Chapter 245: Officer Xue Wants to Attack Yueyang

Wei Weier fell completely silent.

Before he arrived, he had expected the Principal to haggle, to demand material aid, but he did not anticipate that the other side would use such a grand and tragic justification to block him outright.

"But… Principal, those are our Allied Forces' outstanding soldiers…" he was still unwilling to accept.

"They are also my allies," the Principal gently patted his shoulder, his tone becoming earnest. "Therefore, General, please return and tell Prime Minister Churchill. To liberate Myanmar and rescue those brave soldiers, China alone is insufficient. It requires genuine, unconditional cooperation among the Allies. For example, could the equipment from the Lend-Lease Act that should have been sent to our Chinese Expeditionary Force no longer be detained by India for various reasons? And could the advanced Tanks and aircraft be prioritized for the Chinese forces preparing a counteroffensive, rather than gathering dust in warehouses?"

He looked into Wei Weier's eyes and spoke each word deliberately:

"When the Chinese Army possesses sufficient weapons, when our soldiers no longer have to meet the enemy's steel torrent with flesh and blood, that day will be the day we counterattack Myanmar. Liberating Myanmar will naturally free your soldiers as well."

It must be said, the Expeditionary Force truly has taken all its old stock; the few Tanks left, along with the remaining handful of 105mm howitzers, were even taken back to Myitkyina by Du Yuming.

"I look forward to that day arriving soon. Now, excuse my departure; I must go deploy defenses against the Japanese Army's imminent ferocious counterattack."

Having finished, the Principal gave a slight nod, turned, and left the office, leaving Wei Weier alone, standing where he was, his complexion iron‑blue, like an awkward statue.

Wei Weier could not believe it; the news claimed the Expeditionary Force was counterattacking Tonggu, yet the photographs of Japanese Army corpses were undeniable. Consequently, many patriots condemned the th Division and Dai Anlan, but not Jiang Anguo at all.

This made Dai Anlan feel somewhat wronged, because the beheading was not ordered by Dai Anlan; it was entirely Jiang Anguo acting out of personal spite, merely to avenge Jiang Fei!

If Jiang Anguo learned of these people's existence, he would surely bring them to the Myanmar battlefield to show them how cruel the Japanese Army is.

Changsha.

In Xue Yue's operations room, the fervor ignited by the Chongqing Telegram had already cooled.

At this moment, Xue Yue was extremely calm, seeking an opportunity.

Xue Yue was not the type of commander who passively waited for the enemy to come to him. He was a "Tiger"; the tiger's philosophy is to deliver the deadliest strike when the prey is at its weakest.

However, the disparity between us and the enemy was too great, resulting in good intentions but no strength, leaving only defensive counterattacks.

Xue Yue stared intently at Changsha and Wuhan.

"A cornered dog jumps the wall?" he sneered, crumpling the Telegram in his hand and tossing it into the wastebasket. "The Principal thinks too conservatively; endless defense only makes us more passive. At this moment we must strike, lure the Little Devil's forces in Wuhan, which will not only ease pressure on the Tertiary War Zone but also let us retake some lost ground, and if possible, recapture Wuhan!"

Wu Yizhi was puzzled and asked, "Commander, lure the Little Devil's troops over?"

"Look here, the Little Devils are fighting Gu Zhuting in the Tertiary War Zone, and Nanchang is also under the Devil's control. If it were me, I'd definitely redeploy troops from Wuhan, swing around the back of the Tertiary War Zone, and give them a steaming dumpling. If we can launch a major engagement here and draw the Japanese Army in, the pressure on the Tertiary War Zone would be greatly reduced," Xue Yue said slowly.

The others looked closely and indeed saw it to be so.

He turned, his gaze as sharp as a hawk's, fixed on a name on the map—Yueyang.

Yueyang, the gateway to Dongting Lake, a choke point linking Wuhan and Changsha. The Japanese Army's 11th Army's logistical supplies mostly pass through here. It is like a nail lodged in the northern gate of the Nonary War Zone.

"Chief of Staff Wu," Xue Yue's voice was low and powerful, "if we attack Yueyang now, how confident are you?"

Wu Yizhi froze for a moment, then grasped Xue Yue's intent, inhaling sharply. "Commander, now? We have no air support! The Japanese at Yueyang have fortified positions and warships on the Yangtze River providing artillery fire. A frontal assault would cause massive casualties!"

"Casualties?" Xue Yue raised an eyebrow. "When the Japanese recover their strength and pull aircraft from the mainland and the Pacific, our losses will only grow! Fighter planes are fleeting! Right now, the sky is falling for them—that's our best opportunity!"

He slammed his fist onto the map, striking directly on Yueyang's location.

"I will attack Yueyang! I will sever the 11th Army's supply line completely! I will trap them to death in Hunan!"

The entire operations room fell silent. Everyone was shocked by Xue Yue's daring, almost reckless plan. Without air superiority, launching an offensive against a heavily defended strategic point was nothing short of a gamble.

"But… Chief," Wu Yizhi still hesitated, "our Artillery struggles to suppress the warships on the River Surface. Without aircraft, our infantry charge would be live targets."

The Japanese have deployed destroyers near Wuhan, but they are not huge vessels; they are roughly thousand‑ton gunboats, which, even so, are extremely dangerous to our forces.

"Aircraft..." a flash lit Xue Yue's eyes. "We have aircraft! Your Telegram clearly states, 'Our air force elite!' Jiang Anguo! We'll ask Jiang Anguo!"

The others suddenly realized; they had just been pleased about our bombing of the Japanese Army's Wuhan airfield, forgetting that those were our own aircraft.

We've grown accustomed to hard times!

"Connect me to Tong! Connect the phone of the 150th Division's Xu Guozhang!" Xue Yue ordered.

The reason he didn't contact the Independent Regiment directly was that he couldn't reach them at all. Xue Yue didn't even know Jiang Anguo; in Xue Yue's view, the Independent Regiment should be his superior's trump card, reporting straight to Chongqing. A theater commander like him has no direct line to the Independent Regiment. He could only relay the message through friendly forces stationed in the same area—the 150th Division.

The phone connected quickly.

"Hello? Who's this?" a voice with a heavy Sichuan accent, sounding somewhat impatient, came from the other end.

"Is this Xu Guozhang? This is Xue Yue!" Xue Yue shouted into the microphone.

"Ah! Commander Xue! What wind blew you here?" Xu Guozhang's voice instantly became deferential. "Rest assured, the Little Devils will never breach my sector; I'll guard it so tightly that not even a fly can get in!"

Xue Yue had no time for small talk and got straight to the point: "Old Xu, I ask you, do you know the specifics of the Independent Regiment stationed in Changde?"