Ning Zhiheng handed the materials and original film to Huo Yueze, instructing him to immediately arrange for Deng Yuanhong and his guards to escort them back to Chongqing.
He then personally drafted the telegram, handed it over to Zuo Rou to translate, and prepared to send it to the Chongqing headquarters at the designated time that evening.
At that very moment, Chongqing, thousands of miles away, was suffering an extremely devastating bombing.
The sound of air raid sirens echoed throughout the city. All offices, residences, streets and alleys were deserted. Everyone rushed to the nearest air raid shelter with their families as quickly as possible.
Not long after, a group of Japanese bombers flew over Chongqing and dropped a barrage of bombs that exploded in the city. The deafening explosions blew up black soil, and shrapnel flew everywhere, destroying everything in its path.
After a series of bombings, the bombed areas of the city were engulfed in flames, and smoke billowed into the sky.
Many citizens who did not have time to enter the air-raid shelters were overwhelmed by the shelling. Screams rang out everywhere, and terrified crowds fled in all directions. Cries and groans filled the air.
Buildings within the bombing zone were not spared either. High-rises, residences, shops, cinemas, department stores, and other buildings were all subjected to the ravages of artillery fire, teetering on the brink of collapse, as if they would crumble at any moment. The scene was horrific.
This scenario has occurred multiple times in Chongqing over the past six months.
After occupying Wuhan, the Japanese army immediately used Wuhan Airport as a base to send a large number of aircraft to bomb Chongqing. There would be a bombing every once in a while, the scale of which depended on the situation.
The largest bombing lasted for three days, causing heavy casualties and destroying numerous civilian buildings in the Chongqing area, severely damaging this emerging metropolis.
The bombing lasted a full hour, during which the Japanese bombers dropped all the bombs they carried before beginning their return flight.
When the explosions subsided, citizens emerged from air-raid shelters and bunkers to begin rescuing the injured and dealing with the devastated scene.
Two hours later, in the office of the Military Intelligence Bureau headquarters, the director was pacing anxiously back and forth with a grim face.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in quickly!"
The door opened, and Bian Ze, the head of the First Intelligence Division, and Gu Zhengqi, the head of the Second Intelligence Division, strode in.
Upon seeing the two of them enter, the bureau chief immediately asked urgently, "How is the situation?"
Bian Ze quickly replied, "Director, we found Yi Dong's body in the ruins and confirmed that he is dead!"
Upon hearing this, the bureau chief's expression turned even more grim; this was truly terrible news.
During this massive bombing, many buildings were destroyed, and a residential compound in the east of the city was almost completely razed to the ground.
However, this compound was different from ordinary residences. It housed three cryptography experts from the Military Intelligence Bureau's Telecommunications Department and their families.
Yi Dong, the leader of the decryption team, is the most important figure in the entire team. He was one of the earliest experts in China to engage in codebreaking and is currently the leader of the Military Intelligence Bureau's codebreaking expert team.
He not only possesses an unparalleled sensitivity to numbers and codes, but more importantly, he studied in Japan and is fluent in Japanese, giving him a significant advantage in deciphering Japanese telegrams.
Over the past year, the decryption team has made great progress under his leadership. Through the capture of multiple Japanese codebooks, the team has conducted countless comparisons and analyses, gradually figuring out some of the rules of Japanese intelligence codes. They have successfully deciphered the contents of several telegrams sent by Japanese spies in Chongqing recently, and have also captured three Japanese spies as a result. Yi Dong, as the main decryption expert, has made outstanding contributions.
The Director has always attached great importance to the Telecommunications Department. Several years ago, when he was in the Military Intelligence Investigation Department, he spared no effort to invest huge amounts of manpower and funds to upgrade telecommunications equipment and set up a decryption team. Now that they have finally made some progress, the Director is very pleased.
But he never expected that this Japanese bombing would kill Yi Dong, the technical leader, causing irreparable damage to the entire decryption work.
The bureau chief couldn't help but wave his hand angrily and said, "What exactly happened? Why didn't Yi Dong enter the air-raid shelter in time? Wasn't an air-raid shelter specially set up near their residence?"
The Military Intelligence Bureau provided excellent protection for these experts. Chongqing was overcrowded, with refugees from all over the country pouring into the mountain city in a short period of time.
Chongqing's urban area has expanded several times in a short period of time, with various buildings and facilities constantly being constructed. However, housing conditions remain difficult to improve. Many people are still without a roof over their heads and have to build thatched huts on open spaces to live in, forming one slum after another. It can be said that land in Chongqing's urban area is extremely valuable, and even if you have money, it is difficult to buy a house now.
Even under these extremely difficult conditions, the Military Intelligence Bureau still did its best to provide these telecommunications experts with independent residences to house them and their families, and specially arranged air-raid shelters near their residences to ensure their safety in the event of an attack. Such generous treatment was unmatched by many high-ranking officials in the government.
Upon hearing the bureau chief's question, Gu Zhengqi replied in a low voice, "We just questioned his family. Yi Dong refuses to enter the air raid shelter during every air raid, and his family has no choice but to let him be. The previous air raids were lucky; they didn't hit this house. But this time…"
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