the 14th and 92nd Armor Divisions, two excellent tank formations. They were gone now, destroyed during a snowstorm.
Liang had wanted the two divisions to buy him time. They should have done so. They should have been able to halt the American advance for at least a day or two. Instead, they’d vanished in a hail of unprecedented American firepower. It was simply incredible these two armor divisions were gone. The Behemoths had done it, and the new Jefferson MBT-8s.
One thing he’d learned. The T-66s could match the Jeffersons. They could not face the Behemoths, though. The Behemoth was three times bigger and could fire its shell three times farther. Most of the time, T-66 shells bounced off a Behemoth. The Behemoth shells left smoking holes every time.
Liang had already recalculated. He must hit the flank of this drive—hit where there were no Behemoths. He’d do it with massed hovertanks, the perfect raiding vehicles. The Americans had Behemoths, but they advanced south as if flank protection didn’t matter. It did, and would. He would show them how much. The problem was one of timing.
“My quandary is picking the right time to make a second attack,” Liang told Ping. “Should I wait for the Brazilians and coordinate our strike? If I wait, the Americans might get too far, and they might throw trench-works into place. How long will they drive without bothering with their flanks? Not for long, would be my guess. Now they are mobile and aggressive. Now—or in three days, to be more exact—I can mass Zhen’s Tank Army to engage them. The Brazilians will take longer to get ready. If I fight the Americans alone, I may be allowing the enemy to engage our two forces one at a time instead of smothering them with an overwhelming assault.”
Ping nodded, saying, “It is hard to choose the right decision.”
Liang’s left eye twitched. Damn Ping. The Chief of Staff wasn’t committing. It was a hard decision. This is why they made you a Marshal, Liang. You’re the one who has to decide this. Don’t fob it off onto someone else.
This time, Liang was wrong about having a choice. A half hour later, Hong took the matter out of his hands.
There came a knock at the door. Liang opened it and regarded a worried aide.
“Sir,” the aide said, “Chairman Hong is calling.”
Liang’s left eye grew worse. He closed the door and put his hand on the eye, stilling its involuntary motion. “Sit down to the side and out of sight,” he told Ping. “I want you to hear this.”
Nervously, Ping did as ordered.
Soon, Liang greeted Hong on the screen. “This is an honor, sir.”
“This is a worsening disaster,” Hong grumbled. “The Americans keep driving deeper south. The untrustworthy Germans have caused this mess. If they had invaded the Eastern Coast as planned, we would be crushing the Americans. Now the Americans have regrouped and attacked. Marshal Wu has explained the situation to me in greater detail last night. The Americans drive a wedge between our fronts. It is very clever. They appear to be headed for Denver.”
“I agree,” Liang said.
“You will stop them, Marshal. You must stop them now before they ruin our winter campaign.”
“Leader, I am busy pulling back Zhen’s Tank Army from the frontages near Cheyenne. It will take three days to get them into position. I want to hit the Americans with my full force then, using massed T-66s and hovertanks.”
“No. Three days is too long,” Hong said. “You will gather what you have and do it in two days.”
Liang took a careful breath. The Leader was too impulsive. Didn’t the man realize…?
“Leader, the Americans have caught us by surprise. They must have planned this with great care. Our main forces are engaged elsewhere too deeply for us to simply withdrawal them. I ask for three days to gather my forces. A Tank Army is not a division, sir. It takes time to—”
“Do not think you can lecture me on military tactics,” Hong said angrily. Surprisingly, he checked himself a moment later. He turned away.
Liang waited, uncomfortable with the Chairman’s unpredictable behavior.
Hong faced the screen, regarding him. “You may have a point. Sixty hours, and you must launch a killing counter-offensive.”
The Chairman’s unexpected reasonableness—meeting him halfway—emboldened Liang. He knew how he wanted to do this. Perhaps this was the moment to take a chance with Hong. The American attack seemed to have shaken the Chairman’s usual confidence. The sudden loss of two armored divisions had apparently made the Leader