25th September - Forbidden City - Beijing - Meeting Room of the High Council - early morning
»Why do we not attack?« asked the minister of defense.
»General Dingzhi has informed me that he is preparing a major counter offensive«, replied prime minister Chiang Kai-Chek.
»Give the General the message«, interrupted the minister of defense, »that we want to see deeds, not words.«
»Comrades«, said Chiang, »from my time in the military I remember that you should attack only when one is crucial in the majority of men and weapons. Dingzhis attack is doomed to failure if it occurs in haste.
Let us listen to his proposal - I have summoned him. He is waiting in the next room.«
»He seems to be a very capable officer« said Dong Sen Fen. »after all, he is just a few days first commander of the Dalian Army Group.«
......
General Dingzhi entered the room and walked with a firm step to the conference table where all the members of the high council are sitting. Shortly in front of the table he stopped and saluted.
»General Dingzhi« the prime minister said »as I have heard, you have already worked out a plan for the liberation of the occupied territories ? Would you please explain your plan ?«
»Yes of course.« General Dingzhi answered and spread up a large map of the area around Shenyang and Dalian.
» As you can see, the front runs from Gaizhou over Anshan to Fushun and eastwards to Tonghua . Unfortunately Dalian is already not reachable by land. My predecessor has apparently failed to place appropriate reserve troops here. You can tell him that he has not only failed in this regard.«
»You probably do not know what has become of the detainees.« interrupted the minister of defence.
General Dingzhi did not understand immediately. »That can not be true !« he said loudly.
»Last night, all seven staff officers were executed, including the former commander of the Dalian army group.«
»But he was an able officer -«
»He had no success, General Dingzhi«, said the minister of defense with a smile. »The Emperor does not tolerate any failure!«
»The emperor or only you ! « thought Dingzhi and continued his explanation » I have called the whole operation 'hammer'. The 'hammer' are our troops around Shenyang and the troops for the defense of Dalian are the 'anvil'. Accordingly, I have also divided the assigned divisions. The reinforcement phase will be completed in just one week. Then we can start the operation at any time.
The brunt of the operation rests on the two tank divisions around Shenyang. Another attack is made by our mountain troops in the north and indeed here .......
General Dingzhi pointed on the map.... after the front line is torn, our tanks will push the enemy on the anvil - where the Koreans then will be shattered.......
with this words Dingzhis hands pursued the arrows on the map...... to give the enemy further problems, and to cut off the supplyline for the koreans, our Marines and Paratroopers will make a landing action around Dandong. Once a solid beachhead is established, our troops move along the Yalu River and into the territory of Chosen so the koreans will be cut off. The whole operation should not take more than 4-6 weeks, however a maximum of 8 weeks. With the result - that we have not only restored the old borders, also we can advance to the territory of Chosen without any problems.« With these words General Dingzhi concluded his remarks and looked confident in astonished and enthusiastic faces.