"Go on."
"Your reason for not wanting to open the third front was a sound one," said Bean. "Not wanting to waste lives taking militarily unimportant objectives."
"So you think I shouldn't use that force at all," said Alai.
"No," said Bean. "I think you need to be bolder with them. I think you need to waste more lives on an even more spectacular nonmilitary objective."
Alai turned away. "I was afraid you'd see that."
"I was sure you'd already thought of it."
"I was hoping one of the Arabs or the Indonesians themselves would propose it," said Alai.
"Propose what?" asked Petra.
"The military goal," said Bean, "is to destroy their armies, which is
done by attacking them with superior force, achieving surprise, and cutting off their supply and escape routes. Nothing you do with the third front can achieve any of those objectives."
"I know," said Alai.
"China isn't a democracy. The government doesn't have to win elections. But they need the support of their people all the more because of that."
Petra sighed her understanding. "Invade China itself."
"There is no hope of success in such an invasion," said Alai. "On the other fronts, we will have a citizenry that welcomes us and co-operates with us, while obstructing them. In China, the opposite would be true. Their air force would be working from nearby airfields and could fly sortie after sortie between each wave of our planes. The potential for disaster would be very great."
"Plan for disaster," said Bean. "Begin with disaster."
"You're too subtle for me," said Alai.
"What's disaster in this case? Besides actually getting stopped at the beach--not likely, since China has one of the most invasible shorelines in the world--a disaster is for your force to be dispersed, cut off from supply, and operating without coordinating central control."
"Land them," said Alai, "and have them immediately begin a guerrilla campaign? But they won't have the support of the people."
"I thought about this a lot," said Bean. "The Chinese people are used to oppression--when have they not been oppressed?--but they've never become reconciled to it. Think how many peasant revolts there've been--and against governments far more benign than this one. Now, if your soldiers go into China like Sherman's march to the sea, they'll be opposed at every step."
"But they have to live off the land, if they're cut off from supply," said Alai.
"Strictly disciplined troops can make this work," said Bean. "But this will be hard for the Indonesians, given the way the Chinese have always been regarded within Indonesia itself."
"Trust me to control my troops."
"Then here's what they do. In every village they come to, they take half the food--but only half. They make a big point of leaving the rest, and you tell them it's because Allah did not send you to make war against the Chinese people. If you had to kill anybody to get control of the village, apologize to the family or to the whole village, if it was a soldier who died. Be the nicest invaders they've ever imagined."
"Oh," said Alai. "That's asking a lot, from mere discipline."
Petra was getting the vision of this. "Maybe if you quote to your soldiers that passage from The Elevated Places, where it says, 'Maybe your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you rulers in the land. Then He will see how you act.'"
Alai looked at her in genuine consternation. "You quote the Q'uran to me?"
"I thought the verse was appropriate," she said. "Isn't that why you had them put it in my room? So I'd read it?"
Alai shook his head. "Lankowski gave you the Q'uran."
"And she read it," added Bean. "We're both surprised."
"It's a good passage to use," said Alai. "Maybe God will make us rulers in China. Let's show from the start that we can do it justly and righteously."