Chimera (9 page)

“Yes sir!” Both men saluted Wencang who returned it and sat back into his chair. Chen and Feng walked out a few moments later while the young Lieutenant closed the door to Wencang’s office behind them.

Once it was peace and quiet inside, Wencang looked at the wish list Chen and Feng had laid out before him and decided to get to it. He picked up the phone to his adjutant outside.

“Get me Colonel-General Liu at 2
ND
Artillery Corps HQ right away.”

HILLS NORTH OF WALONG

ARUNACHAL PRADESH

INDIA

JUNE 07, 1030 HRS

The sound of the boots trampling the grass and bushes was now louder than the sounds of the water gushing down the rivulet nearby. The fifteen heavily armed Indian soldiers moving through the thick bushes had no time to pay attention to serenity of the surroundings, however. Their job was to get on a dominant peak on the other side of the east-west running rivulet.

A few minutes later they were at the edge of the shallow rivulet and looking at the trees and bushes on the other side through their rifle optics. This force of men was commanded by Major Krishnan. He looked around and saw the camouflage-painted faces of his Jawans as their flipped the rifle safeties off and chambered a round into their rifles. A few seconds later he gave the all clear with a hand wave and the group moved out from the bushes and ran over the shallow rivulet, splashing ice-cold water as they did so. They were soon within the bushes on the other side and then began climbing to the northwest from where they could control the western stream.

Half a kilometer to their west a squad of Chinese soldiers was moving down the edge of the main stream on foot. This was neither the first time nor the last time this had happened. And in the last few weeks it had been a regular story. The Tibetan rebels would often move through these hills as they infiltrated into southern Tibet. The Chinese soldiers would pursue those groups attempting to move back through this area to safety in India. And since the official Chinese line was that Arunachal Pradesh was Chinese territory, the PLA had become very aggressive here, leading a series of hot pursuits into Indian Territory. Less than a week before, they had run into an Indian patrol and both sides had engaged, causing several dead and wounded on the Indian side as a result of mortar fire from Chinese troops.

On this morning the Chinese troops were conducting yet another such patrol. This time, however, an Indian Nishant UAV had picked up the Chinese even before they had crossed the border. Thirty minutes after that, Krishnan’s commanding officer at the Battalion HQ had received the call and Krishnan and his men had been dispatched to intercept, taking the feed from the Nishant UAV as their navigation aid. It allowed them to get into a position of advantage before they came into contact with the Chinese.

Carrying an INSAS rifle of his own and a twenty-kilo backpack hanging on his back, Krishnan was at the head of the team as they slashed through the bushes on their way to the top of the peak from where they could look down at the approaching Chinese soldiers.

The clearing was reached a few minutes later as the bushes fell behind and a clean blue sky and a chilling cold wind swept through the air. And sure enough, the stream was on the other side. No one spoke a word as each member of the team spread out into the rocks overlooking the stream below and dropped on their stomachs for cover and concealment. Krishnan removed a pair of binoculars from his backpack and took position behind some rocks. It was an agonizing wait, but fifteen minutes later he detected movement at the edge of the peak to the north where the stream took a bend. Twenty odd Chinese troops were moving down the stream...

Krishnan took the SATCOM radio speaker from his radioman beside him. 

“Okay sir, we are in position now and I have them in sight.”

“Standby...” 

As Krishnan waited for the reply, he continued to stare at the Chinese soldiers before him. It should have been quite simple really, but it was not. They couldn’t just open fire without authorization from above, and at the same time they couldn’t let them walk in the front door either. His hand tightened around the speaker in anger before the static on the radio was replaced by a voice:

“Krishnan! Fire warning shots. If they return fire, take them out.”

Now we are talking...

Krishnan handed back the speaker to his radioman and signaled his men to fire warning shots. A second later three of the men raised their rifles and fired single shots into the water of the stream near where the Chinese soldiers were walking. The Chinese soldiers were caught completely by surprise and it pleased Krishnan to see the confusion and fear on the faces of the Chinese as they tried to determine where they were being shot from. He was almost hoping that they would return fire so that he and his men to cut them all down in under a minute...

That was when the Chinese obliged. A bullet slammed into some rocks near where Krishnan was taking cover. It was all the provocation he needed...

“Open fire!”

Fifteen INSAS rifles opened up almost simultaneously in burst fire mode. Bullets ripped through five Chinese soldiers and their dead bodies splashed into the icy waters of the stream. The survivors began to take cover as their leader rallied them. But their situation was hopeless. The Chinese had been caught by a coherent force on high ground overlooking their position and possessing initiative. Another few seconds and three other Chinese soldiers were lying motionless on the ground, their uniforms pooling with darkened blood stains. Krishnan spotted the Chinese officer through his rifle optics as the latter was on the radio calling for support. Krishnan switched to single round mode and dispatched a carefully aimed shot into the Chinese officer whose body collapsed when the bullet penetrated his forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground. With their leader gone, the remaining Chinese soldiers broke cover and ran back to the north.

Krishnan was keeping an eye out for danger, and sure enough he detected the danger coming:

“Incoming fire! Take cover!”

The first mortar shell slammed into the rocks several meters away from the Indian soldiers and threw rock and gravel into the air as another Chinese unit attempted to cover the retreat of the survivors of the ambushed patrol with mortar fire. Several more rounds slammed into the rocks on the hilltop and sent the Indian soldiers scrambling for cover. And then the shelling stopped almost as soon as it had begun. As the dust and smoke settled, Krishnan pulled out his binoculars and spotted the handful of survivors of the Chinese patrol rushing back to the north, splashing water as they waded their way through the icy waters of the stream. He could also see the dozen odd dead bodies of the main body of the Chinese patrol on the banks of the same stream near the ambush site.

Krishnan stood up and dusted off his uniform and signaled the others to follow him as the group made their way down the slope to the stream to investigate what remained of the battle as the sounds of friendly Dhruv helicopters became audible from the south...

NEW DELHI

INDIA

JUNE 09, 1430 HRS

“Planes shooting at each other, patrols engaging each other, artillery shelling, dead and wounded soldiers on both sides. The list goes on,” Chakri threw the file back on the table and it slid towards the military officers sitting across the table. He leaned back into his chair and sighed.

“Where does that leave us? More to the point, where is it
taking
us?”

“To a conflict we
cannot
afford,” The Prime-Minister said flatly from another chair before any of the military commanders could speak. The service chiefs were clearly uncomfortable at the statement. They thought they could afford the war, but not the policy of appeasement the country’s Prime-Minister was currently offering the Chinese.

Chakri understood the concerns as he watched the military commanders silently waiting for someone to ask for their opinion in all this. With the current Prime-Minister this kind of situation wasn’t new. But the problem in Tibet was severe. By now it had been turned by the Chinese into one large military base as they attempted to extinguish the flames of a Tibetan revolution. But all of that had been hidden from the Indian Prime-Minister just because it was a the consolidated opinion of those involved that he had neither the stomach for it nor the strength to do what had to be done for India’s sake. And for India, a weakened China was beneficial. Plus the casualty lists on the Chinese side were always a bonus as far as men like Chakri were concerned.

The problem was that over the past few months the Chinese had steadily built up their military presence in Tibet while the Indian side was being held back by the Prime-Minister whose driving philosophy was now clear to Chakri and the Indian military commanders:

Peace at any price…

There were now more than three hundred thousand Chinese soldiers inside Tibet and rapidly increasing. And these were the acclimatized and battle-hardened ones, having fought the rebels for months now. It didn’t even begin to account for the hordes of second-line combat troops that the Chinese could bring in. And with enough supplies to fight a full intensity war at the border, the Chinese certainly had the numbers...

“What’s the latest count, General?” Chakri said as he decided to bring this fact into focus for the dithering Prime-Minister.

“Five Group Armies between the Lanzhou and Chengdu regions confirmed and elements of three other Group Armies detected,” General Yadav, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), said without looking at his papers. Those numbers had been in his head ever since his intelligence officers had said them. Yadav turned to face the PM before continuing in a neutral tone:

“That’s around three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers across the border from us.”

“What are their intentions, General?” the PM asked back.

That’s a good question…
Yadav thought.

“We are not sure, sir. Supposedly they are for fighting the Tibetans and for releasing their combat depleted units from the constant operations they have been involved with over the past year. But we are also seeing vast preparations in the border regions directly opposite from our forces. We are also having increasingly violent contacts between our patrols and their patrols on the ground. They are under clear orders to intimidate us and push us out of the way as they attempt to subdue Tibet under their control once again. With the level of forces they have, they could mobilize against us in ten days should they decide to do so. We need a much longer time to prepare. They have a transportation infrastructure that completely outstrips ours. If we decide to wait till the last minute, we will not have the time to deploy enough forces to stave off the worst case scenario.”

“Which is
what
?” the PM asked pointedly.

“That this situation at the border spirals out of control and we are faced with a full out border war with China.”

“And why would it spiral out of control?” the PM asked again, but this time Chakri finally leaned forward in his chair and faced him:

“It can happen due to a variety of reasons. Take the incident near Walong two days back. The Chinese are pushing us hard for having killed a dozen of their men even though they were given enough warning from our men to return back to their side. This is like 1959 all over again. If Beijing loses any more control over Tibet than they already have, they may panic and lash out at us to divert the world’s attention from their genocidal activities in Tibet and to seal the border completely for the Tibetan rebels to move through. In this case, we have to be prepared for a robust defense. And with winter coming soon, you can expect whatever plans they have for us to be acted on sooner rather than later.”

“But we have other options with us. As long as we continue the conversation with Beijing, they have no reason for such stupid actions!” the PM retorted.

Chakri sank back into his chair. The Indian leader could not see or perhaps fathom the anger that Beijing was feeling right now at the Indian ambush near Walong two days ago. But then again, he could also not fathom the anger the Indian pilots were feeling for what happened over the skies of Ladakh a month ago and for which there had still not been any response. There was little diplomacy could do to reduce the anger both militaries felt...

“That may very well be, but we have to be prepared for any irrational action that the other side might take on the ground. We have to think about our defenses. If General Yadav wants more troops at the border to feel more secure about that, then I think we should let him do that,” Chakri said a subtle bit more forcefully than before and was relieved to see the PM at least considering the issue.

The PM finally turned to the General Yadav:

“So what kind of mobilization you are thinking about, General?”

Yadav raised an eyebrow in surprise. He understood that the real question was: ‘What is the
least
that you can do to ensure that you are happy while not antagonizing Beijing?’

“At least a three additional Infantry Divisions need to be moved to the front in Arunachal Pradesh alone. I can have them moving to assist the existing three Divisions there by the end of the day today. That will double our current number of troops in the region and make the Chinese think twice about any rash military actions,” Yadav said after consideration.