Published at 10th of February 2022 10:06 am

Chapter 497: Season 2 Book 20 Shadow of War – 3-1 Smashing Operation

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January 09, 2024, 22:05

Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Namju

“A declaration of independence? Heh heh, the delusions of those Japanese politicians are endless,” said Director Lee Young-jin, clicking his tongue. He had been reading a report from the Tokyo branch of the Japan Headquarters, under the National Intelligence Service, which had arrived an hour ago.

At this, the 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon, who had been reading the report alongside the director, asked with a serious expression, “The Japanese aren’t ones to be purified. Shouldn’t we report it to the Blue House right away and take immediate action?”

“Mm, it looks like we should! I trusted Uchida, but as it is with most people, you can’t know what he’s truly thinking.”

Director Lee Young-jin had mixed feelings about the fact that Prime Minister Uchida, whom he had believed to be putting the Japanese citizens first above everything else, had voted in favor of the declaration of independence.

“It’s impossible for these Japanese monkeys to be anything else. They’re people who try to reveal their imperialist colors whenever they see a chance. We should have sent Uchida to prison as a war criminal three years ago, as well.”

Three years ago, when Japan had lost the war, numerous politicians—both from the cabinet and the opposition party—were classified as war criminals and sentenced to at least five years or even as long as life in prison.

But Uchida, who had been the only minister of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, avoided this storm, and instead became the first Prime Minister after the constitution had been amended.

Of course, Uchida becoming the Prime Minister was due to the influence of the Korean government.

Concerned that Japan’s political world would be in great chaos after many far-right politicians were imprisoned at the same time, the Korean government had chosen Uchida, who, at the time of the Abe administration, was a minister of the opposition party, to try to solve the issue.

Even so, the Korean government didn’t intend to control Uchida as a puppet prime minister. It had only hoped that the war-ravaged Japan would make an effort to restore itself from war, and transform itself into a true democratic country.

However, as today’s report stated, the result was that Japanese politicians were the same all around. It seemed that even if these politicians cared deeply about the citizens, their DNA was deeply ingrained with imperialism or rightist tendencies.

“What point is there to talk about the past? At that time, it wasn’t a bad idea to have Uchida as the Prime Minister. The problem is America…They still haven’t learned their lesson, and they’re still going behind the scenes with these nasty plots.”

“Yes, we should give America a taste of their own medicine this time.”

“We’ll discuss that part after we report it to the Blue House. I need you to call for a meeting for 9 a.m. tomorrow, for everyone who’s director-level or higher.”

“Yes, sir.”

Glancing at the clock on the wall after he had put the report away in his briefcase, Director Lee Young-jin asked 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon, “Ah! Isn’t it about time for something to be wrapped up on the EU side?”

nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon turned, looked at the clock on the wall, and nodded. “Yes, sir. By now they probably—”

At that moment, the intercom rang, and they heard the secretary’s voice.

“Director! Director Kang Ki-won of the Foreign Intelligence Agency has arrived.”

“Tell him to come in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Haha. That guy’s rushed here to report about it already.”

“Looks like it.”

As they exchanged a few jokes, Director Kang Ki-won opened the door and came into the room. Even before he had a chance to sit down, 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon asked, “Has it been decided?”

“Yes, sir. It is as we wanted. The proposal’s been transferred to the Board of Directors meeting.”

“Phew! We’ve bought some time for now.”

In response to Director Kang Ki-won’s answer, 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon sighed in relief. He looked at Director Lee Young-jin and said, “Phew! It seems like we’ve bought ourselves some time.”

“It seems so. I was worried about what would happen if the EU representative board meeting resulted in the wrong decision. Director Kang! How many votes was the transfer of the proposal supported by?” asked Director Lee Young-jin, with a relieved expression on his face.

“Ten votes, sir.”

“Heh heh, ten votes? Barely passed one third.”

“Yes, sir. The lobbying by America toward the EU member states wasn’t something to be laughed at. We expected, even up until the morning, that 13 countries would support the transfer of the proposal, but three of them ended up standing on the side of America.”

At Director Kang’s answer, 2nd Vice Minister Huh slapped his knee and shouted, “Isn’t it said that birds of a feather flock together? It was fortunate that 10 countries voted in favor of the transfer, at least.”

“Yes, that is true,” Director Kang Ki-won bowed his head slightly and answered.

Director Lee Young-jin, thinking they had overcome an obstacle for now, relaxed and started talking to the 2nd Vice Minister and Director Kang. “From now on, this is a battle of diplomacy handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The information we gather will be a great help to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2nd Vice Minister Huh, make sure that we can get the necessary support from all available departments, as well as the Foreign Intelligence Service. Send a few of our workers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that they can send us information in real-time.”

“Yes, sir. I will. In this situation, though, it seems that what’s crucial is when the Board of Directors meeting will be held.”

Director Kang Ki-won immediately answered 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon’s question. “Since this is the first time that a proposal has been transferred from the Representative Board meeting, we can’t expect it to be too fast. We did find that there are rules that say the meeting is usually scheduled within 20 to 30 days since they take into account the schedules of the heads of each member state.”

“Between 20 and 30 days…”

Director Lee Young-jin checked the schedule on his tablet immediately. There were various military operation schedules, provided by the Ministry of National Defense, on the screen. In other words, this was an S-class schedule.

“Mm, that’s around the time when the contingent forces will be having military activities in southern Russia, beyond Ukraine. Good, we have some spare time.”

nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon raised another question with a worried expression. “Director! Would America not do anything about this? Considering how they’ve acted until now, wouldn’t they try to schedule the Board of Directors meeting as soon as possible to pass the proposal there?”

“Mm, it’s possible they might do that as you’ve said. But this is also something the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should handle. We don’t have much of a choice other than to help them as much as possible to accomplish what we’ve planned.”

At that moment, the intercom buzzed again, and the secretary spoke. “Director! It’s time to go to the Blue House.”

“It’s already time. Okay. I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Yes, sir.”

Director Lee Young-jin got up from his seat and put his coat on. Grabbing his briefcase, he reminded the 2nd Vice Minister and Director Kang of their tasks. “I’ll be going to the Blue House to report in. 2nd Vice Minister Huh and Director Kang, look into the status of the departments to see which ones are available to support us, and schedule the meeting for tomorrow morning.”

“Yes. sir.”

“Okay, and when you’re done with that, you can go home!”

“Haha! How can we go home if you give us a mountain of work?”

“Is that so? Haha, I’m sorry about that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir. Take care.”

After Director Lee Young-jin had left, 2nd Vice Minister Huh Young-joon and Director Kang Ki-won discussed the work that needed to be done, which would likely have them working till midnight.

<hr />

January 09, 2024, 22:10 (New China Time: 21:10)

Plains 24 kilometers from the southern end of Puning County, Hebei Province, New China

As the 5th company and the company from the headquarters were neutralizing the first line of defense, the 6th and the 7th companies had reached the second line of defense in rapid maneuvers through the rain of mortar shells. They split up to the right and left sides, avoiding the civilians that were being used as human shields, maneuvering to surround the remaining defenses.

The 6th company turned to the left, entering the second lane quickly. The 7th company turned to the right, changing directions toward the 1.5-kilometer wide farmland, and sped up to the maximum speed it could travel on flatlands.

But the tanks of the 7th company began to gradually slow down. The ground, which was thought to be as hard as ice in below-freezing temperature, strangely became muddy as the heavy tanks passed by on it, slowing the speed of the C-2A1 Black Tiger tanks.

“Hey! What’s wrong with the speed? Step on it more!” shouted Sergeant Nam Sang-hyeon, the commander of Tank 732, into his headset.

“Ah! Commander! I’m flooring it. The ground is muddy.” The voice of Sergeant Kim Min-jin, driving the tank, protested through the headset.

“What do you mean, man? In this temperature…The ground is muddy?”

“Oh, look at the ground through the scope!” At Sergeant Kim Min-jin’s frustrated protest, Sergeant Nam Sang-hyeon immediately turned the scope and checked the path they had passed.

There were two knee-deep caterpillar marks, trailing behind them.

“What the hell is this? It’s negative 10 degrees right now…It doesn’t feel right. Damn it! Just step on it.”

“Yes, sir.”

With his answer, the roar of the engine was heard from Tank 732, but the speed didn’t pick up. The caterpillar tracks rotated without picking up any additional traction.

As the 14 tanks and armored cars of the 7th company moved, sliding around on the muddy ground, unidentified armed forces started to appear from the small town to the right of them.

They were another tank battalion operating the Type 99 A2 tanks that had also previously engaged the 5th company. Around 30 of these Type 99 A2 tanks hadn’t been picked up by the reconnaissance drones, as they had hidden completely inside the village buildings.

Then, as the 7th company tanks were stuck in the knee-deep mud, they didn’t miss the opportunity to reveal themselves and open fire, and from a distance of less than 500 meters.

<Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!>

The sound of the bombs shook the ground, and many sharp arrow-type bullets were fired at the Black Tiger tanks.

Because it was so close, some of these bullets hit the side of the gun turret of the Black Tiger tanks directly.

<Clang!>

With the sound of metal hitting metal, the shock of being hit by the bullet was felt from the inside of the Black Tiger tanks. Fortunately, the bullets bounced off the tank and flew into the air.

Although the C-2A1 Black Tiger tank was of the 4th generation class, its protection power (KE) was as good as the 5th generation tanks. The frontal protection power was around 2,000 millimeters and the lateral protection power was around 1,500 millimeters. This was enough protective force to defend against any modern anti-tank missiles. The probability of being hit by the American M4 Wardog tanks or the Russian T-14B Armata tanks using 16MJ-class railguns from the flanks, however, was high.

The C-2A1 tanks, with their considerable protection power, either deflected all the 125-millimeters bullets or emitted a powerful SECM (Radio Disruption System) to deflect the aim of the shots.

“This is the company commander! All tank commanders, move quickly toward dry ground after counterattacking.”

Even before the company commander’s order was issued, the 7th Company tank commanders were already on standby, prepared for a counterattack.

At that moment, the urgent voice of the commander of Tank 711 and commander of the 1st platoon rang throughout the company’s communications network.

“The village! There are many civilians in the village. Please confirm with inverter mode.”

It was true. Just like civilians were used as human shields for the mortar battery and one of the infantry units, the tank battalion of the New China Army was also using civilians as human shields by putting them inside of the houses and buildings that they were hiding behind.

“These fcking bstards! Everyone stop counterattacking! Stop the counterattack! Move quickly up to the small hill 500 meters ahead! Quickly!”

With these orders issued from the company commander, the 7th company’s Black Tiger tanks that were about to counterattack turned and moved forward at maximum speed. Having them trapped completely, the Type 99 A2 tanks fired at them while hiding behind civilian houses and buildings. Infantry units of the New China Army appeared everywhere, shooting anti-tank missiles at the 7th company tanks. In addition to this, the mortar bombs that had stopped in the air momentarily rained down on the 7th company tanks with a whistling sound.

<Boom! Boom! Pew!>

As the mortar bombs fell to the ground, pillars of earth sprung up in all directions. The only way to get out of the mortar bombs’ impact zone was to maneuver out of the area quickly. But there was considerable difficulty in the 7th company tanks exiting the area, as the speed of the tanks was hindered by the mud.

As a result of this, the mortar bombs exploded on the upper part of the gun turret of the Black Tiger tanks.

<Boom!>

The armor on the upper part of the gun turret had the protective power of 700 millimeters, so it was able to defend against any mortar bombs, as long as they were less than the 155-millimeter medium-sized bombs. These bombs were 100 millimeters in size, so the upper part of the gun turret didn’t suffer from any damage while defending against these bombs. The actual problem was that these bombs were damaging the various optical equipment, mounted on the outside of the gun turret.

Unsurprisingly, a damage report from the commander of Tank 724, with the upper part of its gun turret hit by a mortar bomb, came in through the communications network.

“This is Bulldog 4! The gunner has lost vision from the mortar explosion just now! We’ve lost the laser meter as well!”

Unfortunately, the optical equipment was damaged by the shooting and reports of such damage began to increase one by one..

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