some reports at the far end of the table that dominated the room. He was all alone. They had to squeeze past the chair backs to get close to him.
“The Chinese have moved a fair-sized force into the border area where you were last night,” said Perry. “I have the morning satellite images. I’d welcome your opinions.”
Zeus struggled to fit into the seat.
The images showed the situation in western Vietnam about where they had left it; the Chinese forces were arrayed along the flooded Song Da lake area. But Zeus immediately noticed a key change: the water had retreated by nearly 50 percent. It surely wouldn’t hold the Chinese back much longer.
He paged through the images. They were raw, without notations or accompanying explanations. The Chinese had moved their tanks and many of their troops to the northwest area of their assault, taking them out of range of the Vietnamese artillery. There were concentrations near Moc Chau, Doan Ket, and farther north at Bac Yen.
If this were the war game simulation, Red Dragon, Zeus would launch a counterattack from the area of Yen Bar, or even farther north through one of the passes in the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range. It would break the strength of their drive.
Of course, he’d also have American troops to do that with.
The Vietnamese had launched their own strikes on the flank, but the effect of these was negligible. They didn’t have the firepower to push across the Da River, let alone blunt the offensive.
“This is where you were,” said Perry, handing over another series of images. “The division commander is a fellow by the name of Ho. You should make some sort of gesture of thanks. He contacted his headquarters right away, and they got an ambulance up to evac you. You don’t remember any of it?”
“No,” said Zeus. “I guess I slept the whole way down.”
“I don’t blame you,” said Perry.
The marshalling area was clearly delineated in the photos. A huge black crater sat where the tank farm had been. There were a dozen vehicles, including APCs, that had been hit by the explosion; even at the scale of the photo the damage was visible. Several other vehicles nearby had probably been damaged as well.
There was a large concentration of tanks, close to fifty, about thirty miles farther north into China. A short distance away was a collection of APCs and trucks, about twice the size.
“You stopped them for a day, maybe more,” said Perry. “We’ve been preparing the defenses.”
“That’s a huge force,” said Christian. “Assuming a three-to-one ratio of infantry to armor.”
“I think it’s safe to say there’ll be more than that,” said Perry. “The highways are being booby-trapped and mined. The road net through the mountains is sparse. The Vietnamese have a chance.”
“They’re going to isolate Hai Phong,” said Zeus. This major port on the Pacific was some fifty-five miles east of Hanoi, and another hundred or so south of the border.
“Why bother if they’ve got it blockaded?” asked Christian.
“Because they want to use the port,” said Zeus. “They can land troops there. And more important, ship material out. Which is really the reason they’re attacking like this. They want to get it intact. That’s why they’re coming along the coast.”
“Could be,” said Perry. “It hasn’t been bombed or mined. Which would tend to prove your theory.”
Zeus looked at the images from the Gulf of Tonkin and the rest of the waters off Vietnam. The Chinese invasion force was still gathered at the southern tip of Hainan Island. The Chinese aircraft carriers remained close to the western side of the island — roughly where Zeus had seen one of the ships from the window of the airliner.
There was another force, three destroyers and a Corvette-sized craft, steaming south.
“They’re thinking of taking the oil platforms,” Zeus told Perry, pointing to the destroyers.
“Possibly,” said Perry, reaching for the images.
“This is an American ship,” said Christian, pointing to the destroyer tagged as
“Testing the blockade,” said Perry.
“It’s not going to take on the carriers, is it?” asked Zeus. “If they come west?”
Perry made a face. “He’s under orders to avoid conflict.”
Zeus knew from the simulations that the Chinese ships were not as potent as their American counterparts — a Chinese aircraft carrier couldn’t hope to project the sort of power an American carrier did, and one Chinese destroyer or light cruiser was no match for the USS
Especially if the destroyer wasn’t allowed to fight.
“He’s got two Chinese warships tracking him,” added Christian, looking at the map. “One of them’s a cruiser.”
A good match, Zeus thought. The American
“We’ll let the Navy worry about their assets for now,” said Perry. “The first problem is how to stop those tanks.”
“The Chinese are making a mistake using the heavy tanks that close to the coast,” said Christian. “There are only a few highways. Route 18’s their main route — take that out and they’re stuck. We dynamite a couple of bridges, and they grind to a halt.”
“They don’t think the Vietnamese can stop them,” said Zeus. “And they’re right.”
“There’s a possibility we’ll get American assets to fight them,” Perry told them, his voice hushed. “We’re working on it.”
“A-10s?”
Perry nodded. Zeus realized that meant he had approved the force plan they’d been working on before the mission to Hainan. He wondered, though — the politics back home did not favor intervention.
“Proceed as if they’re not coming,” Perry added. “Figure out a way for the Vietnamese to stop the tanks, if possible.”
“Prayers?” quipped Christian.
“Hopefully, a little more than that,” said Perry as he rose from his chair. “I’m meeting with the Vietnamese commanders in an hour. I need ideas by then.”
“
Zeus nodded. It would be a good first-day goal, reachable within hours; they could even bypass any strong points without losing access to the roads. Once that was taken, they could stay on 18, which became a coastal highway farther south, or they could move inland and take Hai Phong that way. The Yen Tu Mountain Range would push them eastward, but also cut the Vietnamese options for attacking their flank.
“The first line of defense is to blow up the bridges on both parts of National Road 18,” continued Christian, referring to the branches of the highway that ran along the Tien Yen River and the other farther east. Again, this was a no-brainer, very basic strategy that would slow the Chinese advance, not stop it — none of the bridges were very steep or long. Still, it could delay them by more than a day.
Whether that would be enough was an open question.
The Vietnamese army had ten armored brigades. On paper at least, this was a considerable force — there were over 1,300 main battle tanks alone, with an assortment of light tanks and fighting vehicles to complement them.
But the bulk of the Vietnamese tanks were T-54s and T-55s, excellent tanks in their day… which had ended somewhere during the late 1960s or early ‘70s. They were no match for the Chinese 99s, or even the lighter tanks in the Chinese army. The heavier T-62s the Vietnamese had were every bit as vulnerable, though they had better guns.
There were three armored brigades in the north. One was dedicated to Hanoi and would not be taken from the city for any reason. Both of the others were in Lang Son, the province to the west of the area where the Chinese tanks had been spotted. It was far too late to get either brigade into place to meet the advance at the border.
The obvious thing to do would be to slow the Chinese advance with the forces in place. As the Chinese
