Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 399 Down the River
At 11:45 p.m. New Delhi time, in the basement of the Prime Minister's Office, the routine night meeting was still going on.Chandra, the long-suppressed Foreign Minister, became more active due to the absence of the Minister of Defense's visit to the front line.

His speech was lengthy and disappointing, mainly about the latest reaction of the international community and the intelligence analysis room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its judgment on possible future situations.It is full of arguments that make it difficult for the Prime Minister to explode but uncomfortable.He repeatedly said that major countries were dissatisfied with India's unilateral actions on the route.

The Prime Minister frowned and tilted his head, reluctantly listening to him.It is indeed difficult for him to understand why this person is still spreading defeatist remarks when India has won an unprecedented and huge victory, as if moving China's transportation lines will bring about a catastrophe.Singh has always said that Kahan replaced the foreign minister, but Chandra is the most proficient expert in British and American affairs in the country, and can put out fires at critical moments, so Kahan can only endure him.And the surrounding officials did not respond, thinking that Chandra's foreign reactions were a bit exaggerated, but some of them are also worthy of reference.

The lighting in the basement flickered slightly, and Charmain, who was sitting at the end, raised his head vigilantly and took a look.He felt something was wrong, got up and went outside, and asked the staff if something unusual happened, because he seemed to have heard an explosion.The staff of the Prime Minister's Office were noncommittal. This is a concrete air-raid shelter deep underground, and it is impossible for normal people to hear any movement outside.

After a while, a soldier hurried over from the corridor in the distance. He was a supervisor of the Secret Service Office of the Prime Minister's Office. He met with the intelligence chief.

"There are some situations that need to be reported to the Prime Minister. There is a sudden power outage in 9 blocks of Old Delhi. I wonder if the Chinese attacked us?"

"Didn't you hear the explosion?"

"There was no apparent explosion, and the Air Defense Command was unable to confirm whether a Chinese aircraft was approaching."

Charmain stepped aside to allow the supervisor to enter the conference room and report to the Prime Minister himself.He went upstairs by himself and made several phone calls to the intelligence service officer on duty.

The Intelligence Agency has recently received some intelligence that the Chinese used graphite bombs in Liecheng and Srinagar, causing power outages in different areas, but these two areas are military control areas, and there is basically no loss.The situation on Tespur's side is still unknown.The air defense forces in the Jammu and Kashmir region have discovered that there are speeding drones or cruise missiles crossing the border, but the radar cannot continue to track mountain targets.

Charmain felt a little dizzy standing in place, which must be some kind of ominous omen, most likely because the early warning and air defense capabilities of the capital circle have not withstood the opponent's small test.

Let’s not think about the power outage in Old Deli, but the situation in the north still worries him. He judges that using these special weapons to create power outages and chaos is not the main purpose. The main purpose should be to serve as a cover for other military operations.It can be inferred from this that this military operation needs the help of darkness, so it will definitely start before dawn.

He looked at his watch. It was already 2 o'clock in the morning in the east, but it was just early morning in the north. Where would he start?He had always had a strong hunch, but he didn't dare to jump to conclusions.It's a shame that Singer didn't leave early or late, but at this time he came to the front line to put on a show in order to gain political capital.He heard in the conference room that the prime minister had already started to slap the table and became furious, so he hurriedly asked the prime minister's secretary on duty for leave, and hurried back to the intelligence bureau.

News of a power outage in parts of Assam has just come from Tespur's headquarters.According to news from the local garrison, the Chinese Air Force attacked power transmission equipment concentrated in Shangsanglang County and near Passinghat City, and then power outages occurred in more than a dozen small towns along the Bratmaputra River.The lieutenant general knows exactly what new weapons the Chinese have shown.

Of course, the only thing that surprised Lieutenant General Chaguye was the choice of the Chinese to attack the area, because it was not in their main attack direction, but in the dynamic Sion area in the rear defense hinterland.Could it be that the Chinese have finally given up their usual bottom line and started attacking civilian targets?His intuition told him that it would not be that simple, but he didn't dare to think too deeply.At 2:15 in the morning, he finally got the Xikamen area behind Tawang, and was also attacked by graphite bombs, so he was relieved.This can roughly explain that the Chinese are conducting indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, unlike some kind of conspiracy that makes his back chill. Such an attack does not pose any threat to his command system, and at most it will cause residents to panic. , blocking the main road.However, the population in the border area is not large, so it will not pose too much threat.

"I say, they're starting to mess up," he said to the adjutant.

"Yeah, attacking civilian targets will cost you a lot of political points."

"Calculate the losses immediately and report to New Delhi. It is best to send someone to the hospital where the power is out to take pictures, maybe it will be useful." The lieutenant general said.

"Should I let the local police station complete the statistics after dawn? It's not easy to do now."

Chaguye was right when he thought about it, so he didn't bring up this issue again. After 10 minutes, he put the matter behind him.

Back then, in order to enhance the Indian army's ability to fight independently, even the first-level border guards were equipped with independent power sources. Of course, these sources do not rely on civilian power, so although graphite bombs are extremely vicious, at least they will not harm The army does damage.

This attack has achieved great results, and it can be seen immediately from the images captured by satellites that the important towns along the river have turned into darkness. Originally, Assam has relatively developed hydropower, and there is little risk of power outages. area.This huge dark area has been derived from East Sion to Dibrugarh, a small town just 27 kilometers west of Jabwa Airport.Since the bomb did not explode very loudly, most Indian residents in the blackout area were still dreaming, and the hidden agents in front did not notice any abnormalities or troop movements.

A slanting moon slowly hung over the snow-capped mountains. Lin Huaisheng sat in the helicopter, waiting for the final departure order smugly.

In order to prevent the head of the assault force from being completely wiped out by the enemy's firepower, his headquarters was split into several parts. Now he and most of the staff are scattered, and only the soldiers of the communication force and the guard force are around him. Most of them None of them participated in the airborne battle in Quetta, so they seemed a little nervous.

The chief of staff looked at his watch. It was already 2 o'clock in the morning (Eastern India Time), and there were still 3 and a half hours before the sun jumped out of the horizon.A voice in the headset told him that the military commander ordered immediate action, but the surroundings were too noisy, and he suspected that he had heard it wrong.The light suddenly came on at the pass of the snow mountain in front of him, and he dispelled his doubts. This was a direct signal for the brigade to set off.

The helicopter pilot and co-pilot skillfully started the plane, and the co-pilot took the time to turn his face away, nodded to him and everyone else, indicating that they were ready to take off.

Immediately there was a loud bang from the rotors, and a soldier raised the machine gun up and closed the sliding hatch.The noise was instantly reduced.Through the window on one side, Lin Huaisheng saw the huge aircraft fleet behind them preparing to take off. The covert work in the past few months has been so successful, most of the intelligence agencies in the world must be surprised in the morning.

The Mi-171 helicopters slowly took off with the first echelon. This echelon is mainly composed of reconnaissance and command systems, and will be the first to land at the airport in the enemy's hinterland.

The helicopter began to move slowly towards the Duoxiongla Pass, which was the first hurdle the commandos faced.In order to prevent hitting the mountain at night, the mountain pass installed high-power lighting equipment as a supplementary navigation. Although it is inevitable that it will be seen by satellites from other countries, it should be too late.

The climb of the helicopter is extremely strenuous, and the control is also very difficult. It must rely on the pilot's extremely high skill to maintain speed and lift.In a blink of an eye, a light Z-9 reconnaissance helicopter in front passed the mountain pass, and then another Mi-171 also passed the mountain pass easily.Lin Huaisheng also took a Mi-171 helicopter, but it carried more equipment.The plane roared and brushed against the snow-capped mountains, and finally reached the southern area of ​​the mountain. He turned his head again, and the fleet behind him had already moved away from the distance, so he couldn't see clearly, but the strobe lights on the outside of each helicopter were constantly flashing, like a crossing. The snow-capped mountains are like the brilliant Milky Way.

The helicopter immediately lowered its altitude and calmly found the galloping Yarlung Zangbo River. This river will provide the most direct navigation and concealment for the assault troops, and all the commanding heights along the river downstream have been firmly controlled. Tispur has been completely blinded so far. in the drum.

Lieutenant General Chaguye is secretly setting up defenses in the west at the moment, thinking he has a plan.He waited for the Chinese army to launch an attack according to the route more than 60 years ago, and then slowly exhausted its edge on several of his defense lines.

In the rigid military theory of Lieutenant General Chaguye, the infantry must first think about two things before taking action, one is how to overcome geographical obstacles, and the other is how to maintain the logistics supply line; so it is not difficult for him to conclude that the Chinese army will be here One of the most inhospitable regions on Earth is attrition.According to the above ideas, he deployed his troops successively at various critical passes from Tawang to Udarguri, waiting for the Chinese army to hit him. He never seriously thought that the army can actually get rid of geographical restrictions.Ding Keguang once said that when Chaguye knows the overall plan, he will probably bang his head against the wall, because this operation will completely overturn the old army in his mind, which is what Lin Huaisheng is looking forward to the most. .

Lin Huaisheng looked up and saw jets flying by in the sky from time to time, and they were heading towards different goals.Within a few hours, the Air Force has mobilized more than 300 sorties to launch fixed-point strikes on targets in the enemy's territory. Before dawn, the number of sorties dispatched will double, and air interdiction will have clearer targets.Tespur has assembled about 70 T90 tanks, and the focus of the air force's operations in the next few days is to continue to expand the control area, completely destroy the prevention and control system around Tespur, and drop bombs on its headquarters. At the same time, it threatens the transportation line of C17.

In the prototype hall of the command/intelligence center of the military region, hundreds of people are performing their respective duties, conducting unprecedentedly busy task coordination and command work.

As a command node, the center simultaneously controls 4 early warning aircraft and countless manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and the intelligence collected at every moment requires the staff to quickly analyze and choose.From the Indian side in the middle of the night, although no aircraft dared to take off, the mobilization of its ground troops has a tendency to accelerate, which shows that Chaguye has some methods and preparations for the ground combat mode under the condition of losing air supremacy. came.

Xu Jingzhe has been staring at the direction of the assembly in Tespur, waiting for the latest tank assembly figures of the Indian 4th Armored Brigade.Thanks to the C17 transport plane, in a short period of time, this area already has a regiment-level armored force.This is the unit that Lin Huaisheng is most worried about. Although the entire theater is full of mountains and rivers, it is not suitable for tanks to maneuver, but there are several roads along the river from Tespur to Jabwa Airport that can be commanded by armored units. Officer chooses.

Although in the early days of the Indian Army's invasion of Pakistan, there was a huge setback when the tank cluster fell into the terminally sensitive bombs thrown by the Air Force and the entire army was wiped out, but then the Indian Army positively changed the dense formation of the tanks when they marched. The Pakistani Air Force has never had a major anti-tank record. Since then, the heavy responsibility of anti-tank can only be borne by ground troops.

(End of this chapter)