Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06 Read Online Free PDF Page B

taxiways and ramp areas
are limited to thirty thousand pounds, so—”
                “That is all I need,” Sun said. “I
do not need you to park this plane— I only require that you drop me off. You
can dump fuel as you begin your approach to get down to emergency-landing fuel
weight.”
                 “But,
sir, the runway is made for only liaison aircraft and helicopters,” the flight
engineer said. “It is only five thousand feet long! Even with only minimum fuel
to reach Shantou , our safe takeoff roll will exceed the
runway available by—”
                 “Lieutenant,
I do not care if this plane becomes a permanent fixture at Juidongshan—I want
to be on the ground at Juidongshan in less than a hour. If I am not in a car
and on my way to headquarters in that time, the next destination you will be
landing at will be a security ice cave in Tibet . Now, go!”
     
    PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY NAVY
EASTERN FLEET ( TAIWAN OPERATIONS) HEADQUARTERS, JUIDONGSHAN NAVAL BASE,
    FUJIAN PROVINCE ,
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
    SUNDAY, 18 MAY 19 97, 2316
HOURS LOCAL ( 17
MAY, 1416 HOURS ET)
     
                “Greetings to you, Comrade Admiral
Sun Ji Guoming,” General Major Qian Shugeng, the elderly deputy commander for
plans of the Military Command Headquarters Targeting Taiwan, said in a low,
gravelly voice. “It is a pleasure to present our operational plans to you on
behalf of the general staff. I will now turn the briefing over to my young
deputy, Colonel Lieutenant Ai Peijian. Colonel Peijian has been most helpful in
preparing this briefing for you. He is one of our hardest workers and a true
and loyal son of the Party.”
                 The
nearly eighty-year-old general officer waved a withered hand to tonight’s
briefer, Colonel Lieutenant Ai Peijian—“young” in his case meant about age
fifty-five—who moved to his feet and bowed respectfully. “Welcome, comrade, to
our status briefing regarding our standing war plans for the glorious
pacification and reunification with the rebel Nationalist Chinese on the island of Taiwan . Before I begin in detail, I am happy to
report that our plans are in perfect order and await only the command from our
Paramount Leader to execute the war plan. In less than one week, we can destroy
the Nationalists’ defenses, capture the Nationalist president and his key
advisors and Kuomintang leadership, and start the process of reunification
under the Communist Party of China.”
                 “That
will be for me and Comrade General Chin to decide, Colonel,” Sun said,
impatiently waving a hand for the briefing to begin.
                 Just
two minutes into the briefing, Sun knew that not much had been changed—this was
the same briefing he had been given every two weeks for the past year now. This
military committee—the Operations and Plans Committee, part of the Military
Command Headquarters Targeting Taiwan, or MCHTT, based here in Juidongshan—was
in charge of continually revising the war plans drawn up by the Central
Military Commission, Chinas main military command body, for the initial attack,
invasion, occupation, and subjugation of the rebel Chinese Nationalist
government on the island of Formosa. Every two weeks, the MCHTT was required to
brief the Central Military Commission or its designated representative—that had
been Admiral Sun Ji Guoming for quite some time now—on any changes to the war
plan made because of force or command changes on either side.
                 But
it was a farce, typical of the huge, bloated People’s Liberation Army
bureaucracy, Sun thought. No member of the lowly MCHTT would dare make any
substantive changes in the war plans drawn up by the Central Military
Commission—that would be an act tantamount to treason. Colonel Ai was the
commanding officer of the planning division of the MCHTT, but he was such a
junior officer that if he worked in