American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Perhaps, this is also what Caesar saw of Alexandria?

　For people before the Industrial Revolution, a town filled with buildings eight stories high or higher would certainly be very impressive.

　If Yemenis have such ability, why didn't ancient China build such tall buildings?

　It’s definitely not because of fear of heights. In ancient times, many wealthy families liked to compete to see whose flagpole was taller.

　If there is a tall building like this in the Fujian walled village, it can also serve as a watchtower.

　Chapter 297: The Road to Hanoi

　December 17, 1963, D-Day, the day Operation Avenger began

　Haiphong Port, Beibu Gulf, Vietnam

　When the smoke cleared, the ground was in ruins.

　This largest seaport in northern Vietnam, the maritime gateway to the capital Hanoi, has now been hoisted with the American flag.

　Before the North Vietnamese torpedo boats and gunboats could even leave port, they were destroyed by bombs dropped by US Navy attack aircraft, leaving only a pile of crooked, charred wreckage. Similarly, the ancient coastal defense forts were reduced to rubble by US aircraft before they even had a chance to fire.

　——Since May, the US Air Force has been continuously bombing Haiphong Port, and last month, the intensity of the bombing was further increased.

　With a combined 70,000 to 80,000 tons of napalm and high-explosive bombs bombarding the area, even reinforced concrete would have been reduced to charred slag.

　In addition, the renowned 101st Airborne Division also parachuted down in Haiphong ahead of time, seizing key points and opening a path for the landing troops. Just as they had done during the Normandy landings – for this battle of revenge, the US Imperial Division was sending out its best troops!

　Under such a series of blows from the iron fist, the defenseless North Vietnamese People's Army was not even able to stop a chariot!

　So, when the fourth-class soldiers of the U.S. Marine Corps landed near the dock with nervous expressions, they did not encounter the machine gun fire and artillery bombardment they had imagined, but only saw ruins and devastation everywhere, as well as a few anti-aircraft artillery positions that had already been occupied by paratroopers.

　On the few Soviet merchant ships anchored in Haiphong Harbor, the sailors were terrified.

　They looked at the steel warships rushing towards them from afar, all of them silent as a mouse.

　—Across the vast expanse of sea east of the port, from north to south, stretched an endless sea of ​​gray ships, their shapes bizarre and strange, their masts dense as a boundless forest. Anyone caught in this magnificent forest of steel would feel a sense of immense power and awe.

　This was an unprecedentedly large expeditionary fleet, comprising four aircraft carrier battle groups and hundreds of accompanying merchant ships, gathered from the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, and most recently, Da Nang. Fifty thousand US Navy sailors alone were involved. Thousands of ships crossed the sea, countless razor-sharp bows cleaving the white waves—a magnificent spectacle! Millions of tons of steel were used to showcase the dominance and might of Earth's leading industrial nation!

　They come with the wrath and revenge of the world's hegemon!

　They will bring the most horrific destruction and punishment to this land!

　Perhaps the Jews in the first century AD were filled with similar fear as they watched a huge fleet cross the Mediterranean, carrying the Roman legions to land in Gaza, and roaring towards Jerusalem with the wrath of the empire, smashing their homes and temple into pieces?

　Next, within the city of Haiphong, the American troops that gradually landed encountered sporadic resistance from militia and police. However, the North Vietnamese were completely spontaneous and hastily engaged. Unorganized and lacking effective coordination and command, they were quickly crushed by the rumbling tanks.

　Two hours later, the 2nd Marine Division, which took the lead, controlled a large landing area in Haiphong Port and seized the highway from Haiphong to Hanoi.

　At the same time, the 1st Marine Division also landed and occupied Cat Ba Island opposite Haiphong Port, encountering almost no armed resistance - North Vietnam was completely unprepared for the US military to cross the 17th parallel north latitude, and the islanders of Cat Ba Island naturally had no steel or fire to offer to the invaders.

　By noon on December 17, the U.S. Marines had taken over the Haiphong Harbor docks and resumed operations. The fleet carrying the U.S. Army's 1st Division, the "Big Red 1st Division," began unloading and landing troops, while the Air Force took over Haiphong's Cat Bi Airport, guiding transport planes to land one after another.

　At three o'clock in the afternoon, General William Westmoreland, commander of the US forces in Vietnam, got off his private plane at Cat Bi Airport with a proud look on his face. He looked around at the battlefield scenery with flags flying around him, and at the group of war correspondents in front of him holding cameras and microphones, and suddenly he couldn't help but feel dazed.

　Could it be that General MacArthur was also so high-spirited when he led his troops to land on Leyte Island and return to the Philippines twenty years ago?

　Well, that's right. When I took over the post of commander of the US forces in Vietnam half a year ago, the Viet Cong bandits were at their peak of power, sweeping across the Indochina Peninsula. Thanks to my unyielding efforts and struggles, I was able to gradually turn the crumbling war situation around.

　The six months of hustle and bustle had left many wrinkles on his face, and his mind was often dazed from overwork and unfamiliarity with the tropical climate. But Westmoreland managed to hold on, racking his brains to deploy his troops and plan counter-guerrilla warfare, a strategy he wasn't particularly adept at.

　However, thanks to the strong strength of the American Imperial Army and his personal diligence and efforts, the situation on the Vietnam front is gradually improving.

　Even though the Viet Cong bandits were desperate and resorted to such ruthless means as assassinating President Kennedy, they were unable to save themselves from their inevitable fate of defeat.

　At this moment, the U.S. Imperial Division has already stood in the Red River Delta, and is only one hundred kilometers away from the lair of the Viet Cong bandit leader!

　Westmoreland had a premonition that all the greatness and humility, glory and darkness of his life had been pinned on the battlefield in Vietnam.

　During the rest of his life, there would be no more thrilling war than Vietnam.

　History will only remember his performance in the Vietnam War. The value of his life lies in gloriously winning the Vietnam War!

　Now, the door to victory seemed to be open before them. Thanks to a series of coincidences, General Westmoreland broke free from the heavy constraints that had previously bound his hands and feet, gained incredible war resources and freedom of action, and was able to launch a great expedition that would have been difficult to approve!

　Just like the Argonauts in ancient Greek mythology, they finally overcame numerous difficulties and dangers and were about to get the Golden Fleece.

　Of course, the "Golden Fleece" that belongs to Westmoreland has not been obtained yet... there is still the last hundred kilometers to go!

　The general turned his head with such confidence, squinting his eyes and gazing at the western sky.

　Behind the horizon in that direction is the ultimate goal of this military operation...Hanoi!

　So, when answering reporters' questions at Jambi Airport, General Westmoreland said confidently: "What I want to say most now is... the battle has just begun, and the soldiers still need to work hard! The door to victory is still a hundred kilometers away!"

　He raised his arm and pointed westward: "Towards Hanoi! Let's go give Ho Chi Minh a good kick in the ass!"

　-

　December 18, 1963, Operation Avenger began on D+1

　North of Hanoi, the northernmost end of Highway 1, 30 km south of Lang Son

　Teams of North Vietnamese soldiers, wearing tattered uniforms and wooden helmets to protect their bodies from the sun, walked breathlessly on the road to Hanoi.

　——As the news of the US landing in Haiphong spread, the entire northern Vietnamese army, like a hornet's nest that had been poked, hastily assembled in a chaotic manner and attacked from all directions.

　Fang rushed to Hanoi in an attempt to defend this "great capital of the revolutionary regime."

　Of course, the American imperial division, which holds absolute air superiority on the battlefield, will obviously not allow them to travel smoothly.

　"Attention! Attention! Enemy aircraft appear in the southeast. All personnel, take cover and defend against air attacks!"

　Amidst panicked cries, General Zhu Wenjin, the North Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister and a member of the Chinese community, dozed off in the jeep. Suddenly, he felt the car swerve and begin to jolt. Without even stopping, he quickly jumped out and surveyed his surroundings.

　The border militia that had been marching along the highway had all left the road and taken refuge in the dense forests on either side. The few trucks carrying supplies also pulled off the road, the soldiers on board frantically pulling up camouflage nets and gathering branches and weeds to toss on the roofs as camouflage.

　The machine gunner and the reloading officer carried their machine guns to a high point, set up the anti-aircraft gun, tilted the muzzle upward, and installed the ammunition belt. The lookout, with the binoculars hanging from his neck, observed the rapidly enlarging black dot on the horizon closely.

　But soon, they put away their machine guns and hid themselves, and General Zhu Wenjin understood the reason why they gave up air defense from the sound of engines in the distance.

　"Damn it! It's a B-52 strategic bomber! It can fly up to 10,000 meters! Our machine guns can't hit it at all!"

　Then, three silver-shining B-52 bombers roared past their heads, paying no attention to the soldiers on the ground.

　Therefore, the North Vietnamese militia, who had suffered a false alarm, soon set off again and, at the urging of General Zhu Wenjin, rushed to Hanoi in a hurry.

　But an hour later, U.S. Navy A-1 Skyraiders also flew in from a low altitude, saw through the North Vietnamese soldiers' disguise, and dropped flaming napalm bombs on them while calling for more attack aircraft to "hunt" them...

　Although the North Vietnamese militia on the ground fought back desperately in this desperate situation, they were all military settlement units, or "shelter units," tied to agricultural production. They were poorly equipped with only a few heavy machine guns and severely undertrained. They were quickly burned to the ground by napalm bombs...

　Although they did manage to blow up one enemy plane, turning it into a blazing display in the sky, more Skyraiders turned the jungle on both sides of the road into a sea of ​​fire. The scorching flames shot up over 20 meters from the ground, capable of burning a living person to a crisp in an instant!

　When the American planes finished bombing and strafing and flew away, the exhausted General Zhu Wenjin was very sad to find that of the 3,000 reinforcements he had pulled from Lang Son, only less than 700 were left, and the remaining 2,000 or so were either killed or burned, or scattered and deserted.

　Not only the North Vietnamese reinforcements from Lang Son rushing to the capital Hanoi, but also the North Vietnamese troops from Cao Bang, Thanh Hoa and Son La rushing to Hanoi for reinforcements, all encountered repeated air raids on the way. Not only were the soldiers killed and wounded in large numbers, but they also had to face various problems such as broken bridges and large potholes on the road. They had to repair roads while advancing, and even had to hide during the day and travel at night, which greatly delayed their time to reach Hanoi.

　What was even more despairing was that when General Zhu Wenjin, with several hundred of the most conscious revolutionary fighters, braved a shower of incendiary bombs and repeated strafing by enemy aircraft, they finally entered Taiyuan (not Taiyuan City in China, but Taiyuan Province in Vietnam)...

　A telegram came from Hanoi: Give up, no need for rescue!

　The US 101st Airborne Division, using parachutes and helicopters, successfully captured Hanoi's Bach May Airport, and the Hanoi capital garrison's counterattack failed. Meanwhile, US troops landing in Haiphong were rapidly advancing toward Hanoi, and the North Vietnamese had almost no troops left to stop them.

　In view of the above critical situation, Ho Chi Minh declared Hanoi an undefended city, and the government and the army began to evacuate...

　"It's over! It's all over! Le Duan and Van Tien Dung! What kind of war are you fighting?"

　Throwing down the telegram in his hand, General Zhu Wenjin slumped on the side of the road, tears streaming down his face. "What about Beijing? Doesn't Beijing care about us?"

　-

　Hanoi, General Staff Headquarters

　Looking at the billowing smoke from the burning documents, the large and small bags of luggage piled at the door of the air-raid shelter, the air raid sirens that had just subsided, and the frustrated expressions on the faces of the staff officers, Vo Nguyen Giap felt quite depressed.

　——Why are we withdrawing from Hanoi and hiding back in the mountains?

　Why was Vietnam’s revolutionary road so difficult and bumpy?

　He couldn't help but recall the humiliating scene seventeen years ago in December 1946 when he was first driven out of Hanoi by the French colonial army.

　After that, this former teacher had no choice but to follow Ho Chi Minh and struggle in the mountains of northern Vietnam for nearly eight years. He had no coffee or bread every day and lived like a bandit and a savage. He himself couldn't believe that he could hold on for that long.

　Later, starting from 1950, the Vietnamese revolutionaries, who were originally isolated and helpless, finally received generous assistance and hands-on guidance from China. The war situation improved slightly. They successively captured cities such as Cao Bang and Lang Son, and won the world-renowned Dien Bien Phu Battle, and were once proud of themselves.

　But despite this, his several attempts to attack Hanoi all ended in failure and made no progress at all.

　Finally, he

　He had no choice but to accept the Chinese mediation, give up the large base area south of the 17th parallel north, and allow local revolutionary comrades to be massacred by the reactionaries, in order to exchange Hanoi and the Red River Delta from the French - this also led to Le Duan, who was born in the south, becoming his political enemy.

　However, the Party Central Committee has only been in Hanoi for nine years and has not even settled down yet, so why is it fleeing to the countryside to fight guerrilla warfare?

　I’m really unwilling!

　However, if we don't want the entire Party Central Committee to be wiped out by the Americans, there seems to be no other way at the moment.

　Because they had never imagined the US military would dare to invade North Vietnamese territory north of the 17th parallel, Hanoi was now practically a deserted city. The meager capital garrison couldn't even defeat the small group of US airborne troops that attacked Bach May Airport, let alone the tens of thousands of elite US troops rushing from Haiphong to Hanoi—a mere 100 kilometers from Haiphong to Hanoi, and the route was entirely through impenetrable plains!

　If you get in a car and step on the accelerator to the bottom, it will probably only take two hours to drive from Do Son Flower Street in Hai Phong to Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi!

　Although the Party Central Committee had ordered local militias to destroy roads and slow the US advance yesterday, with no contingency plan and no mines prepared for the militias, it was unclear how effectively this hastily issued order would be carried out.

　——Without even mines, the militia could only dig pits and trenches on the road...

　It is very likely that before we have time to dig the road, the US mechanized troops will have already rushed over at lightning speed!

　Meanwhile, Vietnamese troops sent from surrounding provinces to reinforce Hanoi were constantly bombarded by the US Air Force and Naval Aviation. They suffered heavy casualties and were slow to respond, making it impossible for them to reach Hanoi before the US troops.

　Finally, when the Bach Mei Airport on the outskirts of Hanoi was occupied by US commandos, Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh finally unified the thinking of the Party Central Committee and persuaded Le Duan to abandon the idea of ​​fighting street battles in Hanoi and instead evacuate the city again and evacuate to the countryside to avoid the enemy.

　Of course, at the same time, we must also act like Shen Baoxu crying in the Qin court, and ask for help from China, the Soviet Union and the entire socialist camp in the most tragic manner!

　——Our little brothers in Vietnam are almost being beaten to the point of destroying their country. Aren’t you big brothers going to lend a hand?

　Simply providing weapons and instructors is no longer enough! Send a second Chinese volunteer army across Zhennan Pass!

　Chapter 298: The Unstoppable American Imperial Teacher

　December 19, 1963, Operation Avenger began on D+2

　Capital of North Vietnam, Hanoi, Bach Mai Airport

　In the early morning mist, sporadic gunshots and artillery fire continued to be heard around the airport.

　About 24 hours earlier, two battalions of the U.S. 101st Airborne, plus an Army Special Forces unit, suddenly descended from the sky and occupied the entire Baimei Airport in just two hours. They also wiped out a militia company that had just hastily arrived to deploy defenses and detained the North Vietnamese staff at the airport.

　This is like stabbing a bleeding thorn into the heart of North Vietnam!

　Not to mention, the US military not only immediately sent more airborne troops to Bach Mei Airport using transport planes to strengthen its control, but also transferred more than 6 attack aircraft and helicopters to Bach Mei Airport just six hours later, turning the airport into a bridgehead for the US military to attack Hanoi. Attack aircraft taking off from Bach Mei Airport even dropped bombs on the North Vietnamese Ministry of Defense and the National Assembly!

　However, the panicked counterattack of the 301st Division of the North Vietnamese capital garrison was easily defeated by the elite US troops of the 101st Airborne Division who seized the airport. At least 500 people were killed by "Skyraider" attack aircraft and armed helicopters on the road leading to the airport, but they did not even touch the edge of the airport.

　——On the front battlefield where no skills or tricks were available, the North Vietnamese government forces were no match for the elite US military.

　As for sending the North Vietnamese Air Force to intercept? North Vietnam now only has a few training planes and transport planes, and no air force at all.

　You can't just let North Vietnamese pilots crash their planes into the ground to perform a kamikaze attack, right? But even a kamikaze plane would take time to develop!

　Next, under the cover of the Air Force, the US paratroopers boldly left the airport on the M274 mechanical mule (a mini flatbed truck) that was airlifted in, and launched a short counterattack towards the city of Hanoi, once again defeating the North Vietnamese army. One of the regiments suffered a collective mental breakdown because more than 40% of the troops were killed in six hours, and the camp was blown up and dispersed during the retreat.

　After all, compared to the guerrillas fighting day and night on the southern front, the garrison troops of the 301st Division, who stayed in the capital Hanoi and lived a life of luxury, had better uniforms, better equipment, and were more politically reliable. But when it came to fighting spirit, they inevitably lacked.

　Although this unit once had the glorious experience of guarding Ho Chi Minh and the Party Central Committee cadres and fighting against the French paratroopers who came to attack, but that was ten years ago. The soldiers of the 301st Division have been replaced more than once during this period and are no longer the veterans they once were.

　Today, it is normal that the 301st Division performed poorly when suddenly faced with the elite American troops who control the air superiority.

　In this way, the North Vietnamese leaders, feeling that the situation was hopeless, finally reached a consensus and decided to abandon Hanoi and move the government to the countryside.

　.

　However, North Vietnam has been established for some time now and has accumulated a lot of assets in the capital Hanoi, so it will take a long time to move.

　Therefore, the unwilling North Vietnamese People's Army continued to wander around the airport, bombarding the runway of Baimei Airport with rockets, field artillery and recoilless guns, attempting to replicate the successful case in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign and rely on cold guns and cold artillery to interfere with the takeoff and landing of US transport planes.

　At least the progress of these American airborne troops must be delayed to buy time for the retreat and evacuation of the North Vietnamese central organs.

　However, Hanoi is not Dien Bien Phu, the rice fields of the Red River Delta, or the forests and mountains of northwest Vietnam.

　The North Vietnamese artillery had no trees to hide behind, and almost as soon as they fired, well, even before they fired, they would be immediately exposed, and then attract enemy aircraft to pursue, strafe, and bombard.

　Unless they hid their artillery inside buildings... but the terrain near the airport was quite open, with few towns or villages available at the moment. Furthermore, to clear their firing range and prevent any further Vietnamese infiltration, the US forces at Bach Mei Airport called in an indiscriminate airstrike, unleashing napalm and high-explosive bombs, burning and collapsing the nearby Vietnamese villages, and in doing so, killing the North Vietnamese mobile artillery units hiding there.

　As for tanks with higher mobility?

　Not to mention that no matter how good the mobility of a tank is, it is still not as good as that of an airplane. The only armored troops the Vietnamese army has now are in Hue, and there is nothing in Hanoi!

　The crucial problem was that Bach Mei Airport wasn't Dien Bien Phu Airport. The French troops trapped at Dien Bien Phu were completely isolated, with minimal supplies stored on the ground, and relied entirely on air travel for survival. They had violated every single taboo in a defensive war.