"A 'Yes man' is a dangerous man. He is a menace. He will go very far. He can become a minister, a secretary or a Field Marshal but he can never become a leader nor ever be respected. He will be used by his superiors, disliked by his colleagues and despised by his subordinates. So discard the 'Yes man.'" - Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw (1914 - 2008), 7th Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army (in office 8 June 1969 - 15 January 1973)

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August 5th, 2025.

Major Gu Huang

4th Tank Battalion, 18th Heavy Combined Arms Brigade, 104th Special Army Group, Northern Theater Command.

Mine-shi (Mine City), Shankou (Yamaguchi) Special Administrative Zone.

"Comrade Colonel" I stood up in attention upon I realized on the presence of my battalion commanding officer here in my tent quarter.

"At ease, Comrade Major, I see that you are writing a letter to your loved one, I suppose?"

"Yes, Comrade Colonel."

"Carry on."

After he was out from my sight, I went back to my own reflection of the fact that, despite our country's view on the Imperialist Japan, I always want to see the country with my own eyes.

"My love, I hope this letter reaches you well, In my heart, I know if something bad happened to you. It's hard to live without seeing you, even if it's only once a week..."

My dearest Jinding, I am writing this facing the gentle hills surrounding this sleepy town and I had seen the nearby karst landscapes with it's own majesty despite the Japanese ones are smaller compared to what we have in Southern China. There are not so different than us, the Japanese...

"We have begun working triple shifts in the factory as power supply had eased... However there are many factories getting bombed by American missiles and I fear about my own family..."

Through I worried about you, here I am worried more about my comrade and junior, Captain Xiaojun. I do not doubt his competence and moral-political standing, but I think even to the People Army's standard he's very demanding to his men, and when Colonel Junhua and our political instructors talked to him, sometimes he shrugged it off. It seems what we have seen in Korea was not enough to humble him yet...

"And I think about the others whose mothers cannot sleep without worry, especially those who were the only child. Those serving under you and Colonel Junhua must have been lucky, for I know that you care deeply about them..."

I will be home soon enough, my dear. Until then, know that I love you. Your brave warrior Huang.

For days we're adapting ourselves with our armor and the terrain upon arriving, as well as mentoring newly arrived replacements in the process. Infantry replacements can be obtained using men stripped from the other companies in many cases, but tank crews were a much more specialized job hence they must be sourced directly from the Homeland.

In addition, when we're first deplaned with our tanks airlifted with unmarked Russian-provided Il-106s - their replacement of Antonov An-124 - as well as our own, smaller Y-20 Kunpengs which was our answer to American C-17, the Capitalist greeted us using those accursed swarm of jet drones of both Japanese and Americans complemented with manned assets, costed us a couple of GJ-11 attack drones, three J-11 fighters, and two Y-9 transports!

If only 134th Airborne Brigade comrades had managed to seize Hiroshima Airport, our lives here would be much easier.

The higher up promised few more infantry battalions to come following our unit, but I won't speculate when.

Our comrades who survived the initial landing earlier told us how after they secured the cities of Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki, they ventured out to the surrounding small town and countryside where they fought multiple pockets of heavy resistance, as the Japanese rallied their forces. Not just them, their opponent also include a US Army light infantry brigade reinforced with light tanks, with multiple stories on how the M9 Meade (1) - the name of that American light tank honoring one of their Civil War era generals - and wheeled Japanese tank destroyer called Type 16 "Maneuver Combat Vehicle" was the primary bane of their effort.

Coupled with their drone-killing lasers and an ample supply of anti-tank missiles, after several pitched fight, those who weren't retreating further east would melt back into the countryside.

It didn't take long before the strain and frustration of being in a country far from home began to show on some of my troopers. Some of them began to shake in fear for their own lives, even those who survived Korea. I had to remind myself that many of them weren't just soldiers. They're brothers, fathers, sons and few sisters, mothers, and daughters, of their respective families. Their lives were our responsibility. A good number of them had seen loss of their comrades and wondered if their self would be next.

Right now, here in our tac HQ in this sleepy town, my battalion commander was in tune with their assessment about our enemy's effort so far. "You see, the story from those who fought in 1999 was true as well as our comrades in Taiwan. Sure, their passivity still influential but since that time, all we have done is basically to awaken a sleeping warrior... I am not saying giant here, comrades."

"They are fighting hard, but won't be enough to stop the inevitable. Iwakuni will be the first of such event, if only we're here earlier..." I sighed at Captain Xiaojun's sneer at our CO's statement.

"Be careful, Comrade Captain." replied Lt. Col. Fung. "Ours are heavier and this means ours will also have more difficulties in using bridges here." He continued. "How shall I tell the Party if one of you got killed in a stupid fashion?"

The ZTZ-99A only weigh 55 tons compared to Western-style enemy tanks that we had encountered so far in Korea which tend to hit 60 up to 70 tons for the M1 Abrams family. Yet, the Type 10, our primary concern, only weighed 50 tons in full configuration for a good reason.

"Incoming!!" The requisitioned town's air raid siren blared in Japanese and Chinese for everyone to seek cover, followed by our air defenses in the area; a battery of SA2 76mm heavy truck-mounted anti-aircraft system and multi-barreled gatling-type LD-2000 rose up to the skies, spewing their payloads followed by a pair of HQ-17 missile system.

NORINCO SA2 anti-aircraft system

Explosions were registered beyond the horizon, however, there were multiple screeches of what must be either rocket artillery or cruise missiles or suicide drones inbound, and just as we saw one SA-2 and two LD-2000s burst into flames.

Some of us had been happy to be reassigned, out from the meat grinder of what Korea had become, only for this...

"New order" the Colonel snapped everyone out after the all clear signal has been given. "Comrade Senior Colonel Jihai had called us to go to Yamaguchi, as we have confirmed a large troop concentration aiming on this city that we must defend while other battalions will be sent to attack Iwakuni further south as our response.

It's still a good thing to know how well the Japanese regulars will fight here with the Americans are not giving them as much support as back in 1999.

The battalion and Xiaojun's one were now part of the 18th Heavy Combined Arms Brigade, a mechanized formation led by Senior Colonel Sun Jihai that had lost most of it's tank force as the result of the Japanese and American heavy resistance around Yamaguchi Prefecture.

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To be frank, I still want to know how those people built and maintained their roads so meticulously, unlike some of our people in China... those dilletantes...

The view of this national park area around this highway was something to behold, and while my driver was doing it's job in navigating a curve, my headset caught the interesting conversation or to be exact, argumentation between Captain Xiaojun and the Colonel.

"Jiaolong 4 to Jiaolong Lead, I wish those Japanese had guts to stand and fight with us right here and now."

This man could get us killed, for heaven's sake - if there is such thing as heaven.

On the other hand, he's correct about one thing; those people are everywhere.

"Incoming!"

We're lucky that our GL5 anti-missile rocket hard-kill active protection systems had been installed upon arrival for the whole battalion, to the point that I had took an audience with the Colonel to write citations for our mechanics that had been doing their trade under constant threat of air and ground raids from those Japanese.

"Go, go, go!"

Stopping to dismount the infantrymen and engage the ambushers - perhaps conveyed themselves around these hills using dirtbikes plus UGVs - in my opinion will only slow us down, which the Colonel shared.

"But sir, we have to engage! Those people are focusing on my company and our interceptors might soon ran out!"

"Comrade Colonel, he has the point, I got them on my sight and I am firing my machine guns now. One of my tanks had reported intercepting two RPG rounds and one other has been disabled by saturation attacks!" added Captain Mu Huangbi; 1st Tank Company replacement commander succeeding Major Hu Lianghua who had died with his entire company in Sariwon.

"Open fire when needed to scatter them, but we won't stop. All battlegroup element acknowledge!" snapped the Colonel.

He cut off the comm just as most of us were out from the kill zone, then our radios crackled again by Colonel Junhua's announcement.

"I have established contact with drone support unit; they had launched tactical drones, in best scenario, those things are going to make short work of those insurgents as well as any of their drone swarms if they decided to send it. Brigade headquarters had repeatedly calling for us to move forward and ignore them. I repeat, ignore the ambushes!"

His prediction on drone swarm was terrifyingly accurate; as one radar equipped ZBD-04 recon vehicle behind us sounded the alarm. "Incoming drone swarm!"

To kill a drone... it will require another drone. It's yet another Western military maxim that we, the People's Army, were also embracing.

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Inside Yamaguchi, we did not stop, other than keeping touch with the 18th Brigade HQ.

"The good news that we have the element of 22nd Medium Combined Arms Brigade on it's way from Hofu. A risky move with the upcoming offensive at Iwakuni, but we cannot do anything to counteract that..." the brigade intel officer said.

Pretty soon the brigade was complete and we moved towards a town called Atotonokusaka, near the border with Shimane Prefecture. Expecting that place to had enemy presence already, initial intelligence was bewildered to found it nearly empty, which Captain Xiaojun echoed to us initially.

"Jiaolong 4 to Jiaolong Leader, this place is too calm. They must be trying to create a sort of diversion already, Not even an attempt to jam nor hack our comm or drones!"

"I agree Comrade Captain, this town area is a perfect place of a springboard for counterattack. Even with our cyber boys and girls managed to get some data from those elusive Japanese I still believe in the good old direct intelligence on the ground, so here is my order, we are to secure this area. Comrade Major Huang, you are to send your recon element."

I asked Colonel Junhua. "With all due respect, Comrade Colonel, what about our air drones?"

"Most of it are used elsewhere, Comrade Major." I want to ask him about any information from the Tiangong, but I know that we cannot afford to waste time on that issue. "And beware of ambushes, including from their ground drones! This hill area is also prime for that."

My recon platoon had recon version of the ZBD-04 tracked troop carriers and Sharp Claw IIIs combat robots which will be doing the bulk of the mission, plus scout infantry aboard the ZBDs augmented with short range UAVs. Knowing the high risk of ambush, I decided to detail a pair of my tanks led by one Shang Shi (Senior Sergeant) Li Shufu and one of my attached anti UAV vehicle.

While keeping tab on that platoon on my radio as my driver did it's job to position this warhorse in the manner that my sight could see the recon unit' progress, my ears caught yet another argumentation between Captain Xiaojun and the Colonel.

"Jiaolong 4 to Jiaolong Lead, I wish those Japanese had just come for us."

Junhua answered. "Don't hope for too much, Comrade Captain. We are dangerously lacking on fire support for any decisive engagement and our AA assets are equally limited."

"We can make do with what we have, Comrade Colonel. My troopers are already chomping on the bits."

It's time to enter the town area proper, first was the recon team and the attached two tanks. However, I decided to fed another pair of tanks into before Xiaojun's infantrymen - a platoon - followed it in anticipation that was quickly become reality, as several gunfire followed by mortar and anti-tank missile fire were aimed towards the recon infantry. One ZBD burst into flames but not before it managed to dismount most of it's troopers.

Radio chatter suggested that an infantry company had managed to conceal themselves in this area that was more like rural areas in our country, despite the damaged buildings.

"There are civilians with arms and homemade drones... This city is under partisan control, sh*t!!"

"Jiaolong leader to all battle group element, spread out!" To our surprise, however. "We got a company worth of APCs incoming, there are not Japanese. Repeat not Japanese!"

"Who are they?" the Colonel asked back.

"Canadians! With Japanese armor behind them!"

The 18th Heavy Combined Arms Brigade's 1st Infantry Battalion and what was left of their attached tank force of older ZTZ-96s soon took up position. The Western Coalition's initial wave consist of LAV IIIs - a basis for American Stryker and Canadian counterpart to our ZBL-08 eight by eight wheeled troop carriers - it's 30mm cannons spewed death on our infantrymen. One ZBD was able to knock out one charging Canadian troop carrier with it's 100mm gun, but while withdrawing, an enemy anti tank rocket broke it's track.

"Enemy APC identified, comrade!"

"Fire!"

In return, the presence of my tanks and infantry hand-held rocket launchers succeeded to push the Canadian light armor back after losing two of their own, one by my gunner. Deprived from their armor, enemy infantry was forced to take cover inside houses and shops not yet occupied by us.

"Typical Canadians, they lack guts to fight, just like their American neighbors."

You are annoying, Comrade Captain Xiaojun!

"Focus on engaging the enemy, Jiaolong 4. This is an open channel." Our Colonel had to act in order for him to not hog the radio frequency, and we all know if the Imperialists intercepted this one, they would surely exploit it. In the meantime, I can see the lead platoon of the 18th Brigade's 1st Company of the said 1st Battalion rushed out from their axis of advance, using a smaller road straight on our left flank with their ZBD-04s and ZTZ-96s ready to reinforce Xiaojun's company. Extra infantry was always handy.

Suddenly from the said company, came a frantic transmission "Shit! we got incoming suicide drones, Spread out comrades!"

An understrength battery of PGZ-09; standard issue for the PLA Heavy Brigades; that was initially deployed for countering Japanese infantry and partisans quickly repositioned themselves into a more open ground. It's radar and electro-optical sensor recognized the incoming loitering munitions fired from our left flank; across the river. A number of those were shot down either by the AA gun or the GL5 rocket interceptors but some scored their kill, mostly against the unlucky infantry company but also two ZTZ-96s accompanying them as well as one of the PGZs.

"I think the farm here is where those little bastards came from." grumbled the Colonel, pointing at the digital map inside his command vehicle...

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