Things Heat Up ...

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Elements of the 70th Motorized Infantry Brigade rolled out of the early morning mists along the Yanghe River valley to the west of Zhangjiakou. Whoever was commanding the brigade had picked possibly the worst time of day to attack. The attackers were looking into the sun and were effectively blind to the positions of Premier Liu's forces.

But as Colonel Kang pointed out, the nature of the terrain forced the attack to come down the river valley.

"I would have waited until sunset, then the sun would be in our eyes." Kang had said.

"It matters not," Premier Liu had pointed out, "this is the last gasp of the defeated. I've had word from Beijing, the city is completely under our control."

Direction of the Communist attack
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Liu was right, the forces loyal to the new regime had cut the attacking Communist forces to red ribbons well before the midday meal. With the destruction or retreat of the enemy's armored forces, the surviving infantry threw down their arms. Many of whom had also made prisoners of their officers.

Afterwards, Liu had asked for a full briefing on the status of their revolution, or counter-revolution as one defeated general had called it, shortly before Liu had had him shot as a traitor to the Chinese people.

General Liao Hanying laid out a paper map of western China on a large table in one of the many community centers on the outskirts of Zhangjiakou. He pointed to the Xinjiang Autonomous Region which bordered Tibet and Kashmir, "The local leaders there have declared themselves independent of China. I have ordered our forces which were to evacuate Tibet to remain in place and prepare for an advance on Xinjiang."

Premier Liu turned on the General with a terrible look on her face, "How dare you  countermand my orders? In order to placate the West and give us time to rebuild the government, I ordered that move. Besides which, Tibet is nothing but a drain on our economy."

General Liao's face went pale, "Madam Premier, if we let Tibet go, we might as well say goodbye to Xinjiang as well."

General Liao's Map
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The Premier looked at the map for a long moment, her anger began to subside when she saw the logic of Liao's move. "My apologies General, it is a wise move. I wish it were different but you are correct, I am in error."

She turned to Colonel Kang, who was rapidly becoming her chief aide and confidant, "Colonel Kang, we must prepare a statement to address this. I want to assure the West that our remaining in Tibet is temporary. Until we deal with the separatists in Xinjiang, Tibet will have to wait."

Kang nodded, then said, "Why not let both go? This is not the time of the emperors when our trade went by land. The Silk Road and even Xi's Belt and Road Initiative add only useless mouths to feed to China's economy. We are a sea power now, most of our trade goes by sea, mostly to the West. Xi's plan was to place Chinese military outposts to influence our neighbors. Let our newly revived economy influence those petty bureaucrats and tyrants to the west of the Middle Kingdom. Why should we seek to expand our territory when the people go hungry?"

Premier Liu looked at Kang for a long moment, "There is merit to your argument. We need to discuss this with the council. No longer will China be ruled by the whims of a few. I think we need to put this to people."

"Plebiscite?"

"Perhaps." Liu said, in almost a whisper.

President John Nakagawa wasn't really up for a meeting with the Congressional leadership, but it was part of the job. He had Marine One pick him up at the Pentagon and fly him back to the White House. They had heard from Premier Liu and knew that she was firmly back in control. The Joint Chiefs were NOT happy with the Chinese not withdrawing from Tibet, but the explanation of the situation in Xinjiang made them see the logic of the move, at least from a military standpoint.

There had still been no word from New Delhi. Satellite reconnaissance showed no open hostilities, but word coming out of Punjab indicated that a rather large number of Sikh soldiers had managed to go on leave and return home. General Wurther had mentioned that numbers of those "vacationers" added up to about two divisions worth of troops.

"But no heavy weapons such as artillery and tanks. Logistically they'd wither on the vine, but they could make trouble for a week or two. The ensuing blood bath would be epic though."

The President nodded and said, "Great, just wonderful." Then he'd been informed that the Congressional delegation had arrived.

He had taken a guilty pleasure when the delegation had arrived at the White House. For the past few weeks there had been a crowd of Americans always nearby. Aspinall estimated that there were at least a hundred always there, on some days the crowd swelled to nearly a thousand. The crowd had booed the delegation when they had arrived.

The new Speaker of the House, a nondescript man who had been selected precisely for that reason, had apologized to the President for the short notice.

"It's alright, Mr. Speaker, I'm no stranger to booing. Though I have to admit the people have been more friendly as of late."

The delegation had come to discuss the national referendum scheduled to take place two weeks hence. Nakagawa was always conscious of the fact that he had not been elected to this office he now held. The referendum sought to let the American people decide if they were comfortable with the results of the recent troubles.

Vice President Herbert Norville joined the President and the Congressional leadership, he knew most of the men and women in the room. There were a few new faces, people who had been selected by their state legislatures to fill "vacated" positions. Some of their predecessors had died in the uprising. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"So Bob, why don't you tell us how the preparation for the referendum is proceeding?" the Vice President addressed the Speaker, Robert Halswell, directly.

The Speaker cleared his throat, "Ahem, uh, did you both see the documents we sent over this morning?"

"Yes, we did," the President answered, "the White House Counsel has looked it over, she's okay with it. So the Vice President and I have both signed and agree to abide by the decision of the people."

"Well, Mr, President, the polls," he held up his hands as the Vice President shook his head in disgust, "are showing nearly 75% acceptance of the current situation. And Mr. Vice President, these polls are not being conducted by the traditional media. I'm talking about blogs and other social media outlets. Hell, even Facebook shows the people overwhelmingly in your favor."

For the first time since the meeting had started, the President smiled. Not his political "nice to meet you" smile but the smile his wife Hiroko would have recognized. With that the meeting broke up, but one of the party detached themselves from the main body as they all headed to the exit.

Bill Aspinall leaned in and whispered, "Wilma Genesee, the junior Senator from Oregon, Hawthorne's replacement." Nakagawa nodded, then moved towards the newest Senator from Oregon.

"Senator Genesee, I'm pleased to meet you," he said, extending his hand. Which she gripped firmly.

"I just wanted you to know, Mr. President, Oregon bears you no grudge. My predecessor was an evil, grasping man. I watched the video he made. Disgusting. The State of Oregon has already stricken his name from a number of public buildings."

"Well Senator, surely he served well early in his career."

"So did Benedict Arnold, Mr. President."

"Yes, indeed. Thank you for coming, Senator."

"I hope we will have the chance to work together a lot in the next few years."

With a smile, the Senator left.

Turning to Aspinall, the President shook his head, "That went better than I expected."

Then he looked over as LCDR Higgins, with a glum look on his face, came hurrying in.

The President muttered, "Shit."

"Yes, Mr. President, more bad news. Elements of the Pakistani Army rolled into Punjab, not fifteen minutes ago, or so the Indian government has informed us."

"Satellite coverage?"

"It's 1900 in India, Sir. Next overflight won't be until thirty minutes after midnight our time."

The President raised an eyebrow.

"That'll be ten tomorrow morning in India." Higgins had been ready for that, he had two new time zones programmed into his smartphone, China Standard Time and Indian Standard Time.

Nakagawa looked at his Vice President, who recommended, "I'd convene the National Security Council."

"Agreed, set it up. I want to meet at the NMCC¹, if we need to take action, I want the Joint Chiefs present, they can advise as well. Let's go, Bill, fire up Marine One."

"Herbert, I want you up at Site R, in case this whole mess goes sideways."

Norville nodded, "I'll contact you when we get there."

"Godspeed, Herbert."

"Amen to that, John."

¹ National Military Command Center.