Time Slip Reiwa Japan

089 - China Upheaval - 8

The United States and China had both decided on war.

The US was fully engaged in preparations for the occupation of Southern Mongolia and the domination north of the Yellow River. China, on the other hand, was mobilizing its forces with utmost dedication, including extracting troops from the battle with the Chinese Communist Party's army. *1 Both countries had reached the stage of figuring out how to provoke the other into taking action. In order to gain the banner of justice (moral high ground), both countries firmly held the reins of their military forces, ensuring they would not initiate any actions themselves.

Tension hung over the front lines.

During such a critical moment, an unexpected incident occurred in the skies of Southern Mongolia.

. . .

Fengzhen Incident

As tension escalated, the Chinese military intensified reconnaissance flights over the Southern Mongolian territory using aircraft. This was driven by the recognition that areas where the influence of the Southern Mongolian independence movement was strong were no longer safe for Chinese government officials. *2

They were on alert from the air for the presence of the Southern Mongolian independence movement's forces or any intrusion by the US/Frontier Republic. Since monitoring the ground while flying long distances for extended periods was necessary, the Chinese government had assigned large bombers to this task. One of these bombers, purchased from the Soviet Union, would become the catalyst for the incident.

While the bomber was considered outdated among the equipment owned by the Chinese government, it was chosen for precisely that reason: it was expendable equipment, as were its crew. In a way, the subpar quality of the crew played a role in triggering the incident.

On that day, the radar on board an American airborne early warning aircraft (E-24) *3 detected the presence of the bomber flying its usual surveillance mission. Based on the radar information, the E-24's crew, which had recognized that the bomber's flight path was heading towards the stronghold of the Southern Mongolian independence movement, reported to the air command post of the US Army Frontier Republic Garrison.

Upon receiving the report, the air command post determined that the bomber's mission most likely involved bombing the Southern Mongolian independence movement's stronghold and immediately ordered an emergency scramble of fighter aircraft from the temporary airbase near the Frontier Republic's border. The aircraft that took off were the high-speed F-1 Sabre fighters ordered to intercept the bomber.

At this point, the US believed that if the state-of-the-art F-1 fighters intercepted the bomber, it would easily abort its mission. However, the bomber crew from China attached great importance to the location where the F-1 fighter appeared. The contact point was a location claimed as territory by the rebels (Southern Mongolian independence movement). Although it was in an area inside China's airspace, well beyond 50 kilometers from the Frontier Republic's border, where American aircraft were allowed to fly freely. The bomber crew, unaware of the long-range radar's ability to track aircraft from a distance, assumed that the F-1 fighter had discovered the bomber while on combat air patrol (CAP) duty. In other words, they perceived that an aggressive military operation by the American military was underway.

They declared an emergency over the radio. However, they did not retreat afterward. While maneuvering at low altitudes, their course remained the same. They were willing to risk their lives (even if they were shot down) to find out at least a part of the US's invasion operation in a show of their patriotism. The actions of the bomber crew from China, which were commendable in a sense, appeared to the F-1 fighter pilots from the United States as those of fanatics daring to carry out inhumane bombing missions. Due to the repeated experiences since the Shanghai Incident, American military personnel believed that they could not expect reason and humanity from the Chinese people.