Life as a New Hire Ch. 43

"I come to parlay," the voice in the darkness shouted in less than perfect Thai. The Thai soldier had to think what that meant. His instinct was to shoot the man. His training taught him to not make choices above his pay grade.

"Advance. Don't do anything stupid," he called out. To the man next to him he whispered, "Go get the Captain." The man slunk away. No one alive in the unit stood up to do anything. You even pissed crouched down. The man coming toward him was a Cambodian. It was evident in both his gear and accent. "What do you want?"

"We want a truce," the man replied. He remained very erect, his hands in the air and only made slow, careful movements.

"I should shoot you," he growled.

"That would be unfortunate for both of us. I would, of course, be dead, and my allies would open up with our artillery."

The conversation was truncated by the captain's arrival. They went through much of the same routine, absent the 'I should kill you part' and the counter-threat. The captain turned to the Thai soldier.

"Blindfold and bind this man's hands then take him to the Phan Ek (Colonel). Let him figure this out."

Without the soldier saying anything the Captain added, "This could be a ruse. I must stay here. Hurry."

He nodded, took a shirt from one of the civilian volunteers, cut it into strips then blindfolded and bound the man.

"If you so much as sneeze, I'll put a bullet in your head," he warned the man.

"I understand," the Cambodian replied. The soldier took the Cambodian one block behind the lines, spun the man around several times, then led him toward the command bunker. He spun him around twice more before making his final approach. A wounded junior officer met him at the entrance.

"Come on," he took custody of the man. Having nothing else to do and not having been ordered to release the prisoner, the soldier followed along.

The Regimental Commander had the man un-blindfolded. His hands remained bound.

"What do your masters want?" the Major snapped.

"They want a truce," the Cambodian blinked in the sudden bright light.

"You invaded us without a declaration of war. That makes you criminals, not combatants."

"We attacked at the request of the legitimate authority in Thailand - the Commanding General of the Royal Thai Third Army."

"Those men are rebels and you will not refer to them as anything but," the Phan Ek insisted.

"Very well. My Commander wishes to let you know that our mobile hospital has arrived. We wish to exchange prisoners and place our facilities at your disposal as well."

"The Royal Thai army will be there soon enough," the Major glowered.

"Unlikely. Our Khanate allies have informed us that most of your division was destroyed on the road. You have one battered regiment and a handful of tanks. You are not going anywhere."

The soldier wanted to slap the smug smile off the man's face.

"I do not have the authority to hand over prisoners until their status as POWs or criminals has been established," the senior officer countered.

"If you consider our men criminals, we will treat your men like traitors."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Yes. A fact you should be aware of is that the Khanate has been flying in reinforcements since noon and we have five more armored, mechanized and artillery Zuuns to attack with. Come sunrise, we will be coming at you again unless we have a truce."

"Now you are threatening us again," the Phan Ek pointed out.

"I am explaining the realities of your situation, nothing more," the Cambodian countered. "Our task force commander believes that further violence will be futile. You have done your job and we have done ours."

"And your job was to keep us occupied so you could rape and pillage other parts of our country?"

"No sir. The Alliance forces have been operating under very strict guidelines. The Thai people are our allies and we are a liberating force," the Cambodian replied.

"You consider this town 'liberated'? You've destroyed it," the Phan Ek noted.

"It was unfortunate that you chose to fight us here."

The Colonel studied the man silently for thirty seconds.

"I will agree to a two hour truce. That should allow me to contact my superiors for further clarification on my mission. We will hand over any critically injured 'invaders'. You will return any POW's you are holding in exchange."

"Agreed," the Cambodian immediately responded.

"Just like that? It is really within your authority to make such a deal?"

"As I said earlier Phan Ek, we believe the fighting is over. We don't need your captured men. We would like to see as many as our comrades live as possible. No matter what your commanders say, the fact remains that if you come out of these ruins, you will be slaughtered. You know that. I know that. Peace is the only avenue that leads to any level of success. Today ... today, both our forces did what our commanders told us to do. The dying should stop."

"Go. The truce will take effect in ... fifteen minutes ~ 12:12 am. We will transfer prisoners and wounded at your point of entry. We will both give a warning whistle fifteen, ten, five and one minute before the truce ends at 2:12 am. Do you understand?"

The Cambodian repeated the terms of the truce. He was bound up then sent back with the Sip Tho.

"Do you really think this is the end of the fighting," he asked his blind captive.

"On the lives of my children I hope so," the man sighed. "I led 88 men into battle this morning and now I'm down to 46 effectives. I have lost too many already for a battle that wasn't in my nation's best interest. I am tired of the killing."

"Me too," the Thai said a moment later. After he delivered him to the Captain on the front lines, the man was unbound.

"Good luck," he found himself saying.

"Good luck for both of us," the Cambodian gave a weary smile. "May we not meet again."

"If I see you again, I will kill you."

"I feel the same way," the man chuckled. "We are both soldiers doing what more powerful men have commanded us to do. I don't know about you, but I have had enough." Several Thai soldiers nodded. They had driven the enemy off Thai soil. Continuing the fight didn't seem to have much of a point. It was H-hour plus twenty.*

** News anchors, expert commentators and historians would hotly debate exactly what the officers of the 31st regiment (Royal Thai Guards) and the Royal Cadet Guard-Naval Academy meant to do when they gathered their units at the Chitralada Royal Villa. King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej aka Rama IX, was in residence, as was Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Until he granted their commanding officers an audience at 10 pm, the King had been largely unaware of the greater turmoil in his country. Yes, he knew about the Third Army's rebellion as well as the Navy, Air Force and 4th Army staying neutral. He had been hearing noises of combat coming from all corners of his capital. What he didn't fully understand was the beating his military was taking in the field, or the perceived precarious situation the Army faced in Bangkok.

One possible interpretation of what happened was these officers, aware that there was fighting getting closer to the Royal Residence, went to safeguard his Majesty with no ulterior motive. That viewpoint suggested the Crown Prince took the initiative to end the suffering of his nation and decided to make a public announcement from the Grand Palace (the public royal residence), appealing for the cessation of hostilities - for both sides to separate until a council could convene in the morning to resolve the situation peaceably.

Another possible view was the Admiral and Colonel came pleading for the King to do something to end the chaos and the King followed the men's advice. He convinced the Crown Prince to go to the Grand Palace and end the conflict.

A third possibility was this was a counter-coup, led by the Royal Guards and the Navy Cadets who 'convinced' the King and Crown Prince that they had to exercise the threat of lèse-majesté in order to end the fighting since both forces contained Thai soldiers fighting one another and was thus, action against the King's will and an insult to his status as Father of the Thai People.

What did happen? The King was quite old (86), so it fell to the Crown Prince (62) to take an active role in the matter in his father's name. In a manner that was never clarified, he was able to communicate with the Great Khan, who personally pledged a withdrawal of his forces if that is what his 'brother' in the Chakri Dynasty desired.

The Great Khan then contacted the governments of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, requesting they also halt their forces and take up a purely defensive stance (i.e. they had done their part so he would now pay them for their troubles ~ mainly in the form of updated military hardware).

The Crown Prince then contacted the Commander of the Royal Third Army and commanded/suggested that a civil war was not in the nation's best interest. He was then escorted to the Grand Palace where he made a public announcement over every major media network that he had elicited a cease-fire with the rebels and their allies.

First off, he promised the Thai people that they were giving up nothing in this arrangement. The Civil War would end - because he said so and if the loyalist Royal Thai forces who claimed to be serving him (through his father) were truly doing so, they would also immediately cease hostilities. He requested all concerned parties meet at the Great Palace in the morning at nine to work out the particulars of the end of the current civil disorder. Both civilian and military representatives would be present.

Furthermore, he directed the Royal Thai Marine regiments to move into Bangkok and separate the warring forces, thus ensuring the cease-fire. He was also accepting the offer from the President of the United States to deploy a US Marine Amphibious Unit to the countryside to separate the combatants there. The Alliance High Command had already guaranteed they would hold open the captured air bases to facilitate that move.

Once disengagement had been achieved, he had a personal guarantee from the Great Khan, monarch to monarch, that the Great Khan and the other allied governments would withdraw to their respective borders within a week, if not sooner. The country would unite. The country would rebuild. Together, all factions of Thai society would create a stable future. It was H-hour plus twenty-five. Effectively, the war was over, although small skirmishes would continue until sunrise.*

Had the Crown Prince the authority to do any of that? No. He had ministers appointed by the Parliament that took care of things like foreign and civil affairs. He was titular head of the armed forces, but had no actual authority to command. What he did have was a deep well-spring of respect among his people including many leaders in the military. He was throwing down a gauntlet that very easily could be trampled into the mud.

In his favor, not a single faction wanted to be the one to do that. The military had its sworn oaths to consider. Those oaths bound the generals together and bound their underlings to them. They couldn't very well declare they were serving the will of the King any longer if they defied the Crown Prince now.

For the civilian leaders, this was their best avenue to return to power. They were saved the ugly perception that they were relying on foreign intervention to achieve their aims. The outsiders were going away. The Crown Prince had, somehow, gotten them to back off solely with the weight of his personality. He had achieved the military victory the Army had failed to deliver and he hadn't killed a single person doing it.

For the protesters in the street? They were high on the use of force (by the allies) to repress the use of force (by the Army). The protesting population now controlled large sections of Bangkok and had garnered a great deal of police neutrality/cooperation in the process. Besides, while they had been comrades in the streets facing down the military junta, they were still divided in their political views.

What would be the outcome? That was what street protests were all about. Both sides had their 'favored son/daughter' they followed, political parties they adhered to and grievances they wanted addressed. Civilian governments had collapsed under their own weight of accusations and charges of corruption before and they probably would again. That part of Thai politics remained untouched by the recent national tragedy.

What had been accomplished? The next time the Commander of the Armed Forces thought about taking power, he would have to to examine the precedent established by the Khanate:

... now the various civilian factions could appeal for foreign intervention to protect their civil liberties.

Also, a civilian authority was the most likely outcome of the upcoming National Reconciliation Government and they would owe that freedom to the Khanate and would, to a degree, view the Great Khan as the guarantee that the military wouldn't put tanks on the streets anytime soon.

The Khanate? She got what she wanted ... a stable, friendly southern flank.

The Alliance's SE Asian members? Those three allies would be getting several shipments of 'nearly' modern hardware with additional aid to help then maintain said technology in working order.

India? A stable, friendly government would ally with India (not China) to build their canal thru the Kra Isthmus. The creation of the India-Thailand Kra Infrastructure Investment and Development Company (ITKIIDC) was already moving through the Indian parliament. The expected income from tolls alone was expected to accede $400 million a year (though that alone would take 70 years to pay off the predicted $28 billion price tag - Hoo-raah Big Government).

Thailand? A brief brutal civil war that could have been a whole lot worse ~ unless you had actually been in one of the war zones. Maybe they would get a democratic government. Their economy hadn't taken that much of a beating ... and there would be plenty of reconstruction jobs. The IMF would probably pump in a few million into the economy to 'help out'. It had been bad; it could have been worse.

The Philippines? Why were we involved with that again? It was back to the bargaining table with the Khanate, India and Vietnam once more. Nothing much had changed.

The Republic of China? The Khanate still loved them. An invasion of the mainland was still in the works. It was back to working on the South Korean, Japanese, ROC, Vietnam, India and Khanate alliance network dedicated to containing the PRC because the Red Dragon was far from finished.

Malaysia? Not much had changed. Some Malaysian Marines were on their way to Thailand as part of a humanitarian mission, so it wasn't like Thailand hated them. The Khanate tide had receded far short of the border. The US had edged a tad closer and had become a little bit more engaged in the South China Sea. All in all, it could have been much worse. The Khanate could have been sitting on their border - much worse.

The United States? The President of the United States was The Peacemaker. His tiny military presence was up to the task of acting like crossing guards as they escorted the 'Alliance' back across their respective frontiers.

Not only was this his chance to say 'See, I did something', ... without him having to do anything until after the fact since the Crown Prince and the Great Khan had created the cease-fire.

As well as 'See, I can do this Nation-Building thing without spending several trillion dollars', ... Without doing any actual nation-building since the Thai's would be doing that themselves.

And 'See, the greatest military power in Asia respects us enough to back off when we arrive', ... while not having to talk to the Khanate in any official capacity ... because, you know, the Great Khan was still The Bad Guy - revisit the bio-terrorism, genoicide and War of Aggression then subtract one Free Tibet ... and now one Democratic Thailand.

For the daring men and women of the US Military there was an 'Atta boy/girl/team - I knew you could do this - thanks for risking your lives' and an 'Oh, by the way, I'm cutting the Defense budget again next year. Have fun being RIFed. I'm sure you will find a job in the private sector - no problem'.

One horrifying/awe-inspiring thing had been revealed during the 'Thai Expedition'. That was the Khanate's airlift capabilities. It rivaled that of the US and dwarfed every other nation's in comparison. The 'why' of the matter made total sense in hindsight.

The Khanate knew it would control a massive expanse of space ... yet she was saddled with a weak all-weather road network and an inadequate railway system. Furthermore, the resource-rich East was separated by the Caspian Sea from the industrialized West. She had to be prepared to move massive numbers of troops over incredible distances and airlift was the only possible answer.

In a total of seventy-two hours (counting the troops brought in while the campaign was going on) they had brought in nearly 15,000 soldiers, enough hardware to equip a mechanized Tumen plus the logistical support for those warriors and over 500 aircraft. It had been an awesome endeavor and something new for the Pentagon war-planners to factor in the next time they needed to fight/ally with the Great Khan.

Meanwhile: been RIFed?

The Khanate desperately needed you if you had (any) engineering, infrastructure, judicial, law enforcement, logistics, medical, and/or military expertise - and they payed you well for something you would have been doing in the US/UK military, had either of those institutions still employed you. And working for The Khanate was okay because they had (barely) avoided being a US enemy by dint of a back-room meeting that never officially happened.

Note: End explanation of how things played out in the Battle for Thailand.

{9:00 pm, Tuesday, September 2nd ~ 6 Days to go}

"I suggest we all get some sleep," Addison declared as she stood up and stretched. Odette was asleep on the floor, her head propped up by a pillow. The rest of us look like we'd ... been up for the past three days with only cat-naps breaking up the tedium between reports from various sources - namely the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), Khanate and the Black Lotus.

By the time the major news outlets brought up the 'current events' we had already digested it and moved on to the next crisis point. As they had learned, 'Live from the Front Lines' sounded nice, but it wasn't all that informative. Like most sane individuals, reporters and cameramen ducked when people were shooting at them, so you got plenty of good footage of what the dirt/walls/pavement in Thailand looked like.

Around eight o'clock yesterday morning - Bangkok time - an 'expert' commentator brought up the point that the news crews on the 'Alliance's' side of the story were in Thailand illegally ... thus prone to get shot at.

"But they are the Press," a cute news anchor babbled. "Isn't that a war crime ... or something?"

All I could think of was that with those smarts and those lips, she had to give tremendous head. Don't get me wrong - she was clearly college-educated, but she was also lost in some alternate reality bubble where bullets instinctively knew who not to kill.

"They are imbedded with an invading army," the female expert sighed. "I don't think the average Thai soldier can tell the difference between a civilian cameraman aiming his way and, say - a Khanate soldier with a rocket launcher. I imagine that looking down the barrel, they appear to be the same thing."

"But they have 'Press' on their helmets and arm badges," she refused to relent to the other woman's common sense. The female commentator was getting pissed, so she got snide.