The General was heading back to Boise to manage the troops and a landline was laid to the Retreat to seek advice on preparing for the imminent Chinese attack, how to feed the population and create a command and control system similar to the Retreat; logistics were always at the top of his list of priorities. Duncan sent him off with two cases of scotch and told him to holler if he needed more. The Chinese continued to marshal their forces and remained west of the Cascades until they could muster an overwhelming force to claim their territories that the various nations of the globe had parceled out like easter eggs to the holders of the US debt. The Chinese were coming; it was not a question of if, it was a question of when.
Mitch kept wargaming the Chinese advance and while a stalemate was possible by running and hiding, victory was not achievable. The forces were too large and too well armored to effectively attack with unconventional guerilla forces.
Duncan and Angus were working on propaganda for the population and psychological operations for the Chinese but spray painting “Wolverines” everywhere seemed too tropey, even for Duncan. Idaho was only famous for potatoes and those don’t inspire people or strike fear in the hearts of their enemies.
Melanie worked on restocking the logistical pipeline for the caches and keeping excess food flowing to the General’s logistician to supply the General’s caches. The Homestead brand food was relabeled as “Idaho Freedom” and was distributed to needy parts of the State. The Retreat gave what it could and any excess food was sent out to the State for the General to use for recruiting and to promote goodwill in the communities. Idaho would need everything it had to withstand the Chinese advance and all the people of Idaho had to stand together if there was any hope of staying alive.
The Retreat and the entire State of Idaho was constantly overflown by planes, helicopters, drones and satellites. The Chinese were not going to make the same mistake and were mapping out a full invasion and colonization plan of Idaho and the rest of their territory. Washington was a success for them and while the crop yields were pitiful, the State had the necessary resources to feed itself and the people still had electricity. The coastal big city, very liberal population were kind of enjoying communism, they had been trying to make the entire State that way for a generation. Everything was free and all you had to do was pretend to work for it. Chinese punishment was simple: if you complained then you were sent to a farm collective to work and if the peasants complained they were shot or sent to re-education camps. Quotas were made and quotas were expected to be met. The Retreat personnel infiltrated intelligence teams into Washington to look for offensive opportunities but the population, while being fed survival rations, were eating and surviving. They had not lost the will to live but they had lost the will to fight and had become slaves; they had gone from subjects to slaves in just two years. The sheeple had sold their freedom for the price of their daily bread.
The Chinese kept building their forces but they also started sending citizens; the Chinese were going to colonize America. China was a country of over a billion people, over three times the size of the United States’ population. Coastal factories and processing plants were taken over by Chinese workers, the American labor force was required to teach the skills to the incoming workers then sent to Eastern Washington to work the farms. Homeowners were evicted to provide space and housing for the new workers. The left coast, even in its dilapidated state and surviving on rations, was considered upper class for many of the Chinese immigrants. Many of the ethnic American Chinese, however, were a different matter; they knew peasants when they saw them and many of them had left China for a reason. The American Chinese population became a thorn in the colonizer’s side as they worked to subvert the new citizens. Many of the Chinese Americans still had roots in the homeland and were used to living under the radar. They spoke the language and could blend in with the invading forces and provided intelligence to the free states. Chinese Americans, unbeknownst to the Caucasian Americans, were as fiercely American and patriotic as any Texan; probably more so since they and their families knew what the alternative looked like. They might look funny, talk funny and act funny to the average Caucasian American but they were not just average Americans, they were fierce patriots. The Retreat recognized the potential of this intelligence source and set up an underground railroad to get some Chinese families to the Retreat. The Retreat had many people who could read and even write Chinese but they did not have anyone who looked Chinese except for a single ranch hand who was a third generation Chinese American and did not speak a lick of Chinese and whose last name was Wojinski.
The Retreat security forces worked as teams to disable or destroy Stryker armored personnel carriers, the eight wheeled troop carriers that were armed with a variety of armaments. The Stryker was the predominant armor at the Joint Base Lewis McChord before the bankruptcy and Stryker battalions from the base were often deployed in various foreign conflicts and peace keeping missions around the globe. The Stryker forces lacked the punch of main battle tanks but they could hold their own in any land engagement and were armed to destroy tanks and enemy armaments. They were the proper tool in the proper place at the proper time for the Chinese to colonize the western states. The Chinese forces drilled with them constantly on the large base reserve and learned how to maintain them with their own troops. They particularly loved firing the big guns on the Stryker carriers but did not even put a dent in the stored base ammunition.
The Retreat, on the other hand, had Angus. Mitch found out that Angus had retired as the Command Master Sergeant on the Joint Base Lewis McChord. There were bases to be on and there were front line bases to be on. Angus was the head non-commissioned officer at Fort Lewis, one of the biggest, best equipped bases in the United States. There was not a single thing about the Stryker that Angus did not know, including how to put one together. Most importantly, he knew what constantly broke on them, how to break and disable them and how to destroy them. Angus trained the Retreat personnel on every vulnerability of the carrier.
The Retreat held their collective breaths as summer came and went. They knew summer was their most vulnerable time for their most valuable asset and that was forest fires. The Chinese did not recognize their Achilles heel. Another springtime assault seemed the most likely scenario.
The command team was starting its weekly meeting when Duncan stormed into the office and flopped into his usual seat.
“When I see the General again, I’m going to kick him in the balls,” Duncan exclaimed.
“What did he do now?” Mitch asked.
“We are getting inundated by refugees searching the forest for the famed “Retreat.” It is pitiful seeing women and small children wandering on the forest roads seeking salvation,” Duncan complained.
“What do we do about it?” Melanie asked, thinking about her own children. Aiden was seven and a half now and was already pestering “Uncle Angus” to learn to shoot.
“We intercept them, give them some food and a pack and send them in a different direction. The problem is half of them keep coming back for more food. It’s like we are a drive through window,” Duncan said. “The problem is that there is now a bunch of disease out there running rampant and the saw bones make anyone who comes in contact with the refugees go into quarantine for two weeks. Our people just stay invisible now to avoid the quarantine and let the people keep wandering around. We have had to bury four people in the last month,” Duncan said.
“What kind of shape are they in?” Mitch asked.
“Malnourished, diseased and running out of time,” Duncan said.
“What do the Chinese do with refugees?” Melanie asked.
“They shoot them at the border,” Duncan said.
Mitch thought about it for a few minutes. “What if we rounded them up, put them in a quarantine center to get them healthy, took the pick of the crop to stay here and reversed the underground railroad into Washington. Let’s make our problem their problem. I don’t like selling them into slavery but
we could use them as agents on the collective farms. In the woods they are dead, here they are a liability, on a farm they might live and be able to help reverse the colonization in the future by blending in and identifying collaborators. It’s not like everyone has papers anymore so a few more bedraggled-looking peasants won’t tip off the Chinese so long as we spread them out when we drop them off. We’ll train the first ones how to move through the woods undetected and get them to train the next groups. We only need some tents at the 50-mile road, a nurse and a squad of trainers.”
Mitch turned to Mel who nodded. Duncan looked up in exasperation. “He’s turning you into a socialist, Mel, you know that don’t you?”
“Oh, Duncan, you may complain but everyone at the Retreat knows there is a heart of gold down there buried deep, you are the most charitable out of any of us. Don’t think we don’t notice a few extra gold coins getting into the hands of people who have had misfortunes or a run of bad luck,” Melanie chided. “Anyone who has survived this long must have some gumption and grit and is worth a little investment. What is it you always say about people just needing a hand up and not a hand out? You are a fraud Duncan McFarlane.”
Mitch jumped in, “Yeah Duncan, you’re blowing smoke and nobody here is falling for your socialism bait. You know it is a good idea, you’ve probably already thought about it, were feeling guilty and tried to convince us it was our idea so you could complain about it. How many tents and provisions are already on the way? Come on, you lowland Scot, fess up.”
“Well,” Duncan started, “I put a few preliminary scenarios together and was thinking about the solution, spitballing really and taking a bird’s eye view at 10,000 feet.”
Melanie interjected, “Cut the crap, Duncan, you came seeking forgiveness instead of asking for permission as usual. You know that I know that four ten-man tents were taken out of storage along with four wood stoves, 100 meals and one of our generators. One of the nurses has conveniently asked for 30 days leave and the pharmacist has been requisitioned for drugs.”
“The tents were for some kind of church related activity, Mel,” Duncan said while turning to Mitch. “I can’t believe you married this woman, Mitch. Did it hurt when they put on the ball and chain?”
Mitch laughed, “If Mel is a ball and chain then you are underestimating the awesomeness of balls and chains. Have you ever heard the adage not to enter a battle of wits unarmed? You are outmatched, outgunned, outmaneuvered and outclassed if you want to mess with Mel. She doesn’t even try to play dumb with you because she knows you will win hands down.”
“Well,” Duncan said in defeat, “I guess we’ll all be eating Chinese food in the Spring. I wonder if all else fails we can get a contract to produce chopsticks at the lumber mill?”
“We will win, Duncan,” Mitch declared. “I don’t know how but we will win.”
“No offense, Mitch,” Duncan said, “but if the two smartest people I know have tried 10,000 different scenarios, strategies and tactics and all we can get is a draw then we are royally screwed. I’ll have to ask Mr. Han how to say that in Chinese.”
“An opportunity will present itself to us, Duncan,” Mel said convincingly. “We just need to be patient and firm in our resolve and be able to have the bravado and balls to pull the rabbit out of the hat and pull our chestnuts out of the fire.”
“You don’t have any chestnuts, Mel,” Duncan pointed out.
“See, Duncan,” Mel replied, “things are already looking up for us.”
Chapter 12
The following Spring, the Chinese troops invaded Idaho. They invaded with a full Corps size force of three divisions of 10,000 soldiers each; it was three times the strength of their marauder failed invasion. The Chinese forces sent advance scouts in company strength and had military checkpoints established behind them. Other than Boise and Coeur D’Alene and surrounding areas they levelled every town and city they came across and burned every house they encountered to the ground. It took them three days to find the Retreat and an additional day to clear Mikey’s road. On the fourth day, the Chinese forces were sitting in the Welcome Center and the Colonel in charge was sleeping in Mitch and Melanie’s bed. The entire Retreat population disappeared into the woods.
The invasion was over in two weeks, there was limited fighting and all citizens of Idaho that were discovered were shot. The Governor tried to surrender Idaho and was subsequently hung from a lamppost outside of the Capitol. There were no prisoners taken. This was a war to the death.
The Chinese bottled up the Idaho population in the woods and forests in a reverse siege. Drones, satellites and spy planes criss-crossed the State and any heat signature detected of more than ten people was rained on by high explosive artillery, air strikes and napalm. The Chinese knew they had a rodent and pest problem in the forest and were dealing with it with fire and shrapnel. The Chinese engineer companies cut down trees and placed palisades around areas and cleared firing lanes around each one out to 200 yards and covered the killing field with barbed wire. The Chinese had learned the lessons of Vietnam well and only sought to exterminate the civilian population so infiltrators could not be hidden in their midst; they also felt that the American population was lazy and not worthy of their patronage. 9% of the Retreat citizens were killed in the Spring that year. The Chinese forces dropped so much ordinance into the woods that they were bound to get lucky on a few shots.
The Retreat Command group and the General’s staff was holed up in the Welcome Center’s lab structure under the Retreat. The bunker was soundproof, vibration proof and completely shielded. If the Chinese even knew of its existence, they would have to bulldoze the entire Welcome Center and even then, probably would not find it. Duncan and Mikey had installed an escape tunnel from the bunker to the woods outside the wire.
Many of the communications lines were still operational to the cache system and the command group and small staff dutifully updated the Chinese positions on the map. Mechanized Infantry and Armor is great for taking territory but ineffective at holding it. You need boots on the ground in hardened defensive positions to hold territory. The palisade defense system provided a firebase for infantry troops to hunker down in case of attack and call in both reinforcements, artillery and air power. They provided the backbone of the garrison forces, the communication system and gave the Chinese the full use of all transportation routes. The Chinese commanders tried to send patrols outside of the wire and into the woods but none returned. Mitch and Melanie’s estimates showed a 95% probability that two out of the three Chinese divisions would move out in the middle of the summer to seize Montana and Wyoming and gain control of the farms and large cattle herds. The rail lines had been destroyed beyond repair so the Chinese Army was road bound for the foreseeable future. Mitch was actually glad the Chinese had built fixed fortifications because it meant that the Chinese could not use fire to burn the people of Idaho out of the forest without burning down their own fortifications and killing their troops. Busload upon busload of Chinese peasants were sent to work and live on the new captured farms of Idaho while the citizens of Idaho watched from the woods.
The Chinese built full bases at six positions around Idaho as a fast reaction force to respond to any attack against their palisade defenses and kept a company of Stryker platoons to staff it. The power system was repaired and all the palisades had electricity and running water before the end of summer.
Melanie and Mitch pored over the Chinese order of battle and logistics chain but the Chinese were supplied by land, sea and air with redundancies in the entire system.
“Shouldn’t we be doing something?” Duncan asked the group in exasperation. “Angus and I think we can take one of those Palisades down with ten squads; their security stinks.”
“The second you attack, even if you took out their radios, the Chinese would know,” Mitch explained. “The Chinese would drop a ton of ordinance on the site killing their own people with ours; they do not value human life the same way we do.”
/> “We need to Sun Tzu their asses and show them what they want to see,” Mitch said. “We are just a reed bending in the wind.”
The Retreat Page 13
