Chapter 246: The Battle of Unification

Ten minutes before the D-300 missile was launched, the 10st Heavy Combined Brigade of the All-Union Front had moved to a place more than 1 kilometers north of Mandalay.

The brigade’s 24 armed helicopters also took off and formed a low-altitude formation, flying towards the city of Mandalay in the south.

Following closely behind were 24 transport helicopters, each carrying an infantry squad, following behind the attack helicopters.

On the ground, 36 light tanks led the way, followed by heavy tanks and various military vehicles.

September is the end of the rainy season in northern Myanmar. Although the rainfall is not as frequent and as heavy as in August, the air humidity is still very high.

The sunlight was still very strong at around 8 o’clock in the morning, but at 9 o’clock it started to be windy and the clouds in the sky were getting lower and lower.

If there is no thunder and lightning in this situation, it will be very beneficial for the air formation to attack.

The troops advancing on the ground suffered a bit.

Because of the high humidity in the air, even without the sun, the soldiers sitting in the military vehicles and tanks were still sweating profusely.

In order to cool down, the tanks had to open the entrance and exit covers when moving forward, and the windows of military vehicles were all opened so that the wind could dissipate the heat for the crew when moving forward.

The 2nd Heavy Combined Armored Brigade set out from the Bay of Bengal, 40 nautical miles away from Yangon.

24 armed helicopters and 24 transport helicopters took off from the offshore platform and flew straight to the city of Yangon.

Light and heavy tanks and various military vehicles were carried on 12 transport airships, which took off from the offshore platform and flew to the outskirts of Yangon.

It was raining heavily in Yangon at this time and the sky was overcast.

The explosion sound produced when the suburban radar station was hit by the D-300 missile was mistaken for thunder by the citizens of Yangon. Although the military camp in the suburbs felt that the sound was a bit unusual, it was difficult to go out to check due to the heavy rain, so they had to call various units to inquire.

Also, due to heavy rain and dark clouds, only a very few people saw the ballistic missiles falling from the sky.

Therefore, when the armed helicopter at sea approached the military port in Yangon, it was discovered by the sentries inside the military port.

Ding dang dang,…, beep, beep, beep.

“Enemy attack, there are enemy helicopters in the sky, quickly activate the battleship.”

The sentry spotted an armed helicopter flying low over the sea and he struck the gong on his sentry post and blew a whistle.

After blowing the whistle, he quickly shouted loudly to those who were checking to pay attention to the enemies at sea.

It was dark at this time, and the gray-blue stealth-painted armed helicopter was difficult to see clearly from the ground.

The propeller noise of the armed helicopter was also mostly covered up by the sound of wind and rain, so people on the ground could not see the helicopter in the distance at all.

“Where are the enemies, Achai? Are you so hungry that you are dizzy? I would not have snatched your breakfast this morning. Stand guard and don’t report the enemy’s situation. How could there be enemies coming from the sea?” said the person who came out to check.

“Captain Songchai, it’s really an enemy’s armed helicopter. Oh, it’s bad. They are launching rockets. Lots of rockets.” Before he could finish his words, his position was hit by a rocket, and the sentry tower instantly turned into a fireball.

Songchai, who was about to go back on the ground, turned around when he heard the sound and saw dozens of sparks on the sea surface growing rapidly and flying towards the warships parked on the dock.

They are called warships, but in fact they are small gunboats, modeled after China’s Shanghai class.

At this time, there were a total of four ships parked at the Yangon Naval Port, and two were patrolling near the port.

These gunboats were imported from China in the 70s. They have a displacement of 110 tons, a length of 38.7 meters, a total width of approximately 5.3 meters, a draft of 1.5 meters, a maximum speed of 30 knots, and a crew of 36 people.

艇上的武器主要有2门双联61式37毫米炮和2门双联61式25毫米炮，另外还有烟雾发射器，水雷和深水炸弹。

These gunboats have not participated in any battle since they were equipped by the Myanmar Navy.

At this time, it was hit by multiple rockets and started to smoke and catch fire, then slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

The two ships patrolling the port did not escape either. Two armed helicopters flew a few hundred meters away and fired six rockets each, sending the two gunboats that tried to increase their speed to escape into the sea.

In this way, all the warships of the Myanmar Navy were destroyed.

Some other speedboats are not worth using rockets on, as the machine guns on the armed helicopters can destroy them.

Navy squad leader Songchai was lucky enough not to be the first to give in. When he saw the unusual flames flying over the sea, he reacted quickly and hid to the side of the stone watchtower. The shrapnel from the explosion on the tower did not hurt him.

It was that huge sound that made his ears buzz.

He didn’t care about anything else and ran to the duty room as if he was escaping for his life. After running in, he immediately called his superiors to report that the military port and warships were attacked by unknown armed forces.

But not long after he made the call, he heard an explosion over the phone.

It turned out that the place where the superior was was also attacked by the armed helicopters of the Quanjiezhen.

“It’s over. I don’t know where the enemy came from. The navy headquarters has been bombed. I have to find a way to survive.” Songchai muttered to himself for a while.

He packed up a few of his clothes, hid the thousands of dollars he had embezzled and extorted from merchant ships, and then fled the naval port without looking back.

It was only after the Navy’s Yangon base was occupied by the Central Liberation Front that General Sein Win of the Yangon Military Region learned the news.

A few minutes earlier, he rushed to the Yangon Military Region’s base from his car and learned that a medium-range radar station on the outskirts of Yangon had been attacked by unknown weapons.

According to a major who arrived at the scene, the scene was extremely terrifying.

The place where the radar station antenna was located turned into a huge pit. The original huge radar was nowhere to be seen, and only sporadic radar antennas emerged from the soil and rubble.

The rain from the sky and the water on the ground kept gathering into the deep pit created by the unknown weapon. Because of the high temperature, bubbles were bubbling up from the water surface at the bottom of the pit.

He was just about to call the Ministry of Defense in Naypyidaw to ask if there was anything unusual when he received news that the coastal military port and warships were attacked by unknown enemies.

He acted decisively and ordered the soldiers stationed at the military district to distribute weapons and prepare for battle.

At the same time, he asked his staff to contact the Ministry of National Defense and major military regions to see if they knew anything about the situation.

About three minutes later, the chief of staff of the Yangon Military Region summarized the information obtained by the various staff officers.

“General Sein Win, something terrible has happened. The Ministry of National Defense is unreachable. The Northeast Military Region General Than Shwe is also unreachable. Two of the other 10 military regions are unreachable. The other eight military regions that have been able to get through are in chaos because they can’t get through to the Ministry of National Defense either.”

“What about the Presidential Palace? Have you got through?”

“The call went through, and the person who answered was the secretary. The president was out busy solving the waterlogging problem in the Naypyidaw metropolitan area.”

“Then why is there no news from Chairman Ne Win?” asked General Sein Win.

“Um, General, why don’t you call Chairman Ne Win? We can’t use your dedicated line.” The chief of staff reminded in a low voice.

“Hmm? Okay, I’ll go right away. Tell all the troops to prepare for battle. Everyone keep their eyes open and increase security at all intersections.” General Sheng Win gave a quick explanation and went to his office to call Chairman Ne Win on the dedicated line.

But this Ne Win is not that Ne Win.

The most powerful person in the Burmese government at that time was the Chairman of the Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP), Chairman of the State Committee. He was also called Ne Win, the same name as one of the leaders of the Central Liberation Front who was in charge of financial affairs.

The president is Sanyo, the nominal head of state. Although he is a close confidant of Ne Win, he has no real power and is a symbolic position.

Ne Win came to power through a military coup in 1962 and established a military government.

The policy he implemented was “Burmese-style despotism”, which included a planned economy, a closed-door policy, and suppression of resistance from ethnic minorities.

Of the 12 military regions in Myanmar at that time, 10 were his former subordinates and the other two were his comrades-in-arms.

These people can contact him through a dedicated line and communicate with him frequently by phone.

The leaders of the major military regions kept a very strict watch on this special line that went directly to the sky and did not allow any of their subordinates to touch it. As a result, after so long, General Sein Win in Yangon did not receive any message from Chairman Ne Win.

When he called, the line was always busy. After 6 or 7 minutes, just when he was about to get up and go outside to direct the defense, he finally got through.

“I am Ne Win, speaking.”

“Chairman Ne Win, great! I finally got through to you. I thought…”

“Stop talking nonsense. How are you doing there?” Na Wen’s tone on the phone was very bad, interrupting Sheng Wen’s nonsense.

“Uh~, Chairman, one of our medium-range radar stations and six navy warships were destroyed by an unknown enemy. The naval base was also occupied by the enemy, and they will soon attack us.”

“Then you should hold on well and find out where the enemy is coming from as soon as possible.

We had originally planned to transfer a division from your military region to Mandalay for defense, but now it seems the enemy is preparing to advance from the north and south.

You should quickly contact the surrounding military regions, form an alliance, and do your best to defend Yangon and prevent it from being captured by the enemy.

I’m very busy. Please contact me by telegram if you have anything to say.”

Beep, beep, beep,…

There was a busy tone on the phone, and Sheng Wen learned that Mandalay in the north had also been attacked by the enemy.

So he did not dare to delay and hurried out of the room and went to the command room to command the troops to leave the barracks and build defense lines at key points.

……

At this time, the perimeter of the Ministry of Defense building in Naypyidaw was surrounded by troops. Some soldiers held hands and blocked the citizens who came to watch, while digging in the rubble with their hands and simple tools.

“Chairman Ne Win, this is the minister’s watch, and it also has a broken arm. He should…” A colonel in charge of excavating and clearing the rubble at the Ministry of Defense building handed a gold watch with a broken watch chain to Chairman Ne Win who came to inspect.

“Well, let’s go to my place to collect the intelligence from all over the place and see how to deal with it.” After seeing the broken gold watch, Chairman Ne Win’s cheeks trembled unnaturally, and then he left the ruins with his entourage and went to a hidden underground command room he had prepared earlier.

When the convoy was moving to the suburbs and was about to reach the hidden underground command room, six 6-kilogram laser-guided bombs fell from the sky and covered Chairman Ne Win’s convoy.

Ne Win did not expect that even though he had made multiple preparations, he still could not escape being beheaded.

It turned out that at 9: this morning, he should have been having breakfast in the villa.

But around 9:28, he suddenly felt like trying some street food, so he left home a few minutes earlier.

Less than two minutes after he set out, the villa where he lived was bombed by a D-300 missile.

He didn’t dare to go back, so he drove the car to the office quickly. Then, from his office, he witnessed the Ministry of Defense building in the distance collapse after being hit by multiple weapons falling from the sky.

Just when he was about to call to inquire whether there were any unusual events in the major military commands, he received reports one after another that certain places had been attacked, and there were repeated mentions of high-powered bombs falling from the sky.

He ran through all the possible enemies in his mind.

But none of them worked.

The major powers such as the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain and France, which possess such weapons, cannot go to war without declaration. Neighboring India does not have such a long range, and it is impossible for it to launch attacks from the north and south directions.

The only one left within reach was the Quanjiezhen in northern Myanmar. He had received some intelligence reports saying that there were such weapons in northern Myanmar, but he thought it might be a misunderstanding, a news deliberately spread by people in northern Myanmar in order to make the government forces he was in afraid to use them.

But just in case, he decided to activate a temporary command post deep underground, which had a backup radio station and some supplies.

So he stopped the convoy at the ruins of the Ministry of Defense building to see if he could rescue a few important military personnel to assist him in commanding the country’s army.

Because although he had direct contact channels with the leaders of major military regions at this time, he had focused mainly on politics for so many years and was unfamiliar with military affairs, and didn’t even know much about some division-level officers.

If there is no one from the Ministry of Defense in charge of the command, it will be very difficult for him to command.

And just during the few minutes he stayed in the ruins of the Ministry of Defense building, Quanjiezhen’s second plan to deal with him was ready.

The intelligence personnel who were responsible for monitoring outside Ne Win’s villa discovered that Ne Win did not follow his usual schedule, but left the house early.

He quickly reported to his superiors.

But it was too late, the D-300 missile had already been launched.

So the intelligence personnel began to follow Ne Win’s actions after learning that he was about to go to a hidden underground command post in the suburbs.

The air strike formation, which was originally prepared for a secondary cleanup, quickly flew over Naypyidaw and circled.

When Ne Win’s convoy left the city and was about to reach its destination, the speed began to slow down.

The two 3-kg laser-guided bombs carried by each of the three F15s in the air were released and fell off from under the wings.

After descending more than 300 meters and gaining a relatively high speed, the wings popped open.

The laser pointer on the ground shines on the slow-moving car and reflects into the air.

All six laser-guided bombs in the air received the signal.

The onboard computer solves the problem quickly.

Then control the bomb wings to continuously change their positions so that the bomb’s descent path coincides with the calculated path.

In the end, all six laser-guided bombs exploded above or near the target vehicle.

These six powerful aerial bombs covered the entire convoy.

The people inside the car were either directly shattered by shrapnel or killed by the shock wave generated by the explosion.

After a few minutes, a few survivors began to struggle in a pool of blood and tried to stand up.

At this time, Quan Jie Zhen’s special warfare team also arrived.

First, he controlled the survivors with dazed eyes, and then checked the bodies on the ground.

After finally confirming that Ne Win was dead, the survivors were taken away, and the bodies on the ground were left for the Burmese government to deal with.

(End of this chapter)