Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 98-97: The Shanghai Intelligence Deal - Important Intelligence Regarding Penicillin
There's an old saying that goes, "Settle down first, then build a career."

Of course, this is not absolute. There is also a saying: "When you meet a good man, start a family first; when you meet a benefactor, establish a career first."

Fang Wen possesses the ability to perceive mechanical things, making him his own benefactor.

Kuang Mingzhu, on the other hand, belonged to his beloved.

Although the wedding was hasty and they didn't even have a formal banquet, Kuang Mingzhu's arrival truly made Fang Wen realize how wonderful it is to have a good and capable wife.

She is not alone.

To ensure his daughter wouldn't be mistreated in her husband's family, Mr. Kuang prepared a dowry.

The dowry included Kwong Ming-chu's personal savings in the Kwong family, her share of the profits from managing the Kwong family business, and the Kwong family's dowry money.

Besides these, as the only daughter of the Kuang family, Mr. Kuang was worried that his daughter would not be doing well, so he also sent a group of people from Guangzhou.

This includes:

Kuang Mingzhu's two maids who accompanied her in her dowry had both grown up with her and served her since childhood.

A cook who can cook Cantonese cuisine, and who can also help with cleaning and household chores with two maids.

The butler and guards were originally intended to be sent, but Fang Wen refused. With Fang Shouxin and Shunzi around, he trusted the father and son more.

Besides these people, there was also a group of business subordinates that Kuang Mingzhu trusted.

She poached them all from her own company and made them new employees of Taishan Airlines.

These people are all seasoned business veterans. Although they cannot compare to Manager Liu, they perform better than other employees in various tasks.

With Kuang Mingzhu by his side, Fang Wen finally experienced the comfortable life of a young master in the Republic of China era.

Every day, he no longer needs to worry about any aspect of the company; his wife manages everything perfectly.

If a problem arises, she won't make the decision alone, but will discuss it with Fang Wen.

After learning about Taishan Airlines for a period of time, Kuang Mingzhu keenly discovered the company's problems.

She felt she needed to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but would her husband listen?
Kuang Mingzhu recalled her mother's words: "When you marry into the family, don't talk about those outdated rules of obedience and virtue, but at least you have to know how to coax a man. Try to go along with him in everything, big or small. Men are like donkeys that can't be stroked; they can't stand being argued with. They'll get angry as soon as they are. Your father is just like that. I think all capable men in the world are pretty much the same. You have to learn from him."

She agreed with her mother and knew she needed to have a serious talk with her husband when she got home that night.

1932 12 Month 10 Day.

After dropping his wife off at the headquarters of Taishan Airlines, Fang Wen noticed that she seemed to want to say something to him, but didn't speak. He decided to ask her that evening.

Back home, Fang Wen leisurely ate breakfast, enjoying a pleasant moment.

With his wife managing the company's daily operations, plus Manager Liu and Fang Shouxin, he had absolutely no worries.

Regarding flight apprenticeships, the first Taishan Aviation Flight Apprenticeship Class has already graduated.

A total of 8 flight apprentices were hired and became full-time employees. The remaining 12 can choose to join the ground service department of Taishan Airlines and work at airports in various places, or they can leave to enroll in other aviation schools and make their mark.

Of the 12 flight apprentices, only 2 remained, while the rest went their separate ways, each pursuing their own dreams.

Fang Wen wished them well, hoping they would become pillars of China Express Airlines in the future.

Regarding flight routes, the Shanghai-Nanchang route has been officially launched. Currently, the company has three routes operating simultaneously in the north and south, and the eight pilots can take turns flying. Fang Wen no longer needs to fly the plane himself.

The remaining two routes, Shanghai to Wuhan and Shanghai to Fuzhou, are also under development.

Once the tung oil-for-aircraft trade begins in the first half of next year, two Boeing 247s will be deployed on these two routes.

Everything is progressing steadily, and success is on the horizon.

In peacetime, Fang Wen could have been a successful person and enjoyed life.

But that won't work now; World War II is about to break out, and we still need to continue preparing.

Thinking of this, Fang Wen put down his chopsticks and went to the neighboring yard.

Fang Shouxin and Shunzi now live in the courtyard next door. After Fang Wen got married, Fang Shouxin and Shunzi moved out to avoid suspicion and live next door, so that the young master could find them whenever he needed them.

Fang Shouxin went to work early, leaving Shunzi behind who was reviewing his academic subjects.

In order to ensure that Shunzi could be selected for the second batch of Taishan Aviation flight apprentice exams, Fang Shouxin resigned from his job at the security team and let him stay at home to focus on his studies.

When Fang Wen entered the courtyard, Shunzi was sitting on a stool, staring at the notebook in front of him, deep in thought.

It's a calculation problem, very simple: calculate the distance of a flight path on a map.

Maps are marked with scales indicating the actual distances. By applying different scales to the calculations, the actual route distances can be easily calculated.

Shunzi still didn't understand.

Fang Wen sighed inwardly. In this situation, he dared not use his connections to help Shunzi get through; that would not be helping him, but harming him.

"Hmm," Fang Wen hummed.

"Young Master, did you need something from me?" Shunzi looked at Fang Wen with hope in his eyes. Doing things was much easier than doing problems.

"Is there something I need to do? Would you like to go to the city?"

"Of course I do."

"I want you to go find Zhao Jiu in Zhabei and give him this letter."

"Okay." Shunzi took the letter, happily grabbed her coat, and ran outside.

Fang Shun took the airport shuttle bus into the city, and then transferred to a rickshaw to go to Zhabei.

Originally, only the southeastern part of Zhabei District was part of the International Settlement, but after the armistice agreement was signed, the number of Japanese people in this area increased significantly.

Fang Shun looked at the Japanese ronin wearing wooden clogs and kimonos with their chests exposed with disgust.

He really wanted to find an opportunity to beat up these Japanese ronin, but his master's instructions prevented him from doing so.

The young master said that Zhao Jiu was a minor leader of the Green Gang in this area. If you could find someone wearing a short jacket on the street who wasn't afraid of the Japanese, they were basically a member of the Green Gang.

He looked around and walked toward the man standing against the wall by the roadside with a cigarette in his mouth.

"I'm looking for Zhao Jiu."

"Ninth Brother, is that something you can just call me?" The man's eyes widened, his face fierce.

"I'm from Taishan Airlines."

Shunzi's next sentence instantly dispelled any malice the other party.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Wait, I'll go report to Ninth Brother."

The man ran away, and Shunzi waited where he was.

After a while, Zhao Jiu arrived.

Zhao Jiu strode forward, walking with a confident and dashing air.

Two months ago, he joined the treasure-hunting team and participated in a treasure-hunting operation that could be described as miraculous, earning a considerable share of the profits.

When you have money, you become a different person.

He became more generous, and he gained more followers.

This area of ​​Zhabei is now Zhao Jiu's territory.

Upon seeing that it was Shunzi, Zhao Jiu smiled and immediately put his arm around Shunzi's shoulder.

"Did the general manager send you?"

"Yes, he asked me to give you this."

Shunzi handed over the letter that Fang Wenrang had brought.

After receiving the letter, Zhao Jiu looked around and instructed his men, "Stand guard outside and don't let anyone in."

After saying that, he pulled Shunzi into a nearby alley.

In the alley, Zhao Jiu opened the envelope and carefully examined the words inside.

Then the entire letter was burned.

"I understand. You just wait here. My brothers will take care of you. It will probably be ready in the afternoon."

After saying that, Zhao Jiu hurriedly walked away. He was going to a place where intelligence was traded, to buy intelligence from Europe for Fang Wen.

As a local, although he had never been there, he knew very well where intelligence agencies from different countries secretly exchanged information.

After walking for a while, he arrived at the French Concession.

The French Concession had many leisure and gathering places for foreigners, including clubs, cafes, and bars.

These venues are not only centers for social activities, but also important venues for intelligence exchange.

Intelligence personnel from different countries may exchange information with their counterparts or even hold secret meetings by participating in social events.

Zhao Jiu found his Green Gang brothers in the foreign concession.

"Wu Niu, I have a question. Where do those foreigners who sell intelligence stay?"

"There are fewer people out during the day and more at night; not many are out at this time."

"I need to speak to someone. Tell me where I can find them."

"There's a bar over there. Go try your luck; an information broker often spends the night there."

Thanks. Let's get together sometime.

After Zhao Jiu finished speaking, he jogged across the street and entered the bar opposite.

Inside the bar, there was a strong smell of tobacco and alcohol.

The bartender was cleaning, and besides him, there was a foreigner sleeping on the bar counter.

Zhao Jiu took out a silver dollar and handed it to the bartender: "Wake him up and give us double the amount of wine."

The bartender accepted the silver dollar and shoved the man forcefully, saying, "Wake up, someone's buying you a drink."

Upon hearing that there was wine, the man immediately woke up and looked around with bleary eyes: "Who's there?"

"I need to buy something from you."

In the afternoon, Shunzi returned to the airport.

After getting off the shuttle bus, he jogged all the way to Fang Wen's residence.

"Young Master, everything has been brought. I offered Zhao Jiu Ge money, but he refused."

Fang Wen took the small bundle from Shunzi's hand.

"You have to give it to him even if he doesn't want it. We can't take advantage of him. I'll talk to him when we get our dividends next month. You can go back now; you still need to review today's lessons."

"Oh." Shunzi's joy vanished instantly, and she went home.

Fang Wen retrieved a paper cutter from the bedroom and cut the string on the small bundle.

Inside was a stack of papers.

The first one has text written in both Chinese and English.

"Weimar Republic, December 12.1-12.7"

Literally, it means special intelligence on the Weimar Republic over the past seven days.

As expected of a professional intelligence broker, the information he obtained was also timely.

Inside were handwritten notes, likely intelligence obtained via telegram and then recorded on paper. After all, in those days, newspapers took a month to arrive, making telegrams the most efficient method.

Looking at the first timely intelligence report, Fang Wen gained an understanding of what was happening in Germany.

With the parliamentary elections concluded, von Papen was forced to resign, and Kurt von Schleicher took over as prime minister on December 3.

Fang Wen declined to comment on this, as he knew nothing about either of them except for the man with the mustache.

He put down the first piece of timely intelligence and flipped through the ones behind it.

Following this is a report on the Weimar Republic written by an intelligence broker, which Zhao Jiu had done at Fang Wen's request.

Through the perspective of this intelligence broker, Fang Wen gained a more comprehensive understanding of the current situation in the Weimar Republic.

In May of this year, Hitler's Nazi Party lost the general election, and Hindenburg once again became the president of the Weimar Republic.

Subsequently, Hindenburg, the president of the Weimar Republic, appointed Franz von Papen as prime minister.

However, he lost the general election in November, which led to von Papen's resignation and Kurt von Schleicher's succession.

From the perspective of an intelligence broker, the whole thing is like this.

He believed that the Nazi Party was unstoppable, and whoever came to power would have to compromise with the Nazi Party in order to achieve their governing goals.

Although the Nazi Party only won 3% of the votes in the parliamentary elections, it had a broad base of support.

According to intelligence brokers' predictions, given the current situation, the Nazi Party may take control of the Weimar Republic next year.

Fang Wen finished reading all the intelligence materials.

From an intelligence officer's perspective, it's clear that Europe will undergo a major transformation next year.

It is likely that this will be the case.

Then comes the problem.

With the purchasing power of two tons of gold, should I go to the United States or Europe to make my purchases?
The United States is currently in the later stages of an economic crisis and is using tariffs to stimulate exports and reduce imports.

However, purchasing a complete weapons production line or readily available weapons resources is not an easy task.

We need to take the Japanese into account.

Now that the Japanese are powerful, would the Americans be willing to risk offending them by making a deal with them?
As far as I can remember, the United States only fully aligned itself with China after the attack on Pearl Harbor; before that, it was at most providing some unofficial support.

More importantly, the United States had no need for its own security gates or solid-fuel aerial bombs, as its homeland was not threatened during World War II except for Pearl Harbor.

And Europe.

If Europe descends into chaos next year, the demand for security measures and for high-explosive aerial bombs will increase significantly.

This would add more leverage beyond the purchasing power of gold.

Fang Wen, who was making a decision, stood up and paced back and forth, pondering his choice.

Shunzi came over again from outside the door.

He was holding a small piece of paper.

"Young Master, this was given to me by Brother Zhao Jiu later; I almost forgot about it. He said it was about some kind of mold."

"penicillin?!"

Fang Wen quickly ran over and snatched the note.

The document contained only a very simple piece of information.

"Three years ago, the British invented a substance extracted from mold, which should be called penicillin. It is a peculiar drug that can kill other bacteria because it is itself a mold product. Currently, no medical institution is willing to use it for treatment."

This is a piece of newspaper information that the intelligence dealer had once read. He had only heard Zhao Jiu ask about penicillin and casually wrote it down on paper as a routine intelligence transaction.

Little did they know how important the intelligence contained within was.

Fang Wen took a deep breath
During World War II, antibiotics saved the lives of countless soldiers.

And now, I've actually discovered it at a very special time.

If the world hasn't yet realized the importance of penicillin, why not go to Europe, buy the technology to produce penicillin, and bring the relevant technical personnel back to China? Wouldn't that solve the problem of drug shortages in future wars?

With these invaluable medicines, they could not only treat Chinese soldiers fighting in the war of resistance, but also be sold to the European battlefield.

At that time, I will have more leverage in transactions and be able to exchange for all kinds of resources I want.

Fang Wen was extremely excited; the information recorded on this unassuming piece of paper was far too important.

If he could, he would spend a lot of gold to bring back the entire penicillin technology and personnel.

Fang Wen, who had developed a strong desire to go to Europe immediately, was very excited.

Just then, my wife came home from get off work.

(End of this chapter)