Two Peasants and a President (52 page)

The lead driver simultaneously hit his brakes and the send button on his radio to shout a warning to those behind.  Even so, there were several coll
i
sions as drivers not expecting a sudden stop on the highway ploughed into the vehicles in front of them.  Bus occupants screamed as they were thrown forward into the seat backs in front of them, unable to brace themselves due to the plastic cuffs that held their hands behind their backs.  Foreheads were bruised, a few teeth were broken, and fear quickly spread through the buses. 

The drivers of the two army trucks bringing up the rear had only just heard the strange message coming over their radios, when in their rearview mirrors they noticed several rows of farm trucks sealing off the highway b
e
hind them.  What had been a question quickly became a concern as the word ambush came to minds of some.  Like the farmers ahead of the convoy, those in the rear quickly ran into or around the surrounding buildings where they disappeared except for an occasional head peering around a corner. 

An
officer had just jumped out of one of the lead trucks to ascertain what was going on when something he had never seen nor ever expected to see whizzed through the air.  The arrow pierced the front tire of the truck he had just dismounted, a hissing sound now audible as the tire slowly flattened.  As he drew his sidearm, several more arrows pierced the remaining tires of his truck.  He quickly ordered the soldiers in the back to dismount, which they did with their Kalashnikovs at ready. 

The farmers cum archers had dispersed to roof tops, alleys, repair shops and petrol stations on both sides of the caravan and began to loose a blizzard of arrows that soon punctured most of the tires on the convoy.  While nary a single arrow had hit anyone, the frightened officer ordered his troops to open
fire, which they did in full auto mode, spraying buildings on both sides with bullets that pierced all manner of objects, but struck nary a single farmer who all had ducked into nooks and crannies and would only occasionally peer out to see what the troops were doing.  Residents, shop keepers, repairmen and others in the buildings that lined the highway had heard the shouted warnings of the farmers and had headed out back doors and alleyways to the safety of buildings farther from the road. 

Most of the soldiers had already exhausted two or more magazines of ammo before they paused to see what they were shooting at.  Not hearing another order to commence firing, they found what cover they could under the trucks and buses, whose frames were now very close to the ground.  It was then that an amplified voice, as though from a megaphone, rang out: 

“Soldiers
of the People’s Republic.  Do not be afraid!  We have not come to harm you but to release the citizens in your custody whose only crime was to disagree with the policies of their government.  We pledge not to harm anyone as long as you allow your prisoners to go free.  However, if you harm the prisoners or attempt to kill us, we will have no choice but to fire upon you.  Do not dismiss our bows and arrows as ancient, useless weapons; they can kill as easily as your bullets.”

There were several more volleys of gunfire before the megaphone sounded again:

“To the individual soldiers and police officers from the convoy we ask: Will you choose to murder your countrymen who wish you no harm, or will you lay down your weapons and walk away from the vehicles peacefully?  No one needs to die.  Not you.  Not us.” 

The officer defiantly ordered his troops to open fire again and many did, emptying more magazines uselessly into empty buildings.  A few lay beneath the vehicles silently, in thought.  When there was another lull, the amplified voice began again:

“Your weapons are almost empty.  We have many arrows.  Please save yourselves and us from unnecessary bloodshed.  We are your cou
n
trymen.  We are farmers whose labors feed your families.  We love our country and are not your enemies.  Please, please lay down your guns and allow us to free the prisoners.”

Again the officer ordered his troops to open fire but this time only a few did, some professing that they were out of ammo, others only pretending so.  The fire quickly ceased and the officer now turned his sidearm toward his own men, threatening to shoot them.  One of the soldiers called from under a truck:

“Will you really shoot your own men?”

They awaited an answer.  Most of these men were conscripts; none were combat veterans.  They had been chosen to guard prisoners who were civilians with their wrists bound behind them.  Nothing remotely resembling a confrontation had been expected, in fact, it was felt that the guards would be used to intimidate the prisoners, nothing more.  One by one, soldiers began to crawl our from under the trucks and buses.  One of them approached the o
f
ficer.

“Please, give me your gun.  In this way, you can say that we disarmed you and you will save face.  We are many and we have rifles; you are one and have only your sidearm.  No one’s blood has been shed.  Let us all leave this place alive.  What happens later we will leave to fate.”

The officer, knowing that he had notified his base by radio, stalled in the hope that reinforcements would soon arrive.  His soldiers, realizing too that there was not much time, knew they had to act.  One of them had moved closer to the officer as if to protect him, but instead swung the butt of his Kalashnikov in an arc that intersected with the officer’s temple and he went down.  A cheer erupted from the hiding places of the farmers and they began to emerge.  Hong appeared from behind a pillar with his megaphone.

“
Quickly, release the prisoners and help them into our trucks.  There isn’t much time.  Any soldier who wishes to join us is welcome.  Today is the beginning of a new era for us and for China.”

The radio call from the officer in the convoy had reached the army base, but had drawn a confused response due in no small measure to the mention of bows and arrows.  While skill at archery has been considered a virtue for more than three thousand years in China and Confucius himself was an archery instructor, the firing of arrows at a Chinese army had not been heard of in more than two centuries.  So it was not surprising that when the corporal carried the message to his superior, it was at first not taken seriously.  In fact, it was almost an hour before a military helicopter was dispatched.

In the meantime the farmers, their trucks filled with dissidents and
the soldiers who had mutinied,
fanned out across several pre-planned routes and were heading to distant farms where they would be concealed from the a
u
thorities.  It was a risky gambit in a country where virtually every neighborhood has someone who spies for the government, but the escape was not intended to be an isolated event.  It was designed to ignite a larger revolt.

In recent years, all across China there had been demonstrations and even riots, which the government had done its best to conceal.  But thanks to cell phone cameras and the internet, videos of citizens fighting to be heard had been widely circulated both in China and abroad.  It was hoped that with the hundreds of thousands of unemployed that had been added to the rolls of the
disaffected, the daring action would spark a new revolution. 

Along a dusty highway in northern China, another peasant revolt was now being written into the pages of history.  Whether it would grow or be ruthlessly crushed remained to be seen, but like their counterparts in other times and places, these men and women had chosen to risk it all.  Memories of Tiananmen Square were very much on the minds of those huddled in the backs of dozens of farm trucks rumbling slowly toward destinations across northeastern China. 

******

Li’s allies in the PLA had been delighted when he had given them the go ahead to sink the container ship.  When he reacted to Vietnam’s decision to use the full might of its military to protect shipping and that, furthermore, an escorted
enemy
convoy would be departing forthwith, they were absolutely giddy.  They saw it as an opportunity to establish conclusively that China does indeed control the South China Sea and would soon demonstrate that with overwhelming force.  They scoffed at the notion that a weak and d
e
pendent American administration would intervene.  If it dared to send its carriers anywhere near China’s shores, they would be annihilated by tho
u
sands of land-based missiles placed there for just such a contingency.

This time, Vietnam chose to escort a single container ship with two frigates, reasoning that by bringing their combined defensive systems to bear, they had a better likelihood of defeating any missiles China might launch.  They would also be placing their ships literally between the missiles and the merchant ship, ensuring that if a missile got through, it would hit one of the frigates, igniting a conflict that they felt the United States could not ignore
, especially since the merchant ship was owned by an American company
.  Both sides were gambling on a wider war, something that history has shown is often not a wise bet.

******

Reynolds told
Jian
to take the rest of the day off so that he could visit his contacts and let them know what had happened to the American. 
Jian
had two friends in the dissident community.  They would in turn notify their contacts and the ripples would spread across the pond while minimizing the danger since each cell had limited information about the others. 

In a room filled with monitors and keyboards, dozens of young Chinese men and women were already working furiously to contain a story that was
sweeping like a flash flood across the internet.  Not since the blind Chinese dissident had been duped into leaving the US Embassy in order to save the US Secretary of State undue embarrassment had a story spread with such inte
n
sity. 

It seems that the farmers careful planning had included a pair of video cameras mounted on two of the trucks as well as several carried by individ
u
als.  A story now unfolded unlike any other.  Almost tongue in cheek, it was presented like the tale of the merry men of Sherwood Forest defeating the evil sheriff with their bows and arrows.  Such a marvelous narrative, at least from the point of the dissidents and the world press, was certain to have legs, as they say in the news business.  Dissidents even made sure that certain trusted American businessmen received the full videos on thumb drives, which were quickly smuggled out of the country. 

Media outlets, including those in the president’s camp, could not resist a story that was being portrayed as arrows against automatic weapons; it was simply too newsworthy.  The video had been edited for effect and was quickly circling the globe.  The fact that not a si
ngle soldier
had been harmed, save for a few bruised foreheads as their owners dove for cover under the trucks and buses, made it seem even more like a Robin Hood adventure.  The Chinese government once again had been made to look like a fool.  Li’s aides had seriously considered calling in sick, but did not do so only for fear that he would send soldiers to drag them out of their beds.  The mood in Li’s office swung from fireworks explosions to funeral solemnity.  Had there been a group of dissidents outside his office, he would have shot them down in the hallway, such was his anger. 

In a move that would soon dampen the dissidents’ glee, he ordered photo analysis of the farmers’ trucks that were visible in the video and posted the pictures with a hefty reward for any citizen who could identify one of the trucks and lead the police to its owner.  But it never occurred to him that with a story of this magnitude, retaliation could backfire.  The man was at heart a thug who instinctively resorts to fists first and reflection later, if ever.  And while he focused on how he would punish any of the guilty he could find, a crisis of his own making was building to the south. 

65

From Haiphong harbor, whose name means coastal defense, a large, American-owned container ship, its gargantuan insurance premium paid by Vietnam’s government, emerged slowly into the Gulf of Tonkin.  She was preceded by the frigate
Dinh
Tien
Hoang, named after the first Vietnamese emperor following the liberation of the country from the rule of the Chinese Southern Han Dynasty in the 10
th
century.   Given that a major Vietnamese naval victory over China also occurred in the same century, the symbolism was no coincidence.  She was followed by her sister ship, the second stealth frigate to be delivered by Russia over the past two years. 

Both ships represented the most modern warship design that Russia produces and, it was felt, would provide sufficient deterrent against attack by China.  With double the defensive systems protecting a single, albeit very large target, Vietnam’s admirals reasoned that they would present a lethal threat to any Chinese attacker.  While their reasoning, as far as it went, was sound, it left the obvious unspoken.  If China were so bold as to blanket the ships with a dozen or more anti-ship missiles and/or torpedoes as is common in Communist military doctrine, they would be in serious peril.  Furthermore, if the most capable ships in Vietnam’s navy were to be sunk as a result of protecting its own merchant shipping, it would surely mean war, which even in the modern era would not be a first.