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Pathanya looked down the road to the south and saw the charred remains of a Bhutanese army truck, silently spewing smoke into the night sky. Further near the bridge, there were a few motionless bodies of civilians and men in Bhutanese army uniforms. The blood spatter near the bodies was hard to miss…

“Precision arty. The RBG boys took a beating out here. The Chinese left the bridge deliberately intact though,” Vikram observed.

“Why won’t they? It’s the fastest route into Thimpu from here!” Pathanya added. “When the time comes we need to get Warlord to find and destroy those enemy guns. For now let’s keep out eyes open. Move out!”

KASHGAR AIRBASE

SINKIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

CHINA

DAY 6 + 0630 HRS

“Damn it, Feng! This is unacceptable!” Chen shouted.

Feng agreed. They had just gotten a detailed damage and loss assessment report from Hotien airbase. It was still littered with the wreckage of the burnt out Il-76s and a host of other gutted aircraft.

Then there was the matter of several hundred deaths of Chinese soldiers, including wounded ones being evacuated to the north. The cascading anger had just reached Kashgar. Beijing had chewed out General Jinping and the PLA commander for their supposed lapses. Jinping had in turn blasted Wencang and Chen for failing him. Feng supposed the same must have happened down on the PLA side as well. Needless to say, Feng was on the receiving end of Chen’s outburst…

“We cannot let these attacks go unchecked! You know how long the casualty list is from the attack? Hotien was and still is crucial to us as a major logistical node! Spread out your defences to cover these airbases more effectively! Move an S-300 system to protect against future attacks if you have to! I want this taken care of!” Chen barked.

“Sir, this is exactly what the Indians want us to do! They want us to spread our S-300s defences so they can selectively take them down one by one. We have to maintain focus on the Aksai Chin for now! This attack on Hotien was a feint!” Feng countered.

Chen would have none of it: “I have had it with you on this issue, Feng! I have given you a lot more leverage than perhaps I should have done! And you have nothing to show for it! Nothing! We are still struggling to take the initiative from the Indians after six days of combat! And now our major supply nodes are being bombed with impunity! Get my orders carried out or I will have someone else to do it for me. Is that clear?” Chen slammed the table with his fist.

Feng controlled his anger. Now was not the time to lose control. Anger was getting the better of Chen right now. What was worse, Feng could see the Indian plans working through Chen even if the latter couldn’t. If he could not calm Chen down and refocus him, it was going to end up unwinding the whole PLAAF on the Ladakh front.

EAST OF THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL

NORTHERN LADAKH

DAY 6 + 0830 HRS

“Steel-Rain, we have red armour five clicks east of our position! Heavy concentration and bearing down on us! Requesting priority fire-mission! Coordinates to follow! Over!”

Kongara said as he hunkered behind some large rocks, a rifle in hands. He was looking over the rocks with his binoculars at the advancing armada of Chinese tanks making yet another attempt to break through the 10TH Mechanized defences…

“Thunder-One, this is Steel-Rain! We read you five-by-five. Standby for fire-mission! One salvo heavy-concentration fire! Fragmentation! One round correction-marker at thirty seconds! Fire-effect three-second delay!”

“Roger! Thunder-One copies all! Standing by!”

Kongara gave back the speaker to his radioman before putting both his hands on the IMFS to zoom in using the device’s infrared view. He winced as the pain in his bandaged legs and arms disrupted his focus. He had somehow made his way to friendly lines after staggering over the frozen no-man’s land the previous afternoon. The medics were surprised he was still alive, let alone walking, after sustaining so many wounds. They had offered to ship him back to the brigade medical-center at the airstrip. But when he had heard that the Major commanding his vehicles out here had also been killed, he had forced himself to stay and lead the defenses until somebody could be sent forward to replace him. Without his vehicle and crew however, he was forced to lead the defenses outside in the cold with the rest of the 9TH Punjab soldiers.

The Chinese T-99 tanks were attempting to spread over a two kilometer front to the north of the 10TH Mechanized lines. It was their third attempt to do so in the last day. The evidence for the past attempts was littered across the battlefield, spewing smoke and fire into the early morning reddish sky above. And so were bodies of soldiers from both sides who had fought and bled for this rocky plateau.