Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 52, Airport Route Confirmed, Boeing 800 Purchased via Barter
The map that Shunzi unfolded was in the traditional ink painting style. Although it was not as detailed as modern maps, it was still clear which way was which.

It's perfect for this lecture.

"The Boeing 80 can carry 20 passengers. Excluding one bodyguard and one flight attendant, it can actually carry 18 people. Its range is 700 kilometers. This is a map with a radius of 700 kilometers starting from Shanghai. We need to choose a fixed route and then build airports on both sides."

The eight prominent families of Northeast China gathered around the map, discussing it.

"In my opinion, we should fly to Beiping."

"It's out of reach; the only way north, 700 kilometers away, is to fly to Xuzhou."

"That works too. It can reach the entire Central Plains, so there are plenty of customers."

"The Japanese are about to enter the country; this route is too dangerous."

"The more this happens, the more money they make."

"Don't just look to the north. I think flying to Hefei is also an option. It's in the hinterland and borders the coast."

"If the distance is too short, it won't work."

"That means we'll fly down to Nanchang."

A group of people were discussing it animatedly, but Fang Wen didn't participate. He was fine with flying in either direction.

The key is to finalize things so that we can purchase the aircraft.

Ultimately, after considering various factors and consulting with Fang Wen, they decided to make Fuyang the final destination of the route.

Fuyang is located in the middle section between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

To the north lies the Central Plains urban cluster, to the southwest is Wuhan, and to the southeast is Hefei. If a plane lands there, it can reach a very large area.

With the flight path finalized, the eight families felt as if things could be accomplished immediately.

Having had nothing of substance to do for a long time, they eagerly discussed sending people to Fuyang, hoping to finalize the airport construction there as soon as possible.

Fang Wen spoke up to remind him:
"Wait, even if we finalize the airport, there's something more important to do: how do we buy the plane? Boeing only accepts US dollars."

"Then shall we exchange them for silver dollars?" one of the owners suggested.

Manager Liu explained, "That won't work. The people at Citibank said that we are on the silver standard, while they are on the gold standard, so we have to use the exchange rate of pure gold to pure silver. In that case, it would be too disadvantageous for us to use silver dollars."

"Why did we suffer a loss?" None of the hosts understood.

Manager Liu continued to explain, “Our silver dollars are made of silver, with a purity of nine parts silver and one part copper, so they are acceptable as silver. But the Americans don’t use gold; they use US dollars, and those dollars are much more valuable. It used to take three silver dollars to exchange for one dollar, but because of the war with Japan, it has now become four silver dollars to exchange for one dollar. For the full price of 130,000, we would have to pay 520,000 silver dollars. But they don’t accept that many silver dollars.”

The two families peered out from their doors.

Foreign banks are unwilling to exchange silver dollars because they have too many silver dollars.

This also shows that the currency of the Republic of China had little trading value in the international market.

Just as several businesses were showing signs of difficulty, Fang Wen, who already had a solution in mind, said, "I have a way: barter."

"What barter? Do Americans lack anything?" the hosts asked in surprise.

“Yes, this is it.” Fang Wen took the small bucket from Fang Shouxin and showed it to the hosts.

It has a clear, oily texture and a strange smell.

Although this stuff isn't produced in Northeast China, some members of the families in the household had done this business.

"Tung oil?"

"Yes, it's tung oil. There's a huge demand for it abroad. I've already contacted Boeing's sales representatives by telegram, and they're willing to trade in large quantities of tung oil."

"Americans want this stuff for making ship paint?" No one present could believe it.

Fang Wen explained, "This stuff is only found in the south here, but it's the world's largest producer, accounting for 90% of the global output. The US has a huge demand for it, and most of it is purchased from my country." One of the owners remembered.

“A few years ago, a businessman from Sichuan came to buy fur and ginseng. We were chatting casually when he mentioned that some foreigners were going directly to the heart of western Sichuan to buy tung oil. We thought it was just a funny story, but we didn’t expect it to be true.”

"What's the price?" The owners were all businessmen and were very interested in the crucial transaction price.

“In the US, they use pounds for pricing, and it costs 12 cents per pound. A pound is about nine ounces,” Fang Wen replied.

"Bring me an abacus."

The hosts took out their own abacuses and fiddled with them for a while.

They calculated the result.

A $13 plane requires 108 million catties of tung oil, or 540 tons.

This number seems large, but it actually only accounts for a small portion of the entire tung oil market.

Furthermore, if you buy tung oil yourself, the price is very cheap, and you can make another profit from it.

The problem is that they lack the trade routes for tung oil from the south, and they can't gather that much tung oil all at once.

Fang Wen smiled and offered another suggestion.

“My fourth sister’s husband’s family is in the tung oil business. He has a shop in Changde that collects goods, and some of the tung oil from western Hunan is transported to Shanghai through him. He doesn’t have 500 tons on his own, but he can produce that much by collecting all the goods from western Hunan.”

Upon hearing that there was a source of goods, the families immediately became interested, inquired about the contact address of Fang Wen's fourth brother-in-law, and promptly sent their men there.

The airline has not yet been established, but investment in various aspects has already begun.

Starting in April, the eight major families in Northeast China worked together, busy with this matter.

The person who went to Changde has sent back a telegram saying that he met with Fang Wen's fourth sister's husband's family.

They have already gone to western Hunan, and with a promise of 10% higher prices than the market price, tung oil merchants in western Hunan have been actively selling off their inventory.

These tung oils were loaded into special tung oil cargo ships, which then traveled along the Yuan River through Leiyang, Hengyang, Yueyang, and Yiyang before entering Dongting Lake and finally being transported to warehouses in Nanjing via the Yangtze River.

Regarding airport construction...

They sent people to Fuyang to contact the local government and discuss opening flight routes and purchasing land to build an airport.

The local government here is already under the control of the Nationalist government, and with money paving the way, it's easy to talk to them.

But there is one thing that is more difficult to handle.

There are many bandits in the Fuyang area. When they heard that an airport was going to be built, they actually wanted a share of the profits and demanded that the airport pay tribute to them every year.

The eight major families were willing to give money to the local people, but they resolutely refused to let the bandits have a share.

Can you give it to them? Those individuals have absolutely no credibility; giving it to them will only cause more trouble.

Besides, how many people would dare to take a plane in a place rife with bandits?

This problem has been handed over to those who received shares without contributing anything; it's time to see what they're capable of.

Subsequently, a regular army unit departed from Hefei and headed directly to Fuyang to encircle and suppress the bandits there.

But the bandits didn't just stand there waiting to be surrounded and wiped out; as soon as they saw things were going wrong, they disappeared.

To eliminate them and restore stability to the region, we must find their hiding place.

Fang Wen, who had been idle at home with nothing to do, decided to drive the Potez 25 to do its real job: remote reconnaissance.

(End of this chapter)