Chapter 240: Xue, Commander of the th War Zone

Changsha, th War Zone Command Headquarters.

The thin morning mist had not yet cleared, and Mount Yuelu was reduced to a faint outline in the dawn.

Inside the headquarters, the lights were bright, and the air was filled with a strong tea scent and an inescapable tension.

"Commander! Commander! Wake up quickly!"

A burst of urgent shouts, accompanied by a rough pounding on the door, dragged Xue Yue out of his uneasy sleep. He sprang upright, his eyes—bloodshot from years of sleeplessness—instantly flashing with a terrifying gleam.

"What the hell!" he growled low, his voice hoarse and authoritative.

The door was pushed open, and Wu Yizhi, the th War Zone Chief of Staff, strode in, his face unusually solemn. He clutched several telegrams, the edges of the paper softened by sweat.

"Bo Ling (Xue Yue's courtesy name), something big has happened," Wu Yizhi said in a low voice, but each word hit Xue Yue's heart like a stone.

"The sky is falling?" Xue Yue threw on his coat, walked to the map, his gaze blazing, "What new trick has A Naganuma pulled? Preparing the fourth invasion of Changsha?"

The commander of the Japanese Army's 11th Army is now A Naganuma.

Xue Yue said he was adept at dealing with the Japanese, yet his own losses were heavy; the Tianlu battle tactic hinges on this Bottom—using elite troops to block the Japanese advance—so each time this Bottom suffers considerable loss.

"No!" Wu Yizhi shook his head, handed over the telegram, "Take a look at this first. Starting at 7 a. m., our Military Command Changsha station and our intelligence department intercepted Japanese communications. Look at this frequency—it's insane!"

Xue Yue took the telegram and scanned it quickly. It was filled with densely recorded times, frequencies, and signal strengths. Starting at 7 a. m., the previously calm Japanese communication network suddenly boiled like a pot, the volume and frequency of telegrams even surpassing the scale of the two previous Battle of Changsha eve.

"What are the contents? Have they been deciphered?" Xue Yue's brows knit into a knot.

Xue Yue also did not understand what this meant.

"The problem is right here!" Wu Yizhi pointed to another report, "Director Chen of the Military Command said the telegrams are highly encrypted and chaotic, full of urgent calls and rescue signals. The only scattered words they could decipher were 'Wuhan', 'air raid', 'total annihilation', 'request support'…"

At that moment, two more people entered the operations room. One was Li Yutang, commander of the Denary Army, steady and reticent; the other was Ou Zhen, commander of the Fourth Army, hot‑tempered and a capable general under Xue Yue. They were clearly summoned urgently.

"Commander, what's the situation? Are the devils about to attack? My brothers are all waiting!" Ou Zhen shouted as soon as he entered.

Li Yutang said nothing, silently walking to the map, his gaze shifting along the possible Japanese attack routes.

Xue Yue gave no answer, but shouted toward the doorway, "Let Director Chen of the Military Command in!"

Soon, a middle‑aged man in a Zhongshan suit, eyes sharp as an eagle, walked in. He was Director Chen, head of the Military Command's Changsha station.

"Director Chen, tell us your situation," Xue Yue said, his tone leaving no room for doubt.

"Report, Commander," Director Chen bowed slightly, his tone flat yet tinged with restrained excitement, "Since 7:15 a. m., we have been monitoring communications from the Japanese 11th Army headquarters, its air force units, and the Nanjing Expeditionary Force headquarters, showing explosive growth. Among them, signals from the Wuhan direction are the strongest, filled with panic and chaos. Our preliminary assessment is that a momentous incident has occurred in the Wuhan direction."

"Incident? What incident?" Ou Zhen pressed, "Did our air force move? But we don't have that many aircraft."

"That's the strangest part," Director Chen shook his head, "According to the last telegram from our embedded agents in Wuhan, cut off at 3 a. m., they heard a massive explosion, the entire Wuhan night sky lit up. Then… there was no further information."

The operations room fell into dead silence.

Everyone was shocked by the news. Wuhan, the core command base of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Force, had been bombed? And by the description, the scale was unprecedented.

"Was it the American?" Li Yutang finally spoke, his voice hoarse, "Was it aircraft launched from their aircraft carrier?"

"Impossible," Xue Yue immediately dismissed the speculation, "American carriers are in the Pacific; they can't slip into the East Sea that easily. Moreover, even if it were them, they couldn't cause such chaos in Wuhan in a single strike."

"Then… who could it be?" Ou Zhen scratched his head, bewildered, "Could it be a deity falling from the sky?"

Xue Yue ignored his banter. Hands behind his back, he paced back and forth before the map, his mind racing. Not the American, not the Soviet, nor the already shattered Chinese air force. Who then?

Just as Xue Yue stood before the map, troubled by the fog, the air in the operations room seemed to solidify, when a rapid footfall once again shattered the silence.

A staff officer, drenched in sweat, rushed in, holding a telegram aloft; the envelope bore a bold red "Urgent 100,000" stamp.

"Commander! Chongqing! The Commander's staff room urgent telegram!"

Everyone's gaze swished to the thin telegram paper in an instant. In that moment, it seemed heavier than a thousand armies.

Xue Yue snatched the telegram from the officer's hand, his fingers trembling slightly. He tore open the envelope, unfolded the telegram, his eyes flashing as he swiftly scanned the lines of decoded text.

With a single glance, Xue Yue's pupils contracted sharply.

He read it again; this time his lips moved silently, as if confirming the weight of each character.

The operations room was terrifyingly quiet; even a dropped needle could be heard. Ou Zhen, Li Yutang, Wu Yizhi and others all held their breath, anxiously watching Xue Yue's facial changes. They saw his face, tightened by anger and confusion, first show incredulous shock, then that shock turned into ecstatic joy, and finally that joy was replaced by a deep, solemn strategic contemplation.

"It's the Commander's... it's the Commander's telegram!" Xue Yue's voice was low, yet like a thunderclap, it rang in everyone's ears.

He jerked his head up, wolf‑like light flashing in his eyes, raising the telegram high, and, with a near‑roaring voice, addressed the crowd:

"'Changsha, Xue. My elite air force launched a devastating raid on the enemy's Wuhan airport at dawn; the results are glorious! The enemy's air force main force suffered heavy losses, unable to mount large‑scale air raids in the short term. This is the heaviest aerial strike against the enemy since our resistance began! I urge all soldiers of the th War Zone to lift spirits, maintain strict vigilance, prevent the enemy from desperate retaliation, and launch a counter‑offensive against our zone! Principal.'"

"Boom—!"

The entire operations room boiled over in an instant!