re largely ready for the Americans.” He spoke confidently, like a proud father would talk to his friends about his son’s athletic or academic achievements.

Turning to look at General Lee, Yang smiled broadly. “I could not be happier with these defenses if I tried. You’ve done a marvelous job, Lee,” he said. He paused for a moment, thinking through all the angles. “How many artillery pieces do we have overlooking Luodong Township?” he asked.

Pulling a small notebook out of his breast pocket, General Lee flipped through a few pages until he found the information he was looking for. “We have 310 artillery pieces hidden within the five fortresses here. All of the beach areas are within range of the guns as well as the fortresses. I cannot guarantee that they’ll all survive under a sustained American bombardment though. Eventually, they’ll identify where each gun is located and hit them with precision-guided munitions, but it will take them time, and they’ll have to expend a lot of expensive weapons to take them out,” he replied with a serious look on his face.

Letting out a short breath, Yang took in another deep breath of the saltwater air before responding. “They should last long enough for us to either destroy the American invasion force or at least bloody them worse than anything they have seen up to this point,” he said. He secretly hoped the Americans’ resolve would dwindle before the battle was done. “Have we been able to get most of the heavy machine-gun bunkers equipped with the Hua Qing miniguns I requested?” he inquired.

The Hua Qing minigun was a six-barrel, electronically operated minigun that fired 7.62×54mm rounds at a rate of 3,000 per minute. It was practically identical to the American M134 minigun used on many helicopters and vehicles that were operated by Special Forces. It had first been introduced in 2009 and had become an operational weapon within the PLA several years later.

Lee shook his head. “No, I’m afraid we have only been able to secure 110 of the weapons,’ he answered, a bit disgusted. “I have tried to get more, but they’re also being used in the Beizhen defensive line in our northern army group. I was told the factories are producing more of these weapons, but they’re being prioritized for the Beijing defensive line. Perhaps you can speak with someone and get more of them shipped to us. We’re short at least 800 of these weapons for the other fortresses as well.”

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” said General Yang, a bit surprised. “I’ll speak with the logisticians who are denying us these weapons and get that situation corrected. If you’ll excuse me now, I must speak with a few others about this festering insurgency that won’t go away.” Then he dismissed Lee and signaled for two other officers to come speak with him. A moment later, they were both standing next to him, slightly out of breath from running over.

“Generals, I’m going to be returning to the mainland tomorrow and will be headed to Beijing the day after,” Yang began. “I need to know what the status of the rebellion is here, and what, if anything, you need to squash it.” As usual, he was blunt and straight to the point.

“Sir, in the last two months, we’ve captured or killed over 4,000 enemy soldiers, who have continued to fight on despite the Taiwanese Army officially surrendering back in January. The insurgency still continues, but it’s becoming less and less effective with each month. As we locate where they are operating, we cordon the area off and then search everything within that grid until either we locate the enemy, or they engage our forces. Per your instructions, we’re using overwhelming force when we attack them. We are also taking hostages from the local area, and we inform the rebels that if they do not surrender, we’ll execute the hostages. Thus far, we have managed to get roughly 1,500 insurgents to surrender.”

The major general cleared his throat. “Also, per your instructions, when they capitulate, we’re providing them with food and allowing them to live — we make sure that the fellow insurgents know of our actions and encourage other insurgents to rejoin society. I was skeptical that this strategy would work, but after four months, we’ve seen more than 2,000 enemy soldiers surrender themselves.”

Along with the Taiwanese forces that had moved themselves to the jungles to continue fighting the Chinese, some Japanese and American Special Forces had also infiltrated the island and joined the nasty rebellion that had sprung up. General Yang had known from the moment this began that he would have to devise a plan to end this guerilla war before it had time to firmly take root. So far, his tactic of fair treatment and survival as the carrot, and hostage taking and execution as the stick, had been working exactly as he planned.

“I’m glad to hear the insurgency is dying down,” General Yang said. “I will report that to Beijing. How are your provinces for food and munitions for the coming battle?” he inquired.

“We have munitions for a sustained six months of heavy combat — more than enough to last us to the conclusion of the battle. Either we will all be dead, or all the enemy soldiers will be dead before we run out of munitions. As to food, we have six months of food, pending we were unable to live off the land. I’m confident we’ll either inflict enough casualties on the Americans to convince them to leave the island, or die trying,” the major general explained, speaking with a confidence that verged on cockiness.

General Yang almost wished he would be able to stay there at Formosa and oversea the island personally. However, Beijing would never let him be in a position where he might be captured.

“Excellent report, General,” said Yang. “You’ve done a good job with the time and resources you’ve been given. Please continue to use the remaining time you have left until the Americans arrive. I’m not sure how much longer we may have to prepare now that Luzon has fallen, but you can be assured the Americans are going to have this place under heavy surveillance, identifying every possible stronghold. Do your best to incorporate our latest in camouflage technology. It’s imperative that we surprise the enemy when they land. The Americans are soft. If we can inflict enough casualties, they will lose their stomach for war and seek a peace with China… on our terms and not theirs.”

They discussed a number of other defensive strategies and ideas for a few more hours as the sun continued to climb into the sky. It was a beautiful view, and Yang wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible. In a few months, this area would be turned into a moonscape with the number of American bombs and missiles that would be launched at it. For the time being, he savored its serene beauty.