Book 3 The Show Down C42-43

(C-42)

The Sausage Machine

‘To make sausage you have to take meat and grind it up.

Lots of meat.’

‘The sight of wounded soldiers lay dying,

Tears of wives and children crying,

for that distant battle field of fighting,

call out the Militiamen.’

The Militia Men

‘There comes a time when the question is not whether you live or die,

but the size of the honor guard you send to hell! ‘
Robert Heinlein

Sun Tzu said: Whoever is first in the field and

awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight;

whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle

will arrive exhausted.

Lying quietly in the center command trench with his head level with the parapet, as he is scanning the bush to the west side in the quickly waning twilight Dan barely hears, “Sir do you think the Terrs will hit us again, just like yesterday?”

He whispers back, “Yes Corporal Tavinga I do.” Thinking for a quick second Dan then said, “well if not tonight then tomorrow night for sure. They have given us a rev the last three evenings just after sunset; they know we only have the one platoon at this out post. I think the second platoon will surprise them and catch the Terrs from behind just after they fire at us and then try to slip away in the dark.”

With a laugh the Corporal replied, “We chased them for three days, then we dug in and they came to us three nights. Now we go after them again, it’s like a deadly game of tag.”

Dan gave a weary smile as he started to say, “It’s not tag..” The radio static has stopped and instead of a voice the squelch is broken three times as someone depressed his talk button. Then they hear the static again for five or six seconds and then the squelch noise is broken again by the three clicks.

Dan turns and whispers to his runner, “Alert the third squad on the east side, the CT’s are on that side not the west…”

Suddenly all hell breaks loose when several machine-guns and RPG’s begin firing at them from the east. Tracers are flying overhead in the three to four feet area above the ground; good thing all of the troops are dung in and under cover. His four-man stick of soldiers that had tried to warn them then calls on the radio, “We have at least forty enemy all around us, do we open fire?”

“No, stay quiet hug the ground,” Dan radios them back. Then he calls to the second platoon to the west. “Rover one, this is Yankee base, circle the camp to the north, use the donga 100 meters out, try to get on the Terrs right flank, over.”

“Roger, moving now we will be in possy in three mikes, over”

“Shit,” Dan mutters, the Terrs will gap it in another minuet, or my men out there will be discovered. Yelling at his HQ section, “Get ready we have to attack, pass the word to three squad.” Taking a deep breath Dan stands up and yells, “Eat shit and die you bloody CT buggers,” as he opens fire. His bush hat is knocked from his head but he doesn’t stop advancing, as there isn’t any time, to stop and hunt for it in the dark. His troops advance with him everyone shooting at the flashes from the terrorists AK’s as he leads the twenty men across the sixty meters of open ground.

They aren’t half way there when the CT commander gives two long blasts on his whistle and shoots off a white flare, and the shooting from the terrorists stop.

Without any muzzle blast to shot at Dan orders his men to cease fire, and they can hear the Terrs running away. Dan’s one stick that had tried to warn them then opens fire and that quickly stops as their targets disappear into the dark thick bush.

Dan using the radio tells his second platoon, “Rover one stop in place, I say again stop in place. Do not open fire we have troops where the Terrs were, over.”

“Copied Yankee base, over.”

Dan tells the two squads with him, “No one is to fire we have a stick just ahead of us,” then he calls out to his men. “Corporal Davies, are you all OK?”

The answer came back, “Yes sir, we shot two of the Terrs, both are dead, what do we do now?”

“Collect the weapons and all of their equipment, search the pockets for info and…”

Dan thinks he hears his wife mutter, “The alarm went off ten minuets ago, are you…” Setting up on the cot Dan pushes the poncho liner towards his knees as he thinks another day of picking up trash, oh boy. Then comes the realization that he’s been dreaming about battles long ago as he hears the quiet chatter of his radiomen in the other half of his command tent. Looking at his watch 0445 hours, then smiling he thinks, ‘old habits are hard to break. If I was at home I’d be getting up now and heading into the kitchen to brew a pot of tea.’ but his mind won’t let him forget his dream and he hears a whispered radio message from long ago, “Yankee base, Rover One, we hear a lot of movement to the north and east, over.” Corporal Davies calls and says, “We hear them coming too, over.”

Dan recalls from memory the commands he gave so long ago, “All call signs fall back to base now, fall back now,” he then ordered the two squads with him, “every man lay down facing east. We’ll wait for the others to pass through us then we fall back.” Then he alerts the base, “Ready the mortars we are going to need them.”

Shacking his head Dan sets up, swing his legs over the edge of the cot then slips his boots on and ties the laces. Standing up he takes a step and pushing back the tent flap that separates the two sides, he steps into the operations side and gets a cup of coffee. When Major Hammond the J-2 Intel officer spies him and asks, “Your up early sir. I was going to wake you in a few minuets, something is going on up north..”

“What gives,” Dan asks as he walks over and peeks through the canvas door flap, it’s still dark out side. Looking at his watch again he sees that it will be over an hour before the morning twilight starts.

“The First Kansas reports that some of their remote listen post have gone off the air, a few others are being jammed with white noise, and that quiet a few of them seem to have a two minuet repeating cricket chirping the same tune over and over again.”

Dan doesn’t like the sounds of this as he asked, “What’s Red doing?”

“He’s gone to fifty percent alert, he’s holding off on full alert as he’s men are pretty well beat up and tired.”

Dan's six sense kicks in and with out any hesitation orders, “Call him now, have him make it a one hundred percent alert. Tell them stand too now. If I’m wrong he can go back to fifty percent after dawn. Does he have any eyes up overhead, or do we need to help him there?”

One of the radiomen sends the warning as the major answered, “He should have two UAV’s up now, but the last satellite thermal image showed the Chinese pulling back, except for a few outpost.”

“Satellites can be fooled, we’ve proved that.” Looking at the map with the artillery fire orders on it Dan orders, “Have the Corp MLRS use just one launcher and place an extended pattern on Fox 11, south to north, please. Also have some regular artillery pop a few flares in the same area.”

Dan listens as the Artillery radioman relays his orders over the field phone, he is quickly answered and tells the CO, “Sir, they will have them shooting in two minuets. Their commander wants to know if you want the rest of the battery to aim that way just in case?”

“Tell him that’s a good idea, also alert the 1st Kansas that we are placing a salvo two K’s to their front, just to see if we can stir up and surprise any Chinese that might be sneaking in. To get the jump on them, that’s if they are planning on making a surprise attack.”

The Division alerts one of the Kansas CAV’s over head to monitor the fire mission sector. The controller switches from wide angle thermal, where it wasn’t picking up any sign of advancing troops, to a more focused image. The operator does see several hot spots of smoldering trees and underbrush that were blasted and set on fire earlier from artillery fire, but he doesn’t see any man size images, instead sees thousands of faint heat blotches on the ground. The ones closer to the Chinese lines are fading into the background but the ones about a kilometer out front of the Militia’s lines are hot and new ones are being laid down, as they get closer.

Alerting his duty Sergeant he points out the heat smudges and say’s, “I could be wrong but these look a lot like the heat signature left from the boot prints of at least two Infantry Brigade's of approaching infantry?”

“Your not wrong,” the Sgt replied as he picks up the field phone to Division HQ, he tells the G-2 of the approaching danger. “Sir, I think they have some Mylar blankest or some such thing covering their bodies and hiding their main body heat core, but they forgot about their feet.”

“What are the coordinates?”

“Most of them are in Echo and Fox nine and ten, with a few stragglers still in eleven.”

“Sgt I’ll pass the word to extend the MLRS fire to where you see the most sign. Artillery from Division will be hitting there in a couple of minuets too. Let me know what they do.”

“Wilco, sir,” as he hangs up the phone he tells the CAV operator to watch his screen, and report what happens next.

(C-43)

Any plan is better then no plan, 10:45 Eastern Time Zone

Taking the offered seat Bruno told Tony, “We haven’t a lot of time where’s that FBI dick you said would be here?”

Tony chuckled, “You mean Major Hawk. Go ahead what’s your plan?”

Bruno looked over at the cleaning man; printed on his shirt in large blue letters above his right pocket was the name Billy. Looking back at Tony, “I know you’re in the cleaning business Tony but I don’t know Billy here, I’ll wait for the FBI I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”

Billy laughed and took off his ball cap and then pulled off the medium length dark brown wig, Bruno then recognized him as the Marine Major he had meet the other day, he was to be in charge of the entry team.

“That’s a good disguise Red, I thought you were Billy,” Bruno said using the mans first name.

“That’s why I was chosen, I’m close enough to the same height and build of Billy, with the same skin tone. Add the wig and a two days beard grown, even people who know Billy are fooled,” he retorted with a chuckle. “When the cleaning crew takes their lunch break I’ll head to the coffee shop where I’ll switch out with the real Billy, and then go and brief my people.”

“OK but first what’s going on out west, the Prince’s man said it was very hot.”

Red knew that Bruno would be told by the Prince later that the US Army was making a major move around Sacramento and it would be on the news tonight so he answered, “Our forces are making a big push just north and east of the SF Bay, and trying to draw out the Chinese and Jihad Armies. I think that's why he wants to see you, to move up the hit! What’s’ your plan?”

Bruno nodded his head as he handed across a couple of pages of hand written notes and two pages of diagrams with the layout of the room and the rest of the building at East 193rd street.

Major Hawk took the papers and quickly read them and looked over the floor plans. As he said, “Two trash trucks with crews of three men each, that’s six men and one of them has a break down blocking one lane of the west side street. Then a service truck arrives with another two men to repair the broken truck. Then the other truck pulls up behind to see what’s going on. That’s just eight men for making the entry through the dock side door, I’m still going to need at least another six more men, in close to secure the entry teams six.”

Looking back at the notes he continues, “Your having four of my men to jump their electronics van two blocks away, that’s good. I’ll have another twelve men to help secure the perimeter, plus we have to have a Paramedic team or two, and then the extraction swat team has to be close by, just in case things go bad and this develops into a full flown firefight. Any more clever ideas?”

Bruno listening to the FBI SWAT team commander’s voice knows that he’s not from New York, and definitely not familiar with the city’s garbage workers or their work habits. With a smile on his face he says, “Yeah, I got some more ideas. But don’t use a local Swat Team, they might be compromised, if not the men in the team then in the higher ups of the department. Have another platoon of your Marines close by to move in right after the action starts.”

“As I pointed out today is trash pickup day for that area, nominally the crews get in there around 3 to 3:30 in the afternoon, so you’re men will be a bit late today. That way you can have more men on other trucks all of them working this area, they have to be seen working, dumping the cans otherwise his people that are on lookout will catch on quick. Some of your other men can be delivery drivers from a dry cleaners or florists, and there are always a couple of street teams doing hoops, pick up games at the park, others can be dressed as parks department crew men and women repairing the benches,” he paused as the Major was busy taking notes.

When the Major looks up Bruno continues, “As I have noted in my plans, for the initial distraction, you will need to have a lady get there half an hour before I do, to visit one of the elderly across the street at the home. She can be watching and waiting to call 911 on her cell phone just after I arrive.

I should be up and through his inner security team in five minuets, by then the EMT’s and at least one patrol car should be there. You’ll know I’m in, that’s when my cell phone is turned off; and that will be at his first security detail.”

“When she makes the call her voice has to have a panic sound to it as she half screams that her relative is having a seizure. I’m sure the Prince’s electronic security team will hear the call go out, if not they will know when the police and ambulance crews get the radio message from their dispatcher sending them over there. As the Paramedics get the 911 call and respond across the street,” seeing the Majors frown Bruno explains. “There are quiet a few older men and women living in that apartment complex. As I’m sure you know a squad car or two of cops always show up just before the ambulance does, to help and to assist and to secure the Ambulance.”

“OK, I can see it as a distraction for his men to be watching the Police.”

“Good, now if you noticed on page two when I mentioned the twelve painters that are working in the apartment building next door, and they are all working on the fourth floor?”

“Yes,” Red replied with a smile, seeing the plan in his minds eye.

“You catch on quick Red. With our meeting next door we will be on the third floor, on the west side of the building. The painters are in the building to the east on the fifth floor, they take three of the 4 x 8 inch planks that are sixteen foot long and already nailed together; that makes a twenty-four inch wide bridge. If they push that across the six foot wide gap between the buildings from one window to another, then your other entry team is two floors above us. In and unobserved primed for action.”

The Major again smiles and nods his head yes, as he continues taking notes. Clearing a building from the top down is the best and fastest way.

“The Prince will have close to twenty people guarding him maybe more. Most will be on the ground floor and a few others on the second. I know he will have five in the room with us and at least two or three outside the door. When the shooting starts downstairs and it will, have that lower entry team do a lot of flash bangs, that will cover any noise the team upstairs makes, as your men come down the stairs and surprises the guards outside the door, they will be dead in seconds.”

“You make this sound like it's a day to day routine here,” Tony said with a chuckle.

“All of your people will blend in and just seem a part of the normal daily routine of the city, if you have groups of people setting in parked cars at all of the surrounding intersections that ain’t close to normal. They would be spotted in no time.” Bruno said as he leaned forward to make his point.

“How will I know when you have the evidence and when to make the entry?

“That’s easy as you can see,” Bruno stands up and shows the shoes he’s wearing, “I’ve got those fancy shoes on your people gave me last time. Each one has a digital recorder in the heel, I will switch them on when I sit down and we will get him in stereo.”

Strolling over to the window he continued, “When I get him in his own words talking about the hit, I’ll take a look out of the window at the Cop cars and Ambulance down on the street. You have a man watching that window from across the road at the building next to where the Ambulance is parked. Crazy Dave runs a AM pirate radio station from the third floor, Tony knows him, he’ll call him after our meeting and he will let your man in. So when your man spots me he can have Dave play ‘Hammer Time’. Your teams can be listening the whole time to Crazy Dave, and the Prince’s security will never suspect a thing.”

Tony and Red both smile when they hear Bruno say, ‘Hammer Time’, that’s fitting.

“If something happens to Bruno or me I want some type of recognition or medal,” Tony blurted out!

Red said, “OK both of you raise your right hand state you names and then repeat after me.”

Both men raised their right hand, said their names and repeated, “ I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the State of New York, and the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, both foreign and domestic’ and I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me, for conscience sake; so help me God.”

As the two men finished, Red said smiling again, “Congratulations, the both of you have now joined the New York Militia, but it’s only for today. I don’t know if your aware of the irony here, but General Marion the husband of the women you’re suppose to kill, he’ has a lot to do in the recent revival of all of the States Militia’s.”

Bruno said, “That is an irony.”

“What’s the pay like and any fancy uniforms,” Tony said as a wisecrack.

“Tony don’t be an ass,” Bruno shot back, “what we get from the Prince is enough, and I like what I’m wearing right now.” Looking at his friends face he snickered thinking, humor is good, Tony will do OK, I can count on him to watch my back.

Red smiled as he added, “One last thing don’t open the door until you know that my teams have secured the rest of the building, OK?”

“How will we know it’s your guys that wins?”

“I’ll say the words, Tea Party, if I make it, if not my men will also know the code too.”

“Tea Party got it,” Bruno said and Tony nodded his head in agreement too.”

“OK, I need to get to my men and give them a quick briefing, good luck guys we will see you later, “ Red said as he put the wig and cap back on his head and headed out the door.

Bruno looked at Tony and said, “Piece of cake, he’s a professional, this ought to be fun.”

Tony didn’t say a thing, as he grimaced and shrugged his shoulders, he wasn’t so sure, he was in but he is starting to have second thoughts. Things can and do go wrong at of best time and with the best plans.

Book 3 The Show Down C39-41

(C-39)

And the beat goes on,

ālea iacta est ("the die is cast").

0630 EST

  Bruno hated this part of his morning run, the last half-mile all up hill. But he did like the feeling he gets when it’s all over, the exhilaration of having completed what he considered a hard work out. Getting to the top he slows his pace turns and starts an easy jog back down, his breathing was easier today, as he thinks, not to bad for an old man.

  About half way back down the hill the disposable phone he’s being paid to carry everywhere vibrates, letting him know his current associate wants to talk. Slowing to a walk he takes the phone opens it up and says, “OK.”

  The voice on the other end belongs to one of the Princes hired men that he talked to last week. “My boss needs to move the meeting up to today. He say’s it to be no later then 4 P.M., at the address you gave us on East 193rd street!”

  Bruno wonders why the rush, and he doubts the FBI has their people in place yet as this is four days before the originally planned meeting. But he also knows that he has been constantly watched and tailed since they’re first meeting, either by the Prince or the Feds, included his trip out to Kansas for his target check, then back to here. Even now. he can feel hidden eyes on him and can occasionally see people hanging around that were out of place. So making up an excuse would be out of the question, as he answers, “Yeah, I can make it at four o’clock sharp. I’ll be bringing Tony along, why the rush?”

  “Things are heating up out west and we have Ice Cream to move by tomorrow, bring your friend, later.”

Bruno knows that the FBI has this phone under 24 hour monitoring, so he doesn’t need to alert them. And if they are listening, so will the Princes people, doing the same. It’s just a game with in a game, within a game, as he smiles and thinks; it’s a good thing I learned to play chess at a young age. So many moves and plans laid out for each of the opponent’s next three moves.

  Still clutching the phone as he continues his cooling down walk, Bruno’s mind is racing working on a plan and a back up plan. Using the phone he calls Tony, who picks up after two rings, and in a sleepy voice says, “This better be Bruno!”

  “Ya got me, I’ll need a car, and I’ve got an errand to run today. Ya got one I can use?” With the schedule moved up he wonders if Tony would be a good man to have along to help him?

  “Sure what time do you want me to come by, and when will I get it back?

  “Around nine this morning, we are going shopping,” he said hoping Tony will catch on, “I’ll have you back home before sundown”

  Tony did catch his drift as he answered, “I’ll be here, see you then.”

  Bruno knows that Tony understand his meaning and will alert the FBI through his lawyer to set up a last meeting for coordination. Now back to his planning, the cooling down walk helped as he heads back to his place. While walking he observes the normal early morning day-to-day activity of the city, to an outsider it might look the same everyday, but any local would see the differences right away. Just like he does picking out the surveillance team that's watching him, getting an idea and with a smile he wonders if the Feds have any agents who can drive a garbage truck? Cause it's trash day in the area of the meeting, and he knows that the trucks are usually around about 4PM, picking it up and making a lot of noise. Another sly smile shows, that would make the perfect cover, doing the routine. With a laugh he thinks, 'The Feds would be the ones doing most of the dirty work this time, fitting very fitting. All I have to do is bring the garbage to them.'

(C-40)

Crossing the Rubicon

Keep thinking, keep up the pressure, and draw the enemy out from his hidden positions by any means that you can. Once they are moving it is easier to destroy them and you can then win.

Kansas Militia, Soldiers Hand Book

When the general is weak and without authority;

when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there

are no fixes duties assigned to officers and men,

and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner,

the result is utter disorganization.

Sun Tzu

0400 PST

 Useless and with out any purpose, that’s what he has become. As the Corp commander hand selected by the Khan he was to be in charge of China’s most modern fighting force here in northern California. He had been selected because of his proven skills and ability not on who he knew. And now after a few set backs that he had no control over he is ordered to follow some very foolish orders and watch his command destroyed, or transferred, and he was powerless to prevent it.

  And now with two more of his brigades decimated in senseless frontal attacks against an enemy his commander has completely underestimated. Where those two brigades were ambushed and destroyed yesterday afternoon well ahead of the American positions as they were advancing down the road. Even with scouts moving ahead of the main column by a full kilometer, the main units drove head long into a well-prepared valley of death with no escape, and again for nothing. And then last night another four of my battalions were badly mauled in their four separate reconnaissances in force probes I was ordered to do.   

   How many more men will I lose following the commander’s exact orders, to do it his way? This is utter madness; we are given orders that won’t allow any deviation no matter what, this is asinine micromanagement at it’s worst. Leaving no room for the unit commanders on the ground to direct the battle, to take advantage of it’s ever shifting opportunities, as a quick glimpse appears then disappears in the every changing fog of war.

History repeats itself and I’m helpless to prevent it, no not helpless, as his commands were direct and deliberate, I’m ordered to fail by an incompetent ass. We are repeating the same mistakes as at the end of World War II when Hitler had continually ordered his Divisions to attack, and attack again. But they weren’t Divisions anymore just weak Battalions and sometimes just a hodgepodge collection of Companies thrown into the meat grinder in a desperate attempt to stop the advancing American and Russian Armies.

  These misguided tactics and other insane stupid command orders from 10^th Army would soon see his remain divisions, maybe even his whole Corp reduced to a collection of a few numbers on a map board.

It’s unmistakable, an easily seen fact, this American Militia knows how to use the ground to their favor, it’s as if they were born to this type of warfare. They have hidden eyes in the woods and brush watching our every move, the all-seeing eyes of wolfs as my soldiers believe. Maybe they can really smell us coming as some of the troops whisper to each other. And their name the ‘Prairie Ghost’ just added to the mystique surrounding them, one that’s helped nourish my soldiers unnatural fear of them. These Americans may not relish war, but they were born for it.

  General Chen looking at his map can see at a glance that the Americans down at Plymouth should be in a precarious position, or so it would seem to a non-tactical trained mind. Especially when I have two Divisions just south of them with two more to the north, and the 31^st Corp has another three division to their west. All seven divisions should have the Americans boxed in and we can destroy them easily when ever we want to.

But looking closer at the detailed topographic map and it’s easy to see that it’s the Americans who have the advantage, short supply lines and our own weapons and equipment to use against us. Especially since they have captured the two artillery brigades of the 35^th and 43^rd Division, where they are using those guns against our attacks. According to our computer monitored radar counter fire and control center, in less then twenty-four hours they have expended over three thousand rounds against our attacks and recon probing. With the large supply of ammunition we had stored there for the artillery, they fire off rounds without a worry or any fear of running short. They have more then enough rounds to fire for two weeks at this rate; and a lot can happen in two weeks, it’s our forces that haven’t time on our side.

  Disgust shows on his face, using our own weapons against us to defeat us. He mentally admits, these Americans are good soldiers, well trained and even better lead. And it is my commander who has fallen into their trap, as he gives us reckless orders to attack as fast as our soldiers can be brought up, either by battalions or brigades headlong down the highways, no maneuvering and taking the high ground. And our soldiers die and the Americans in hiding are wiping the blood from their knives and tomahawks waiting patiently, knowing we will try again, and again to free my two trapped divisions.

  Gobi is a fool, can’t he see that the ground favors the Americans, narrow valleys lots of hills and low mountains and sparse vegetation that won’t hide any units larger then a platoon to approach them undetected. And when my soldiers are found out these Militia soldiers wait patiently drawing the unit in, exposing more of my men, then suddenly and without any warning my men die with out ever seeing the enemy. They die by the score to the accurate and deadly fire of our own captured artillery and by our own Chinese made rounds.

That sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach has returned, we are losing this fight and my men are dying for what? To buy time, to hold off the obvious disaster they could all see rushing at them like a runaway avalanche. Our smaller patrols have men shot and killed from hidden snipers, sometime the sound of the shoot comes from behind them as a man is shot in the back some how the patrol must have walked past these hidden ghost.

  Listening now he can hear the drums echoing through the hills, the war whoops of the wild men as they spring up from the ground or step out of trees, to hack at his defenseless soldiers with their bloody tomahawks, taking the scalps of the fallen and holding them high over their heads as a trophy to be proud of.

This is impossible where have all of these American soldiers come from? We have five million trained men here in California, and they can’t have more then a few thousand soldiers maybe even up to 100,000 men. The rest of the Americans are just Militia, they aren’t organized to fight us here in their own land, at least not like this.

Hearing a loud shouted warning behind him he turns as he reaches for his pistol, it’s not there but in its place he finds a long sword. He draws it knowing that any weapon is better then nothing as he watches a whirlwind of dust approaching, a cloud made from the thundering of countless horses hooves. This makes no sense the modern weapons of war have made horse soldiers as obsolete as a massed infantry charge would be, suddenly the sound of the charging horses stops and it becomes deathly quiet. As the dust starts to dissipate he can make out the lone figure of a large man sitting on a horse watching him. Even stranger, the man looks like a young version of the actor John Wayne, right out of an old black and white film. Sitting tall on the horse he easily holds a Winchester style rifle in his hand. The dust completely clears now and he can see this man smiling as he said, “You brought a knife to a gun fight son, it might be a big knife but you still lose.” The man takes aim with the rifle, I know he will shoot me straight through the heart, he’s a man, he won’t make me suffer.

  Well Duke you won’t take me with out a fight as he raises the sword above his head to charge.

 Sitting up right in his bed General Jiu Chen lets out a curse shouting, “Damn you, I’ll fight to may last breath.”

  “Sir, Sir, General Chen what’s wrong,” his aide is shaking him with one hand on his shoulder.

  “I, I don’t? I thought we were being slaughtered by American Indians, and John Wayne was getting ready to shot me.” He has a dazed look on his face as he said, “I must have dozed off and had a bad dream, a nightmare.” Still confused he asks, “What time is it, how long did I sleep? And what’s the tactical situation?”

  “It’s now 0420, and you have been asleep just over three hours sir. The tactical for our Corp area is the same, the Americans still occupy the area around Plymouth and wait on more of our attacks, and there is no movement up on highway 80. In the 31^st Corp AO they are still attempting to clear the highway to San Francisco but with out any luck. They lost over 15,000 men yesterday and last night where they only gained two miles of ground. They think they have fixed the front lines of the American defenses and will attempt a break out later.”

  General Chen shakes his head knowing that General Gobi will waste lives for nothing. If the troops under his control gained only two miles and it cost us 15,000 soldiers, we will be bleed dry long before the Americans become sick of the killing.

  Damn can’t the old fool see that the Americans will give ground, they won’t be pinned down. Gobi doesn’t have a clue in what he faces, he can’t maneuver and he hasn’t enough air power left to assist his attempts, and where his artillery is counter barraged every time he uses it.

  The Americans have him right where they want and the man isn’t up to the task. If he continues these wasteful attacks in a few days it will be over. With a little luck he might even last a week, but soon even he will see that he has very few options left. But before then how many more of our men will die?

  And the results will still be the same, only the pile of dead will be stacked higher, then how many more families will be in mourning? He frowns knowing that things should have been different; we were supposed to be the winners this time. We were to be the people who are to write the new history books, changing the world and giving it a new direction.

  Instead we lose, unless, he pauses a second as a stray though pops in to his mind, I could be wrong, the actions of just one man can change the outcome, even though that’s very unlikely to happen. Thinking back to his nightmare where the wild men are holding their bloody trophies he wonders if that is to be our fate, to be scalped?

  Pushing that thought from his mind he asks, “Any word from General Gobi about my request for the 11^th Corp to attack Ione from the west as my two trapped divisions attack from the east?”

  “No sir, we know they received the request, the latest satellites photos came in an hour ago. The Americans units that took Iona moved northeast and are in the hills, as you said they would be. If the 11^th Corp attacks now they would be attacking into very rough terrain. Maybe the 11th Corp are making their plans now?”

  “Ha, that is a good joke. Our Army commander can only manage a single chore at a time; right now he is fixated on his problem to the west and saving his own skin. We are on our own,” then looking at his watch he is surprised it’s just 0420; despite his nightmare he was able to rest for three hours, now he remembers, that’s what his aide told him when he first woke up.

 “Call the five divisions commanders have them stop following the plans to attack Plymouth that were sent to them by 10^th Army. Have them come to the rear TACHQ by noon today we have to come up with a separate plan to rescue our 2 trapped division, we can expect no help from 11^th Corp.”

(C-41)

The third bridge.

0430

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained

you one victory, but let your methods be regulated

by the infinite variety of circumstances.

Sun Tzu

  This part was the hardest, even though radio contact had been made, this moving in the dark and approaching the Chinese position at the bridge, anything could go wrong. Even with the Chinese guide riding in the first vehicle, maybe it's a rouse by them? Don't know how they would know? That we had switched sides, but anything is possible? Just thinking about the many possibilities can drive a man nuts. Even if Major Z had told him not to worry, Ricardo couldn't help himself, there were just too many if's.

  Maybe Lt. Colonel Maritz was a tactical genus’s and this simple plan as he had called, there were still a lot of risks, and it's me with my Company's neck on the line again. Ricardo smiled at the thought of when the Z man asked for volunteers he had surprised himself when he stepped up and said, “My Company can lead the California Battalion in, the Chinese are expecting a Jihad Battalion, we will dash their moral when they find out its a Aztlan unit.”

  Everyone laughed at that, and it had sounded good at the time to him, to be leading the battalion again. Colonel Ito the California Militia Brigade CO had nodded his head in approval and asked for as many spare uniforms that they had, for his men who would make up the bulk of Ricardos Company. That way the Chinese wouldn't suspect a thing until it was too late, and hopefully they would take the bait. Lt Colonels Maritz plan was for the Chinese to pull out and rejoin the rest of their battalion on the I-80 Carquinez Bridge at Valona.

  If they took the bait, we replace their men on the north side of the Bridge and as they all move back to the south side here and start to board our trucks for the trip, Our Tanks and APC's turn their weapons on them and demand that they surrender. With their CO, Lieutenants and senior NCO's already captured at their HQ we shouldn't have to shoot them up. At least that is what we planned and with a couple of the Chinese Free Army people that Colonel Ito in his battalion that would hold this bridge after we take it, it should work? Still too many if's, got to stop worrying.

  Chinese Free Army, no one told us that several hundred thousand of the Khan's Army had been taken prisoners, with over 100,000 of them now working with the US Army.

I guess that no stranger then Major Z's Battalion of the Jihad Army becoming Christians again and switching sides. Just like my Company did, Ricardo understood the why, but it sure was strange too.

  The Convoy stops and using his night vision he watched the Chinese soldier get off of the first vehicle and approach a sandbagged position. One of the Guards steps out and Ricardo knows they are exchanging their pass words. They both shake hands and several more guards stand up and wave at the first of his vehicles.

  The Convoy starts moving again slowly as their guide walks in front and directs for them to pull over to the side of the road. And then into a small vehicle park that will hold only the first platoon's vehicles. When Ricardo's vehicle is even with the Guard Post one of the Chinese, motions for them to stop and then climbs on board. In very broken English he says, “Sir, I your guide. Pull out head,” he pauses trying to think of the English words. The Free Chinese Major with Ricardo says something to the guide in Chinese.

  The guide flashes a smile and he answers with a flourish of words in Chinese. Ricardo knows he feels relief in not having to struggle with words in English that might be misunderstood.

  The Major tells the driver to pull around and head up to tools booths and then to the building to the east of them. To Ricardo he says, “Have all of your vehicles follow us, we will see in a minuet if this plan works? It should, this man,' Indicating the guide, “is from their HQ unit and he said they were really glad to see us, especially their CO as Major Z had informed them you had the Heavy Armor with you. I just hope the don't recognize the last eight tanks aren't the ZTZ-99’s like the first four are?

 If we get them off loaded from the low boys we can sale this plan with out having to kill my country men here. Keep your fingers crossed LT, and pray. I am!”

The plan is a success, the Chinese 10th Army has lost another bridge and the Free Chinese soldiers along with the California Battalion take over the radio duties with all of the codes captured. And they make contact with the Kansas units to the North of the bridge, freeing them up to rejoin their units.

Ricardo and his Company along with Major Z's four ZTZ-99’s tanks turn around and head back to their unit at the Antioch Bridge, just as the sky to the east lightens up before sunrise. They have a long day ahead of them preparing for the next fight, with the Jihad units.

Book 3 'The Show Down' C 36- 38

(C-36) 

2346 hours

Bad Comms, Mis-Comms, or No Coms = confusion or even Death

(Bad Communications, Missed Communications, No Communications)

General Rong Cui was getting a little mad at what he considered impudence by Colonel Wang Pu as he switched strategies, “Do you have these orders in writing? Placing you in charge of my Division, I can't rely on just your signals officer word. If this was the intentions of the the Field Marshall I would have received word too.”

“No sir I don't have written orders, the message we received was over the radio, it was encoded in the Commands code and with the proper number sequence following such a command,” Colonel Pu replied. “As you can see, what we have written down makes sense after our success today.”

With a laugh General Cui retorted, “The Americans have over ran several Commanding Officers positions today, and they can be using the codes to their advantage. As for making sense, I say you were lucky, as the Americans let you advance because they wanted to shorten their lines of defense.”

“Sir I protest, your tone of voice, it insults my dead soldiers and the wounded, in what they were able to accomplish today. Our changing tactics and working in small teams allowed us to push them back over 4 kilometers. We know where their skirmish line is, and where their first and second lines of defence are located. It may be a trap that they have set for us, but we carried out our orders with just two brigades.”

“Colonel don't attempt to upset me, I'm not saying that your units sacrifices were wasted. Yes you were successful in stopping them, and maybe forcing them back into a temporary defensive position. I'm sure they are regrouping and planning on resuming the attack, but my division will remain under my command. They will follow my orders,” looking at his watch, “in less then five minuets my first Brigade will attack from where we relieved you units. When we have punched through the Americans front line the second brigade will be ready to continue the attack and push through to their rear elements. My last brigade will then start the mop up, and the other arriving divisions can then push through to the I-80 bridges. Reestablishing contact with the few Divisions still down in the San Francisco area.

General Gobi told me that the American Militia have overextended their advance this time. Their five divisions can't hold onto such an extended line, they have made a very bad error in tactics, and we are to make them pay for that now.”

Colonel Pu shook his head as he said, “Sir, no disrespect to you or to General Gobi, but you both continue to underestimate the Americans and these Militia units they have. There attack along highway 49 where they destroyed three of our divisions and the attack at the same time on the two Divisions holding the passes had to be the work of more then five Divisions.”

“Maybe so Colonel, maybe so, I won't speculate. I will follow the orders I was given this morning and I will do my job.”

“Then it will be the death of your Division General, we switched tactics and won. You can learn from what we accomplished today and go from there.”

“Your small unit attacks had them off guard, by now they have changed their tactics. Our mass attack will take them by surprise, catching them in mid stride when they aren't ready.”

And aide to the General hands him a paper, he signs it and then hands it over to Colonel Pu, “Now these are proper orders, I relieve you of command. Please take you unit back to Sacramento

report to Corp, I'm sure they will have you rearm and make ready to assist somewhere else.”

Not waiting for an answer, General Cui turns to his G-3 (planning officer and asks, “When the second brigade arrives at 0100 hours have them march forward to take over from the first brigade as planned......”

Colonel Pu takes the orders and as he turns he hears the remark made to the G-3 and thinks, 'He hasn't listened and he's not waiting for intelligence from the success or failure of his attack, no wonder the Americans have us trapped. Our senior commanders assume to much, this isn't the same America we attacked last fall. They have lost the fat and any self doubt, they are fighting for their homes and families. Shaking his head no he whispers to himself, “We assumed to much! Myself included. The price we will have to pay will be great, even if the Americans show the same compassion like they did after World War Two, we will still pay.”

The attack of the 171st Divisions first Brigade is a disaster, the massed units are hammered by the American Artillery and when the decimated Battalion fight their way past the faked skirmish line. They come under very well aimed shots of the Militia Rifleman that are five hundred meters away in the real first defensive line.

The Chinese have to now skirmish across this zeroed in firing range, where they are the pop-up targets. Only a few hundred soldiers make it to within a hundred meters of the hidden Militia line.

The attackers or what's left of the 3,00 men that started are scattered across the whole front of one Militia Battalion, Where each of the defenders are making their shots count.

The Chinese are stopped and with the unrelenting rifle fire coming at them forced to fall back. But this is not an easy task as they are under constant fire even as they retreat and lose even more men.

The ranking officer, a Major reports back to General Cui, “The Americans were waiting for us, any future attacks will need Armor, APC's and Artillery support. I do not think it's wise to have the Second Brigade make the same type of attack that we attempted.”

Rong Cui glares at the man and his off the cuff remark, but losing a full Brigade in 30 minuets makes him reconsider his plan. He asks, “ Did you see any sign of American Armor? Any direct fire weapons, that might be anti-tank?”

“No sir, just indirect fire of artillery and mortars. Their infantry are very skilled with their rifles, the last five hundred meters, they made us pay for ever meter going both ways.”

Cui directs his G-3 to hold the 2^nd Brigade when it arrives, to wait for the Armor unit that is following, “then we will show them what a combined force attack is like.”

(C-37)

Gracias a Dios, for men like this,

(Thanks be to God)

Day 2, 0035 hours

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.

~ George S Patton

“Well you’ve earned a Purple Heart son,” the Doc said, “now wait here and we will get you evacuated back up to the brigade medical station.”

That's when I said, “No way Doc I haven't got time! My buddies, they're waiting for me up at the front lines, just patch it up, and give me a shot of antibiotics.”

“Your attitude is commendable Private Williamson but your in no shape to return to the front lines, only God knows how much shrapnel there is in the back of your leg. There are six entry points, if things get bad you won’t be able to run back to the next line.”

“Sir I mean no disrespect to you, but my platoon doesn’t plan on running away, don’t take that wrong sir we aren’t out for glory. You see we are dug in on a knife ridge and the Chin’s, they can only come at us on a forty or fort-five meter wide front without climbing up over the scree.”

“The what?”

“Scree, that’s a layer of loose stones, sort of like marbles on a flat floor, and it’s on a good slopping hill with close to a sixty degree angle. The scree is over a hundred meters deep on that part of the hill. And the sides are too steep to for them to scramble up so we can pore very heavy fire into anyone coming up those side ravines. Besides they have attacked us twice and both times they failed before they could get within hand grenade range.”

“Then how do you explain your wounds then?”

“They’re from either a mortar round or a rifle grenade, I’m the only one wounded from my squad and the second in our platoon of 39 people. David Martinelle who you just treated for the wounds to his left arm was our other man, and you let him go back up.”

“I was able to pick out the two metal slivers he had in him, they were like thorns and they came right out. Your wounds are deeper and the metal is down under the muscle, if just one of them is jagged and it moves a little, it might cut deeper and damage more tissue. You need to head back to Division medical and have an X-ray, and for one of the surgeons to look at you wounds.”

“I can’t do that sir my friends need me and you did say ‘it might’ sir. If I man a grenade launcher I’ll be lying behind it and not have to move around much, just aim and shoot.”

Shaking his head and knowing he wasn’t going to change this young man’s mind the Doctor said, “I understand how you feel, but I’m going to sign the order sending you to the rear, if you’re not there when the ambulance is ready to leave you will be written up. Then I’ll have to sign those papers too, if I have time in a day or two. Then they will be forwarded up to division then back down to your brigade commander. Then he will send them on down to your battalion and from there to your company commander. Very time consuming, that process will take several days maybe longer.”

The Doctor turned to a medical box behind him as he asked, “Are you allergic to any of the penicillin family of drugs, what’s your first name Private?”

“My name is Doug sir. And no sir I’m not allergic to anything that I know of?”

Picking up a medium size plastic bottle full of pills he writes on it ‘1 tablet 4x a day, until they are used up’, a second smaller bottle he writes ‘take 1 or 2 for pain every 4 hours, not to exceed 8 tablets a day’. Handing them to the private he say’s, “Doug the larger bottle is for infection, take one with water every six hours until they are all gone. And the smaller bottle is for pain it’s just a strong aspirin, it won’t make you drowsy so you can still function. Your platoon medic has more if you run out.” With a wink after looking at his watch he said, “Now I want you to go out side and wait for the evacuation ambulance, they won’t be back for another fifteen minuets or so. That gives you time to grab some hot chow at the supply point in the tent across the gully, they also have ammo if you need any. Do you understand me and do you need anything else?”

“I understand perfectly sir, and yes I could use two magazines for my FN, when I got hit I had two in my butt pack, they both took a lot of the shrapnel and they can’t be fixed, I’ve still got ten but no spares if I need them.”

With a smile the doctor walked over to the corner of the tent and opened his Alice pack and removed two magazines that weren’t loaded, “You’re in luck I carry four spares, you can borrow two.”

“Thanks Doc, I thought a lot of you medical guys carried only pistols or an M16.”

With a laugh the Doctor retorted, “When I joined the Kansas militia ten years ago I had an AR15, almost everyone else had the FN or a G-3 clone. After shooting the FN a few times at the range and hitting the targets hidden behind the railway ties, where the 223 wouldn’t penetrate three inches, I saw the light and switched, I got me a better rifle. I still have the AR and I left it for my oldest boy to help defend the home if necessary. Glad I did too as we live just five miles as-the-crow-flies from Dan’s place. After what happened there just after Christmas our sub division started an armed neighbor hood watch program. I feel better knowing my sixteen year old is skilled with it and can be of help if needed. Enough talk son, now get out of here grab some hot chow and keep your backside down, and take your medicine.”

“Yes sir I will, and thank you.”

Soft Ground and Flooded Rice Fields (0045 hours)

Good the noise from the ZTZ96’s or 2000’s was louder, that means they are closer now. Their lead tanks had finally found the one dry tract the engineers had left intact across the flooded fields and around the drainage channels and they were moving quickly now into the kill zone.

Our few scouts that had stayed behind had reported at least a full Armor brigade of the monsters were a coming, 130 of their top of the line tanks with lots of APC’s carrying infantry, followed by at least another battalion of infantry in open trucks. Really hard to get a count in the dark, but it could be as many as 3000 troops were moving into the trap. Another slacker must be in charge, a good Commander would have sent at least a company size reconnaissance force ahead to make sure it wasn't a trap. Oh well, their mistake our opportunity.

Lieutenant Colonel Justin Miller executive officer of the 2^nd Brigade 2^nd Kansas Division shook his head in disbelief, he can’t understand how any commander would sacrifice unarmored troops like that. Oh well his job was to see to their destruction and the two anti-tank companies under his command and the battery of 152MM guns across the river were ready.

Watching the laptop computer screen of a live cast shot from the orbiting UAV that was 5,000 feet overhead he can see the lead scout vehicles that were now spreading out, they didn’t know they had one last major obstacle between them and the ambush. In less then a minuet the scouts got to the main drainage channel above Liberty Island and were halted by the wide and deep water. But the end of the column continues moving and closes up as they cross the bottleneck, good the back door can now be slammed shut

With a chuckle Sgt. Weiss said, “Our engineers get to count first Coo sir.”

Smiling in return he answered, “Yes they do, radio them to open the slough gates and flood that deep ditch behind the Chinese. They can be proud of all of the hard work they did today, from welding all of the gates shut on the drainage ditches from here up to Dixon and then filling both sides with tons of dirt to stop the Chinese from just blowing them open and letting the water drain from them and the fields.”

Still watching the screen he continued, “The enemies scouts will spend twenty to thirty minuets looking for another crossing, but this time they won’t find any. Once they figure they can’t move any further west they will have to turn that whole snaking file around and try another path, by that time the ditch will be flooded, but we aren’t going to give’em the necessary time.” Picking up the field phone he tells the man on the other end, “Commence firing now zone A-1 and all along the snake line.”

Five kilometers behind him eight tubes of 120mm mortars fire their pre-plotted fire mission at their designated coordinates. Firing their allotment of six Strix* Precision Guided rounds each, the battery crews know they will take out 48 targets, it doesn’t matter if they are Tanks, APC’s or trucks full of troops, as each hit vehicle will be a burning road blocker.

On the south side of the shipping channel the six captured Chinese 152mm guns start firing a Chinese copy of the Russian ‘Krasnopol-M’ rounds, in support. These rounds are very similar in capabilities to the American ‘Copper Head’ rounds, and just as deadly. Each round will home in on the inferred beams from the six special UAV that were over head and circling, when the crewman flying these remote controlled planes see his target hit he will switch to another and another until they are all destroyed. And then concentrations of infantry will be dealt with using old fashion HE and WP. ^

* Bofors of Sweden developed the "Strix" smart mortar round, which fires a single smart munition. The Strix looks much like a conventional mortar round, with tailfins that unwrap from the end of the round. The Strix has been in service with the Swedish Army since 1994, and has been ordered by the Swiss Army. The “Strix’ is a hollow-charge gliding munition that uses imaging infrared technology to find, hit and kill its target. ( information taken from http://www.vectorsite.net/twbomb_11.html#m6)

^HE High Explosive

WP White Phosphors

O247 hrs Tough Decisions 

Southern Part of the Line

“Sir, the two front battalions in the second brigade are down to around 70% effective manpower strengths, that includes the walking wounded who have moved back up to the front. Another hard Chin push in the right spot and they might break through! The Chins have been using their manpower to locate and attempt to swamp our forward positions, I know they are wasting their soldiers but they are hurting us in the process.”

“We knew this might happen, send a message back to the staff include everyone from the G-1 up to G-5, have them send up half of their people, same with the AA brigade, tell John to take half of his missile battery people and make a reserve battalion in case we have to fill in a big hole fast. They are to wait at point Blue in well dispersed dug in positions.”

“Even with the people from division support we will only get back up to 85% strength.”

“Yeah that’s what I figured too,” taking his helmet off and wiping the sweat band and then his forehead with a towel he says reluctantly, “OK.” General Stoddard’s facial expressing was hard no emotion showing as he then said, “No one is going to like this, but we do the 'Grave Robber' plan.”

The G-3 looked at him in complete disbelief as he questioned, “Sir?”

“We all talked about this, Dan and all of us didn't like the idea, but it's already agreed on. Now make it happen!”

Still in a bit of shock that it might come to this he asked again, “Are you sure sir? Maybe we ought to bounce this one up to Corp?”

“Yes I'm sure, it's a tough call but one that has to be made. The order is to put the KIA’s back into the front decoy positions, take a couple of hand warmers, activate them and put them in the dead men’s front top pockets.”

“Do we really have to do it sir,” his G-3 asked again? Wondering if he had heard the General give that order..

“It’s a bad choice I know, but we have to fool the Chinese thermal scopes and make them shoot up that decoy line again and waste more Ammo and time clearing it again. Don’t look at me like I’m crazy Arron, you were at that planning session. I later talked it over with Dan, we both agreed on this as a back up plan. We have to take the pressure off of the real line, so have the men take their ground sheets and two of them can drag one of our dead men forward and place them in position. When the Chinese attack again our snipers between the two lines will be able to pick out their men firing at our dead, as those Chins will be the ones with the thermal scopes. If our men use a grenade launcher and kill them it should also damage the thermal scopes or enough of them to shift the advantage back to us.”

“But sir?”

“No butts about it, you know I mean no disrespect for our dead. The spirit is already gone but we still have a need for the body, this way our dead will save more of our men’s lives.” Softening his tone he said, “Now go ahead and issue the order Gary, I didn’t like having to give it, if there was any other way to save more on our men’s lives, I would do it.”

“Yes sir,” he answered but his voice betrayed his reluctance to pass on this order that he knew was correct, no maybe not correct but still necessary.

“And make sure the RC guys plant their special AK’s among our dead men.”

“They said they would help place our dead in the right places to cover the most likely regrouping and assemble areas. I was told that a little luck on their part that would give us results beyond any one’s expectations.”

Red shuddered a little as he said in a low voice, “It will. I know it would scare the hell out of me.”

Later that night/ early morning, after Doug returned to his unit he found out about the Chinese second attack and how his platoon was able to beat them off again. The men he was with also found out how hard it was to stay in their positions; later in the cold dark hours before first light, we could hear the Chinese wounded crying out for water, one of them must have been wounded pretty bad, we would hear his voice getting weaker and weaker as he called out, “Shui, shui,” water, water and it would sound like shway, shway. After what seemed like an hour of listening to the man’s pleas that were now getting intermittent and weaker, our Platoon leader called back up to company HQ on the field phone and asked for permission to send out a fire team to bring the wounded Chin soldier back to our lines.

The CO said no and that was an order. Because the Chinese soldier might not be wounded and it might be just a bluff to get some of our men out and into an ambush, he said his father told him about that trick being used in Korea and our platoon sergeant said the VC had used the same trick in Nam on his older brother. They were counting on the Americans compassion for the wounded, and how they would use it against us, to kill our men if we fell for it. If it really was a wounded man the Chinese didn’t care, as that was the oriental mind set of what’s another life. For us it was hard to keep from disobeying orders and not go out to help him.

After what seemed hours of hearing his plea for water the LT called in a mortar fire request for the area we suspected the man was in. Six rounds of 120mm airburst did the job, if he was a decoy we would never know now. Just before dawn Doug told his best friend, “I don’t know if I’ll ever get the sound of that wounded man calling out for help? Shui, shui, damn, war is hell.”

The Chinese attacks continue all along the line, and each one is repulsed with loses on both sides. But each new Chinese attack has less impulse; their troops are losing their courage they are afraid, tired and thirsty. Their lack of in depth logistics especially in water and food for the front line troops is taking a very heavy tole.

(C-38)

0350 hours

Spookier

Smitty asks, “You sure do a lot of praying Parson, what do you pray for?”

“I give thanks to the Lord for the time and the place son.”

“The time and place?”

“The time to live and the place to die. That’s all that any man gets,

No more, No less.”

From the movie 'The Alamo'

“This is nonsense, you know that Marshall Gobi will not accept failure, and I didn’t give any orders to fall back. I order you to tell me the name of the officer who gave that command!”

Lt. Colonel Ni Sichong answered in a forced calm voice as he tried to explain for the third time, “As I told you sir there was no order given. After we captured the Americans first trench line again, that's their fake line. As we were regrouping to push on to the second line, the troops in one’s and two’s dropped their weapons and headed back to our lines, the Company Commanders, Platoon Lieutenants and NCOs called for them to return and they wouldn’t listen. As Captain Yitang just told you when he ordered a squad Corporal and some men to go and bring them back, he could hear them arguing and soon after the Corporal came back alone as his whole squad had gone back with the other men.”

Recently promoted General Wang Pu had returned to the front line with written orders, and took over command of the decimated 171st Division, he turned and glared at Captain Yitang, “Why didn’t you go yourself?”

“I still had the majority of my company with me at that time sir, and it was almost time to begin the assault against the next defensive line.”

“And that’s when the so called ghost arrived,” General Pu retorted?

In his own defense Yitang answered, “I did not see any ghost sir, that is the words our men used to describe what happened next.”

“You said that several of the dead Americans came back to life and started firing off their weapons in the trenches hitting several of your men.”

“Yes sir, and they had been dead just a few minuets before. The one closet to my command group I had place two shots into him myself just to make sure. That was two or three minuets before he opened fire on us. When the dead American opened fire several others and I started firing at him again and we could see his body jerking each time one of us hit him. Only when a 37mm grenade ripped him apart did he stop firing. And we weren’t the only ones having to kill these corpse again, I could hear this going on all across the front.”

“And this is when the majority of your men started retreating?”

“Yes sir, I had just given the order for my medics to attend to the wounded, and ordered some men to help the lesser wounded back to our line of departure. As I was talking to my Lieutenants more of the enemies dead started shooting again and we had to dispatch these too. After that I could see that many of our men were gone and I knew they weren’t wounded. Platoon Sergeants that were still with the few remaining troops then called in and reported the men with them refused to advance. That is when I called Colonel Sichong and told him that I had lost over three quarters of my men, that they were falling back without orders.”

“That’s when I ordered my companies to start the second phase of the attack,” Lt. Colonel Sichong blurted out. “The word was passed up and down the line and the officers, senior NCOs and only a few men jumped up and moved forward, the few others they froze, the men wouldn’t get up and advance. The American snipers were shooting at the few of us exposed and we took cover and called out to the troops in the trench to advance, but they wouldn’t. So when the few soldiers with us laid down suppressive fire we fell back to the first line. Even threatening the men that still remained with death they refused, they wouldn’t advance. They’re faces were filled with fear as they were watching the few dead Americans , ones that they said had been killed twice if not three times. The word spread quickly that troops down the line were now retreating in larger and larger numbers. That's when the Americans started dropping mortars rounds, you could see the fear and terror in the faces of the few men that remained, their spirit had just melted and there was nothing left inside of them. Then in one’s and two they got up and ran back to the trucks. In my command group I had only five men with me, I knew I could do nothing, that our part of the attack was over. I did not order a retreat, but I did order for a regrouping back at the line of departure.”

“When we got there only a few of the troops were waiting, they said that others had continued on back to where we got off of the trucks. I ordered my executive officer and the NCOs to go and collect the battalion and prepare defensive position in case the Americans attacked, while I reported back to brigade. Colonel Nu said the Brigade attack was a failure and what we experienced had happened to all of the attacking units.”

General Pu shook his head in disgust as he muttered, “Superstitious peasants, what else could we expect from men who are uneducated, and without motivation. To make a Army you need more then peasants.” Looking at his officers with a hard glare, then his face turned to shame and he looked down at his map, balling his fist he says in frustration as he said in a low angry voice, “Damn this American General, he knows us better then we know ourselves.”